Doctor Who: The Third Alien Worlds Collection

Ian Marter is best remembered by Doctor Who fans as the actor who played the Fourth Doctor's companion Harry Sullivan. In fact, his first role in Doctor Who came a couple of years earlier when he played the character of Andrews in 'Carnival of Monsters'. Marter worked with his friend Tom Baker on ideas for a possible Doctor Who film, and together they developed a script. Though the film was never made, Marter continued to write and novelised nine Doctor Who adventures for Target books. Ian Marter died in 1986.

David Fisher was approached by script editor Anthony Read to write for Doctor Who and the result was the 100th story, The Stones of Blood, transmitted in 1978. Fisher first met Read when the latter was setting up a series called The Troubleshooters in 1965. Fisher went on to write for Orlando (1967), Dixon of Dock Green (1969), Sutherland's Law (1973) and General Hospital (1977). As well as The Stones of Blood, Fisher also contributed The Androids of Tara, The Creature from the Pit and The Leisure Hive to Doctor Who. The first two stories were novelised by Terrance Dicks, but Fisher decided to pen the latter two himself for the Target range. Following his work on Doctor Who, Fisher wrote for Hammer House of Horror (1980), Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (1984) and collaborated with Read on a number of historical books with subjects including World War Two espionage, the Nazi persecution of Jews and the Nazi/Soviet pact of the early 1940s.

Eric Saward is a British author who has written for radio and television. He was script editor of Doctor Who from 1982 to 1986 and wrote several serials for the programme, including the made-for-radio drama Slipback.

After leaving university, Graeme Curry worked as a journalist and a professional singer. In 1982 he won both the Cosmopolitan Young Journalist of the Year award and a screenplay competition with Over the Moon, which he later adapted as a radio play for BBC Radio 4. It was on the strength of this that he was put in touch with Andrew Cartmel to discuss working on Doctor Who. The Happiness Patrol was his first television commission. Since then, Curry has contributed to ITV’s The Bill, BBC1’s EastEnders and the Radio 4 soap opera Citizens. He has also written the plays PS I Love You and The Mantle of the Earth for Radio 4. Curry has penned numerous books of poems for children, mostly with Jennifer Curry, and has also worked as a stage manager and an editor. Author biography by David J. Howe, author of The Target Book, the complete illustrated guide to the Target Doctor Who novelisations.