Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts ( born Gareth John Pritchard Roberts ) wrote for " Doctor Who " and " The Sarah Jane Adventures " on television , the Virgin New Adventures , Missing Adventures and New Series Adventures novels , Big Finish audios , the " Doctor Who Magazine " comic strip , short stories published by Virgin Books , BBC Books , Big Finish and Panini Comics , and the interactive BBC Red Button adventure " Attack of the Graske " . He also novelised the unfinished " Doctor Who " television story " Shada " and Roberts ' own script for " The Sarah Jane Adventures " television story " The Sarah Jane Adventures " . Before joining Upper Boat , he was heavily involved in writing for British soap operas including " Brookside " , " Coronation Street " and " Emmerdale " . " Doctor Who " . Books . Roberts began writing professional " Doctor Who " fiction in the early 1990s , when he started contributing to the Virgin New Adventures and Virgin Missing Adventures novel ranges . His works were generally hailed by fans for their consistent use of good humour . It has been said that his creations , the Chelonian s , were " one of the best monsters created in the novels " . All of his Missing Adventures were set in televised eras generally recognised for their strong use of humour . " The Plotters " was a First Doctor novel said to evoke the Dennis Spooner era , reminiscent of " The Romans " and " The Time Meddler " . The bulk of Roberts ' prose work betrays Roberts ' bias for the Graham Williams / Douglas Adams era . No other Virgin writer used the combination of the Fourth Doctor , Romana II and K9 as much as Roberts . It has been said that Roberts ' Missing Adventures were " love - letter [ s ] to the Graham Williams era " . It is perhaps for this reason that Roberts was chosen to be the BBC Wales representative for the documentary about the Graham Williams era included with the UK DVD release of " The Ribos Operation " . Roberts is one of a few writers who has written for both the original Virgin lines and the BBC Books series that have accompanied the BBC Wales series of " Doctor Who " . In fact , he and Justin Richards are the only two authors to write a Missing Adventure , a New Adventure , a Ninth Doctor novel and a Tenth Doctor novel . Audios . He has exclusively used companion Melanie Bush in his audio plays , once with the Sixth Doctor and once with the Seventh . His work with co - writer Clayton Hickman was amongst the very first to employ Mel in audio , and can therefore be said to have been instrumental in redefining the generally fan - disliked companion for audio . Beginning in 2014 , some of his novels from Virgin Books were adapted for audio for Big Finish Productions ' Novel Adaptations range . Comics . Roberts ' first works in comics were " Plastic Millenium " and " Operation Proteus " , both of which featured the comic debuts of televised companions . " Millenium " , in fact , is the only appearance of Mel in comics , while " Proteus " affords a very late debut for Susan , outside of cameos and parodies . It also posited a pre - " Unearthly Child " TARDIS , something that had never been considered by the comics before . Years after this story , Roberts ' work experience with Clayton Hickman in audio would help him get a steady string of work in 2005 . Roberts was the dominant comics writer during the Ninth Doctor ' s era . Concepts in his comic work during this period would later make their way into Roberts ' televised episodes of " Doctor Who " . He was entrusted with writing " the Shakespeare episode " in series 3 largely on the strength of his Ninth Doctor comic , " A Groatsworth of Wit " , in which he revealed his detailed knowledge of Shakespeare . The poisoning scene in " The Unicorn and the Wasp " was directly lifted from one of his comic strips . In 2006 , Roberts wrote " The Lodger " , which featured the comic debut of televised companion Mickey Smith . Other work . He also contributed to the charity reference book " " . He was interviewed in issue 485 of " Doctor Who Magazine " for the revival series ' tenth anniversary . He commented that he always believed that the show would return to TV .