List of Doctor Who television writers

This is a list of Doctor Who television writers. It is sortable by a number of different criteria. The list defaults to ascending alphabetical order by the writer's last name.
A note to editors: Before changing anything about this list, please make sure that you have thoroughly read and understood all footnotes. Of necessity, this list has several assumptions which may or may not coincide with your personal interpretation of Doctor Who history.
Several assumptions underlie the composition of the list. Most significantly, this list defines a "writer of Doctor Who" to be a person who received onscreen credit for a live-action, non-parodic story. That Terrance Dicks in fact wrote four of the six episodes of The Seeds of Death is irrelevant to this list; Brian Hayles is the only person whose name appears on screen so he's the only one who gets credit here. Where possible and necessary, notes have been included to shed light on what a particular writer actually did as opposed to what they were credited for. However, the best source of information about the writing of particular stories is more likely to be the story page itself.
Further details about the way in which this list was compiled can be found by clicking the footnote marker at the top of each column. Information on this list is current through The Church on Ruby Road.
Writer	Number of stories	First story	Last/latest story	Number of episodes	Run time	Notes 	Since first episode
 	2 	 	 	8 	200 	 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	Despite a wide-ranging influence on a number of scripts, he was actually credited with only one. 	
 	2 	 	 	10 	250 	"David Agnew" was a pseudonym used on several BBC programmes in the 1970s. On Doctor Who it was used exclusively by Graham Williams and his script editors, apparently under the direct orders of the then-BBC Head of Serials.On The Invasion of Time, it concealed the identities of Williams and Anthony Read, while on City of Death, it masked the involvement of Williams, Douglas Adams and David Fisher. 	
 	1.16 	 	 	2 	TBA 	Co-wrote Village of the Angels with Chris Chibnall 	
 	1 	 	 	5 	125 	Pseudonym for the writing team of Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. 	
 	2 	 	 	8 	200 	 	
 	9 	 	 	36 	950 	Co-wrote all but one story (Nightmare of Eden) with Dave Martin. 	
 	3.5 	 	 	11 	315 	They received credit for episode 14 of The Trial of a Time Lord, while episode 13 went to Robert Holmes. This meant that they "split" a writing credit for the story segment known as The Ultimate Foe. 	
 	1 	 	 	1 	45 	 	
 	3 	 	 	12 	300 	 	
 	3 	 	 	12 	300 	 	
 	1 	 	 	1 	50 	Co-wrote Rosa with Chris Chibnall 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	Pseudonym created by Robert Holmes when Terrance Dicks decided to take his name off this serial. 	
 	3 	 	 	12 	300 	 	
 	2 	 	 	7 	175 	 	
 	3 	 	 	12 	300 	 	
 	21 	 	 	29 	TBA 	Chris Chibnall was the third head writer of the revival era of Doctor Who, coinciding with the time BBC Wales' scripted programming was consolidated into BBC Studios. Rosa was co-written with Malorie Blackman, Fugitive of the Judoon with Vinay Patel, Praxeus with Pete McTighe, Can You Hear Me? with Charlene James, Village of the Angels with Maxine Alderton, and Legend of the Sea Devils with Ella Road. 	
 	1 	 	 	3 	75 	 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	Although Lesley Scott is the first woman to be credited as a writer on a Doctor Who story, Clegg is the first woman to actually write a story for the program. 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	Although contemporary BBC internal documents reveal that C. E. Webber was really his co-author for the first episode, only Coburn's name made it to the screen. Coburn, however, is more or less completely responsible for the 2nd-4th episodes that comprise the bulk of the story. 	
 	2 	 	 	3 	135 	 	
 	2 	 	 	2 	95 	 	
 	2 	 	 	8 	200 	 	
 	2 	 	 	2 	90 	 	
 	1 	 	 	3 	75 	 	
 	31 	 	 	38 	TBC 	Davies is the first and fourth head writer of Doctor Who since its return in 2005, having executive produced for BBC Wales and later BBC Studios Productions and Bad Wolf Productions. After Steven Moffat, he has written the second largest number of stories of televised Doctor Who, although Robert Holmes holds a comfortable lead in terms of number of episodes. Davies has the further distinction of receiving onscreen credit for writing the first episodes of Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. 2009's Planet of the Dead was co-written with Gareth Roberts, the first occasion on the show which two writers have been credited for a single script since Time and the Rani in 1987. His 2023 TV story The Star Beast was adapted from a story by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons, namely the 1980 comic story Doctor Who and the Star Beast.	
 	4 	 	 	12 	300 	Davis was the only script editor of the 1963 series to receive credit on the last episode of one Doctor and the first episode of another. He and Kit Pedler also introduced and held copyright to the Cybermen. 	
 	5 	 	 	23 	750 	He received onscreen credit for co-wiring The War Games with Malcolm Hulke. However, as the longest-serving script editor, Dicks had many uncredited contributions to scripts. One of the most glaring examples of this was The Seeds of Death, whose final four episodes are mostly Dicks' own work, but for which only Hayles retains credit. Though he does have a writing credit in the Troughton era, and he is indelibly linked to the Pertwee era, the bulk of his writing credits are actually for the Fourth Doctor. Ironically, while writing for script editor Robert Holmes, he got a taste of what it was like to be on the other end of a script editor's rewrites, and chose to take his name off of The Brain of Morbius"'. 	
 	2 	 	 	2 	90 	 	
 	3 	 	 	8 	200 	 	
 	1 	 	 	6 	150 	He co-wrote this story with Malcolm Hulke. 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	Shares writing credit on this story with Lesley Scott, but is wholly responsible for writing the serial. 	
 	4 	 	 	16 	400 	Also was the first writer on City of Death. Though some elements of his scripts for City survived, they were mostly abandoned when Douglas Adams and Graham Williams performed an "emergency rewrite" under the name David Agnew. 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	He co-wrote Meglos with Andrew McCulloch. 	
 	2 	 	Into the Dalek 	2 	105 	Co-wrote The Waters of Mars with Russell T Davies, and Into the Dalek with Steven Moffat. This list does not consider his sole writing credit on Dreamland or his work on The Adventure Games, sometimes considered genuine TV episodes. 	
 	2 	 	 	2 	90 	This episode was originally intended as part of series 5, but was put back due to budget issues. 	
 	2 	 	 	8 	200 	 	
 	9 	 	 	9 	405 	 	
 	3 	 	 	2 	135 	 	
 	2 	 	 	2 	90 	 	
 	3 	 	 	12 	300 	 	
 	2 	 	 	12 	300 	He co-wrote all of his stories with Henry Lincoln, including The Dominators, for which they were both credited as "Norman Ashby". 	
 	3 	 	 	4 	140 	Co-wrote The Zygon Inversion and The Pyramid at the End of the World with Steven Moffat 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	After Robert Holmes' rewrites, Lewis Greifer requested his name be removed from this serial. "Stephen Harris" is thus a fiction which indicates both Greifer and Holmes. 	
 	6 	 	 	30 	750 	He co-wrote The Celestial Toymaker with Donald Tosh, and The Seeds of Death with Terrance Dicks, but neither script editor got a co-writing credit. 	
 	2 	 	 	2 	95 	 	
 	15.5 	 	 	64 	1660 	Holmes was the most prolific writer of the classic era. Until the 21st century, no one had written more stories. , his episode record remains daunting, even to Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat, and Chris Chibnall, who overtook him in story numbers in 2008, 2012, and 2020. Holmes rewrote The Ark in Space, for which its original writer, John Lucarotti, was fully paid. He also based his version of The Talons of Weng-Chiang on another script for which the original writer, Robert Banks Stewart, was fully paid. Neither Lucarotti nor Banks, however, received on screen credit for their efforts. 	
 	2 	 	 	13 	225 	 	
 	7 	 	 	47 	1350 	He co-wrote The Faceless Ones with David Ellis and The War Games with Terrance Dicks. He also co-wrote, but was not credited for, The Ambassadors of Death. His somewhat surprisingly large run time derives from the fact his stories averaged 6.71 episodes. 	
 	1 	 	 	1 	89 	 	
 	1 	 	 	1 	49 	Co-wrote Can You Hear Me? with Chris Chibnall 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	Though Jones did receive co-writing credit on The Highlanders, he in fact wrote very little of it. The BBC drafted him to revive Z-Cars before he could even finish a proper outline of the whole story. 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	 	
 	1 	 	 	2 	90 	 	
 	1 	 	 	3 	75 	 	
 	1 	 	 	5 	125 	"Guy Leopold" was the pseudonym of Barry Letts and Robert Sloman. "Guy" was the name of Sloman's son and "Leopold" was Letts' middle name. 	
 	2 	 	 	12 	300 	He co-wrote all of his stories with Mervyn Haisman, including The Dominators, for which they were both credited as "Norman Ashby". 	
 	1 	 	 	5 	125 	Derrick Sherwin wrote episode 1 of this story and Ling wrote episodes 2-5. Only Ling is credited for all five episodes. Sherwin received no onscreen credit for episode 1. 	
 	3 	 	 	15 	375 	Although Lucarotti was paid in full for writing The Ark in Space, his scripts bore only a passing resemblance to what eventual writer Robert Holmes delivered. Thus only Holmes got credit for Ark in Space. Lucarotti shared screen credit on "Bell of Doom", the final instalment of The Massacre, with Donald Tosh. 	
 	2 	 	 	3 	135 	 	
 	4 	 	 	15 	375 	 	
 	8 	 	 	32 	850 	 	
 	2 	 	 	6 	190 	He introduced the character of Sil. 	
 	4 	 	 	4 	140 	Co-wrote The Girl Who Died with Steven Moffat 	
 	1 	 	 	2 	90 	 	
 	2 	 	 	2 	99 	Co-wrote Praxeus with Chris Chibnall 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	He co-wrote Meglos with John Flanagan. 	
 	1 	 	 	1 	50 	 	
 	40.5 	 	 	50 	TBC 	Steven Moffat is the most prolific writer of Doctor Who after it was revived in 2005, overtaking Russell T Davies in both episode and story count in 2014. He was the second head writer for the revival. Robert Holmes still holds a comfortable lead in terms of number of episodes, though not stories. As credited, he co-wrote Into the Dalek with Phil Ford, Time Heist with Steve Thompson, The Caretaker with Gareth Roberts, The Girl Who Died with Jamie Mathieson, and The Zygon Inversion and The Pyramid at the End of the World with Peter Harness. 	
 	1 	 	 	2 	90 	"Paula Moore" was a pseudonym for Paula Woolsey, the ex-girlfriend of Eric Saward. It's unclear to what extent she actually participated in the writing, which seems to have been done principally by Saward. Ian Levine may have been involved as well. 	
 	1 	 	 	1 	50 	To date, Moran is the only "new Who" writer other than Russell T Davies whose episode ran longer than the time slot originally agreed with the BBC. 	
 	2 	 	 	4 	120 	 	
 	10.5 	 	 	56 	1400 	Nation only received credit for half the episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan. 	
 	1 	 	 	6 	150 	 	
 	1 	 	 	1 	45 	 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	 	
 	2 	 	 	2 	101 	Co-wrote Fugitive of the Judoon with Chris Chibnall 	
 	3 	 	 	12 	100 	Kit (Kitt) Pedler is something of an exception amongst original series writers. He was only given formal scriptwriting credit for three stories. However he does receive formal story credit for three more stories. Despite IMDb erroneously giving "Norman Ashby" a "story" credit for episode 5 of The Dominators, the only other such example in either the original era or after the show's revival is writer Pat Mills and artist Dave Gibbons, whose comic story Doctor Who and the Star Beast was adapted into Russell T Davies' episode The Star Beast. 	
 	1 	 	 	6 	150 	 	
 	1 	 	 	3 	75 	Platt wrote the final story produced in the original Doctor Who series. He was given special thanks on Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel, presumably for some ideas common to his Big Finish audio, Spare Parts. 	
 	1 	 	 	2 	50 	 	
 	2 	 	 	4 	180 	 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	He also co-wrote The Invasion of Time with Graham Williams under the name David Agnew. 	
 	1 	 	 	1 	45 	Previously, the executive producer of Comic Relief parody, The Curse of Fatal Death 	
 	1 	 	 	1 	50 	Her sole story , Legend of the Sea Devils, was co-written with Chris Chibnall 	
 	6 	 	 	6 	285 	Co-wrote Planet of the Dead with Russell T Davies and The Caretaker with Steven Moffat. His first writer's credit that was produced by BBC Wales was actually Attack of the Graske, but Graske is not counted in this list. 	
 	4 	 	 	12 	380 	Saward's name appears on the credits of only four stories. Two of these stories, Revelation and Resurrection of the Daleks were originally broadcast as two, 45-minute episodes. This means he received on-screen writer's credit on twelve episodes. Nevertheless, strong evidence exists that he wrote, but did not receive credit for, Attack of the Cybermen. Most recently on the DVD release of Trial of a Time Lord, he also claims to have mostly written part 13 of that story, as well as several courtroom scenes for all four serials in the arc. 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	Shares writing credit on this story with Paul Erickson. She was the first woman to be credited as a writer on a Doctor Who story, although she did not actually write any portion of the script. 	
 	1 	 	 	1 	45 	 	
 	1 	 	 	8 	200 	Out of necessity to stretch a four-part story into five, he wrote the first episode of The Mind Robber, although Peter Ling got screen credit for all five episodes. He then co-wrote The Invasion with Kit Pedler. 	
 	3 	 	 	18 	450 	He co-wrote all of his stories with Barry Letts, whose main job as producer prevented him from receiving any on-screen writing credit. The two also collaborated on The Dæmons, where their efforts were credited to "Guy Leopold". 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	Smith remains the youngest writer ever for Doctor Who. He was 18 when Full Circle was produced. 	
 	3.5 	 	 	20 	500 	Spooner was the programme's second script editor. He was solely credited on half the episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan, which is why he gets credit for half a story. Spooner's work on The Power of the Daleks went uncredited, although he is often cited as a co-writer. 	
 	1 	 	 	4 	100 	 	
 	2 	 	 	10 	250 	Stewart's work on The Talons of Weng-Chiang went uncredited, because he didn't get much beyond an outline before he resigned the commission. 	
 	1 	 	 	6 	150 	 	
 	1 	 	 	1 	45 	 	
 	3 	 	 	3 	135 	Co-wrote Time Heist with Steven Moffat 	
 	.25 	 	 	1 	25 	Script editor Donald Tosh only received credit for "Bell of Doom", the last episode of The Massacre. With Brian Hayles, he co-wrote, but did not receive credit for, The Celestial Toymaker. He therefore holds the record for the shortest run time credited to a writer. 	
 	1 	 	 	1 	45 	 	
 	1 	 	 	1 	46 	 	
 	8 	 	 	40 	950 	Whitaker was the programme's first script/story editor. Aside from the authors of The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors, he is the only person to be credited with writing at least one story featuring each of the first three Doctors. The writing of his final adventure, The Ambassadors of Death, was particularly precarious. Both Malcolm Hulke and Trevor Ray were required, uncredited, to get a final set of scripts completed. 	
 	6 	 	 	7 	315 	 	
 	2 	 	 	8 	200 	 	
== Notes ==
=== Footnotes ===
=== Citations ===
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