Born: 18th January 1941 (as Christopher Hamilton Bidmead)
Episodes Broadcast: 1980-1982, 1984

Christopher Bidmead was born in Bolton, Lancashire but raised in Chiswick, London. During his schooldays, he developed twin passions for acting and science. After graduating, he briefly worked for a technology company before winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1960. Having completed his training, Bidmead spent time on the stage before moving into television, earning a starring role on Emergency -- Ward 10 in 1965. However, the theatre lured him back, and he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company for its 1966 season. Bidmead's only other acting credit on television was an episode of Crime Of Passion in 1970.

By this time, Bidmead was also acting on radio, but often felt that he was being given substandard scripts. Convinced that he could do better, he began writing his own material and, by the mid-Seventies, was contributing episodes to Thames Television's Harriet's Back In Town and Rooms. His burgeoning interest in computers also led Bidmead to write columns on the subject for publications like the New Scientist.

Bidmead was reluctant to join Doctor Who, which he felt favoured science fantasy over realistic science-fiction

During his time with Thames Television, Bidmead made the acquaintance of writer Robert Banks Stewart, who would contribute two serials to Doctor Who's thirteenth season. In 1979, Stewart remembered Bidmead when he heard that new Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner was struggling to find a script editor. Bidmead was initially reluctant to join a programme which he felt favoured science fantasy over more grounded, realistic science-fiction. However, he changed his mind when Nathan-Turner explained that this was the direction in which he wanted to steer Doctor Who.

Bidmead took up the script editor's post around the start of January 1980, as Doctor Who was entering its eighteenth season. True to his word, he developed a set of serials redolent in legitimate scientific concepts, such as tachyonics and thermodynamics. He contributed the season finale, Logopolis, himself -- in the process writing out Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor after seven years. In order to differentiate his work as a script editor from his acting, Bidmead asked to be credited on Doctor Who using his full name, Christopher Hamilton Bidmead. When this was found to be too long for the available space, it was truncated to “Christopher H Bidmead”.

Like his predecessor, Douglas Adams, Bidmead found himself exhausted by the challenge of recruiting new writers to Doctor Who, and he decided to exit after a single season. However, he did agree to write Castrovalva, the introductory serial for Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor. Thereafter, computer journalism increasingly became Bidmead's professional focus. Nonetheless, he wrote Frontios for Davison's final season in 1984, and novelised all three of his Doctor Who serials for Target Books. Two stories for Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor -- “In The Hollows Of Time” and “Pinacotheca” -- were developed for Doctor Who's troubled 1986 season, but neither made it into production.

In 1987, Bidmead married charity organiser Rosalind Earlle; they would have daughters Anna and Evie. He also became one of the first Doctor Who professionals to establish a public presence on the nascent Internet. Bidmead developed a Fifth Doctor adventure entitled Renaissance Of The Daleks for Big Finish Productions' series of Doctor Who audio dramas. However, it had changed sufficiently by the time of its release in 2007 that he ultimately asked to be credited for the story, but not the script. In 2010, an adaptation of “In The Hollows Of Time” was released by Big Finish as part of its Lost Stories range, under the slightly amended title of The Hollows Of Time.