Born: 1st January 1935 (as David Ralph Martin)
Died: 30th March 2007 (aged 72 years)
Episodes Broadcast: 1971-1973, 1975-1979

Although he would be associated with Bristol by virtue of his frequent collaboration with Bob Baker, Dave Martin was actually born in Handsworth, a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands. However, Martin did attend Bristol University and worked backstage at the Bristol Old Vic. By this time, Martin's first marriage had ended; it produced a daughter, Ann. During his employment at the Bristol Old Vic, he met a drama student named Celia Constanduros. They married in 1967 and had a daughter, Thea, and a son, Leo. In 1968, Martin was working as an advertising copywriter when he met Bob Baker and they decided to form a writing partnership. One of their early projects was a sitcom pilot about an army recruit entitled A Man's Life. When it wound up on the desk of Doctor Who script editor Terrance Dicks, Martin and Baker were invited to submit ideas for the show.

Martin and Baker began working on a Second Doctor story called “The Gift”, which evolved into the Third Doctor adventure The Claws Of Axos, broadcast in 1971. They would write two further serials for Jon Pertwee's Doctor, including The Three Doctors, which marked the first time that multiple incarnations of the Doctor were brought together. By this time, Dicks had coined the pair “the Bristol Boys”. Their work on Doctor Who became even more prolific once Tom Baker took over as the Fourth Doctor. Martin and Baker collaborated on five further serials, the last of which was 1979's The Armageddon Factor, the conclusion of the season-long Key to Time saga. In between, they wrote out the popular companion Sarah Jane Smith in 1976's The Hand Of Fear, and introduced the robot dog K·9 in the following year's The Invisible Enemy.

Away from Doctor Who, Martin and Baker wrote for programmes such as Sky, King Of The Castle, Target and Murder At The Wedding. They also served jointly as story editors on Pretenders. As the Seventies drew to a close, Martin and Baker decided to dissolve their partnership. Martin thereafter wrote only occasionally for television, such as an episode of Into The Labyrinth, for which Baker was the script editor. His emphasis instead became prose, including several crime novels. Four short books for younger readers, collectively known as The Adventures Of K·9, were published by Sparrow in 1980. In 1986, he contributed two volumes to Severn House's Make Your Own Adventure With Doctor Who range -- Search For The Doctor and The Garden Of Evil -- both featuring the Sixth Doctor. Martin's last television credit came by virtue of an unhappy experience writing a 1999 episode of Harbour Lights. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 2007 and succumbed to the disease on March 30th of the same year.