Philip David Segal
Episodes Broadcast: 1996
Philip David Segal was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex and became a fan
of Doctor Who during his childhood. He moved to the United
States as a teenager, where he attended San Diego State University and
graduated with a degree in telecommunications. Segal worked as a casting
assistant and then a literary agent, after which he joined Columbia
Pictures. Eventually becoming their Director of Drama Development, he
worked on programmes such as Hardball, and made his first
attempts to secure a co-production agreement for Doctor Who in
late 1989. However, Segal's ambition had to be put on hold when he moved
to the American Broadcasting Company in early 1990. As their Director of
Current Programing, he oversaw shows like Twin Peaks and
thirtysomething.
In 1991, Segal changed jobs again, this time landing at Steven
Spielberg's production company, Amblin Entertainment. Now Vice President
of Amblin Television, he worked on seaQuest DSV, Earth 2
and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles; he also reignited
discussions with the BBC regarding Doctor Who. Although Segal
left Amblin in 1995 to form his own production company, Lakeshore
Television, Spielberg allowed him to take the Doctor Who project
with him. The following year, he served as the executive producer of Doctor Who (1996), starring Paul
McGann as the Eighth Doctor. Although there was a very real possibility
that it would lead to a full series, the telefilm suffered poor ratings
in North America, effectively killing the project as an ongoing
concern.
In 1998, Segal briefly entered into discussions with the BBC
about the rights to remake the two Dalek feature films from the Sixties,
before quickly deciding that there was little potential in the venture.
In 2000, he and Gary Russell co-wrote the behind-the-scenes book
Doctor Who: Regeneration, published by HarperCollins. During the
twenty-first century, Segal served in executive roles for a variety of
production companies. This provided him with rare opportunities to
direct, including episodes of the science-fiction series
Andromeda and Mutant X. As reality television grew in
popularity, it took on an increasingly prominent role in Segal's resume.
He was an executive producer on Storage Wars, Deadliest
Catch, Ice Road Truckers, and many other such programmes.
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