Born: 3rd July 1938 (as Philip Charles Martin)
Died: 13th December 2020 (aged 82 years)
Episodes Broadcast: 1985-1986

Philip Martin was born out of wedlock in Liverpool, Merseyside; he would never know his father's identity. He began an apprenticeship as a toolmaker but, as Martin related to interviewer Toby Hadoke for the Who's Round podcast in 2014, he was inspired to start acting by films like Rebel Without A Cause. Martin became heavily involved in amateur dramatics, and was accepted to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1960. After his first year, a connection via a classmate led Martin to a successful audition for the television play Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring. After deciding to forego the remainder of his studies, he was soon appearing in programmes such as Z Cars, Dixon Of Dock Green, No Hiding Place and The Indian Tales Of Rudyard Kipling. Martin could also be seen in the 1962 film The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner.

By the mid-Sixties, however, Martin was becoming frustrated with the calibre of the scripts he was performing, and decided to focus on writing instead. Although he chiefly worked as a playwright, he also contributed several episodes of Z Cars in the early Seventies, as well as an installment of New Scotland Yard. Martin married Patricia McDonnel in 1974, and they had a daughter, Hilary. Martin's biggest success started life as a 1975 script for Play For Today entitled Gangsters. It led to a twelve-episode series of the same name, split across two seasons in 1976 and 1978, which shattered conventional notions of crime drama. Martin also acted in several episodes, appearing both as himself and as a villain. Shortly thereafter, he wrote an episode of Shoestring.

Martin was watching Doctor Who with his 7-year-old daughter when he had the idea for Vengeance On Varos

In 1980, Martin was approached about contributing to Doctor Who, but other commitments prevented him from agreeing. Two years later, however, he was watching the show with his seven-year-old daughter when he started developing an idea which would become Vengeance On Varos. Eventually broadcast in 1985 and featuring Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor, it memorably introduced the covetous amphibian Sil, played by Nabil Shaban. Martin was asked to bring Sil back alongside the Ice Warriors for the following season, but “Mission To Magnus” was dropped when the BBC ordered an overhaul of Doctor Who. Instead, the second confrontation between the Sixth Doctor and Sil would be The Trial Of A Time Lord (Segment Two), the final adventure for companion Peri Brown.

During the Eighties, Martin became a BBC radio drama producer, but still found time to write for Star Cops and Tandoori Nights. Meanwhile, he novelised all three of his Doctor Who scripts for Target Books, with his final serial dubbed Doctor Who: Mindwarp. Martin was also responsible for a 1986 installment of the Make Your Own Adventure With Doctor Who range from Severn House, entited Invasion Of The Ormazoids. His Nineties credits included The Bill, Virtual Murder (in which he also appeared), The Good Guys, and several episodes of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. His final television credit came in 2007 on Doctors.

Martin wrote two Doctor Who audio dramas for Big Finish Productions: 2004's The Creed Of The Kromon, the first adventure for the Eighth Doctor's alien companion C'rizz, and 2014's Antidote To Oblivion, which saw Shaban return as Sil. Furthermore. he adapted “Mission To Magnus” for Big Finish's Doctor Who: The Lost Stories strand in 2009. One of Martin's final projects was the 2019 independent film Sil and The Devil Seeds Of Arodor from Reeltime Pictures, which he also novelised for Telos Publishing. Martin was working on a sequel when he died on December 13th, 2020.