Steve Gallagher
Born: 13th October 1954
Episodes Broadcast: 1981, 1983
Steve Gallagher was born in Salford, Lancashire and grew up a Doctor
Who fan. He attended Hull University, where he studied drama and
English. He initially aspired to be a director and, after graduation,
Gallagher joined Yorkshire Television as a documentary researcher. In
1975, he moved to the Presentation Department at Granada, while also
writing radio plays. Amongst these were the science-fiction dramas
The Last Rose Of Summer, which he also novelised in 1978, and
An Alternative To Suicide. The latter was forwarded to the
Doctor Who production office in late 1979, and prompted script
editor Christopher H Bidmead to approach Gallagher about writing for the
show. The result was the surreal Warriors' Gate, one of Tom Baker's
final adventures as the Fourth Doctor, which also saw the departure of
companions Romana and K·9.
After writing two film novelisations, Gallagher scored a success in 1982
with his original novel Chimera. He returned to Doctor Who
the following year with the funereal Terminus, with Peter Davison now
having taken over as the Fifth Doctor. A third proposal, called “Nightmare Country”,
was deemed too expensive to make. Gallagher novelised both of his
Doctor Who serials under the nom de plume “John
Lydecker”; other publications utilised the pseudonyms
“Stephen Couper” and “Lisa Todd”. His career as
a novelist blossoming, Gallagher returned to television with an episode
of Rockliffe's Folly in 1988. He then adapted Chimera as a
mini-series in 1991.
During the Nineties, Gallagher helped develop Chiller and
Bugs, writing ten scripts for the latter. In 1998, he finally had
a chance to direct; the production was an adaptation of his own novel,
Oktober. Followng the turn of the century, Gallagher created
Eleventh Hour, and later wrote for its American remake as well.
Other Stateside work saw Gallagher serve as the lead writer on
Crusoe and as co-executive producer on The Forgotten. More
recently, Gallagher contributed scripts to programmes such as Silent
Witness, Lucky Man and The Conception Of Terror.
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