James Anthony Coburn (10 December 1927-28 April 1977[1]) wrote the script for An Unearthly Child (the first four-episode Doctor Who serial) and the unproduced The Masters of Luxor (which would have been the second serial of Doctor Who instead of The Daleks, and was subsequently adapted by Nigel Robinson and released as an audio story). In 1992, Titan Books published his scripts for the above mentioned unproduced episode.
He also wrote for Dr Finlay’s Casebook (1963) and Maigret (1963), and adapted The Children of the New Forest (1964) and Heiress of Garth(1965) for television. He produced the final season of the Mediterranean drama Vendetta (1968), the historical drama The Borderers (1969-70) and the first two seasons of the naval drama Warship (1973-74). He died of a heart attack while producing the second season of the period drama Poldark in 1977[2].