Robert Holmes: Difference between revisions

'''Robert Holmes''' ([[2 April]] [[1926]]-[[24 May]] [[1986]]) was [[script editor]] of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' from [[1975]] to [[1977]] and the author of many Doctor Who scripts, helping to create or reimagine many key elements of the programme's mythology.

Holmes was, for a time at the end of the Second World War, the youngest serving officer in the British army. He became a police officer, graduating top of his class, but grew disillusioned with the job and became a journalist. By the 1960s he had branched out into writing screenplays for films and television series. In 1968 he received his first commission for ''Doctor Who'' and over the next few years became one of the series' lead writers.

When [[Terrance Dicks]] resigned as script editor in [[1974]], Holmes took over the position, continuing to write scripts as well. After leaving the post, he wrote a few more stories before taking an extended break from the series. In [[1983]], as one of the series' most celebrated writers Holmes was the first person asked to write the twentieth anniversary special, ''[[The Five Doctors]]''. He declined but expressed an interest in writing for the series again.

Over the next three years Holmes contributed several more scripts and was heavily involved in the planning of [[Season 23]]. However, he passed away before he was able to complete his scriptwriting duties for [[The Ultimate Foe]], and the planned ending of the story was altered.

After his death, his estate licensed both the Autons and the Sontarans for use in several independent video spin-off productions by [[Reeltime Pictures]] and [[BBV Productions]], most notably for the ''[[Auton Trilogy]]'' and ''[[Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans]]''. Since 2005 the revived ''Doctor Who'' franchise has also featured the Autons in ''[[Rose (TV story)|Rose]]'', and the Sontarans in the two-parter ''[[The Sontaran Stratagem]]''/''[[The Poison Sky]]'' and a two-part storyline in ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'', ''[[The Last Sontaran]]''. They both appeared in [[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica opens]].

Many of Holmes' scripts recycled essentially the same plot: a crippled (often deformed) villain is trapped in an underground or otherwise isolated lair, dependent upon the physical or mental strength of their servants. Their ultimate goal is to escape and/or restore themselves to their former power. This broad outline applies to some extent to both Holmes' first and last completed stories, as well as four of his most celebrated contributions, ''[[Pyramids of Mars]]'', ''[[The Deadly Assassin]]'', ''[[The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]'', and ''[[The Caves of Androzani]]''.

However this is not to say Holmes was a formulaic writer, and the stories mentioned do not appear notably similar. This is probably due to the presence of another distinctive Holmes quality, a willingness to engage in deliberate pastiches of well-known films and fiction. This was particularly evident during his time as script editor. Gothic literature and pulp fiction provided Holmes with particularly rich pickings.

Also running through Holmes' scripts are a love of colourful, often bizarre or esoteric language (he disinterred the arcane word [[Valeyard]], which means ''Doctor of Law'', for his final scripts), and a fondness for larger-than-life characterisation. He had a particularly good line in lovable rogues, who often came in pairs and whose by-play provides an ironic commentary on the events of the story.

* [[White Guardian|The White Guardian]]  

* ''[[The Ultimate Foe]]'' - first episode (''[[The Trial of a Time Lord]]'' Episode 13) only