Eric Saward

Eric Saward
Birth date:	9 December, 1944
Work in the DWU
Main jobs:	Writer, script editor
Stories:	See credits section
Main time period active:	1982-86
Interview
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Eric Saward (born 9 December 1944) worked as a writer and later script editor for Doctor Who during the 1980s.

Saward had a particular fondness for the Cybermen. He wrote stories with action throughout them and stories that connected the Doctor to important events in Earth's history.

He served as script editor from Time-Flight, the last serial of season 19, to the penultimate episode of season 23 (The Ultimate Foe episode 1). He resigned his position primarily due to a disagreement with producer John Nathan-Turner over the storyline (and particularly the ending) of the second episode of The Ultimate Foe which, as originally plotted by Saward and writer Robert Holmes, would have ended the season on a cliffhanger.

Following his departure, Saward gave a notably scathing interview to Starburst magazine concerning his falling out with Nathan-Turner, and his increased concerns about many of the producer’s actions and decisions—not least the casting of Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Bonnie Langford as Mel.

Although Saward had speedily adapted his debut Doctor Who serial, The Visitation, for Target Books – Doctor Who and The Visitation had been published just six months after the serial’s transmission – he subsequently refused to adapt his two Dalek serials – Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks – due to a disagreement concerning the share of payment expected by Dalek-creator Terry Nation. For many years, only Saward’s two scripts and three by Douglas Adams (The Pirate Planet, City of Death, and Shada) remained absent from Target Books’ original 1973-1994 run of novelisations, However, eventually adaptations of both Saward’s and Adams’ stories were published as BBC Books novelisations: Resurrection of the Daleks was adapted by Saward and released in hardcover on 18 July 2019, followed by his adaptation of Revelation of the Daleks in hardback on 14 November 2019. Paperback Target Books editions of both novels were subsequently released on 11 March 2021.

Credits

Television

• The Visitation
• Earthshock
• Resurrection of the Daleks
• A Fix with Sontarans
• Revelation of the Daleks

Radio plays

• Slipback

Prose

Short stories

• Birth of a Renegade
• CHAOS
• War and Peace

Novelisations

• Doctor Who and the Visitation
• The Twin Dilemma
• Slipback
• Attack of the Cybermen
• Resurrection of the Daleks
• Revelation of the Daleks

Comics

Lytton

• Down These Mean Streets A Man Must Go
• Crime Like Politics is Always Personal
• Even the Oppressed Own Their Lives...
• Goodbye to All That

Documentary appearances

• Davros Connections
• The Lost Season
• Showman - The Life of John Nathan-Turner

to be completed

Audio commentary

• Warriors of the Deep
• The Awakening
• Revelation of the Daleks

to be completed

External links

• Eric Saward at the Internet Movie Database