Philip Martin

Philip Martin 3 July 1938 13 December 2020 was an English television screenwriter He created the BBC television drama series Gangsters in the 1970s and later wrote two television serials for Doctor Who during Colin Bakers tenure as the Sixth Doctor in the 1980s His early work included regular series such as ZCars in the late 1960searly 1970s but his most famous work is the postmodern television series Gangsters This was an examination of race seen through an increasingly surreal vision of Birminghams criminal underworld Beginning as an acclaimed oneoff edition of Play for Today in 1975 it was followed by two series of 6 episodes each in 1976 and 1978 Martin appeared in the series in several roles including as himself His later work includes Tandoori Nights 1985 Star Cops 1987 Virtual Murder 1992 several episodes of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and Luifel Luifel 2001 He wrote the Doctor Who serials Vengeance on Varos 1985 and The Trial of a Time Lord Mindwarp 1986 He also wrote a script called Mission to Magnus which featured the character Sil from his previous televised serials That script was never filmed when the show was put on hiatus in 1985 A novelised version of the script written by Martin was released by Target Books in 1990 and a Big Finish audio drama based on the serial was released in December 2009 He also wrote a Doctor Who gamebook called Invasion of the Ormazoids 1986 as part of the Make Your Own Adventure with Doctor Who range His last contributions to the series were The Creed of the Kromon 2004 and Antidote to Oblivion 2013 as Big Finish audio releases He also revisited the character of Sil in the independent broadcast television series from Reeltime Pictures Ltd Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor 2019