Terry Nation

A Welsh-born novelist and screenwriter, Terry Nation is best known as the creator of the Daleks--villains from the hugely popular science fiction series "Doctor Who." He began his career in the 1950s writing comedy scripts for British radio performers such as Eric Sykes, Frankie Howerd, and Harry Worth. His first break came as a writer for "Hancock," Tony Hancock's series and his stage show. After a falling out with Hancock he began focusing on science fiction and wrote the serial "Doctor Who and the Daleks," introducing the menacing creatures that would make the series, and Nation himself, immensely popular. He wrote about 70 scripts for the show between 1963 and 1979, reaching nearly unprecedented celebrity for a screenwriter in the process. The mutant-like Daleks would eventually enter the British public's consciousness to such an extent that Nation would never be able to replicate such notoriety. During this period he also wrote for the spy series "The Saint" and was a writer/producer on the comedic adventure show "The Persuaders!" starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore. Besides his work on "Doctor Who" Nation created two popular sci-fi series in the 1970s--the darkly apocalyptic vision of the future"Survivors" and the intergalactic adventure drama "Blake's 7." He moved to Los Angeles in the 80s to develop ideas for American television, but achieved little success, writing only a single TV movie and several episodes of the show "MacGyver" before succumbing to emphysema.