Malcolm Hulke (21 November 1924-6 July 1979[1]) was the author of many Doctor Who scripts and Target Books novelisations.
Biography
Hulke began his association with Doctor Who as early as Season 1, for which he contributed the storyline for The Hidden Planet (a.k.a. Beyond the Sun), a serial which ultimately did not get accepted. Along with Terrance Dicks, in The War Games, he co-created the concept of the Time Lords and offered viewers their first glimpse of Gallifrey. He also created the reptilian Silurians, their cousins the Sea Devils, and the Draconians. For Target Books, he wrote novelizations of every story he had written solo, and several he had worked on with other writers. He also wrote a Doctor Who radio pilot, Journey into Time, starring Peter Cushing which was recorded but never broadcast.
Hulke wrote scripts for a variety of TV shows including: Pathfinders in Space, Pathfinders to Venus, Pathfinders to Mars, The Avengers, The Protectors, Danger Man, Crossroads, United! and Gideon's Way.
His life and career was commemorated in the documentaries On Target: Malcolm Hulke (released on The War Games DVD) and Looking For Mac (released on The Collection: Season 7 Blu-ray box set), the latter of which features a rare archive interview with Hulke. A biography of Hulke " Things are not always what they seem ", by Michael Herbert was published on Lulu in February 2025. This included an extract froma letter he write to his friend Jean Tate in June 1975. "For seven years running I wrote subversive Doctor Who serials. No one noticed. I’ve since attacked the Right in my Writing for TV in the 70s and in six Doctor Who books. Not a comment."
He is noted for fleshing out minor characters in novelizations, writing shades of grey, and a strong interest in left-wing politics. Alan Barnes noted in the On Target: Malcolm Hulke you can "see a political subtext in everything he wrote".
Credits
Doctor Who
- The Faceless Ones (with David Ellis)
- The War Games (with Terrance Dicks)
- Doctor Who and the Silurians
- The Ambassadors of Death (uncredited re-writes[2])
- Colony in Space
- The Sea Devils
- Frontier in Space
- Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Unproduced
Prose
Novelisations
- Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters
- Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon
- Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils
- Doctor Who and the Green Death
- Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion
- Doctor Who and the Space War
- Doctor Who and the War Games (released posthumous)