Guy N. Smith

Guy N. Smith (1939–2020) was an extremely prolific English writer who had written scores of books in every genre from Disney movie adaptations to light porn, but was most famous for his work in pulp horror.

He wrote the foreword to the Telos novella Shell Shock. In it, he claims to have connected to the story because of the dominance of crabs in the plot. As someone both deeply afraid of and allergic to crabs, he had written a precedent horror cult classic called Night of the Crabs, so naturally he seized upon the crabs in Shell Shock.

Milton Subotsky, producer of the Peter Cushing Dr Who films, bought the film rights to Night of the Crabs. Unknown to Smith, Subotsky would rewrite the Crabs script into a new Dr Who film treatment. When interviewed about this for the Daily Telegraph, Smith's granddaughter would reveal Smith was a Doctor Who fan and used to have a full-size police box in his garden.