Douglas Adams

Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952-11 May 2001) wrote The Pirate Planet and Shada, and co-wrote City of Death with producer Graham Williams under the pseudonym David Agnew. He was also script editor for Season 17. Having started his career as a contributor (and occasional bit player) in Monty Python's Flying Circus, he is most famous for creating The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which he wrote as a radio play and book while editing for Doctor Who.

The third novel of Hitchhiker's Guide, Life, The Universe and Everything, was originally intended to be a Doctor Who story; the Doctor was replaced with Slartibartfast, planet designer from Magrathea, his TARDIS by the Starship Bistromath (which boasted a perception filter) and the Daleks by the Krikkiters.

His style of humour has left a lasting impression on other writers, and can still be seen even in the revived series which included a reference to his creation Arthur Dent in The Christmas Invasion. He also inserted a reference to one of his characters, Oolon Colluphid, in the Season 17 story Destiny of the Daleks.


 * Adams is implied to be a part of the Doctor Who universe when the Sixth Doctor said that "my old friend Douglas" once said the response to the question, "What's wrong with getting drunk?" was "You ask the glass of water." (BFA: The Wormery) Though the Doctor never gave this Douglas a surname, the line is clearly drawn from episode one of Hitchhiker's Guide, indirectly confirming Douglas Adams as a part of the DWU.