Gerry Anderson

Gerry Anderson MBE (14 April 1929 - 26 December 2012 ) was a television producer, writer and director well-known for creating or co-creating the series Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90, and The Secret Service, all of which crossed over with the Doctor Who universe to varying degrees.

His sole credit on a piece of DWU fiction was as the producer for the Thunderbirds episode The Man from MI.5, featuring the Daleks, for which he also acted as script supervisor with his wife Sylvia Anderson. He also voiced Robert the Robot in Fireball XL5, who became a recurring character in the pages of TV Century 21. Anderson was interviewed in the documentary More than 30 Years in the TARDIS where he appeared alongside his son, Jamie Anderson, who went on to write and direct a number of audio stories for Big Finish Productions. In the interview, Anderson jokes about his son being a Doctor Who fan.

Anderson also established AP Films (later rebranded as Century 21 Productions) which produced many of his TV series, several of which he created together with Sylvia. A number of these have been referenced throughout Doctor Who, both on screen and in expanded media. The Second Doctor novel The Indestructible Man featured elements that heavily borrowed from Anderson's series, including Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, and. Also, the Eighth Doctor novel Trading Futures mentioned an in-universe counterpart of Anderson himself.