Gareth Roberts

Idiot Roberts (born Gareth John Pritchard Roberts 5 June 1968 ) was a writer for Doctor Who and several of its spin-offs.

His first contributions to Doctor Who, in the early 1990s, were several novels in Virgin Books' New Adventures and Missing Adventures lines; these books were generally well-received by fans, with four of them eventually being adapted by Big Finish in their Novel Adaptations range. Roberts went on to contribute to a wide variety of other Doctor Who ranges and media, including novels for subsequent Doctors and several episodes of the television show.

As a fan of the Graham Williams/Douglas Adams era, he used the Fourth Doctor, Romana II, and K9 TARDIS team more than any other Virgin writer; years later, he was chosen to be the BBC Wales representative for the documentary about the Graham Williams era included with the UK DVD release of The Ribos Operation, and he would later novelise the unfinished Douglas Adams script Shada.

Roberts' debut in comics was 1994's Plastic Millenium, which was the first appearance of Mel in comics. He went on to be a recurring comics writer during the Ninth Doctor's era, and he would often reuse ideas from his comics for his television episodes: he showed the Ninth Doctor visiting William Shakespeare in A Groatsworth of Wit before writing the episode The Shakespeare Code; and his series 5 episode The Lodger was an adaptation of his 2006 comic of the same name.

In September 2017, Roberts posted a tweet on his Twitter account that gained some media attention for being trans-misogynistic. In early May 2019, BBC Books released details about an upcoming Doctor Who anthology that would include a short story by Roberts; a month later, Roberts announced in an article that his story would not be included in the anthology after other contributing writers threatened to withdraw from the publication due to Roberts' tweets.

Outside of official Doctor Who, Roberts contributed to the charity reference book Behind the Sofa: Celebrity Memories of Doctor Who, and he was interviewed in issue 485 of Doctor Who Magazine for the revival series' tenth anniversary.

Doctor Who

 * The Shakespeare Code
 * The Unicorn and the Wasp
 * Planet of the Dead (with Russell T Davies)
 * The Lodger
 * Closing Time
 * The Caretaker (with Steven Moffat)

Documentaries

 * The Ultimate Guide (Beginning & end scenes)

The Sarah Jane Adventures

 * Invasion of the Bane (with Russell T Davies)
 * Revenge of the Slitheen
 * Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?
 * Secrets of the Stars
 * The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith
 * The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
 * The Empty Planet
 * Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith (with Clayton Hickman)
 * The Man Who Never Was

Comic Relief Special

 * From Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love (with Clayton Hickman)

Interactive Red Button story

 * Attack of the Graske

Virgin New Adventures

 * The Highest Science
 * Tragedy Day
 * Zamper

Virgin Missing Adventures

 * The Romance of Crime
 * The English Way of Death
 * The Plotters
 * The Well-Mannered War

BBC New Series Adventures

 * Only Human

BBC New Series Adventures - Quick Reads

 * I Am a Dalek

BBC Books Doctor Who novelisations

 * Shada

The Sarah Jane Adventures novelisations

 * The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith

Doctor Who Magazine

 * Prelude The Highest Science
 * Prelude Tragedy Day
 * The Final Analysis
 * Voice from the Vortex!

Brief Encounter

 * Anti-Matter with Fries

Virgin Decalogs

 * Vortex of Fear
 * Fegovy

Short Trips

 * Return of the Spiders
 * Special Occasions: 1. The Not-So-Sinister Sponge (with Clayton Hickman)
 * The Brain of Socrates

Doctor Who annuals

 * Doctor vs Doctor

Doctor Who Yearbooks

 * The Changeling Years
 * The Hungry Bomb

Doctor Who Storybooks

 * The Cat Came Back
 * The Body Bank
 * Bing Bong (with Clayton Hickman)

Big Finish Main Range

 * The One Doctor (with Clayton Hickman)
 * Bang-Bang-a-Boom! (with Clayton Hickman; he also voiced News Anchorman)

Novel Adaptations

 * The Highest Science (adapted by Jacqueline Rayner from the novel by Roberts)
 * The Romance of Crime (adapted by John Dorney)
 * The English Way of Death (adapted by John Dorney)
 * The Well-Mannered War (adapted by John Dorney)

DWM comic stories

 * The Lunar Strangers
 * Operation Proteus
 * Target Practice
 * The Last Word
 * Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game
 * The Love Invasion (with Clayton Hickman)
 * A Groatsworth of Wit
 * The Lodger

Doctor Who Magazine (special issues)

 * Plastic Millenium
 * The Seventh Segment

Stage play

 * Doctor Who: The Monsters Are Coming! (with Steven Moffat)