Kit Pedler

Dr. Christopher "Kit" Pedler was a doctor of medicine, specializing both in diseases of the eye and in the new branch of artificial limbs and organs. In 1966, he was approached by Doctor Who (1963)'s then story editor, Gerry Davis, to help with the scientific problems in a Who script (working title of "The Computers"). Davis was taken with Pedler's idea of having a rogue computer build mobile robots to help take over London, and invited Pedler to become "Doctor Who"'s unofficial scientific advisor. In 1967, Pedler and Davis came up with the idea of the Doctor's 2nd most famous foe, the Cybermen, for the story "The Tenth Planet". The villians were originally thought of as "space monks", but Pedler came up with the idea of an alien race that had replaced become inhuman through total cybernetic replacement. Pedler and Davis next developed the Doomwatch (1970) series, inspired by Pedler's growing concern over environmental issues. After the show gradually turned towards more cliched SF ideas, Pedler distanced himself from the show. He later turned one of the episodes into a novel, "Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters" (1972), co-written with Davis. Pedler spent his later years speaking on environmental issues. He was beginning development on a new show, "Mind Over Matter", when he died suddenly. His body was found by his girlfriend outside his home in Kent.