Reviews

"I really wanted to do a hatchet job on Warriors' Gate but will just say the truth... Wow!"
- 'Definitie Gaze' (number 2), late 1982

Miscellaneous

Author

STEPHEN GALLAGHER
(a.k.a. JOHN LYDECKER)

Stephen Gallagher was born in Salford, Lancashire, on the 13th of October, 1954. He studied Drama and English at Hull University before getting a job as a documentaries researcher for Yorkshire Television. He then worked for Granada television and began writing scripts for Independent Local Radio. This led to work for BBC Radio 4.

His first commissioned TV work was the serial Warriors' Gate for Doctor Who, followed two years later by Terminus. He wrote the adaptations of his two Doctor Who serials under the name of John Lydecker to distinguish them from his body of work as an original fantasy/science fiction/ horror/thriller author.

Doctor Who and Warriors' Gate
Doctor Who - Terminus

The name ‘John Lydecker’ came from a character in Gallagher’s BBC Radio 4 play An Alternative to Suicide. Gallagher had already used the pseudonym on an adaptation of the Rank movie Silver Dream Racer (Futura, 1980), a vehicle (in every sense of the word) for pop star David Essex.

Gift Set

Formed part of The First Dr Who Gift Set released in 1982. These sets comprised four recently released (or re-released) novelisations in a cardboard slip case. Three of the four books that made up this boxed set were An Unearthly Child, The Enemy of the World and State of Decay. There were variations on the fourth book between The Power of Kroll, The Keeper of Traken and Warriors' Gate. The box cover utilised the Bill Donohoe artwork from The Programme Guide. The gift set had ISBN 0 426 19270 2. In all there were nine gift sets released in the 1980s.

Gift Set

Formed part of The Second Dr Who Gift Set released in 1982. These sets comprised four recently released (or re-released) novelisations in a cardboard slip case. The four novels that made up the second set were The Leisure Hive, Full Circle, Warriors' Gate and The Visitation. The box set cover utilised the Bill Donohoe artwork from The Programme Guide. The gift set had ISBN 0 426 19289 3 and it sold for £5.25. In all there were nine gift sets released in between 1982 and 1986. The first and second were flimsy cardboard slip cases but the remainder were quite sturdy.