Eric Saward (/ˈseɪwʊd/;[1] born 9 December 1944) is a British radio scriptwriter who worked as a screenwriter and script editor on the BBC's science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1982 to 1986.
[7] He wrote the novelisations of The Twin Dilemma and Attack of the Cybermen, as well as those of The Visitation and Slipback, for Target Books' Doctor Who range.
[9] Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner and Saward aroused controversy in 1985 because many of the stories of Colin Baker's first season as the Sixth Doctor contained numerous scenes of graphic violence and darker themes, which many commentators believed was inappropriate for a programme aimed at a family audience (the season featured acid baths, hangings, cell mutation experiments, executions by laser, cannibalism, poisonings, stabbings, suffocation by cyanide and a man having his hands crushed).
Saward was eventually able to bring veteran writer Robert Holmes back to the series and they became friends before the latter's death.
In the 1990s, he wrote linking narration for Doctor Who audio releases of missing episodes and later appeared in interviews on DVDs of his serials.
In 2020, Saward made his first foray into the comic book medium with the eponymous limited series Lytton, centred on the character he created for the Doctor Who serials Resurrection of the Daleks and Attack of the Cybermen.
Saward's long-term partner is Jane Judge, who was the BBC production secretary for the Doctor Who office when he became script editor on the series.