James Anthony Coburn (10 December 1927 – 28 April 1977) was an Australian television writer and producer, who spent much of his professional career living and working in the United Kingdom. He is best remembered for writing the first Doctor Who story, An Unearthly Child.
He also wrote the stage play The Bastard Country.
Doctor Who
He moved to the UK around 1950, where he joined the staff of BBC Television. While working as a staff writer for the BBC in 1963 and living in Herne Bay, Kent, he became involved in the early development of the science-fiction series Doctor Who.
He liaised closely with the series' first story editor, David Whitaker, on establishing the format and characters of the show, which had been initiated by various BBC drama executives before being handed on to the new production team. It is believed to have been Coburn's idea for the Doctor's travelling companion, Susan, to be his granddaughter, as he was disturbed by the possible sexual connotations of an old man travelling with an unrelated teenager.
Coburn wrote four full serials for the programme, An Unearthly Child, The Robots (also known as The Masters of Luxor) and two other unnamed scripts. Only An Unearthly Child was produced and it was the first Doctor Who serial to be made, despite both Coburn and the production team's misgivings about its prehistoric settings. The Robots was continually delayed and put back in production order, and then finally rejected – following this, Coburn severed his links with the show. The story would see the travellers land on thirteenth-century Earth, then by the end of the month, it changed to a planet. Another of his assignments was the 1965, six-part series Heiress of Garth, based on the novel Ovington's Bank by Stanley J. Weyman.
Coburn produced the original pilot episode of The Onedin Line; his tasks included searching many inlets and harbours before finally finding, in Dartmouth, Devon, the schooner that would be the Charlotte Rhodes. of a heart attack while producing the second series of the BBC period drama Poldark, and was due to move on to produce the final season of Z-Cars. Prior to his death, he finished writing a science fiction disaster novel called Gargantua, the first of a planned trilogy based on a rejected BBC pitch. It was published posthumously in 1977.
Writing credits
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Title
!Notes
|-
|1960
|Knight Errant Limited
|Episode: "The Conspirators"
|-
| rowspan="2" |1961
|They Made History
|Episode: "Ronald Ross"
|-
|The Watching Cat
|TV film starring Jacqueline Hill
|-
| rowspan="4" |1963
|BBC Sunday-Night Play
|Episode: "She's a Free Country"
|-
|Dr. Finlay's Casebook
|Episode: "A Time for Laughing"
|-
|Maigret
|Episode: "The Crime at Lock 14"
|-
|Doctor Who
|Serial: An Unearthly Child
|-
|1964
|The Children of the New Forest
|5 episodes
|-
|1965
|Heiress of Garth
|6 episodes
|-
|1965–1966
|The Newcomers
|31 episodes
|-
|1966
|King of the River
|Episode: "By Guess and by God"
|-
|1967
|Emergency Ward 10
|Episode: "A Family Likeness"
|-
|1967–1968
|Vendetta
|3 episodes
|-
|1970
|The Borderers
|Episode: "Plot Counterplot"
|-
|1971
|The View from Daniel Pike
|Episode: "So This is Olympus"
|-
| rowspan="2" |1973
|Sutherland's Law
|Episode: "The Sea"
|-
|Warship
|Co-created with Ian Mackintosh
|}