John Lucarotti (20 May 1926-20 November 1994^[1]) wrote the screenplays for the Doctor Who stories Marco Polo, The Aztecs, and The Massacre. He later wrote the novelisations of all three stories: Marco Polo, The Aztecs, and The Massacre. Of the three serials he wrote for the series, only The Aztecs survived destruction, with Marco Polo and The Massacre no longer existing in the BBC Archives, and neither of them containing one frame of footage.

Lucarotti also wrote the original script for the Doctor Who story The Ark in Space but was unable to do a rewrite because he was living on a boat in Corsica at the time. Robert Holmes did extensive rewrites and was credited with the story. His original version of the story was adapted as an audio drama by Big Finish, titled The Ark and released in June 2023.

Late in his life, he also contributed the inaugural Brief Encounter short story to Doctor Who Magazine, by virtue of which he wrote himself into the Doctor Who universe. It was officially untitled, but came to have the name The Meeting.

Legacy[]

Archive interviews that John gave to Doctor Who Magazine were read out by actors for the documentary The End of the Line?.

Credits[]

Television[]

Doctor Who[]

• Marco Polo
• The Aztecs
• The Massacre

Novels[]

Target novelisations[]

• The Aztecs
• Marco Polo
• The Massacre

Short Stories[]

Doctor Who Magazine[]

• The Meeting
• Who Discovered America?

Audio[]

The Lost Stories[]

• The Ark (adapted by Jonathan Morris)

External links[]

• John Lucarotti at the Internet Movie Database

Footnotes[]