Richard Martin

Richard Martin (born 3 January 1935) is a British retired television director and actor. After starting his career as an actor, he worked regularly as a director throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, which included directing several early serials of Doctor Who starring William Hartnell, and series such as Compact, Crown Court and All Creatures Great and Small. He is married to actress Suzanne Neve.

Doctor Who After having acted in the 1958 television series Ivanhoe and the 1960 series Maigret, Martin was asked to join the production team working on yet to be broadcast series Doctor Who by caretaker producer Rex Tucker. During the making of The Daleks, Martin persuaded producer Verity Lambert to approach the story in a less conservative manner. Authors Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping regard The Daleks as being "brilliantly directed."

However, Wood and Miles criticised Martin for permitting outside noises such as studio doors opening and closing to be heard during stories he directs, and describe the direction of The Dalek Invasion of Earth as "mistimed," while acknowledging that the "grit and darkness" of some scenes are "enough to hold the attention for a while." Critic John Kenneth Muir concurs that The Web Planet is "badly filmed," but praises the story for being an experiment in showing a truly alien world, which according to Wood and Miles was the type of story Martin had been wanting Doctor Who to do. Wood and Miles consider Martin to have been "hopelessly out of his depth" in directing The Chase, suggesting that the previous story, The Space Museum, would have played to his strengths as a director instead. Martin himself attributes the flaws with The Web Planet and The Chase to inadequate budgets, and in the case of The Chase restrictions on his use of moving camera techniques.

Later work Martin worked on a great number of television series and documentaries after Doctor Who, including Crown Court, A Family at War, Six Days of Justice, BBC2 Playhouse, Elizabeth R, The Mallens and many others. His final TV work was in 1990 on All Creatures Great and Small.

Legacy In the 2013 docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time, Martin was portrayed by writer Mark Gatiss's husband, actor Ian Hallard. He was also interviewed for Matthew Sweet's 50th anniversary Doctor Who special of The Culture Show, entitled "Me, You and Doctor Who".

Peter Purves, who portrayed Steven Taylor in Doctor Who and later became a presenter for Blue Peter, credits Martin for being "responsible for [his] career ever taking off."