Career
He was the producer on the show between 1977 and 1980, during the Tom Baker era. Under Hinchcliffe, the series had been at its most popular, with the highest average viewing figures, but had also come under heavy media criticism for the violent content. Upon taking over the reins of the series, Williams was instructed by his superiors to tone down the violence.
Williams later said of his time on Doctor Who: "lieutenant all went wrong right from the start, when I was told to make the show more funny, and less violent.
Unfortunately, this would have required a lot of money, of which we had practically sod all. Tom Baker, however, thought it was a splendid idea, and kept putting in all these bad puns and terrible jokes, which didn"t get any better when I brought Dougie Adams in."
Williams also wrote significant portions of the script for two stories beset by writing problems, City of and The Invasion of Time.
During his period on the programme, Williams worked closely with three script editors: the experienced Robert Holmes. Anthony Read; and Douglas Adams.
Adams went on to write hugely popular novels such as The Hitchhiker"s Guide to the Galaxy.
Williams left the series after three difficult years, handing over to John Nathan-Turner who had worked under him as Production Unit Manager. During Nathan-Turner"s reign as producer, Williams was approached by script editor Eric Saward to write a story for Colin Baker"s second season. The script was at an advanced stage when it was abandoned, as were all the scripts initially commissioned for that season, after the series was put on hiatus in February 1985.
In 1989 Williams wrote a novelisation of his story, The Nightmare Fair ().
In 1985, he helped design the Doctor Who text video game Doctor Who and the Warlord. His work on the series is examined in some detail in the documentary "A Matter of Time" (included in the 2007 British Broadcasting Corporation Digital Video Disc release of The Key to Time series), which includes excerpts from two interviews with Williams, conducted at 1980s Doctor Who fan conventions.
He died in a shooting accident at home on 17 August 1990.