Barbara Clegg

Barbara Clegg was a British actress and a scriptwriter for television and Radio.

Clegg started out acting in the theatre before moving into film and television with roles in "Emergency Ward 10" and "The Dream Maker". She then started writing scripts and in 1961 contributed seven scripts for the television soap opera "Coronation Street".

After writing for several radio and television serials, including for "Crossroads" and a radio dramatisation of "The Chrysalids", Clegg was asked to submit ideas for the science fiction television series "Doctor Who" in 1981. Her storyline, titled "The Enlighteners", involved a space-bound race using anachronistic sailing ships. "Doctor Who" script editor Eric Saward decided to use Clegg's story as the last part of a trilogy of three stories, known informally as the "Black Guardian Trilogy", as it involved the return of the villainous Black Guardian and the introduction of the Doctor's new companion, Vislor Turlough.

To integrate "The Enlighteners" into the trilogy, portions of the story were rewritten at the request of the production team and the Black and White Guardians replaced the originally planned "Enlighteners". Since the title could no longer refer to those entities, the story was renamed "Enlightenment".

The serial was Barbara Clegg's only commission for "Doctor Who", other story line ideas being rejected by Saward, and later Andrew Cartmel.

External links

* [http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~ecl6nb/OnTarget/authors/cleg/clegg.htm Biography of Barbara Clegg]