We’re very sorry to learn of the passing of author Justin Richards, best known for his work on Doctor Who fiction, who had long helped shape the series path in books and more for many years.
His family have announced his passing on Sunday 28th June 2026, aged just 64. Justin had, unfortunately, spent the last decade of his life living with early-onset fronto-temporal dementia, and passed away peacefully in a nursing home in his beloved Warwickshire.
Known to many as the range consultant for Doctor Who for BBC Books, Justin was a prolific and lauded children’s novelist, and a regular writer for Big Finish Productions. His work spanned audio scripts, television, a stage play, and editing anthologies of short stories. He was also a technical writer, and founded and edited a media journal.
He was also the creator of Irving Braxiatel, elder brother of the Doctor, a character who first appeared in the New Adventures novel Theatre of War back in 1994, and played major role in two audio spin-off series, Bernice Summerfield and Gallifrey.
A new paperback edition of his short story collection, Doctor Who: Time Lord Fairy Tales, is due for release from BBC Children’s Books in August, illustrated by David Wardle, with a new story by Janelle McCurdy.
I first met Justin while editor of Doctor Who Magazine, and he was one of several writers I brought on board the title in an effort to deliver a wider range of authoritative voices to cover the show’s history, impressed by his work on the serial prozine, In-vision, which alongside Peter Anghelides, from its launch. As with Andrew Pixley, I much valued their work for the Magazine during what’s colloquially known as “The Wilderness Years”.
As Richard Molesworth notes, Justin was a powerful voice in Doctor Who fandom in the 1980s, a regular contributor to ‘zines such as Frontier Worlds, Skaro, and DWB, amongst others. He edited superb The Black & White Guardian, alongside David Richardson, then shouldered the editing duties, with Peter Anghelides on In-vision from its launch, covering Tom Baker’s debut Robot and continuing through all of Baker’s stories up to Logopolis, then passing on the editing role to Anthony Brown.
His first professional work a fiction author, was on the original Doctor Who novels for Virgin’s “New Adventures” and “Missing Adventures” ranges, and novels for BBC Books too, both for the “Past Doctor Adventures” and “Eighth Doctor Adventures” ranges. He also wrote several of the early Big Finish audio dramas.
His Doctor Who novel, The Burning, was placed sixth in the Top 10 of SFX magazine’s “Best SF/Fantasy novelisation or TV tie-in novel” category of 2000.
When the show returned in 2005, Justin wrote original novels with the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, eventually becoming creative consultant for the BBC Doctor Who book range.
“My editor on many projects, he was a talented, funny and generous man,” says author and effects designer Mike Tucker, “who improved my writing enormously with his insightful changes and clever suggestions. He will be greatly missed.”
“His Doctor Who – The Book of Lists (co-written with Andrew Martin) was a neat (if lightweight) reference book about the original series,” Richard Molesworth notes, “but his hefty coffee table book Doctor Who: The Legend was a fitting tribute to (again) the original / classic series, published for the show’s 40th anniversary in 2003.”
Beyond Doctor Who, was the author of, amongst other things, The Death Collector, The Chaos Code, The Parliament of Blood and The Skeleton Clock, and the series The Invisible Detective, Time Runners, and Agent Alfie.
Justin is survived by his wife Alison, his sons Julian and Christian, and his mother and brothers. Our sympathies to them and his friends at this time.
Justin Richards (14th September 1961 – 28th June 2026)
• SciFi Bulletin presents an obituary of Justin Richards by his family here
• Big Finish Tribute: Justin Richards, 1961-2026
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Books, Doctor Who, downthetubes News, Features, Obituaries, Other Worlds, Science Fiction, Television
In Memoriam: Cover Artist Walt Howarth
Justin was still a teenager when I first met him, albeit briefly, at the DWAS 1978 PanoptiCon convention in London. I remember we debated whether ‘Pyramids of Mars’ or ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ was the best story of the Philip Hinchcliffe era. We didn’t come to a conclusion then, nor throughout our long friendship that bloomed in the 80s, matured in the 90s and held steadfast even as his illness gradually robbed us of that brilliant, mercurial mind and sly sense of humour.
Alongside Peter Anghelides, Justin was a perfect fit as editor of the CMS ‘In-Vision’ reference magazine project as its coverage of the Tom Baker years began in 1988. Although the ‘Genesis’ versus ‘Pyramids’ conundrum was never resolved, Justin did drag the publication out of its manual paste-up and typesetting era and into the modern world of desktop publishing via his purchase of an early Apple Mac computer, even though I sweated for a week or so that he was going to present me with the bill for it. He didn’t….
Working with Peter and Justin was a little Kirk working with McCoy and Spock: the folksiness and laid-back contemplations of the former overlapping with the precision and eye for detail of the latter. If Justin phoned you up, it was to tell you an issue was going to press on time. If Peter called, chances are there was a delay, “…But only because we’ve acquired some great new pictures/information/interview quotes/etc. that really deserve being included!”
Our friendships continued even after Justin and Peter handed the ‘In-Vision’ reins over to Anthony Brown in 1994. Indeed, just a few years later, Justin extended to me an invitation to become godfather to his second son, Christian. Definitely an honour I wasn’t going to refuse.
Over the years my bookshelves and CD racks have swelled with numerous examples of Justin’s novels, reference books and ‘Big Finish’ stories. But one of my absolute proudest possessions, courtesy of the Richards household, is a rotating glass and wood cabinet which is perfect for displaying examples from the Eaglemoss Doctor Who Figurine Collection. But which one to spin round to the front this week? Davros or Sutekh? An Egyptian mummy or a mark IV travel machine that is undeniably a Dalek. Oh dear, Justin. I would welcome your thoughts on those dilemmas.
Till we meet again, JR…
What lovely memories, Jeremy, thank you so much for sharing them with us.