PEDLER, Kit

   Working name of UK writer and scientist Christopher Magnus Howard Pedler (1927-1981). He was a medical doctor, practising from 1953 for about three years, after which he began the research into the experimental pathology of eye disease that resulted in a second doctorate. In 1970 KP and Gerry DAVIS devised the BBC TV series DOOMWATCH, which ran to 37 episodes, manywritten by KP and Davis, and most dealing in sf terms with the prevention of manmade threats to this fragile planet. KP's first sf novel, Mutant 59: The Plastic-Eater (1971) with Davis, featured a Doomwatch-type scenario(indeed, the basic plot had been used as a Doomwatch episode) in which a laboratory-created plastic-eating virus escapes, creating havoc as plastics start dissolving. The working out of the notion is less than crisp. POLLUTION and ECOLOGY themes recurred in the next two collaborations, Brainrack (1974) and The Dynostar Menace (1975), neither being wholly satisfactory. KP's scientific ideas were stronger than the methods he used to dramatize them. He made many tv and radio appearances, usually dealing with ecological problems, and presented several tv films in this field.

   JC/PN

   See also: DISASTER; GENETIC ENGINEERING; PSEUDO-SCIENCE.