directly recalls well known horror novels and movies. Hinchcliffe also aspired to give the programme a more literary feel with a stronger science fiction basis. Working closely with Holmes, Hinchcliffe tried to "tighten the whole storytelling up a bit and pay more attention to the design", but he conceded that it was improved "in some stories more than others". As part of the effort to "tighten" the storytelling they were permitted to reduce the number of six-parters to just one a season (the previous team of Letts and Terrance Dicks made three six-parters per season in their last three seasons). Hinchcliffe was reluctant to use characters and monsters from the series' past: the Daleks, the Cybermen and the Sontarans only appeared once during his tenure, and these stories were commissioned by Letts. The Master and the Time Lords returned for one adventure, The Deadly Assassin, at the suggestion of Holmes, but were portrayed very differently from their previous appearances. The character of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT made their final regular appearances in Hinchcliffe's second season. The early Tom Baker era of the series is cited by Screenonline as the peak of Doctor Who in its first run. However, the BBC received several complaints from Mary Whitehouse of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association that the series was unduly frightening for children and could traumatise them. The NVALA had been critical of the series before but the complaints reached their height in the Hinchcliffe period. Her strongest criticism was for The Deadly Assassin, where an attempt is made to drown the Doctor at the end of an episode. While the BBC publicly defended the programme, after three seasons Hinchcliffe was moved onto the adult police thriller series Target in 1977, and his replacement Graham Williams, who had created Target, was specifically instructed to lighten the tone of the storylines and reduce violence. Screenonline states that this resulted in "the start of an erratic decline in both popularity and quality" for Doctor Who which led to its eventual cancellation. Hinchcliffe also wrote three novelisations of Doctor Who serials for Target Books, adapting the William Hartnell era story The Keys of Marinus, as well as two stories from his own era, The Seeds of Doom and The Masque of Mandragora. Subsequent career After Doctor Who, Hinchcliffe worked on numerous series, single dramas and films, including Target, Private Schulz, Nancy Astor, The Charmer, Take