Born: 4th April 1931 (as Derek Buitenhuis)
Died: 27th March 2014 (aged 82 years)
Episodes Broadcast: 1965-1967, 1970

Derek Buitenhuis was born in Ilford, Essex. He became interested in acting, and joined a group of amateurs called the Taverners who performed the works of Shakespeare in London pubs. For his stage name, Buitenhuis drew upon his paternal grandfather's middle name: Martinus. After his National Service, he attended the University of Oklahoma and won a scholarship to the Yale School of Drama. Martinus then worked in Canada and Rhodesia before returning to the UK in the mid-Fifties, where he acted and directed for the stage. In 1959, he travelled to Sweden to study Scandinavian theatre. There he met his future wife, Eivor, who later became a writer and translator. They married in 1963 and would have two daughters, Charlotta and Pia.

Although he won minor acting roles on the small screen -- including episodes of Compact and Moonstrike -- as well as in the movie Carry On Sergeant (starring the future First Doctor, William Hartnell), Martinus set his sights on becoming a television director. He completed the BBC's internal directors' course in early 1965, and soon found himself pressed into service on Doctor Who, taking over Galaxy 4 and Mission To The Unknown when original director Mervyn Pinfield fell ill. Martinus returned to Doctor Who the following year for The Tenth Planet, where he oversaw both the introduction of the Cybermen and the show's first regeneration.

Martinus directed more than 50 episodes of Z Cars over a 10-year span

Martinus' other credits in the Sixties included United! and The Newcomers. He returned to Doctor Who three more times, including another serial with a dual distinction: 1970's Spearhead From Space, which was not only Jon Pertwee's debut as the Third Doctor but also the first Doctor Who story transmitted in colour. By that time, Martinus had also begun working on Z Cars, for which he would direct more than fifty episodes over a ten-year span.

During the Seventies, Martinus' work included The Doctors, The Paper Lads, Angels and Blake's 7. But, as the decade wore on, he found the theatre taking a renewed prominence. Frequently collaborating with his wife, Martinus directed plays not only in the UK (including 1981's The Killing Game in the West End) but also in Sweden. As the Eighties dawned, Spearhead and Emmerdale Farm were amongst his latter credits; he also made the telefilm Vargen for Swedish audiences. Martinus retired from television after directing Dodger, Bonzo & The Rest in 1986, although his career in the theatre would last into the Nineties. Unfortunately, Martinus then developed Alzheimer's disease, to which he ultimately succumbed on March 27th, 2014.