He graduated from Oxford University in 1969, and started working as a stage manager and acting in theatre. In the 1970s he began to act on the BBC series
Doctor Who, playing Harry Sullivan. After his role was through Marter continued to be involved with Doctor Who, co-writing a feature film and working on novelizations of the series for Target Books. The last of the book series, Doctor Who: The Rescue, had to be finished by Nigel Robinson because of Marter’s premature death. Marter also wrote a companion novel to Doctor Who - Harry Sullivan’s War, published in 1986. In 1985 and 1986 he published multiple film tie-in adaptations for Star Books(some under the pen name Ian Don) like Splash,
Down and Out In Beverly Hills, and Tough Guys, as well as four Disney Gummi Bear movie picture books. Marter died of a heart attack caused by type 1 diabetes on his 42 birthday in 1986.
