Terrance Dicks

Terrance William Dicks (14 April 1935-29 August 2019),TCH 14Toby Hadoke. "Terrance Dicks obituary". The Guardian. 3 September 2019. Accessed 30 January 2023. whom fans have long affectionately called "Uncle Terrance", script edited the Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee eras of Doctor Who and wrote many Doctor Who episodes, novels and novelisations, becoming one of the most prolific authors and scriptwriters.
== Profile ==
=== Overview ===
Terrance Dicks began his long association with Doctor Who in 1968, when he joined the production team during the Second Doctor story The Web of Fear. He eventually became full time script editor, during the next season, beginning with the story The Invasion. His first notable writing for the show was The War Games, an epic, ten-episode collaboration with Malcolm Hulke.
Dicks served as script editor through the whole Jon Pertwee era, alongside Producer and life-long friend Barry Letts they both crafted a hugely successful era of the show. He handed the reins to Robert Holmes with the coming of Tom Baker. Dicks continued to supply scripts for the series under his name and pseudonyms, specifically "Robin Bland" which was used when too many changes were made to his script for The Brain of Morbius.
Between seasons 13 and 14, he unsuccessfully attempted to sell a version of Doctor Who to BBC Radio, which would have starred Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen. (INFO: The Seeds of Doom)
At roughly the same time, he submitted what would become State of Decay to the Doctor Who production office. It remained unproduced for several years as the BBC had recently produced of Dracula. His final script for televised Doctor Who was for the twentieth anniversary story The Five Doctors.
In 1973, Dicks, along with other writers from the TV series, were commissioned by Target Books to write novelisations adapting TV episodes. Over the next two decades, Dicks became the most prolific author of the line. He was editor of the range at one point. In later years, when Target adopted the policy of commissioning the original teleplay writers to novelise their works, Dicks became the "go-to guy" when the original teleplay writer was deceased, unable or unwilling to adapt their work in book form.
The Target Books line went on a 24-year hiatus after 1994, with Dicks' last novelisation for Doctor Who being 1990's The Space Pirates. Dicks wrote original novels for the Virgin New Adventures, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures, BBC Past Doctor Adventures, and Quick Reads lines.-. He is one of only a handful of Classic Era TV writers to have written licenced Modern Era stories (others include Andrew Cartmel, who has written for the Doctor Who Adventures comic strip, and Rona Munro, who contributed a script to Series 10).
He also co-wrote The Making of Doctor Who, the first non-fiction book about the series.
In 2007, Dicks returned to writing episode novelisations by adapting Invasion of the Bane for a new series of novelisations based upon The Sarah Jane Adventures, published by Penguin Character Books.
Although most closely associated with Doctor Who, Dicks has also worked on other projects, such as a mid-1970s series of novels featuring the adventures of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Of the first ten incarnations of the Doctor, Dicks wrote novels and novelisations featuring all of them except the Ninth.
He also contributed to the charity reference book Behind the Sofa: Celebrity Memories of Doctor Who.
=== Contributions to the Doctor Who universe ===
Characters and concepts created in a Terrance Dicks script or substantially developed by him as script editor include the Time Lords, played by Roger Delgado, the Rutans, the War Lord, the Death Zone, and Morbius.
== Television credits ==
=== As writer ===
==== Doctor Who ====
* The War Games (with Malcolm Hulke)
* Robot
* The Brain of Morbius (re-written substantially by script editor Robert Holmes and credited to the pseudonym Robin Bland)
* Horror of Fang Rock
* State of Decay
* The Five Doctors
==== Direct-to-video ====
* Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans
* Mindgame
* Mindgame Trilogy: Battlefield
=== As script editor ===
==== Doctor Who ====
*The Invasion
*The Krotons
*The Seeds of Death
*The War Games
*Spearhead from Space
*Doctor Who and the Silurians
*The Ambassadors of Death
*Inferno
*Terror of the Autons
*The Mind of Evil
*The Claws of Axos
*Colony in Space
*The Dæmons
*Day of the Daleks
*The Sea Devils
*The Curse of Peladon
*The Mutants
*The Time Monster
*Carnival of Monsters
*Frontier in Space
*The Three Doctors
*Planet of the Daleks
*The Green Death
*The Time Warrior
*Invasion of the Dinosaurs
*Death to the Daleks
*The Monster of Peladon
*Planet of the Spiders
=== Dedications ===
* Spyfall: Part One
== Prose ==
=== Novels ===
==== Target Novelisations ====
* Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion
* Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks
* Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen
* Doctor Who and the Giant Robot
* Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons
* Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders
* The Three Doctors
* Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster
* Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks
* Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen
* Doctor Who and the Web of Fear
* Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks
* Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Mars
* Doctor Who and the Carnival of Monsters
* Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth
* Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos
* Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius
* Doctor Who and the Planet of Evil
* Doctor Who and the Mutants
* Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin
* Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang
* Doctor Who and the Face of Evil
* Doctor Who and the Horror of Fang Rock
* Doctor Who and the Time Warrior
* Death to the Daleks
* Doctor Who and the Android Invasion
* Doctor Who and the Hand of Fear
* Doctor Who and the Invisible Enemy
* Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl
* Doctor Who and the Robots of Death
* Doctor Who and the Destiny of the Daleks
* Doctor Who and the Underworld
* Doctor Who and the Invasion of Time
* Doctor Who and the Stones of Blood
* Doctor Who and the Androids of Tara
* Doctor Who and the Power of Kroll
* Doctor Who and the Armageddon Factor
* Doctor Who and the Nightmare of Eden
* Doctor Who and the Horns of Nimon
* Doctor Who and the Monster of Peladon
* Doctor Who and an Unearthly Child
* Doctor Who and the State of Decay
* Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken
* Doctor Who and the Sunmakers
* Meglos
* Four to Doomsday
* Arc of Infinity
* The Five Doctors
* Kinda
* Snakedance
* Warriors of the Deep
* Inferno
* The Caves of Androzani
* The Mind of Evil
* The Krotons
* The Time Monster
* The Seeds of Death
* The Faceless Ones
* The Ambassadors of Death
* The Mysterious Planet
* The Wheel in Space
* The Smugglers
* Planet of Giants
* The Space Pirates
==== Junior Doctor Who ====
* Junior Doctor Who and the Giant Robot
* Junior Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius
==== Target Books ====
* The Doctor Who Dinosaur Book
==== Virgin New Adventures ====
* Timewyrm: Exodus
* Blood Harvest
* Shakedown - (technically an expanded upon novelisation of his Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans)
==== BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures ====
* The Eight Doctors
* Endgame
==== BBC Past Doctor Adventures ====
* Catastrophea
* Players
* Warmonger
* Deadly Reunion (with Barry Letts)
* World Game
==== BBC Quick Reads ====
* Made of Steel
* Revenge of the Judoon
==== Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures ====
* Mean Streets
==== The Sarah Jane Adventures Novelisations ====
* Invasion of the Bane
=== Short Stories ===
==== Brief Encounters ====
* Farewells
==== The Target Storybook ====
* Save Yourself (released posthumous)
==== Dalek ====
* Davros Genesis
==== Daily Mirror ====
* Dr. Who and the Hell Planet
==== Bernice Summerfield short stores ====
* A Mutual Friend (in A Life of Surprises)
=== Non-fiction ===
* The Making of Doctor Who (first edition co-written with Malcolm Hulke; second edition updated and revised by Terrance Dicks alone)
* The Doctor Who Monster Book
* The Second Doctor Who Monster Book
== Stage plays ==
* Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys to Doomsday
* The Ultimate Adventure
== Audio ==
=== Big Finish Doctor Who stage plays ===
* Seven Keys to Doomsday
* The Ultimate Adventure
=== Sarah Jane Smith ===
* Comeback
=== Companion Chronicles ===
* Beyond the Ultimate Adventure
== Video game ==
* Destiny of the Doctors (with Hannah Redler, Gary Russell and Andy Russell)
== Contributions to the mythos ==
Major characters and concepts created for or debuting in a Terrance Dicks script include:
* The War Lords
* SIDRAT
* The Time Lords (first named)
* Gallifrey (not mentioned by name)
* The Fourth Doctor
* Harry Sullivan
* K1
* Morbius
* Sisterhood of Karn
* The Rutans
* The Great Vampires
* The Game of Rassilon and the Death Zone
* Raston Warrior Robot
* Time Scoop
* Eye of Orion
== Miscellaneous ==
=== Documentary ===
* Lords of the Red Planet
* A Dandy and a Clown
* IMC Needs You
* Beginning the End
* Life on Earth
* The Military Mind
* Axon Stations!
* Inside the Lighthouse (archive footage)
* Terrance Dicks: Fact & Fiction
to be completed
=== Audio commentary ===
* Horror of Fang Rock
to be completed
== External links ==
* BBC.co.uk website interview with Terrance Dicks, 01 January 2004
* Outpost Gallifrey - Interview: Terrance Dicks (archived)
== Footnotes ==
fr:Terrance Dicks
Category:Doctor Who television writers
Category:Doctor Who script editors
Category:Doctor Who uncredited cast
Category:Reeltime Pictures writers
Category:Bernice Summerfield novelists
Category:Doctor Who novelists
Category:Reference writers
Category:Doctor Who novelisation writers
Category:SJA novelisation writers
Category:BAFTA award nominees
Category:People interviewed on The Fan Show
Category:Writers interviewed on Toby Hadoke's Who's Round
Category:Actors interviewed on Toby Hadoke's Who's Round
Category:The Companion Chronicles writers
Category:Big Finish Sarah Jane Smith writers
Category:The Stageplays writers
Category:Behind the Sofa contributors
Category:Doctor Who short story writers
Category:Video game production staff