TERRANCE DICKS
Although the name may be unfamiliar, Terrance Dicks is probably responsible for a lot of us reading these pages – and for some of us he’s responsible for our love of reading more generally.
Dicks is best known for his association with the British science fiction series Doctor Who. Starting in 1968, he was assistant script editor for the show and the following year he was promoted to script editor (this was the equivalent of what would today be the head writer role). As a result, he was able to steer the show in new directions, introducing the Timelords and much other lore we now take for granted.
He also brought many fortean ideas to the stories. As script editor he oversaw the 1973 Jon Pertwee story “The Green Death” (forever known by people of a certain age as ‘The One With The Maggots’), an anti-pollution story before such things were as mainstream as they are now. He oversaw the production of “The Daemons” (1971), complete with ancient astronauts and one of the few instances in the show where genuine magic is seen. He wrote one of the most
fortean of all Who stories, “The Horror of Fang Rock” (1977), which at last provided an explanation for the Flannan Isle lighthouse mystery. He wasn’t shy of taking ideas from literature, two of the most relevant being the vampires of “The State of Decay” (1980) and the Frankenstein story given an outer space spin in “The Brain of Morbius” (1976) – and just for luck he wrote Tom Baker’s first story, “Robot” (1975), which has many parallels with King Kong.
After Doctor Who, Dicks became a prolific author of the much-loved Target novelisations of the TV episodes – for many, in the pre-video age, the only way to relive older episodes – writing over 60 of them as well as contributing to various Doctor Who spin-off publications. He produced many stories that appealed strongly to young forteans: there were tales in which the Doctor met the Yeti and the Loch Ness Monster or travelled to alternate dimensions, as well as what were essentially hollow earth stories, such as “The Silurians”.
With his success in this area, Dicks was courted by publishers as a children’s author and
went on to write well over 100 original novels.
Dicks clearly loved his time on Doctor Who and was a regular guest at conventions over the years, usually as a double act with his Doctor Who producer Barry Letts. No matter how many times he heard the same questions he always gave enthusiastic answers, and anyone who spent time with him came away with stories of his friendly and giving nature. He did other work as well, including adapting classic novels for the BBC and writing for Crossroads, but it is for his work on Doctor Who that he will be remembered.
Terrance William Dicks, prolific Doctor Who writer and ambassador, born East Ham, 14 April 1935; died London, 29 August 2019, aged 84.
Gordon Rutter