Terrance Dicks: Legend of Doctor Who: In memorium and gratitude
I write today on behalf not just of myself, but my whole generation, to mark the passing of a remarkable man, Terrance Dicks.
Terrance was a writer and screenwriter much beloved for his work on Doctor Who, both as a writer, a script editor and then as a novelist: his impact on so many people just cannot be understated.
From an early start in the industry writing scripts for the Avengers with fellow would-be Who writer Malcom Hulke in 1962, Terrance’s first work on Doctor Who was uncredited re-writes on “The Dominators” in 1968, followed with the same on "The Seeds of Death", until he shared writing credits with Malcolm Hulke on the final story of Patrick Troughtens era in the role, the epic 10 part “War Games.”
This story established the Time Lords, the Doctors people, in its final two episodes, of what may very well have been the last story of the show if things had worked out slightly differently.
In an alternative universe, The War Games alone would be a fantastic sci-fi legacy for any writer to have achieved.
Fortunately, in our dimension, this was just the start.
Terrance continued script writing duties over the next 5 years until the following Doctor, Jon Pertwee, stepped down, destroyed by radiation thwarting the evil plans of the spider Queen on the “Planet of the Spiders”. He had seen the show through a massive growth in its popularity that made it must-watch viewing in the new era of colour television.
Yet still, the best was yet to come.
Terrance would have full writing credits for "Robot", Tom Bakers first story that saw Tom establish himself as totally different, more eccentric and more alien Doctor that his predecessor, and go on to pen the well loved classics "Brain of Morbius" and "Horror of Fang Rock."
For Tom’s last season Terrance wrote the engaging Vampire story “State of Decay”, whose plot rises far above its special effects, and then his final writing for the TV show was his masterpiece, “The Five Doctors”, the epic 20th anniversary special that saw all the Doctors incarnations come together to face the challenge and defeat the threat that dragged them all through time and space into Gallifreys “death zone”, a deadly shameful secret from the Doctor's peoples distant past.
And yet even this is not enough, in fact is only the start of what Terrance Dicks did for Doctor Who and the millions of people who have loved the show.
Back in the distant past, before home computers, before mobile phones, before video recorders: there was just the television.
3 channels, that’s your lot, miss it and its gone.
Part of what made Doctor Who such compulsive viewing in a greyer more austere age, even if we had to watch it through peeping fingers from behind the Sofa, was providing those weekly 25 minutes of imagination, transported from the mundane to the extraordinary by the TARDIS... with those cliff-hangers keeping us gripped and thinking about the adventure all week till the next Saturday tea time came along.
And many people, especially growing up in the 1970’s, when there wasn’t even a Doctor Who magazine on newsagent shelves, would have known nothing beyond the barest details of the shows past…
If it wasn’t for those little Target books…
Starting in 1974, with his adaption of Jon Pertwees opening adventure, “Spearhead from Space”, as “Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion”, Terrance began writing. And writing. And writing!
Terrance produced an incredible 65 books adapting many of the best regarded classic Who stories, from "Genesis of the Daleks" to "Pyramids of Mars", "Terror of the Autons" to "The Giant Robot", Terrance brought the show, its values, its heroism and its creative imagination direct to the minds of the children of Britain, and the wider world.
I remember from my own youth the sheer pleasure of getting another paperback with their fascinating covers and engaging writing when we made a trip to town, how much pleasure it gave to have a shelf full of fantastic adventures to read over and over again, and how it wasn’t just me but most of my peers who loved these books and read them and read them and read them again, for the pure love of it.
While always faithful to the scripts, freed of the restrictions of the screen, the imagination was allowed to soar, and three tatty Daleks became all conquering armies in the minds of the nations youth.
With the sad news of Terrance's passing from this life to adventures new after a short illness on 29th August 2019, at the venerable age of 84, the internet is awash with people honouring what he did to spark their aspiring young minds with a life long passion for ideas and reading. Terrance's work has created a debt simply unrepayable, and love and appreciation amongst Doctor Who fans as deep and abiding as appreciation for a creative artist can ever be.
Terrance also wrote original stories for the Doctor Who New Adventures, BBC Books and Big Finish, two Stage Plays, Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys to Doomsday 1974 and Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure in 1989, as well as his wider career, writing an incredible 144 other non Doctor Who books, on top of his other TV credits that include the Avengers, Space 1999, Moonbase3, and even for a while the soap opera Crossroads.
His energy talent and ability shone like a star, but Terrance wasn’t someone to let it go to his head, and had an unassuming humility that made him beloved by the Doctor Who fandom.
In these times when the current show seeks to re-find its way, we have lost a giant of imagination and Science Fiction, whose enormous contribution is impossible to replace and will probably never be beat.
On behalf of myself, and every other person who ever picked up one of his books to enjoy a cracking read, and love now being able to re-watch his fantastic stories on top quality DVD and blue-rays (wobbly corridors and all):
I can only say: THANKYOU!
Thankyou, God bless you, we will never forget you, you did so much for us, and now we sing you to your rest with our massive deep and abiding appreciation: and if we only had a TARDIS, we’d all be flying back to tell you, if we didn't have the chance at one of the many Doctor Who conventions at which you were always there for the fans.
In Memorium, Terrance Dicks.
John The White
One fans book case amongst many, replicated all around the world again and again and again!
Fan tribute cover
Doctor Who and the Wordsmith indeed!
#NowThatsOurDoctorWho!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrance_Dicks