Terrance Dicks Has Died, Aged 84
Legendary British author and script writer Terrance Dicks, best known for his long association with Doctor Who, has died at the age of 84.
Dicks worked as script editor on more than 150 episodes of the classic sci-fi show. He also wrote numerous episodes.
Yet he is arguably better known for the many Doctor Who novelisations he wrote for the Target Books imprint.
Author Jenny Colgan said he had “helped more children (especially boys) develop a lifelong love of reading than almost anyone else who’s ever lived”.
Terrance Dicks was more than just another Doctor Who Writer. His stories were some of the most influential of the original classic series.
His first credited script for the show was 1969’s The War Games with Patrick Troughton. Producer Derrick Sherwin had suggested the concept that the Doctor came from a race called the Time
Lords.
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The War Games script from Dicks and co-writer Malcolm Hulke took that idea and successfully introduced audiences to one of the series’ most popular and longest-running elements.
As script editor, Dicks – together with producer Barry Letts – was one of the creators of the Doctor’s arch-enemy The Master, introduced in the Jon Pertwee episode Terror of the Autons.
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Just as importantly, the huge number of Doctor Who novelisations he wrote were instrumental in awakening a love of reading and an enduring passion for books in a generation of children.