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For the politician, see Terry Dicks.
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Terrance Dicks
Born
Terrance William Dicks

(1935-04-14)14 April 1935
East Ham, Essex, England
Died 29 August 2019(2019-08-29) (aged 84)
London, England
Alma mater Downing College, Cambridge
Occupation
  • Television screenwriter
  • Script editor
  • Producer
  • Children's author
Years active 1962–2019
Known for Doctor Who TV scripts, novelisations and novels
Spouse(s)
Elsa Germaney
​
(m. 1963)​
Children 3

Terrance William Dicks (born April 14, 1935 – died August 29, 2019) was an English author and television writer. He was also a script editor and producer. He is best known for his long work on the BBC science-fiction show Doctor Who. He wrote many episodes and was the show's main script editor from 1968 to 1974. Many people say he was the most important person to work on Doctor Who.

Terrance Dicks also wrote many books for children in the 1970s and 1980s. He kept working with Doctor Who by turning TV stories into books for Target Books. Later, he helped with documentaries and DVD comments for the show.

Early Life and Start in TV

Terrance Dicks was born in East Ham, England. He was the only son of William and Nellie. His parents later ran a pub. Terrance was very good at English in school. He loved reading all kinds of books, from classic stories to exciting adventures.

He won a scholarship to study English at Downing College, Cambridge. After college, he spent two years in the British Army. Then, he worked in advertising for five years. During this time, he started writing radio plays for the BBC in his free time.

His first big chance in television came when his friend Malcolm Hulke asked for his help. They worked together on an episode of the adventure show The Avengers. Terrance Dicks helped write two more Avengers episodes with Malcolm Hulke.

Working on Doctor Who

In 1968, Terrance Dicks joined the BBC science-fiction TV show Doctor Who. He started as an assistant script editor. A year later, he became the main script editor. His first writing credit for the show was The War Games. He wrote this 10-part story with Malcolm Hulke. This story was the last for the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton). It also introduced the Time Lords and sent the Doctor to Earth.

Terrance Dicks worked very well with the new Doctor Who producer, Barry Letts. He was the script editor for all five of Letts's seasons, from 1970 to 1974.

Big Ideas for Doctor Who

During his time as script editor, Terrance Dicks helped create many important parts of Doctor Who that are still used today. These include:

  • Developing the Time Lords and their home world, Gallifrey.
  • Creating popular companions like Liz Shaw, Jo Grant, and Sarah Jane Smith.
  • Using the word "regeneration" for when the Doctor changes.
  • Making some bad monsters, like the Ice Warriors, become good.
  • Introducing the Sontarans.
  • Explaining that the TARDIS needs a Dematerialisation Circuit to work.
  • Showing that the TARDIS is very strong and can't be destroyed easily.
  • Adding the idea that the TARDIS can be controlled from far away.
  • Showing the TARDIS has a Telepathic Circuit and might even be alive.
  • Using the Blinovitch Limitation Effect to explain time travel problems.
  • Creating stories where multiple Doctors appear, like The Three Doctors.

The show also explored important social ideas during Dicks's time. These included respecting all life, joining communities (like the European Economic Community), and fighting pollution. It also showed the importance of equality for women, especially with characters like Sarah Jane Smith.

In 1972, Terrance Dicks started writing books. His first book was The Making of Doctor Who, which he wrote with Malcolm Hulke. It was about how the TV show was made.

Later Doctor Who Scripts

Even after he stopped being the main script editor, Terrance Dicks kept writing for Doctor Who. He wrote four more scripts for the show. These included Robot (1975), which was Tom Baker's first story as the Fourth Doctor. He also wrote Horror of Fang Rock (1977) and State of Decay (1980).

His last Doctor Who TV script was The Five Doctors (1983). This was a special long episode for the show's 20th anniversary.

He also wrote two Doctor Who stage plays and an audio drama for Big Finish Productions. The first Doctor Who TV story aired after his death in 2020, "Spyfall", was dedicated to him.

Doctor Who Books

Terrance Dicks wrote many books for Target Books that turned Doctor Who TV stories into novels. He wrote 67 of these books! He was like the unofficial editor for the Target Books series. He tried to get the original TV writers to write the books. But if they couldn't, Terrance Dicks would usually write them himself.

His Doctor Who books sold over three and a half million copies by 1980. They were translated into ten different languages.

In the 1990s, Dicks wrote more full-length Doctor Who novels for Virgin Publishing. These books continued the story after the TV show ended in 1989. He wrote three novels for Virgin. He also wrote for BBC Books when they took over the license. His book The Eight Doctors was a best-seller for a while.

His very last Doctor Who short story, "Save Yourself", was published after he passed away in October 2019.

Other Television Work

Terrance Dicks also wrote for other TV shows. He helped create and write the science-fiction show Moonbase 3 (1973). He also wrote an episode for the science-fiction series Space: 1999 (1976).

In the early 1980s, Dicks worked again with producer Barry Letts on BBC's Sunday Classics. These were TV shows based on classic books. When Letts started directing, Dicks became the producer of these shows. He oversaw productions like Oliver Twist and David Copperfield. He retired from the BBC in 1988 to focus on writing books.

Children's Books

Terrance Dicks became a children's author because of his work on Doctor Who books. He wrote many popular children's books in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1976, he wrote a series called The Mounties for Target Books. It was about a new police officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. From 1979 to 1983, he wrote another series called Star Quest.

Starting in 1978, Dicks wrote The Baker Street Irregulars series. These books were inspired by the Sherlock Holmes characters. This series had 10 books. In 1981, he started a series of six children's horror novels with Cry Vampire.

He also wrote many other popular series for younger children:

  • T. R. Bear (7 books)
  • Sally Ann (about a ragdoll)
  • Magnificent Max (about a cat)
  • The Adventures of Goliath (his longest series with 18 books, about a golden retriever)
  • Harvey (5 books about a St. Bernard dog)

He also wrote Jonathan's Ghost and its sequels, and the MacMagic series. Other books include The Littlest Dinosaur and The Littlest on Guard. He also wrote the Cold Blood series and Chronicles of a Computer Game Addict. Between 1998 and 2001, he wrote Changing Universe and The Unexplained series.

Besides fiction, Terrance Dicks wrote non-fiction books for children. These included Europe United, A Riot of Writers, and A Right Royal History.

Personal Life

Terrance Dicks lived in Hampstead, London. In 1963, he married Elsa Germaney. She was a teacher. They had three sons: Stephen, Jonathan, and Oliver.

Terrance Dicks passed away in London on August 29, 2019, after a short illness.

Writing Credits

Production Notes Broadcaster
The Avengers

Writer, 5 episodes:

  • "The Mauritius Penny" (co-written with Malcolm Hulke, 1962)
  • "Intercrime" (co-written with Malcolm Hulke, 1963)
  • "Concerto" (co-written with Malcolm Hulke, 1964)
  • "The Great, Great Britain Crime" (co-written with Malcolm Hulke, 1967; unreleased; some filmed material subsequently re-worked into the below episode)
  • "Homicide and Old Lace" (contains material co-written with Malcolm Hulke, 1969; uncredited additional framing material by Brian Clemens)
 ITV
Crossroads
  • Writer, unknown episodes
 ITV
Doctor Who

Writer, 35 episodes (1968–1969; 1974–1977; 1980, 1983):

  • "The Dominators" (1968) (episodes 4-5 of 5, uncredited)
  • "The Seeds of Death" (1969) (episodes 3-6 of 6, uncredited)
  • "The War Games" (10 episodes, co-written with Malcolm Hulke, 1969)
  • "Robot" (4 episodes, 1974)
  • "The Brain of Morbius" (4 episodes, 1976)
  • "Horror of Fang Rock" (4 episodes, 1977)
  • "State of Decay" (4 episodes, 1980)
  • "The Five Doctors" (feature-length; subsequently re-edited as 4 episodes, 1983)

Script Editor, 156 episodes (1968–74):

  • "The Invasion" (8 episodes, 1968)
  • "The Krotons" (4 episodes, 1968-1969)
  • "The Seeds of Death" (6 episodes, 1969)
  • "The War Games" (10 episodes, co-written with Malcolm Hulke, 1969)
  • "Spearhead from Space" (4 episodes, 1970)
  • "Doctor Who and the Silurians" (7 episodes, 1970)
  • "The Ambassadors of Death" (7 episodes, 1970)
  • "Inferno (Doctor Who)" (7 episodes, 1970)
  • "Terror of the Autons" (4 episodes, 1971)
  • "The Mind of Evil" (6 episodes, 1971)
  • "The Claws of Axos" (4 episodes, 1971)
  • "Colony in Space" (6 episodes, 1971)
  • "The Dæmons" (5 episodes, 1971)
  • "Day of the Daleks" (4 episodes, 1972)
  • "The Curse of Peladon" (4 episodes, 1972)
  • "The Sea Devils" (6 episodes, 1972)
  • "The Mutants" (6 episodes, 1972)
  • "The Time Monster" (6 episodes, 1972)
  • "The Three Doctors" (4 episodes, 1973)
  • "Carnival of Monsters" (4 episodes, 1973)
  • "Frontier in Space" (6 episodes, 1973)
  • "Planet of the Daleks" (6 episodes, 1973)
  • "The Green Death" (6 episodes, 1973)
  • "The Time Warrior" (4 episodes, 1974)
  • "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" (6 episodes, 1974)
  • "Death to the Daleks" (4 episodes, 1974)
  • "The Monster of Peladon" (6 episodes, 1974)
  • "Planet of the Spiders" (6 episodes, 1974)
 BBC1
Moonbase 3

Co-Creator and uncredited Script Editor, 6 episodes:

  • "Departure and Arrival" (also co-writer, with Barry Letts, 1973)
  • "Behemoth" (1973)
  • "Achilles Heel" (1973)
  • "Outsiders" (1973)
  • "Castor and Pollux" (1973)
  • "View of a Dead Planet" (1973)
 BBC1
Space: 1999

Writer, 1 episode:

  • "The Lambda Factor" (1976)
 ITV
The Classic Serial

Script Editor, 134 episodes (1981-8):

  • Great Expectations (12 episodes, 1981)
  • Beau Geste (8 episodes, 1981-2; also co-writer with Alistair Bell)
  • Stalky & Co. (6 episodes, 1982)
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles (4 episodes, 1982)
  • Dombey and Son (1 episode of 10, 1983)
  • Jane Eyre (11 episodes, 1983)
  • Goodbye, Mr. Chips (6 episodes, 1984)
  • The Invisible Man (6 episodes, 1984)
  • The Prisoner of Zenda (4 episodes, 1984)
  • The Pickwick Papers (12 episodes, 1985)
  • Oliver Twist (12 episodes, 1985; uncredited Script Editor, credited Producer)
  • Alice in Wonderland (4 episodes, 1986; uncredited Script Editor, credited Producer)
  • Brat Farrar (6 episodes, 1986; uncredited Script Editor, credited Producer)
  • David Copperfield (10 episodes, 1986; uncredited Script Editor, credited Producer)
  • The Diary of Anne Frank (4 episodes, 1987; uncredited Script Editor, credited Producer)
  • Vanity Fair (16 episodes, 1987-8; uncredited Script Editor, credited Producer)
  • The Franchise Affair (6 episodes, 1988; uncredited Script Editor, credited Producer)
 BBC1
Doctor Who: Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans
  • Feature film (1994)
 N/A
Doctor Who: Mindgame
  • Short film (1998)
 N/A
Doctor Who: Mindgame Trilogy
  • Feature film (1999) (segment: "Battlefield")
 N/A

Awards and Nominations

Year Award Work Category Result Reference
1987 British Academy Television Awards David Copperfield (shared with Barry Letts) Best Children's Programme (Entertainment/Drama) Nominated
1988 CableACE Award The Diary of Anne Frank Children's Entertainment Special or Series - 9 and Older Nominated

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Terrance Dicks para niños

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