21 Facts About Terrance Dicks

Terrance William Dicks was an English author and television screenwriter, script editor and producer.

Terrance Dicks later became a script editor and producer of classic serials for the BBC.

Terrance Dicks maintained his association with Doctor Who by adapting televised stories into novelisations for Target Books and in later years contributing to many documentaries and DVD commentaries for the series.

Terrance Dicks won a scholarship to study English at Downing College, Cambridge, and later performed two years of national service in the British Army with the Royal Fusiliers.

Terrance Dicks went on to co-write a further two Avengers episodes with Hulke: the second, "Intercrime", was later re-worked for the sixth and final series.

In 1968, Terrance Dicks was hired as assistant script editor on the BBC science-fiction TV series Doctor Who.

Terrance Dicks was appointed head script editor the following year and earned his first writing credit for the programme when he and Hulke co-wrote the 10-part serial The War Games, which concluded the series' sixth season and the Second Doctor's tenure.

Terrance Dicks had been the uncredited co-writer of the earlier serial The Seeds of Death, having extensively re-written Brian Hayles' original scripts.

Terrance Dicks formed a highly productive working relationship with incoming Doctor Who producer Barry Letts, serving as script editor on all of Letts's five seasons as series producer from 1970 to 1974.

In 1972, Terrance Dicks embarked on a parallel career as an author with the publication of his first book, The Making of Doctor Who, which was co-written by Hulke.

Terrance Dicks went on to contribute several additional scripts to Big Finish including audio adaptations of his two-stage plays, a Sixth Doctor-era story for the "Companion Chronicle" range, and a Bernice Summerfield story, in 2011, which was the final script of his career.

Terrance Dicks contributed heavily to Target Books' series of novelisations of the Doctor Who TV serials, writing 67 of the titles published by the company.

Terrance Dicks had better success in recruiting the original writers for the later Doctor Who serials, and was required to adapt only one Sixth Doctor story himself.

Terrance Dicks' name appears on the cover of no Seventh Doctor novelisations.

Terrance Dicks wrote three Doctor Who novels for Virgin, and continued to write occasionally for the franchise after BBC Books assumed the licence in 1997.

Terrance Dicks wrote the first of the Eighth Doctor Adventures, titled The Eight Doctors, which was, for a time, the best-selling original Doctor Who novel.

Terrance Dicks co-created and wrote for the short-lived BBC science-fiction TV series Moonbase 3, and wrote for the ITC science-fiction series Space: 1999.

When Letts returned to directing in 1985, Terrance Dicks succeeded him as the producer of the Sunday Classics, overseeing productions such as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Vanity Fair, before retiring from the BBC in 1988 to resume his career as a novelist.

In 1987, Dicks started a new series for very young children titled T R Bear, resulting in a further seven books.

In 2000 and 2001, Terrance Dicks produced the 12-book series, The Unexplained.

Terrance Dicks died in London on 29 August 2019 after a short illness.