Terrance Dicks – A Celebration at Riverside Studios

In October the Doctor Who Appreciation Society (DWAS) and The Whoovers, in partnership with the Dicks Family, held a one-day event in celebration of Terrance Dicks, celebrated scriptwriter, producer, screenwriter and novelist. Terrance Dicks sadly passed away in 2019 and this event was originally due to be held that year but due to the COVID pandemic, the event finally came to the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London this year.

The phenomenon of formally acknowledging the contribution of a script-editor such as Terrance Dicks is a recent and welcome one. As was highlighted in the actor’s panel at this event with Prentis Hancock (in four stories in the 1970’s/ 1980’s) and Katy Manning (companion Jo Grant in the 1970s) there wasn’t the time to think about how special the team of Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks were at the time their era of Doctor Who history was being created.

The day was held in the style of a mini-convention with panels where a myriad of contributors spoke during this special day. Many of the guests came from publishing or were writers and this reflected how Terrance Dicks name was synonymous with Target books. Terrance Dicks wrote over sixty of the Target books and well as contributing to the Virgin New Adventures. Terrance Dicks was also an obvious choice to write the Penguin novelisations for the new series of Doctor Who. In most of the panels, the contributors spoke about how they discovered his books and how the books “taught them to read”. Time and again what became evident is that Terrance’s books caught the imagination of a generation of fans who went on to produce and write for the show or had an influence on their decisions to become writers.

Panel The Editors Editor: Peter Darvill Evans, Nigel Robinson and Gary Russell

The first panel of the day introduced us to Peter Darvill Evans, editor of the Virgin New Adventures and authors for the series Nigel Robinson and Gary Russell. The Virgin New Adventures continued the story of Doctor Who in the early 1990’s picking up from the tv adventures. Peter Darvill Evans talked about how the Virgin New Adventures came into being. Due to recognition from his employer WH Allen that all the tv stories would be novelised one day.

When Virgin Publishing gained a share of WH Allen in 1990 the Doctor Who range wasn’t axed, but Peter said further options had to be considered. He pursued negotiations with an at that time disinterested BBC Worldwide and through writing a contract himself eventually gained the exclusive rights to further novelisations, original fiction and non-fiction from Worldwide.

Peter Darvill Evans, with editor Rebecca Levene, did a very unusual thing for the Virgin New Adventures: inviting unpublished writers, Doctor Who fans, to submit ideas for original stories. He felt it was an important step in an industry where it is traditionally very difficult to be published. Nigel Robinson who wrote the third Virgin New Adventures book Timewyrm: Apocalypse praised Peter for doing this as it was a launch pad for a group of new writers to create a very successful range.

Paul Cornell, Andrew Cartmel, Russell T Davies, and Mark Gatiss have all written stories for the range. Peter talked about the collaboration between the authors and expanding the social aspect of taking writers out to the “Thai Cafe” and to the Virgin Music building around the corner to build relationships.

Peter recalled the first time he was aware of Terrance Dicks (and Barry Letts) in person as he sat behind them at a screening of the Paul McGann film in 1996. He recalled how there was a lot of tutting from both men as they seemed displeased with certain aspects of the film. He also recalled the disdain as well from people within the BBC towards fans at the time which left him feeling depressed after the screening.

Gary Russell also recalled his very first meeting with Terrance Dicks at a convention. in 1981 at Queen Mary University. Gary was tasked to interview both Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes which he found a terrifying prospect. However, from that event, he built a life-long friendship with both men. He recalled fondly how conversations with Terrance would always come around to the Barry Letts / Terrance Dicks 3rd Doctor era despite the fact that Terrance had also been involved in classic serials for the BBC.

Peter’s interaction with Terrance Dicks for the books occurred as Terrance wrote the second book in the Virgin New Adventures series Timewyrm: Exodus in 1991. The Virgin New Adventures were fiction stories with a place within general fiction rather than the children’s section. Peter explained this decision was because the audience for these books had grown up with the show. Peter recalled an anecdote where he had to ask Terrance to rewrite his first chapter and add more depth and words as it was written in a very “Targety” style.

Gary, who wrote one of the New Adventures Legacy, acknowledged that stylistically writers fell into two camps, those who wanted to write New Adventures and those who concentrated on the complementary Virgin The Missing Adventures books featuring stories set between televised episodes of the programme. Terrance Dicks wrote the New Adventure Blood Harvest which tied into a sequel story the first Missing Adventure Goth Opera by Paul Cornell which launched the series.

Paul Cornell was on another writer’s panel later in the day discussing Terrance Dicks and his enduring appeal…

Actors in the show were also part of the Terrance Dicks Day event…

Panel Media Studies: David J Howe, Marcus Hearn, Michael Stevens

David J Howe has been involved with Doctor Who research and writing for over thirty years writing many non-fiction science fiction books and articles as well as being a director of Telos Publishing Ltd. His admiration for Dicks was clear as he talked about the “descriptive economy of words ” in Terrance’s writing and how it is a real talent to be able to do that. He recounted his first meeting with Terrance Dicks where he and a friend found Terrance in the phone directory, and they went to see him at home in Hampstead. He laughed recalling asking why Terrance kept his name in the phone book and Terrance smartly answered someone might want to give him work! David revealed how friendly Terrance was as an individual and viewing his huge library and seeing all of the Target books in different languages was fantastic.

David spoke about Mindgame which was the direct-to-video spin-off production by Reeltime Pictures starring Sophie Aldred and written by Terrance Dicks in 1998. It tells the story of a human, a Sontaran and a Draconian trapped together in a prison cell. Terrance then also wrote one segment for the follow-up “Mindgame Trilogy which continues their story after they escaped. David spoke about the challenges and pressure of doing the novelisation of Mindgame to incorporate both stories, which contain elements of monologue but also thought of Terrance and how he would have approached the project.

Michael Stevens is currently commissioning and range editor for BBC audio but also produced Doctor Who at the BBC volume and its follow-ups, Volume 2, Volume 3, Doctor Who at the BBC: The Tenth Doctor and Doctor Who at the BBC: A Legend Reborn. Michael felt in awe of Terrance’s writing aware that issues in original scripts were fixed, scenes expanded, or context added where needed. He got inside the scripts. Michael discussed how audio versions of Terrance Dick’s books started in 2004 and counted that currently there are 50 versions of his stories.

He recounted meeting Terrance in the back of a taxi in around 2010 on their way to a convention. Michael was very keen to tell Terrance about the audio range and which of the Doctor Who actors had read his stories and promoted it generally. He recalled Terrance “fixed him with a penetrating stare” and stated the most important question Was he being paid for this? The audience at Riverside Studio laughed as Michael confirmed he was able to assure the great man that yes payment was being made.

Showrunner panel: Steven Moffat

Steven Moffat OBE was the head writer and executive producer of Doctor Who, from series 5 in 2010 to series 10 in 2016/17. Talking about the television script-writing process Steven explained how being able to write scripts for Doctor Who unaided is rare. Although Terrance Dicks may not have had his name officially on many stories as the writer, he would have re-written many scripts to make them work. The level of demand for the show is very high, with a mix of drama, comedy and managing the pacing for the show so the lead character the Doctor is “clever but not clever” to go through the adventure.  

Steven’s Doctor Who fan era as a young boy of around ten was John Pertwee and he looked back on both the black and white era and the colour era with lots of humour. Steven thinking of how Terrance Dicks influenced him found it quite impossible to quantify. The War Games he considered was going to be a natural ending for the show as the identity of the Doctor was revealed as a timelord and he was exiled to Earth.

What a short-lived decision he wryly noted which is very quickly reversed as the Doctor is given his Tardis and made an agent of the Timelords. Steven described how Terrance Dicks writes prose that is “immaculate and simple” making the Doctor a slightly intolerant alien, greater than “a nutty professor”. He noted also how Terrance placed the Doctor at the centre of the action and not the companions.

Looking at the Target novels he saw Terrance was able to write from the Doctor’s point of view, especially for the eccentric 4th Doctor creating the character on the page. He considers that Terrance was the first person to work out who the Doctor is which he describes to Steven as “the good cowboy who rides into town and sorts it”.

There is a well-known photo of Steven as a child with a Target book. Steven noted the first two books he had were David Whittaker’s books from a holiday in Cornwall. In his opinion there are two strands of the Target books, 1) authors who rewrote away from the tv serials. He remembers liking Ian Marter’s Ark in Space novelisation 2) the Terrance Dicks books which are closer to the tv serials and his preference. In a time where DVDs weren’t available, he liked the enduring memory of the tv serial the Terrance Dicks books left.

Thinking of Terrance’s legacy there are three things Steven mentioned 1) The creation of the Tom Baker persona of the Doctor which is a template used today 2) Because of his writing children read books and 3) Terrance is the most important person who wrote for Doctor Who!

Also, a Family Celebration

Barry Letts’s son and daughter were in the audience and spoke about their father’s moving friendship with Terrance Dicks. The end of the day and the last words went to Terrance’s family as his three sons came to the stage with personal messages about and to their father. 

A final big thanks to the participants for this special day.

It was a lovely event where everyone was so respectful and joyful about Terrance Dicks. Steven Moffat was hilarious during his panel and probably my favourite panel of the day. With the opportunity for a raffle, autographs and photos with the various attendees the event was also a fund-raiser. The final figure raised for the day was £6,148.22 and all the proceeds went to Save The Children which, for many years, was Terrance’s chosen charity.

Thank you Terrance Dicks for everything you gave to Doctor Who you are also one of my heroes too.