I don’t think I have seen an appreciation thread dedicated to the great man since I joined DS but I think he definitely deserves one.

He’s probably the most prolific contributor to Doctor Who. I remember first seeing his name on the Target novelisations as a teenager and I loved reading those books. This was at a time when the books were a substitute to TV as not much of the classic series was available on VHS or repeated. I loved the Giant Robot and Robots of Death Those books really allowed your imagination to fly. He’s written so many. I have most of them stored away.

I think his contribution to the series both as a writer` (okay I love State of Decay and Horror of Fang Rock ) are really good. He always seems to have a clear idea of the moral compass of the doctor and how to write a good yarn. He even managed with the huge task of the Five Doctors story to somehow get a coherent story together. His stories have brought us lots of different characters and concepts: The War Lords, Sisterhood of Karn, The Great Vampires, The raston Warrior robot ,Game of Rassilon and the Death Zone among a few.

I think the Pertwee era when he was a script editor with producer Barry Letts is probably a real highlight for me. I was really moved by their respect for each other which you get on the features on the DVDs They made a great team together with some interesting stories for Pertwees all action hero. .The series really grew having the UNIT ‘family ‘

And he has a great sense irreverent sense of humour!! . Thankyou so much Terrance Dicks.
You are so

I liked Brain of Morbius, even though he disowned it.
And I'm reading the Eight Doctors right now. Its cool, because he keeps making reference to Classic episodes I haven't seen yet, and adds some embellishment to them.

In many ways for me in the late 70's, early 80's he was The Doctor. Just think of all the things that are folklore because him, the Tardis wheezing groaning sound for one.

I agree with everything you say, a true Doctor Who legend. Probably has as much love for the programme as anyone I can think of.

The Auton Invasion and Genesis of the Daleks were the 1st books of his I read,I can remember reading them at school. I read Pyramids of Mars to my little brother. They were the only way of learning about the old stories for so long.

When I started to goto signings and conventions there were 3 people I really wanted to meet. Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen and Terrance Dicks.

Its true isn't it about the books. I remember reading about Leela and the Doctor before seeing the stories on Tv. The stories were well written.
So Jethryk did you meet your heroes?

Yes, Tom & Lis several times, Terrance just the once.

I normally get photo's signed but I have the 10th Anniversary special of Doctor Who Magazine and have got a lot them to sign the inside covers back and front. So far I have:- Terry Walsh, Mark Ayres, Sylvester McCoy, Philip Hinchcliffe, John Nathan Turner, Jessica Carney, John Levene, Michael Craze, Wendy Padbury, Frazer Hines, Janet Fielding, Nicholas Courtney, Katy Manning, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, William Russell, Carole Ann Ford, Anneke Wills, Tom, Lis & Terrance. Not much space left now.

Fantastic. I must check if I have the 10th Anniversary issue of DWM too. I only have _some signed postcards from the DW production office from the 1980s

I often wonder what TD made of Classic Who toward its demise. Maybe if he'd been parachuted in, there wouldn't have been the Kandy Man or Chief Caretaker or maybe there would have been more rewrites of other scripts.

i wonder if he's ever been approached for NuWho?

Terrance Dicks, or "His Majesty King Terrance" to use his full title, is one of my heroes. Meeting him at a signing a few years back was even more thrilling than meeting Tom Baker.

The impact Terrance has had is immeasurable: the Target books alone would be enough to earn him my undying love and loyalty.

There's a glorious interview with him in this month's DWM, and it's great that they have managed to get him away from the usual anecdotes that he falls back on in DVD commentaries and many other interviews. I have heard him tell the same stories endless times, and I am so pleased that someone is really getting under the skin to go through a major three-part interview and have a thorough examination of his work and career.

Ah, Sir Terrance.

I was very happy that Steven Moffat got his "never cowardly or cruel" line into Day of the Doctor as Mr Dicks really understands the Doctor. I was too young for the Pertwee era but have enjoyed it in retrospect, even though it 's not an absolute favourite era. The Five Doctors is a cherished part of my childhood and State of Decay is a cracking story, one of the best of the late Tom era.

And he was lovely as pretty much the only Who alumni I met at a rammed Longleat in 1983 as a kid....and he signed my copy of 'The Abominable Snowmen'.

100% agree.

Agree with all the above comments. He really deserves his title as 'The Godfather' of Who!

As with other posters, I grew up on his novelisations before the videos came out. Compared to the other wordier novelisations that dragged on forever,(John Peels Dalek Masterplan novels aside) he kept it simple and to the point and his descriptions such as the wheezing groaning sound of the TARDIS, the young/old face description of the Third Doctor and so forth, many of the highlights from his novels.

I think The Five Doctors is unfairly criticised at times when it must have been galling to keep changing the scripts with companions appearing and then not appearing and the big blow of not having Tom Baker in the special. To actually get a script together with all the problems that must have presented is something of a miracle. I would challenge any writer back then to have to cope with what Dicks did and come up with something much better.

I also love the endless anecdotes on the DVD's. The ones about the length of Pertwee's increasingly bouffant hairdo and the colour of his jackets etc always amuse me.

I love most of his stories he wrote and I like the fact that he recognised the exile scenario had only a limited shelf life after Season 7 and set out with Letts to mix it up a bit and get The Doctor back out there in space.

My favourite ever line of Dick's is at the end of State Of Decay when the vampires crumble to dust and The Doctor jokes that they fell to pieces. The line and Baker's delivery of it was just awesome.

The only thing he ever did wrong imo, along with Letts, that annoyed me was to make the latter Pertwee Seasons a bit 'preach to the audience' about pollution etc. But the rest of his work is so great, I can forgive that!

Of course a lot of us don't have any problem at all with this, indeed it inspired several good stories. However in any event I think this was much more Letts than Dicks really.

Just wanna say Lady T, great thread. Sir Terry has, in my time here, never been discussed like this and its about bloody time Imo.

I loved the Kandyman and the Chief Caretaker

I read loads OF Td's novels including a few non- Dr Who and enjoyed them all
I think he's an excellent writer and I'm pleased I read the novels

he tends to be very action orientated too

True that. If you see him interviewed on some of the Pertwee DVD stories he basically sees "Barry was into all that guff". I'm sure if he had his way it would have been toned down a lot, that was the impression I was left with.

Great thread. I agree with all the positive things said here about Terrance. A great man who deserves a lot of respect for such a great period of Who. Some of the powers that be today (script editors & producers in particular) could learn a lot from this great man if they followed his mantra more. Speaking of which, I don't think he's a huge fan of the new series, a lot of his gripes are similar to mine.

If I was Charlie, I'd be telling ma'am that I think Mr Dicks deserves to be knighted (a much better choice than some of the dodgy characters knighted in the recent past). Also, I just did a wiki search of Terrance to see he hasn't been honoured yet. Lets send Queenie a barrage of letters to get her to do it! Plus, I see looking on wikipedia he was born on the same day as me: May 10 -yet another positive in my books for being such a great fellow!!

I can accept that, I think I've heard Letts discuss that more than Dicks, but as they both worked so closely together it's easy to assume they shared common ideas.

I'm not sure they did you know. I'm currently re-watching The Mutants, don't know why easily my least favourite Pertwee, but they mention in the documentary that they were on opposing ends of the colonialism argument. Barry was anti British Empire whilst Terry thought it was quite a good idea .

They were good friends and obviously more than tolerated each others view and indeed I believe it was at Dicks's suggestion that Letts put his environmental views into a storyline (hence The Green Death) but I believe these story lines were very much Letts Liberal leanings and he was the boss.

This man has certainly done a lot for the show. I took a quick look over to page TARDIS Wiki page to remind myself of his contributions, and it is just amazing how much a single person can do for the show. He has done such a great job of shaping many of the show's mythos, ideas and characters, that the show would have been very different without him.

I hope one day he'll get the chance to work with New Who, just to see what he can do with what we have now.

Love this thread, well overdue appreciation for the great Terrance Dicks!

Has anyone read his 10th doctor quick reads, "Made of Steel" and "Revenge of the Judoon"? Well worth it for us aging target book fans. The combination of Terrance's easy writing style, and the low page count (90-100 pages) , makes for an enjoyable nostalgia fest! Well worth a read to pass away a couple of hours. I felt like i was reading a novelisation of a story I had missed on the TV.

I understand he did a couple of novelizations of the Sarah Jane adventures, has anyone read them?

Snap! (Though it's my least fave outside Season 7)

Always interesting to learn these things. You think they got on so well they would agree on nearly everything but it seems from what you say it wasn't the case.

He almost single-handedly grew my interest in Who in the days before video releases, through the Target novels. Yes, critics might say his Target novels got a bit perfunctory, but things like the old/young face and the 4th Doctor's "Hullo" worked for me. And actually, I suppose you could swap 'perfunctory' for 'efficient'. Either way - ace.

His TV stories were great too. Horror Of Fang Rock was my favourite. I can still remember a nightmare I had where I went into the kitchen and my Mum was there, except when I spoke to her I knew it wasn't her. Scared me to death at the time, and I remember that dream 30-odd years later. Thanks Sir Terrance!

What a great thread. I can only add my own appreciation of the great man to it. I think he's a terrific writer, a little underrated by some, who knows how to tell a good story. If only some current Who writers could take a leaf out of his book and genuinely entertain their audience instead of showing off how clever they are...

Knows what the heartbeat of Doctor Who is. If you wanted someone to write a competent Who story that works I'd choose Dicks over a any writer in DW history (even Holmes, Davies,Moffat). He might not reach the heights of these writers but is far more consistent. Also made me imagine all those stories from the classic series through Target before the advent of video.

Top man. Loved his novels as a kid, loved all his input to the series

He was in Sydney yesterday. Mini Doctor Who convention. Didn't go though