Miscellaneous

Author

TERRANCE DICKS

Terrance Dicks was born in 1935 and educated at East Ham Grammar School and Downing College, Cambridge.
After a spell in advertising the author became a full-time scriptwriter, first for radio, then television in which medium he has, for the last five years, been Script Editor of the 'Doctor Who' series. He is co-author of a book called The Making of Doctor Who which tells the behind-the-scenes story of the programme.
Terrance Dicks lives in Hampstead, London, is married and has two children both keen and critical viewers of 'Doctor Who'. He is an obsessive reader, likes 'messing about in boats' and is cultivating an interest in mysticism and meditation.

In television, Dicks wrote for The Avengers, Crossroads and Space: 1999, and served as script editor on Moonbase 3, The Invisible Man (1984) and the BBC Classic serials, all alongside Who-colleague Barry Letts. He took over as producer on the classics (Alice in Wonderland, directed by Barry Letts and starring Elisabeth Sladen, The Diary of Anne Frank, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Vanity Fair) before they were cancelled by the BBC.

Terrance Dicks began working on the Doctor Who TV programme in late 1960s during the Patrick Troughton era. He script-edited the show for part of season 6 and the whole of the Jon Pertwee era, contributing scripts after he'd left for Tom Baker (Robot, The Brain of Morbius, Horror of Fang Rock, State of Decay) and Peter Davison (The Five Doctors).

He was approached by Richard Henwood of fledgling book label Target in 1973 to adapt some of the Doctor Who serials he was then overseeing. This led to a seventeen year stream of Doctor Who titles for Target and started Dicks on the road as an author. By the end, Dicks had written 64 of the novelisations.

Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion
Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks
Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen
Doctor Who and the Giant Robot
Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons
Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders
Doctor Who - The Three Doctors
Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster
Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks
Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen
Doctor Who and the Web of Fear
Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks
Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Mars
Doctor Who and the Carnival of Monsters
Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth
Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos
Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius
Doctor Who and the Planet of Evil
Doctor Who and the Mutants
Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin
Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang
Doctor Who and the Face of Evil
Doctor Who and the Horror of Fang Rock
Doctor Who and the Time Warrior
Doctor Who - Death to the Daleks
Doctor Who and the Android Invasion
Doctor Who and the Hand of Fear
Doctor Who and the Invisible Enemy
Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl
Doctor Who and the Robots of Death
Doctor Who and the Destiny of the Daleks
Doctor Who and the Underworld
Doctor Who and the Invasion of Time
Doctor Who and the Stones of Blood
Doctor Who and the Androids of Tara
Doctor Who and the Power of Kroll
Dr Who and the Armageddon Factor
Doctor Who and the Nightmare of Eden
Doctor Who and the Horns of Nimon
Doctor Who and the Monster of Peladon
Doctor Who and an Unearthly Child
Doctor Who and the State of Decay
Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken
Doctor Who and the Sunmakers
Doctor Who - Meglos
Doctor Who - Four to Doomsday
Doctor Who - Arc of Infinity
Doctor Who - The Five Doctors
Doctor Who - Snakedance
Doctor Who - Kinda
Doctor Who - Warriors of the Deep
Doctor Who - Inferno
Doctor Who - The Caves of Androzani
Doctor Who - The Mind of Evil
Doctor Who - The Krotons
Doctor Who - The Time Monster
Doctor Who - The Seeds of Death
Doctor Who - The Faceless Ones
Doctor Who - The Ambassadors of Death
Doctor Who - The Mysterious Planet
Doctor Who - The Wheel in Space
Doctor Who - The Smugglers
Doctor Who - Planet of Giants
Doctor Who - The Space Pirates

Dicks also wrote a number of non-fiction/activity Who books for Target:

The Doctor Who Monster Book
The Making of Doctor Who
The Doctor Who Dinosaur Book
The Second Doctor Who Monster Book
The Adventures of K9 and Other Mechanical Creatures
Terry Nation's Dalek Special

After finishing as script editor on Who, Dicks contributed three scripts to the series. He has also written three spin-off video scripts - Shakedown - The Return of the Sontarans, Mindgame and Mindgame - Trilogy. In 2002, he contributed the first Big Finish audio adventure for Sarah Jane Smith (Comeback).

He never got to adapt any of the Sylvester McCoy serials, although he did write for seventh Doctor in the later original fiction novels - Timewyrm: Exodus, Blood Harvest and Shakedown (based on the spin-off video production he had written) for Virgin.

He wrote the first Doctor Who book for the BBC - The Eight Doctors (1996) and followed that up with six others - Catastrophea (1998, Third Doctor and Jo), Players (1999, Sixth Doctor and Peri), Endgame (2000, Eighth Doctor), Warmonger (2002, Fifth Doctor and Peri), Deadly Reunion (with Barry Letts - 2003, Third Doctor and Jo) and World Game (2005, Second Doctor).

Dicks has also added to the ongoing tales of Bernice Summerfield, penning the Doctor-less New Adventure Mean Streets and contributing the short story A Mutual Friend to the Big Finish anthology A Life of Surprises.

One novelisation that Dicks worked on but which never saw publication was his adaptation of his own stageplay for Doctor Who - The Ultimate Adventure, which toured the UK with Jon Pertwee then Colin Baker in the title role in 1989. The problem seems to have been getting clearance from all of the copyright holders involved - the BBC, Mark Furness (play producer), Terry Nation (the Daleks) and Gerry Davis (the Cybermen).

His career as a children's author really took off, firstly with Target. First there was The Mounties trilogy in 1976. The stories told of the adventures of Rob MacGregor, new recruit to the Canadian Mounted Police Force. The first book was The Great March West (Target, ISBN 0 426 11092 7, 40p), then Massacre in the Hills (Target, ISBN 0 426 11105 2, 40p), and the final book in the series was War Drums of the Black Foot (Target, ISBN 0 426 11113 3, 45p).

1979 was the year that Target released the first two stories in his Star Quest trilogy. These were Star Quest: Spacejack and Star Quest: Roboworld, with covers by Who-artist Jeff Cummins. The trilogy was completed in 1983 when Target printed Star Quest: Terrorsaur! (cover by Bill Donohoe). The Star Quest series was reprinted as an omnibus edition by Big Finish in November 2003.

In May 1978, Dicks began a series of adventure books featuring The Baker Street Irregulars - Dan, Jeff, Liz and Mickey - late-20th century kids who battled criminals with the wit and ingenuity of Sherlock Holmes. In the end the series ran for 10 books - The Cases of... The Missing Masterpiece (1978), The Fagin File (1978), The Blackmail Boys (1979), The Cinema Swindle (1980), The Ghost Grabbers (1980), The Cop Catchers (1981), The Disappearing Diplomat (1986), The Comic Crooks (1986), The Haunted Holiday (1987) and The Criminal Computer (1987). They were all originally published in hardback by Blackie & Son Ltd, with paperback editions following from Piccolo and Magnet. The commissioning editor at Blackie was Richard Henwood who had brought Dicks onboard to write the very first Who Target novelisations.

Around the same time he was adapting State of Decay, Dicks also wrote the original children's novel Cry Vampire! - the first in a series of six original horror novels for children. The story features Simon and Sally in contemporary England with links to traditional Transylvania. The book was originally published in 1981 by Blackie & Son, ISBN 0 216 91126 5. (The paperback edition had a cover by Alun Hood, who was responsible for the reprint covers for Terror of the Autons, The Green Death and Planet of the Spiders). The second book was Marvin's Monster (Blackie, 1982, ISBN 0 216 91179 6). This told the story of Marvin Edison, a pupil with exceptional maths and science abilities (a bespectacled pupil of course!). Marvin builds a replica of the movie-version Frankenstein's Monster in a school laboratory. The third novel, Wereboy! (Blackie, 1982, ISBN 0 216 91308 X), takes place on an isolated island where a newly arrived oil company has disturbed traditions. Sixth former Tom Scarsdale is on holiday on the island and discovers there may be more than just foolish superstition behind the tales of wolf people. Tom Scarsdale returns in Demon of the Dark (Blackie, 1983, ISBN 0 216 91360 8), dealing with the conjuring up of demons at an archaeological dig in London. War of the Witches (Blackie, 1983, ISBN 0 216 91471 X) was the fifth book in the horror series. It tells the further adventures of ex-punk Sally and her friend Simon's struggle with a devil-worshipping coven in a country village. Dicks revisits the themes from Doctor Who story The Daemons (on which he served as script editor). The book includes a Master (but not THE Master) and the story is set in Hobbs End (Hobb being a traditional name for the Devil - Devil's End!). The final book in the series, The Ghosts of Gallows Cross (Blackie, 1984, ISBN 0 216 91643 7) brings together all the children from the first five books to tackle lunatic terrorists and wicked ghosts.

There then followed a period of books for very young readers. T. R. Bear (a walking, talking teddy bear from the US of A) made his debut in 1985 in a series of books illustrated by Susan Hellard They were published in the UK and the USA.

This was followed by the Sally Ann series (a determined ragdoll - illustrated in the UK by Deborah van der Beek and in the US by Blanche Sims) and Magnificent Max (a black and white cat - illustrated by Toni Goffe) - all published initially by Picadilly Press. His longest series then struck up - The Adventures of Goliath, a golden retriever (illustrated by Valerie Littlewood, with whom he'd first worked at Pepper Press on Ask Oliver in 1982, and Paul McCaffrey). 18 books were published. Another series involving the adventures of a dog, this time a St Bernard was the Harvey series - five books, also illustrated by Susan Hellard, and again published by Picadilly Press.

1988 saw publication of Jonathan's Ghost (published in hardback by Piccadilly Press then in paperback by Red Fox), followed by its sequels The School Spirit, Spitfire Summer and Jonathan and the Superstar. The stories were illustrated by Adriano Gon.

In 1990, Dicks started writing a series of children's books for Piccadilly featuring the MacMagic family. The books were Meet the MacMagics (1990), My Brother the Vampire (1990) and A Spell for My Sister (1991). All the books were illustrated by Paris-based Celia Canning.

The Littlest Dinosaur and The Littlest on Guard were published separately by Hamish Hamilton in 1993 and 1994 respectively. Puffin Books published the pair as A Young Puffin paperback omnibus in 1995. All were illustrated by Bethan Matthews. Puffin also published Woof! The Never Ending Tale.

A selection of Dicks' work is shown below.

In 1994, Dicks contributed the second book to the Cold Blood series of children's thrillers from Fantail. His book was Cold Blood 2: Killing Time, the others were Cold Blood 1: Final Act by Robin Campbell, Cold Blood 3: Nightmare Rave by Alan Durant, and Cold Blood 4: Terminal Agreement by Richard Tate.

Also in 1994, Dicks began the Chronicles of a Computer Game Addict with The Ultimate Game, followed by Cyberspace Adventure (1994), Virtual Unreality (1995) and Internet Danger (1998). Cyberspace Adventure was short-listed for the Federation of Children's Book Groups Pick of the Year. Publishers were Piccadilly. Illustrations for books one to three were by Laura Beaumont.

Between 1998 and 2000, Dicks wrote the Changing Universe series. This told the adventures of cousins Tom and Sarah Martin, living in 2015. who, following a transmat overload, get 'bounced' into alternative realities. The first book, SS World (ISBN 1853405310, 1998), revisits the idea Dicks used in his first Doctor Who New Adventures novel - that of an England under Nazi rule following a different outcome to World War II. The second, Eco Crash (ISBN 1853405124, 1999), sees Tom and Sarah arrive in an England largely underwater following a turn of disastrous mankind-induced ecological events. The third, The Mars Project (ISBN 1853405841, 2000) sees Tom and Sarah trying to help save settlers on the long-since colonised planet Mars. The books were all published in hardback and paperback by Picadilly Press.

A further selection of Dicks' work is shown below, including the Second Sight series he wrote for Piccadilly Press.

In the late 1990s and through to the 21st century, he has been writing The Unexplained series. The stories concern British teenager Matthew Stirling, who is reunited with his estranged father Professor James Stirling, leading space scientist and all-round egghead. Stirling Snr has recently been appointed Director of Paranormal Studies for a big American scientific research institute and, with son in tow, embarks on adventures investigating mysterious goings-on. The tales are told from Matt's perspective. The adventures are The Wollagong Incident (1996), The Bermuda Triangle Incident (1997), The Circle of Death Incident (1997), The Borley Rectory Incident (1998), The Transylvanian Incident (1998), The Easter Island Incident (1999), The Pyramid Incident (1999), The Mafia Incident (2000), The Chinese Ghost Incident (2000), The Nazi Dagger Incident (2001), The Inca Alien Incident (2001) and The Bombay Deaths Incident (2001). The books were initially printed in hardback by Piccadilly Press and in paperback by Orchard Books, then Piccadilly took over responsibility for both. The Target connection extends beyond the involvement of Dicks - the editor at Piccadilly is Brenda Gardner who edited the Who-range at Target in the late 1970s and the covers are painted by 1980s Who artist Andrew Skilleter.

Alongside these series and one-off works of fiction for pre-school to teenage readers, Dicks has also done several non-fiction books for children, including Europe United (well nearly, illustrated by Ray Jelliffe, Piccadilly Press, 1991), A Riot of Writers (a romp through English literature, illustrated by Ray Jelliffe, Piccadilly Press, 1992), Uproar in the House (700 years of lies, scandal and politics, illustrated by Richard Robinson, Piccadilly Press, 1993), A Right Royal History (a thousand years of mixed-up monarchs, illustrated by Kathryn Lamb, Piccadilly Press, 1994) and The Good, the Bad and the Ghastly (World War Two and The Wild West, illustrated by Kathryn Lamb, Piccadilly Press, 1996).

Dicks continues to write and to contribute to Who. A documentary on Dicks can be found on the DVD release of Doctor Who - Horror of Fang Rock. He is married to Elsa, with three sons Stephen, Jonathan and Oliver.

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Illustrations

The Target editions with the Chris Achilleos cover also included 6 black and white illustrations by Alan Willow.

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Countries

Turkey

The novel was published in Turkey as Doktor Kim Ve Korkunç Karadamlari (korkunç has a number of meanings, among them appalling, bloodcurdling, formidable, macabre and spooky, karadamlari seems to be something like snow people - or snow bastards!). It was translated by Reha Pinar, published by Remzi Kitabevi, and released in April 1975. The cover used the original Achilleos artwork and had the same light blue spine and back cover border as the original Target release. In common with the other Turkish translations, the book did not include the illustrations.

Cover Artist: Chris Achilleos
1975 Remzi Kitabevi edition

Portugal

Editorial Presença published the novel in Portugal as Doutor Who e os Abominaveis Homens Das Neves. It was released in 1983, the name of the translator is not given. The cover was by Rui Ligeiro and the book contained the Alan Willow illustrations. It was number nine in the Portuguese series - the final book, book 10, being a translation of Doctor Who and the Zarbi.

Cover Artist: Rui Ligeiro
1983 Editorial Presença edition

France

Un milliard d'admirateurs à travers le monde!
Seigneur du Temps, héros de l'Éternité, le Docteur Who connaît aujourd'hui une fantastique popularité. Le succès inégalé de la série télévisée qui lui a donné naissance, la fascination qu'il exerce sur un immense public à travers plus de cent pays contribuent à faire de ce personnage un véritable mythe pour la premiere fois révélé en France.
Au coeur de l'Himalaya, le Docteur Who parviendra-t-il à élucider le mystère du monastère de Det-sen, et à découvrir le secret maléfique du vénérable Maître Padmasambvha?
The novel was translated into French as Docteur Who - L'Abominable Homme Des Neiges, published in August 1987 by Éditions Garancière as the seventh of their Igor et Grichka Bogdanoff presentent... series. It was translated by Corine Derblum. ISBN 2.7340.0226.4. It was the only Second Doctor adaptation and followed four from the First Doctor and two from the Fourth. The eighth and final book in the series was Docteur Who - Meglos.

Cover artist: Jean-François Penichoux
1987 Éditions Garancière