ON TARGET WITH TERRANCE DICKS!

Classic WHO's legendary script editor, story writer, and children's novelist favourite: Terrance Dicks.

In my introductory article for this blog last year, I recalled my earliest memories of watching the series were with the final years of Jon Pertwee's incarnation. Colour TV had arrived in our house by then and this was an exciting monster and action series that caught my fascination every Saturday. But it was the purchase of two Target books in 1974 by my mum in the local bookshop that cemented my interest and love of the original era of Doctor Who. Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters by Malcolm Hulke was the first handed over to my excited hands, the second was Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion from Terrance Dicks, the latter name a legendary one behind the scenes in the creation of the most all-round successful era of the show with Jon Pertwee. But Dicks name was for the next few years of my childhood more synonymous with the Target books rather than the series, which I was really enjoying reading at weekends. The Day of the Daleks, from Dicks, followed, and I absolutely loved it- then came The Three Doctors (whose opening chapters, with the kidnap attempts on our hero, being a memorable highlight), and I realized I needed to get all of of the books in the set as and when. My interest and skills in reading and writing stories in general also intensified quicker than Tommy with his Metebelis Crystal- all thanks to Terrance Dicks. And as Pertwee gave way to Tom Baker on TV, the books further cemented my growing love and respect of the TV series and its rich history. Again, all thanks to Terrance.

Terrance Dicks sadly passed away yesterday (2/9/19) at the age of 84, but boy did he leave a fantastic, creative, inspiring legacy behind him in film, TV and books that fans worldwide will forever be grateful for, part of a three decade publishing dominion for the children's books market the likes of which has never been repeated since.

I hope Dicks old friend in WHO producer Barry Letts is up in that incredible place wherever we all go waiting for him, and that they resume their good old chin wags about life, the universe and beyond...

Thank you, Terrance. We'll miss you...

In honour of Terrance, here are the three classic WHO book adaptations of his that l'd enjoyed the most during my formative years of WHO-dom, and which also set the quality bar for other writers in the range to match.

Cover art by Chris Achilleos.

DAY OF THE DALEKS

As I said, this was one of the earliest Target WHO books I read, and a great story thrillingly told- time travel, the Daleks in charge of a fascinating future Earth, whilst their ape-like servants the Ogrons were smashing everything up in the modern countryside amidst tons of great action. I remember being mildly disappointed with the TV version it was adapted from when it was finally released on VHS all those years ago in the mid-eighties, and how it didn't live up to my mental image of the adventure as realized by Dicks. Thankfully, the BBC DVD 'Special Edition' of the story many years later was to make up for those earlier 1972 deficiencies somewhat, deliberately created by a generation of Target fans to match the spirit of Dicks' adaptation.

Cover art by Andrew Skilleter.

THE FIVE DOCTORS

It's not Terrance Dicks finest adaptation of a WHO story, even from his own work, but the nostalgia factor wins above all else- The Five Doctors proves a lively, page-turning tonic of a story that does exactly what it says on the tin- celebrate twenty years of the show with all the Doctors, monsters and companions it can incorporate, alongside a few missing or unfilmed scenes added to the mix that are great to have (Autons!). Dicks delivers the feel-good factor both on screen and in print with this Anniversary cake literrary treat. And of course, there was the thrill of seeing the paperback on the shelves of the Forbidden Planet 2 bookstore in London a week or two before the show aired, adorned in that lovely glossy silver cover- an early release that was a complete but joyous accident by the publishers.

Did I resist the temptation of reading the book before seeing the TV version, I hear you ask? Well, for the most part- I read the first three chapters or so then stopped.

Cover art by Nick Spender.

INFERNO

With other writers taking over the adaptation range by the mid-eighties, Terrance Dicks schedule was less hectic, devoting much more time to those upcoming adaptations, especially Pertwee ones, that he was able to pick and choose. One of the earliest stories devised for the Third Doctor's s era, and one which Dicks himself had great input into as script editor, Inferno, with its gripping tale of rampant Primord beasties, a genuinely deranged egoist scientist, a Nazi-esque parallel universe and relentlessly building Armageddon, is one of the greatest WHO adventures of all. Beforehand, I knew very little about the tale, but I was immediately hooked and could't put the book down, reading/devouring it over a day and a bit on school day evenings, enjoying the believable and adult hard sci-fi edge tone it had. Thankfully, the TV version which I was able to see via a friends Australian copy (in very good viewing quality, I recall) by 1988 almost lived up to Dick's adaptation in ways that Day of the Daleks hadn't.