Doctor Who and the Monster of Peladon by Terrance Dicks

The serial introduced the concept of the Time Lords and initiated the Doctor's exile to Earth, which would be a major theme of the Third Doctor's tenure. He 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 ( Patrick Troughton) tenure. In 1968, Dicks was hired as assistant script editor on the BBC science-fiction TV series Doctor Who. 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. His breakthrough into television came when friend Malcolm Hulke, whom he met when he rented a room from him, asked for his help with the scripting of ' The Mauritius Penny', an episode of the second series of ABC's action-adventure The Avengers, for which Dicks was awarded a co-writer's credit.

Following his discharge from the armed forces, he worked for five years as an advertising copywriter, and started to write radio play scripts for the BBC in his spare time.

He 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. He excelled in English at East Ham Grammar School and consumed literature ranging from classics to pulp thrillers and adventure stories. His parents later ran a pub, the Fox and Hounds, in Forest Gate. He also 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.īorn in East Ham, Essex (now part of Greater London), Dicks was the only son of William, a tailor's salesman and Nellie (née Ambler), a waitress. He later became a script editor and producer of classic serials for the BBC.ĭicks wrote many children's books during the 1970s and 1980s. The Doctor Who News Page described him as 'arguably the most prolific contributor to Doctor Who'. In television, he had a long association with the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, working as a writer and also serving as the programme's script editor from 1968 to 1974.

Terrance William Dicks (14 April 1935 – 29 August 2019) was an English author and television screenwriter, script editor and producer.

Doctor Who and the Monster of Peladon by Terrance Dicks