Terrance Dicks

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Terrance Dicks (born May 10, 1935 in London - † August 29, 2019 ) was a British writer , reciter and screenwriter whose name is closely linked to the British cult science fiction series Doctor Who .

Life and works

Terrance Dicks was born in London in 1935 and worked there. After leaving school, he studied English at Downing College and then did military service in the British Army. After his discharge from the armed forces, he worked for five years as a copywriter for newspapers and began writing radio plays for the BBC in his spare time . He has been a writer since the late 1960s. His name is closely connected to the BBC television series Doctor Who , in which he was active as a screenwriter through to the subsequent preparation of the stories in film books and serial novels in book form. He also participated in two Doctor Who computer games . His sphere of activity also extended to work on other television series and children's books, a considerable part of which are in the field of science fiction and fantasy .

Doctor Who

His big television opportunity came when his friend Malcolm Hulke asked him to help write an episode of the popular ABC weekend television action-adventure series, The Avengers , which he received acclaim as a co-writer. He also wrote for the popular ATV soap opera Crossroads before joining the BBC's most popular science fiction series Doctor Who in 1968 as assistant screenwriter .

Children's author

In 1976, Dicks wrote a trilogy, The Mounties , published by Target Books; it is about a recruit to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, followed 1979-1983 by another Target Books trilogy Star Quest , which was later reissued by Big Finish Productions .

Since 1978 Dicks worked on the series The Baker Street Irregulars , which eventually comprised ten books, the last appeared in 1987. 1981 Dicks began the series Cry Vampire , consisting of six horror novels for children, the content parallels to his novel the series Doctor Who State of Decay , in which vampires are also common.

In 1987 Dicks started a new series for very young children and named it T. R. Bear . It comprised seven books. It was followed by the series Sally Ann on a determined ragdoll and Magnificent Max , a cat, and The Adventures of Goliath on a golden retriever . The Goliath series is Dick's largest series of eighteen books. Another five books about a St. Bernard make up the Harvey series.

Johnatan's Ghost and three other episodes were published in 1988, followed by three books MacMagic in 1990 . The Littlest Dinosaur was released in 1993 and The Littlest on Guard in 1994. Other works from 1994 were Woof! The Never Ending Tale , the Cold Blood series (four books) and the Chronicals of a Computer Game Addict (four books).

Between 1998 and 2000 Dicks produced the three-part Changing Universe . Since then he has written the The Unexplained series with twelve books to date.

Aside from the considerable number of fictional works, Dicks also wrote several non-fiction books for children including Europe United , A Riot of Writers , Uproar in the House , A Right Royal History, and The Good, the Bad and the Ghastly .

His latest work (2009) is Penetrated Minds - Worshipers of the black mother .

Dicks died at the age of 84. He was the father of three children and left a wife.

Works in German (selection)

  • Doctor Who and the Child from the Stars , Munich: Goldmann, 1990.
  • Doctor Who and the Daleks ' plot , Munich: Goldmann, 1989.
  • Doctor Who , Munich: F. Schneider
  • The 4 from Baker Street , Munich, Vienna: F. Schneider

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Terrance Dicks: Doctor Who writer and script editor dies aged 84
personal data
SURNAME Dicks, Terrance
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH 29th August 2019