Vampyros Adric
Global Moderator
Timelord
Favourite Doctor: 4/6/7
Favourite Companion: Jo Grant
Posts: 3174
He is also vain, ego-centric and quite mad
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« on: January 02, 2011, 02:17:03 pm » |
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It has become fashionable over the last few years (in certain corners of fandom) to diminish and play down the role of my particular hero but I would invite you to take time to salute the wonderful, peerless Terrance Dicks, my own personal hero of the Dr Who backroom staff.
It is easy, in these times of iPlayer and DVDs to forget that for the first 25 years of Dr Who, you generally got one chance to see the story and that was it. The only way we could remember the stories and get a feel for them was via the Target novelisations - for that alone, Terry Dicks should be lionised and honoured. He was a writer who could take even the most obtuse of stories, give it a literary polish and turn out a readable and enjoyable book. For those books provided the literary backdrop of my love of the Doctor. Simply put, Terrance Dicks gave me and enormous slice of my childhood.
On a broader theme, it is hard to think of anyone else who has had so much to contribute to the Whoniverse. Writer, Script Editor, Author, Commentator. For me this man was for many years the heart and soul of Dr Who. With his able and equally gifted friend, Barry Letts, they shaped the Pertwee era (so often overlooked) which was home to some all time great episodes (Terror of the Autons - admittedly penned by Bob Holmes - and The Daemons stand up against any episode of any era).
He never had the gothic flair of a Robert Holmes nor the dramatic punch of an Eric Saward but he was a highly skilled story teller and generally, if a story was written by Dicks then you knew it carried a certain guarantee of quality. The plot would hang together, the characters would be solid and believable and the Doctor would be front and centre.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the amazing Terrance Dicks
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