Terrance Dicks, children's author and writer of numerous Doctor Who novels and episodes, died August 29. He was 84. The Guardian reported that Dicks "had a long association with the BBC's longest-running sci-fi show," writing episodes from the late 1960s until the early 1980s. He also served as its script editor from 1968 to 1974.
Chris Chibnall, the program's current producer and showrunner, paid tribute to "one of the greatest contributors to Doctor Who's history, on-screen and off... As the most prolific and brilliant adapter of Doctor Who stories into Target novels, he was responsible for a range of books that taught a generation of children, myself included, how pleasurable and accessible and thrilling reading could be. Doctor Who was lucky to have his talents. He will always be a legend of the show."
In the 1970s and 80s Dicks wrote children's fiction, as well as more than 50 Doctor Who spin-off novels between 1974 and 2007, including The Sarah Jane Adventures. His other books include The Pyramid Incident and The Transylvanian Incident from Picadilly Press' The Unexplained series.
Author Jenny Colgan, who writes Doctor Who books under the name J.T. Colgan, said that Dicks's novelizations were "always the best.... Like many children's authors he was wildly undervalued--despite being a key ingredient in a lifelong love of reading, particularly among boys, he received almost no official recognition whatsoever. He claimed to be no stylist but his short chapters, clear sentences and ability to get to the point extremely quickly influenced a generation of writers."
His agent, Hilary Delamere told the Bookseller: "Not only was Terrance Dicks admired and respected by all his Dr. Who fan-base but Brenda Gardner, who published him first at WH Allen and then on her Piccadilly Press list for over 30 years, said he was an editor's dream author--delivering his well-written manuscripts on time, always open to editorial suggestions and felt that the author/editor relationship was always strengthened by alternating who paid for lunch!"
Albert De Petrillo, publishing director, BBC Books, described him as "a legend, and a major influence not only as script editor for the show, but also as a novelist."
Marcus Gipps, editorial director at Gollancz & SF Gateway, observed that Dicks "genuinely was a hugely influential, formative author for so many of us, and I think he was underappreciated. He was certainly the first author I thought of as 'mine' rather than something chosen for me, and the first I learned to look out for on the library shelves. I know that he was what got me into reading SF, and without his books I wouldn't be where I am now. I also think his direct style is much underrated as it looks so simple, but is so brilliantly done."
Author Neil Gaiman tweeted: "I remember reading his and Malcolm Hulke's book The Making of Doctor Who when I was 11 or 12, and deciding then that I would one day write an episode of Doctor Who, because they had shown me how. RIP Terrance Dicks."