Terrance Dicks 1935 - 2019

Terrible news for all Doctor Who fans today as it is announced that Terrance Dicks has passed away at the age of 84.
I was singing his praises just last month in my piece about the Target novelisations, of which he was the principal author.
He joined the programme as an assistant script editor during Patrick Troughton's tenure - at a time when the series was in a state of flux. He was quickly promoted to full script editor and remained with the programme when Barry Letts took over as producer - between them ushering in what many regard as a golden age for the show. They certainly got the series back on an even keel, saving it from cancellation and reinvigorating it. Ratings improved and the public really took to the UNIT additions to the regular cast - even if Dicks felt that the Earthbound format was limiting.
It was whilst he was script editing that Target approached the production office with a view to releasing more novelisations of Doctor Who TV stories. Dicks would write many of these himself - partly because he wanted the income but mainly because he knew the show inside out.
He may not have written all that many of the broadcast stories, but in his capacity as script editor his fingerprints are all over the Pertwee stories. The Seeds of Death is also virtually all his.
His actual writing credits were:
The War Games (with Malcolm Hulke - his old landlord).
Robot
Horror of Fang Rock
State of Decay
The Five Doctors
We all know that the first version of The Brain of Morbius was also his. He asked for his name to be taken off it when Robert Holmes heavily rewrote it - suggesting that some bland pseudonym be used instead. Despite falling out with Holmes over this, he laughed when he saw the show go out credited to one Robin Bland. Dicks also wrote two of the stage productions - Seven Keys to Doomsday (a warm-up for Morbius) and The Ultimate Adventure.
A couple of other things he should be credited for are the championing of Robert Holmes (he might not have written for the show and become one of its greatest script editors if it hadn't been for Dicks), co-creating the Time Lords, and for being the co-creator of the Master (the definitive Roger Delgado incarnation).
Fortunately Terrance is immortalised not just through his numerous novels, but through his many contributions to the DVD range (and its Blu-ray upgrades). Listen to his commentaries, or watch his on screen contributions to the documentaries, and you'll hear his familiar repertoire of stories - whether they relate to the featured story or not.
He just liked telling stories, and he was very, very good at it.
Terrance - RIP.