Book Review: Doctor Who - The Essential Terrance Dicks Volume 1

Terrance Dicks was considered as the Godfather when it came to the writing of Doctor Who. A famous screenwriter, editor and producer, Terrance was a prolific name in television and is known to have had a heavy hand in constructing the televised stories for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Doctors eras on Doctor Who.  When Terrance wasn’t hard at working devising new stories or re-writing scripting for the television, he also had a hand in help novelize a wide array of Doctor Who serials for book publisher Target.  His role as “unofficial” editor for the book range saw him pen over 67 titles for the collection during his occupancy of the role.  To this very day Terrance Dicks is celebrated in the Doctor Who community as one of the biggest contributors to the shows success and is remembered fondly after his passing in 2019 at the age of 84.  

To celebrate his works, Doctor Who and Target worked together with fans to allow them to vote for their favourite of Terrance Dicks novelizations across the years.  After voting was complete, Target then worked to compile the highest rated stories into two separate compilations for fans to read through.  The first of these volumes, titled The Essential Terrance Dicks Volume 1, was released on February 22nd 2022 and consists of five of Dicks best considered stories from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Doctor’s eras. The stories are as follows: 

• The Dalek Invasion of Earth

• The Abominable Snowmen

• The Wheel in Space

• The Auton Invasion (Otherwise known as Spearhead from Space) 

• Day of the Daleks

Again, my familiarity with the classic era of Doctor Who is something that is limited as I have only just begun experiencing the classic era through the release of the Collection sets.  The legacy of these stories is well touted though and while I’ve never experienced them all first hand, I’ve heard about them all in some way, shape or form. 

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is well-envisioned story for the most part.  The idea of the Daleks invading Earth with humanity subjugated and on the run is a really interesting concept.  The story in itself feels a bit too spread out for my liking however.  I appreciated the effort given to showcase the peril each member of the 1st Doctors TARDIS crew faced as they went up against the Dalek regime, but the plot beats feel a bit too conveniently structured at times.  Also, the idea of the Daleks having complete control of Earth is slightly underdelivered when the only main locations this story showcases is London and a mine pit just outside it. I think the strongest element of the story is its characters, Dicks writes the main TARDIS crew and the stories supporting cast really well and gives them all a lot of moments to showcase their own individual strengths. I do feel however that Dicks undercuts the emotional weight of the departure of Susan at the end of this story, a feat the televised version pulls off far better.

The Abominable Snowmen is a 2nd Doctor story which has the Time Lord taking on The Great Intelligence and its band of robotic Yetis in Tibet in 1935.  I really enjoyed my time with this story all things considered.  Sure, it does go a bit back and forth between the stories two central settings, but the core appeal comes from the threats the Doctor and company faces and their effort to overcome them.  I do love a good period piece narrative and I feel this story excellently capitalizes on the setup with the Tibetan monks and the urban legend that surrounds the Yeti of the Himalayas.  Dicks writing style helps to pace out sequences nicely in this story and his ability to structure dialogue and action sequences in tandem really helps give this story a memorable appeal.

The Wheel in Space is another 2nd Doctor story, this time featuring The Doctor and Jamie’s second encounter with the Cybermen. Stranded on an abandoned space shuttle, the Doctor and Jaime soon find themselves captured and the unwilling guests of one of humanity’s deep space research station, known as The Wheel.  From there, things only get worse as the Cybermen erupt from the space shuttle too, with the intent of capturing The Wheel in the first phase of their plan to conquer humanity.  It’s a well constructed narrative which again utilizes a strong cast of characters to help give the base under siege story the momentum it needs.  Dicks is really good at pacing out these stories and fleshing them out to be more gradual than their televised counterparts. 

The Auton Invasion serves as the very first of the 3rd Doctor’s stories in the show.  Weary from being forced to regenerate by the Time Lord, the Doctor lands on Earth in the 70’s and is enlisted by his old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart to assist UNIT in investigating a series of meteorites which have been stolen.  These thefts lead the crew to discover a plastic factory which is using the meteorites to manifest an alien organism with the ability to control plastic material in the hopes of destabilizing the world and leaving it open for conquest.  The main allure of this story comes from its interactions.  Dicks writes all of the characters in this story as compelling and interesting to bounce off one another.  The overwhelming threat this time is brilliantly realized through the use of the Autons as their presence throughout the story feels constant.  Dicks captures the energy of the 3rd Doctor serials very nicely in the story, it probably helps that he was the script editor for the televised product too.

Saving the best for last, I feel Day of the Daleks is the very best of the 5 stories featured in this collection.  Taking place across two separate time periods, the Doctor and Jo Grant get embroiled in a time-wimey assassination attempt to stop a tragic future ruled over by the Daleks! This unfortunately causes the Doctor and Jo to get sent forward to this tragic future where they see first hand the destruction that lays ahead if events in the present day are allowed to unfold. The ability to tell two different narratives across two different periods, yet synchronize them up is a tall order for anyone, but Terrance Dicks isn’t just anyone.  His novelization of the story easily structures the time travel plotline and again imbues them with the sharp dialogue and the excellent pacing he is so renown for.  

If these five stories showcase anything, it’s why Terrance Dicks was one of the best things to happen to Doctor Who.  Not only did this man edit and re-write some of the best stories across several eras of the show, he worked overtime in novelizing a good chunk of them.  There was an opening tribute to Dicks in this book by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, another well regarded British writer.  In the tribute Cottrell-Boyce notes how back in the day, the Target books were the only real means of re-experiencing a story once it had been televised, as re-runs and videos were not really a thing.  That to me pivots the importance of capturing these stories in their novelized forms and how appreciative I am that Dicks went to such a phenomenal effort to give each of these stories his very best.