Book Review: Doctor Who - The Essential Terrance Dicks Volume 2

Terrance Dicks was the oil that kept the Doctor Who machine running back in it’s day.  His contribution to the show is known mainly as a script editor with his earliest credits being in the Second Doctor’s War Games serial.  He was the mind behind a lot of the core mythology behind the wider universe of the show and he was attributed to have a well-maintained relationship with a lot of the main writers throughout the 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th doctor’s era.  Not only a major element behind the production of the show, Terrance Dicks also lent his written work towards the novelization of key episodes through the show’s history. Last year, I had the privilege of reading volume 1 of the compilation of Dick’s essential written works.  Each story felt sharp, concise and captured the allure of the respective stories with complete ease.

Volume 2 of The Essential Terrance Dicks focuses primarily on some of the very best of the 4^th and 5^th Doctor’s era of Doctor Who. The stories are as follows:

·        The Genesis of the Daleks

·        The Pyramids of Mars

·        The Talons of Weng-Chiang

·        The Horror of Fang Rock

·        The Five Doctors

I’ve admittingly never watched any of these Classic-Who stories before besides Genesis, but I’m aware of their reputation for the most part. The common link between all of the stories though is their common association with the very best of the classic era of Doctor Who.  There’s a reason the majority of these stories are from Tom Baker’s era, as his era was arguably the most iconic period of the show.

Genesis of the Daleks served as one of the first stories of Baker’s run on the show and it pitched him and his companions against the Daleks at the very birth of their power.  Having watched the TV serial for this episode, I can comment this is a fantastic transcription of the show into a written format.  It captures the cold, brutal theme of desperate conflict layered so wonderfully in the story between the pages.  I love how it’s able to keep the pace of the story going so consistently while being able to dive deep into a story heavily inspired by the fascist and dictatorial rise of the Nazi regime.  It’s a fantastic story in its own right, but it also serves as a clear showcase of the star quality Baker’s era is set to showcase.

The Pyramids of Mars was another incredibly intriguing story to follow.  Taking inspiration from Egyptian mythology, this story ponders on the idea that these Egyptian gods were actually powerful alien beings. The Doctor and Sarah Jane come across a cult of fanatics out to bring forth the return of Sutekh, an outcast of these aliens with a never-ending desire to bring death all of life.  It’s a well paced story, layered with great tension and intrigue all throughout.  Sutekh is easily my favourite part of the story. After recently experiencing his return in the new era of the show, it was great to see the scale of his might and power within this narrative through his interactions with the Doctor. 

The Talons of Weng-Chiang is a great historical episode which puts the Doctor and his companion Leela in the streets of Victorian London to face off against a sinister criminal cult.  It’s a story which exudes gothic horror at every stride and there’s a compelling mystery tied behind the plot of the story that kept me engrossed all throughout.  I think it does lose a bit of value however due to it’s dated and somewhat racist stereotyping that ruins the flavour of the story in some moments.

Horror of Fang Rock is my favourite of the bunch for sure.  Set on a remote island with a lighthouse, the Doctor and Leela soon encounter a mysterious alien life form which is killing off members of the island one by one. Like the prior story, there’s a great sense of intrigue and classical horror embedded into the story which compels you to follow it along to the very end.  It’s a very stylistic story and it’s brilliantly paced to balance intrigue and action in equal balance.

The Five Doctors served as the show’s 20^th anniversary celebration with a story that celebrated the storied history of the show by including (mostly) all the prior doctors as well as the current 5^th Doctor played by Peter Davison. After being scooped out of their own time zones, the Doctor’s are placed in desolate land called the Death Zone and work with their companions to converge together and work a way to escape their predicament.  The story is packed with a lot to appreciate for any Who fan.  You can pick up a lot of the self-referencing and while it can be a bit padded, it’s still good fun and easy enough to follow for the most part.

Mirroring what I mentioned in my prior review of the 1^st volume, these five stories reflect the very best of Terrance Dick’s quality as a writer.  His ability to not only edit these scripts, but then take them and translate them into a novel and not lose any of the original stories essence is a skill worth every bit of recognition I can give.  He’s contributed so much to the world of Doctor Who and his written exploits are no less a reflection of his star quality.  These five stories really are some of the best Who stories out there and their written formats are an excellent reflection of that quality.