Doctor Who script editor Terrance Dicks has conjured up dozens of ways to conquer the Earth. He tells Kim Janssen why he is proud of his work

YOU’D have to be from another planet to have missed the fact that Doctor Who is back on our televisions.
But for jovial 70-year-old Hampstead writer Terrance Dicks, it’s never gone away.
Currently working on his 70th Doctor Who novel at his rambling, book-filled South Hill Park home, Dicks was at the helm of the flagship BBC sci-fi from 1968 to 1974, writing dozens of the best-loved episodes himself.
To the legions of Dr Who fans who attend conventions, he’s probably more closely associated with the series than any of the doctors themselves.
So BBC bosses will doubtless be relieved to hear that he’s impressed with the latest incarnation, starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper.
He said: “I think it’s great what they’ve done with it but it’s a shame that Eccleston has said he won’t do another series: what they need now is stability.
“He’s probably right about being typecast, though – most of the previous Doctors have found it hard to find work afterwards.
“I remember Peter Davison telling me: ‘I’m finished as an actor in this country’ after he stepped down.
“It took him quite a while to re-establish himself.”
Dicks himself doesn’t seem to mind being typecast, despite producing dozens of other highly-rated BBC shows in the 1980s including The Diary of Anne Frank and David Copperfield as well as a string of children’s books.
“Nobody’s interested in talking about anything else I’ve done,” he shrugs, “And we must have been doing something right for it to have lasted so long.
“In a sense I’ve gone from working in the opposite direction of mainstream television by going from soaps (he worked on the original Crossroads series) to science fiction to literary adaptations; perhaps I’d have done better to go the other way, although I can’t complain with how things have turned out.”
Dicks had never intended to get involved with science fiction; he began as an advertising copywriter, a neat irony for someone who lives in the street where George Orwell wrote Keep The Aspidastra Flying.
Occasionally, he is stopped in the neighbourhood by fans. The impressionist John Culshaw, who has often parodied Doctor Who on Radio 4’s Dead Ringers, stopped him just recently, he says, and turned out to be a devotee. The Doctor himself would probably fit in quite well amongst the more eccentric of Hampstead’s leafy streets. As if to prove it, former Doctors Peter Davison and Silvester McCoy both live in Hampstead.
Dicks said: “The word we used to describe Tom Baker was ‘bohemian’ – with his scarf and his hat he was quite an arty type.”
When it comes to suspension of disbelief, Dicks was always prepared to hang further than most over the precipice of credibility. As script editor he the approved story lines that would have made lesser imaginations blush.
Take, for example, episode 55, Terror of the Autons, in which Doctor Who’s deadly rival The Master invents a plastic chair that can be used to suffocate people, then improves on it with a plastic daffodil that fires a thin film over a victims’ mouth and nose when triggered by a radio signal. Needless to say, it’s all part of a deadly plot to kill 50,000 people and take over the earth.
Then there was the early episode – before Dicks’ time, to be fair – where the Daleks wanted to hollow out the earth’s molten core and replace it with a giant engine, so that they could pilot the planet around the universe like a giant spaceship.
But even in the wacky world of Doctor Who, there were limits, it seems.
Dicks laughed as he explained: “I did have to turn down ideas from time to time, usually because they were too expensive or they’d been done before.
“There was one I remember that someone came up with where the earth was taken over by pantomime horses. We were pretty open about the ideas we could have but that seemed a little too silly even for us.”
If Dicks has a sense of humour about a show he has been working on, in one form or another, for 37 years, he also a clear and deep affection for it.
He highlights the concept of regeneration, in which a retiring Doctor Who actor is replaced by his successor without damaging the continuity of the storyline, as key to the success of the series, allowing the doctors to reflect their eras and the show to be revamped every few years.
Likewise the premise which allows him to travel anywhere in space or time allows the writers unrivalled freedom.
But the show is perhaps best loved for its sometimes ropey special effects; the fearsome Daleks which were famously unable to get upstairs; giant robots were obviously models only inches tall; scenes were shot in front of ‘bluescreen’ with the intention of later adding a sci-fi background, only for it to be forgotten.
Dicks, however, insists the effects look worse in hindsight than they appeared at the time, pointing out that many involved behind the scenes went on to work on big budget Hollywood movies. And he’s happy that another series is planned for next year.
He said: “I’ve spent half my life working on Doctor Who so it’s good to see the BBC want to carry on.
“The shows ability to reinvent itself is unique.”