Doctor Who fans all around the world are mourning Terrance Dicks, one of the show’s most influential writers, after he passed away last week at the age of 84. The official Doctor Who fansite broke the news on Monday, tweeting, “just received comms that legendary #DoctorWho writer, Terrance Dicks has died. Genuinely gutted. An incredibly talented man who we had the pleasure of interviewing over the years. He also regularly took part in Q&As on the DWO Forums. He will be sorely missed!”
According to The Guardian, Dicks wrote for Doctor Who from the ’60s to the ’80s and was the show’s script editor for six years. He also penned many Doctor Who novels, both original works and novelizations, as well as stage plays and audio works for the franchise. Dicks is responsible for introducing The Time Lords into Who canon, penned Fourth Doctor’s Tom Baker’s first episode, and wrote the show’s landmark 25th anniversary special The Five Doctors.
In the wake of his passing, Doctor Who‘s past and current writers and showrunners have taken to social media to say their goodbyes. Here are the heartfelt tributes from Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, Neil Gaiman, and many, many others.
Very hard to express what Terrance Dicks meant to a whole generation. A brilliant TV professional, a funny and generous soul. Most of all, though, an inspirational writer who took so many of us on unforgettable journeys into space and time. Bless you, Terrance.
— Mark Gatiss 💙 (@Markgatiss) September 2, 2019
#DoctorWho boss Chris Chibnall pays tribute to veteran series writer Terrance Dicks, who has passed away aged 84 https://t.co/Q6MLrJ3dxT pic.twitter.com/6Fh4I52o7U
— Radio Times (@RadioTimes) September 2, 2019
https://www.instagram.com/p/B16Z85tB_XD/?utm_source=ig_embed
I remember reading his and Malcolm Hulke's book THE MAKING OF DOCTOR WHO when I was eleven or twelve, and deciding then that I would one day write an episode of Doctor Who, because they had shown me how. RIP Terrance Dicks. https://t.co/LXKsfSJz81
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) September 2, 2019
Oh, gutted to hear Terrance Dicks has died. An absolute titan of TV writing and children's fiction. He possibly did more to shape Doctor Who than anyone else, which is amazing considering it had already been running for nearly five years by the time he came aboard.
— Eddie Robson (@EddieRobson) September 2, 2019
Terrance Dicks helped more children (especially boys) develop a lifelong love of reading than almost anyone else who's ever lived. I don't think he even got an OBE.
— Jenny Colgan is on Threads as @jennycolganbooks (@jennycolgan) September 2, 2019
https://twitter.com/Paul_Cornell/status/1168525335924748288?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Hubby added 4 daleks to our bedroom window sill in memory of Terrance Dicks who sadly died today. (The Tardis is always there!) Thanks for all the great Dr Who memories, Terrance. pic.twitter.com/QIg2Go5cB6
— Auntie Malorie (@malorieblackman) September 2, 2019
Thank you, Terrance. pic.twitter.com/lV9EUE2jMO
— Gareth Roberts (@OldRoberts953) September 2, 2019
https://www.instagram.com/p/B16fIHxHO1c/
I met Terrance Dicks when I was 14. He agreed to be interviewed by me for a fanzine I produced with my best friend from school. The trouble was, in my teenage years I had a horrendous stammer. 1/
— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019
And the day he'd agreed to meet us I was especially bad. I could barely drag out one word after another – probably because I was overawed to be in the company of one of my heroes. 2/
— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019
The thing about stammering is – it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing for the one who suddenly finds himself the most inarticulate person in the world. It's just as embarrassing for the one on the other end listening to it. 3/
— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019
And I was painfully used to embarrassing people. My teachers. My friends in class. Even my parents, who loved me very much – even they didn't know how to react when I tried to force words out of my mouth and goggled like a goldfish. 4/
— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019
It was mortifying that I was stammering in front of Terrance Dicks. Whose books I had read, and reread, and rereread, and adored. I wanted to *impress* him. I wanted him to *like* me. 5/
— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019
Terrance Dicks wasn't embarrassed by my stammer. He'd smile kindly, and wait for me to get through my question – and then answer thoughtfully as if it had taken a couple of seconds for me to get there, rather than a couple of minutes. 6/
— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019
And I had a *lot* of questions. This was Terrance Dicks! I wanted to ask him about all of his books. Literally. Every. Single. One. 7/
— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019
And all the time – for the hours he sat with me, always that same patience. Always the kindness. 8/
— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019
The one time he alluded to my stammer, was when I got out that I wanted to be a writer some day, just like he was. And he smiled and said, that's the problem we writers have, that there are so many words in our heads it's sometimes hard to get them all out. 9/
— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019
He called me a writer. And I did become a writer. I ended up on Doctor Who, the same series that decades before he had shaped and finessed and cared for. 10/
— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019
And stammer beaten (mostly), I met him at many conventions over the years, and I never got round to telling him that as a shy 14 year old he had inspired me so much. Not only to write, but not to feel so ashamed of my speech impediment. 11/
— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019
I'm okay with that, though. He was a very humble man, and I'd seen the way he reacted when shambling adults like me told him how as a kid he'd been their inspiration. Because he'd inspired *millions* of us. 12/
— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019
I feel terribly sad today that a very kind man, who wrote lots and lots of brilliant things, and who didn't even mind when I asked him questions about his novelisation for Arc of Infinity, has died. And lucky that I met him. And lucky that I read him. 13/
— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019
All of Doctor Who fandom is reeling today. He was *our* writer, and we loved him. 14/14.
— Robert Shearman (@ShearmanRobert) September 3, 2019
