An exciting new addition to the archives for Doctor Who Day! The Borthwick Institute for Archives are delighted to reveal that they have successfully acquired the archive of writer and TV producer, Terrance Dicks (1935-2019). Terrance’s career spanned comedy, science fiction, children’s literature and TV production, but he will be forever linked to his work on Doctor Who, first as script editor during the Second and Third Doctors’ eras between 1969 and 1974; and then as a prolific writer of Doctor Who novelisations, TV stories and later adventures of the Doctor in full-length stories. Terrance’s archive spans his entire professional career, from his early days in radio comedy to his later career as a legend of the Whoniverse. The archive chiefly contains annotated drafts of Terrance’s books and stories, ranging from 1972’s ‘The Making of Doctor Who’ to 2017’s ‘Davros Genesis’, and including more than 60 of the Doctor Who novelisations he wrote for Target Books. Known for his vivid, compelling storytelling, Terrance’s works of children’s fiction spanned decades and genres. Alongside his popular Doctor Who books, children of the 70s, 80s and 90s will remember the adventures of Goliath the Dog, the Sherlock Holmes inspired sleuthing of the Baker Street Irregulars, and the charming stories of T.R. Bear. Excitingly for Whovians, Terrance kept copies of camera scripts for the television stories he was intending to novelise. This means that in addition to his draft manuscripts we also have Doctor Who scripts as far back as the one transmitted 62 years ago today – Anthony Coburn’s ‘An Unearthly Child’ – along with unique sets of scripts and production information for the Fifth Doctor’s swansong, 1984’s ‘The Caves of Androzani’. The collection will especially delight fans of Skaro’s finest death machines, including as it does original scripts for ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’,’ The Chase’, ‘Planet of the Daleks’ and ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ and original manuscripts for his novelisations of ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth, ‘Day of the Daleks’, ‘Death to the Daleks’ and ‘Genesis of the Daleks’. Additionally, scripts for ‘Power of the Daleks’ and ‘Evil of the Daleks’ provide a tantalising link between Terrance’s archive and that of fellow Who’ scribe, David Whitaker, which was gifted to the Borthwick Institute last year. And then, of course, there are Terrance’s own ‘Who stories. The archive contains detailed notes on the genesis and evolution of 1976’s (sic) ‘The Horror of Fang Rock’, 1980’s ‘State of Decay ‘, and 1983’s ‘The Five Doctors’. You may have watched and enjoyed the final televised versions, but now you can thrill at their previous incarnations as ‘The Beast from Forty Fathoms’, ‘The Wasting’ and… ‘The Six Doctors’! As we continue the work of box-listing the archive, we have no doubt there will be more amazing finds to share. Already we’ve identified early scripts from Terrance’s career as an aspiring comedy writer – including copies of scripts for ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’ and ‘Steptoe and Son’ which provide an amazing link through to the archive of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. These sit alongside a wealth of more personal items such as appointment diaries and memoranda, fan correspondence, convention items, ideas for long-lost projects, and more. We’d like to pass our gratitude to the family of Terrance Dicks for their continued help and support; and also to author Simon Guerrier for all of his help, support and knowledge (look out for Simon’s coming book, ‘Written by Terrance Dicks’, being published by Ten Acre Books in 2026). In the meantime, happy times and happy places, and happy Doctor Who Day!

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