Feb 19, 2024
Art by Jeff Cummins
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Art by Jeff Cummins
Still thinking about how the original intent with regeneration was (as written by David Whitaker) “oh, he just does that sometimes, it’s part of the TARDIS, don’t worry about it, it happens all the time.”
And then, a few years later, Terrence Dicks and Robert Holmes put in a throwaway reference to those previous “renewals” that became one of the biggest fights in the fandom ever since, and it’s only ever gotten worse.
But no, it’s Chris Chibnall who’s “breaking canon” and “spitting on William Hartnell’s good name”, not any of those guys mentioned above. Just saying, if he’s spitting on One, so we’re they. And let’s not get started on various EU writers…
Paul Leonard’s Venusians
First appearing in the author’s seminal Venusian Lullaby in 1994, these unique and bizarre aliens retroactively became very important to Doctor Who’s history, being the source of the Third Doctor’s oft practiced Venusian aikido and oft repeated Venusian lullaby.
They would reappear in the author’s “Venusian Sunset” in Perfect Timing, a lovely story featuring the Second Doctor, Ben, and Polly, then most recently in Blair Bidmead’s excellent Señor 105 novella By the Time I Get to Venus (which also features the First Doctor’s initial aikido training!).
They were also featured in Terrence Dicks’ Eighth Doctor novel Endgame...
... and more recently, in Philip Purser-Hallard’s “T. memeticus: A Morphology” from Faction Paradox: The Book of the Enemy...
Since then, they’ve been referenced in TV’s Twelfth Doctor World Enough and Time!
(... well, technically.)
COMMENTARY CLUB - Minisode 03 - The Five Doctors
In a special episode to celebrate the life and works of Terrence Dicks, who sadly passed away this week, we hop in our TARDIS to revisit the feature length special , The Five Doctors, which originally aired on November 25th 1983 to mark the 20th anniversary of the long running BBC SF show
GET THIS EPISODE HERE
"He was all teeth and curls, but with a pleasant, open face."
The description of the Pirate Captain in The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, by Gideon DeFoe. We see what you did there, Gideon.
I've been told by people who work on the show who have seen him that Peter is much more than a safe pair of hands, that he is in the born-to-play-it camp. I've high hopes for Capaldi and I'm looking forward to his first story.
Terrence Dicks on Peter as the Doctor. (DWM #475)
Reading a bit of The Eight Doctors by Terrence Dicks before bed, and realizing that while the book is rather thin in parts (as I've heard), the Third Doctor section has been the strongest so far. Really quite perfect characterization and all that without resorting to just quoting dialogue from the show.
And then I remembered that Terrence was in charge back then, and it all made sense.
Also the serials he picks to interrupt/follow from 1969-1983: The War Games (writ. Terrence Dicks and Malcolm Hulke) The Sea Devils (writ. Malcolm Hulke) State of Decay (writ. Terrence Dicks) The Five Doctors (writ. Terrence Dicks) I see a pattern.
Just read about half of Terrence Dicks's Players with the Sixth Doctor, Peri and a rather lovely Second Doctor cameo. I'd finish it right now if I didn't have to sleep. Things I've liked so far:
I'm learning a lot of fun little facts about Winston Churchill that I keep googling to see if they're true.
I like that this gives Winston a reason to know the Doctor in Victory of the Daleks. That's pretty cool for a book written in '99 and an episode from eleven years later.
Terrence Dicks writes Peri better than most of the TV writers in the Sixth Doctor era.
It's not like high art writing or anything, but it feels like Doctor Who at its most enjoyable. (No surprise, I suppose, as this is Terrence Dicks, one of the people who ran the show while Jon Pertwee was the Doctor and writer of both Robot and The War Games, two of my favorite serials (he wrote Morbius as well, but it was changed so much that he disowned it) and all of his serials are fairly solid stories.)
Long story short, I understand why this warranted a 50th Anniversary Reprint.