The Making of Doctor Who

by Terrance Dicks, Malcolm Hulke

Here it is... the story behind one of television's most successful, longest-running shows. Come with Doctor Who on a trip through time... to the early days of the programme when it all began... meet actors, authors and television staff... see inside a TV studio and watch a production take shape... learn the secrets of the monsters... relive every Doctor Who story since the beginning... follow the Doctor through four incarnations and — perhaps — begin to discover just who is Doctor Who?

Genres: Doctor Who, Nonfiction, Reference

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 1972

About the author

Terrance Dicks was an English author, screenwriter, script editor, and producer best known for his extensive contributions to Doctor Who. Serving as the show's script editor from 1968 to 1974, he helped shape many core elements of the series, including the concept of regeneration, the development of the Time Lords, and the naming of the Doctor’s home planet, Gallifrey. His tenure coincided with major thematic expansions, and he worked closely with producer Barry Letts to bring a socially aware tone to the show. Dicks later wrote several Doctor Who serials, including Robot, Horror of Fang Rock, and The Five Doctors, the 20th-anniversary special.
In parallel with his television work, Dicks became one of the most prolific writers of Doctor Who novelisations for Target Books, authoring over 60 titles and serving as the de facto editor of the range. These adaptations introduced a generation of young readers to the franchise. Beyond Doctor Who, he also wrote original novels, including children’s horror and adventure series such as The Baker Street Irregulars, Star Quest, and The Adventures of Goliath.
Dicks also worked on other television programmes including The Avengers, Moonbase 3, and various BBC literary adaptations. His later work included audio dramas and novels tied to Doctor Who. Widely respected for his clarity, imagination, and dedication to storytelling, he remained a central figure in Doctor Who fandom until his death in 2019, leaving behind a vast legacy in television and children's literature.

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Book May have only Covered from William Hartnell to Tom Baker but it's A wonderful insight on the history of the show.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the time I encountered this book in my youth, I had already consumed the L'Officer Programme Guides & the Peter Haining books, so I was well versed in Doctor Who background details and history. As a result, some of the information and entries felt odd and eccentric to me, not realizing until I was older that this was Terrance Dicks' personal viewpoint on certain stories and details. That said, the wordsmith-god of Doctor Who has every right to give his own interpretation of the series he worked on for so long, and it remains an entertaining and informative work. The best section by far is the chapter on how a writer creates a story from idea stage to outline to script, and Dicks uses his own 4th Doctor story "Robot" as an example. It inspired me to dabble with my own fictional scribblings.

[Paul Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Target] (1976). SB. 128 Pages. Purchased from Richard Dalby’s Library.

A well written, interesting, vintage examination of Doctor Who's origins and early years.

Nicely illustrated and entertaining.

~1/3 of the text is devoted to plot summary information - arguably out of kilter with the titular objective.

Covers the majority of the period before, post-Baker, the series was derailed into the realms of cringeworthy, trite rubbish.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting, although there is a fairly skippable chunk in the middle that shouldn't be necessary if you've seen the episodes since it just summarises them, and for some reason it claims that the first Cyberman story takes place on the Moon.

[Kevin O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a Young Adult volume, and much of it may seem superficial, such as the summaries of the Doctor’s adventures to that point. I found a copy of the First edition, published in 1972, which was in the middle of Jon Pertwee’s run as the Doctor. A Second Edition was published in 1975 and includes some of Tom Baker, and some other changes. The biggest value for having this is that it gives a lot of good behind-the-scenes material on how the rehearsals are run, how the special effects are organized, and so on. It is all at the YA level of course, but if you can pick up a copy without spending too much money I would consider it.

[Adam Chamberlain · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Doctor believes in good and fights evil. Though often caught up in violent situations, he is a man of peace. He is never cruel or cowardly. In fact, to put it simply, the Doctor is a hero. These days there aren't so many of them around..."

A charming curiosity of a book with insights into the early history of this iconic series up to the mid-Seventies.

[Rosie]

are we going to discuss the fact that this children's non fiction guide to doctor who includes two pages of theology or

[Stefan · Rating 4 out of 5]

One extra star for the audiobook version, nice introduction to the early days of the show for younger readers.

[Colleen M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I doctor who fan would know most of this stuff already. Nothing new or revealing.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers only the first four doctors played by William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, and Tom Baker with an episode guide for the same time period, so it's more than a little out-of-date at this point but interesting in an historical sort of way. The Introduction to the book is pretty funny to read now because it supposes that if the reader was old enough to have seen the first shows, they must be in high school by now (more like retired and living in Boca Raton).

Chapter 14 excuses the BBC's incredible shortsightedness when they destroyed early Dr. Who programs (and many others) citing a shortage of storage space. I suppose you run out of space to store things when you are located on an island. We don't have that problem here. Lots of empty space.

This seems to be a book intended for older children and it surprised me to find out that Dr. Who at least started out as a TV show for children. I didn't watch Dr. Who because, the early shows at least, were incredibly amateur and besides that, it seemed like a show for boys. There were a lot of smoke bombs and such. I didn't actually start watching until the 8th doctor. The author of this book never anticipated that there would ever be an 8th doctor.

The book also seems to have a lot of military references. For example: "The producer is like the general is to an army."

There are also advertisements for Target Books in the text with instructions to order them. But on page 123 the author mentions the book The Technique of Special Effects in Television but it isn't published by Target so he suggests that "You should be able to find it in your public library."

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/890843.html[return][return]This is the first edition, which states on the first page, "Doctor Who has now been running over eight years, which makes it one of the most successful shows on British television." It is very much aimed at a younger audience; quite a long chapter, for instance, on how a television programme is actually made, what the director does, etc.[return][return]One section which was completely changed in the second edition was the re-telling of the Doctor's televised adventures as a continuous narrative, presented as memoranda from the files of the Time Lords and of UNIT. (The second edition simply presented each story separately in a list, as all serious Doctor Who reference books have done since.) This section is preceded by the indictment and initial defence for the Doctor at the end of The War Games, revealing also the Doctor's "real name".[return][return]Anyway, certainly superseded in usefulness by pretty much every work of reference on Doctor Who published since, but very nice to have.

[Rosie Mujica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for fans of Doctor Who, old and new. It gave an inside look at the creation and production of Doctor Who during the early years (Doctors 1-4) from the point-of-view of two writers for the show. There was also a very convenient episode guide that gave summaries of each of the serials. Overall, a great read!

[Paul Doody · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the very first non-fiction book about Doctor Who, in which one of the greats of the show tells us how the show was made. Very firmly aimed at children, but this was the first, the trail-blazer. All Doctor Who fans owe a massive debt to Terrence Dicks, and this is one of the reasons why.

[colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

read 09.10.85

[Richard Gombert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book.
Interesting reading about the state of Who at the transition to the 4th Doctor.