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90-490: Terrance William Dicks (14 April 1935 – 29 August 2019) was an English author and television screenwriter , script editor and producer . In television, he had a long association with the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who , working as a writer and also serving as the programme's script editor from 1968 to 1974. The Doctor Who News Page described him as "arguably the most prolific contributor to Doctor Who ". He later became
180-515: A Royal Canadian Mounted Police recruit. They were followed from 1979 to 1983 another trilogy, Star Quest , which was later re-printed by Big Finish Productions . Beginning in 1978, Dicks penned The Baker Street Irregulars inspired by the Sherlock Holmes characters ; the series eventually ran to 10 books, the last published in 1987. In 1981, he commenced work on a series of six children's horror novels with Cry Vampire . In 1987, Dicks started
270-466: A Sixth Doctor -era story for the "Companion Chronicle" range, and a Bernice Summerfield story, in 2011, which was the final script of his career. The first serial aired after Dicks' death, the 2020 Thirteenth Doctor -era story " Spyfall ", was dedicated to him. Dicks contributed heavily to Target Books ' series of novelisations of the Doctor Who TV serials, writing 67 of the titles published by
360-623: A work for hire (e.g., hired to write a city tour guide by a municipal government that totally owns the copyright to the finished work), or when writing material using intellectual property owned by others (such as when writing a novel or screenplay that is a new installment in an already established media franchise). In the United States, the Copyright Clause of the Constitution of the United States ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 ) provides
450-493: A Time Lord ; his last serial as sole writer, The Mysterious Planet , and The Ultimate Foe , of which he only wrote the first part (the second being completed by Pip and Jane Baker ), were released posthumously between September and December 1986. In 1944, at the age of 18, Holmes joined the army, fighting with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders regiment in Burma . He rapidly earned
540-431: A certain number of copies had sold. In Canada, this practice occurred during the 1890s, but was not commonplace until the 1920s. Established and successful authors may receive advance payments, set against future royalties, but this is no longer common practice. Most independent publishers pay royalties as a percentage of net receipts – how net receipts are calculated varies from publisher to publisher. Under this arrangement,
630-461: A certain time. It enters the public domain , where it can be used without limit. Copyright laws in many jurisdictions – mostly following the lead of the United States, in which the entertainment and publishing industries have very strong lobbying power – have been amended repeatedly since their inception, to extend the length of this fixed period where the work is exclusively controlled by the copyright holder. Technically, someone owns their work from
720-462: A commission, and as such became the youngest commissioned officer in the entire British army during the Second World War . The fact that he lied about his age to get into the army was discovered at his commissioning, but apparently the only reaction was by a general who praised him, adding that he had done the same thing himself. Soon after the end of the war, Holmes returned to England and left
810-484: A different way: usually a set fee or a per word rate rather than on a percentage of sales. In the year 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 130,000 people worked in the country as authors, making an average of $ 61,240 per year. Robert Holmes (scriptwriter) Robert Colin Holmes (2 April 1926 – 24 May 1986) was a British television scriptwriter. For over 25 years, he contributed to some of
900-540: A friendship between Saward and Holmes that would eventually lead to Holmes returning to the series for the following season. When it came to writing the final story for the Fifth Doctor (played by Peter Davison ), Saward commissioned Holmes to write the storyline as he felt that Holmes's experience would allow him to create an epic departure for Davison and introduction of the Sixth Doctor . The Caves of Androzani , as
990-580: A government scheme such as the ELR (educational lending right) and PLR (public lending right) schemes in Australia. Under these schemes, authors are paid a fee for the number of copies of their books in educational and/or public libraries. These days, many authors supplement their income from book sales with public speaking engagements, school visits, residencies, grants, and teaching positions. Ghostwriters , technical writers, and textbooks writers are typically paid in
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#17328515217131080-465: A last minute re-write so that K-9 would become an ongoing character. The difficult task of working him in was left to Read. Nonetheless, Read was quick to turn to Holmes when it came to commissioning scripts for the sixteenth season, being keen to use writers who knew how the Doctor Who format was best used and could be relied upon to come up with usable scripts in good time. Holmes wrote two stories for
1170-575: A nature photographer. The photographer asserted authorship of the photographs, which the United States Copyright Office denied, stating: "To qualify as a work of 'authorship' a work must be created by a human being". More recently, questions have arisen as to whether images or text created by a generative artificial intelligence have an author. Holding the title of "author" over any "literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, [or] certain other intellectual works" gives rights to this person,
1260-530: A new series for very young children titled T. R. Bear , resulting in a further seven books. There followed the Sally Ann series, about a ragdoll , Magnificent Max , about a cat, and The Adventures of Goliath (Dicks' longest series, at 18 books), about a golden retriever . Another five books concerning a St. Bernard dog make up the Harvey series. Jonathan's Ghost and its three sequels were published in 1988, and
1350-646: A number of additions to the series' mythology that still exist in the modern era, including the following: During Dicks' tenure, the series also delved into social and political concepts. Sometimes these were straightforward and other times they were metaphors. Concepts and topics included the respect for all life ( The Silurians) , Great Britain joining the European Economic Community (in metaphor in The Curse of Peladon ), apartheid ( The Mutants ), global pollution ( The Green Death ) and equality for women (with
1440-500: A script editor and producer of classic serials for the BBC. Dicks wrote many children's books during the 1970s and 1980s. He also maintained his association with Doctor Who by adapting televised stories into novelisations for Target Books and in later years contributing to many documentaries and DVD commentaries for the series. Born in East Ham , Essex (now part of Greater London ), Dicks
1530-752: A short illness. Most of Dicks' Doctor Who novelisations incorporated the prefix "Doctor Who and..." before the title, as did most of the series' novelisations prior to 1981. Several of his novels were subsequently re-printed in omnibus editions, such as The Adventures of Doctor Who and The Dalek Omnibus . In the late 1980s, Star Books issued "2-in-1" collections of selected Target Books novelisations, which included several of Dicks' works. Writer, 5 episodes: Writer, 35 episodes (1968–1969; 1974–1977; 1980, 1983): Script Editor, 156 episodes (1968–74): Co-Creator and uncredited Script Editor, 6 episodes: Writer, 1 episode: Script Editor, 134 episodes (1981-8): Author In legal discourse, an author
1620-556: A six-year-old to watch it alone. It's geared to the intelligent fourteen-year-old, and I wouldn't let any child under ten see it." The scene was removed from the master tape, and was absent from all rebroadcasts and home releases of the story until it was restored from home recordings for the DVD release. During this time, Holmes wrote three of his own credited stories for the programme, performed complete ground-up rewrites on at least two other stories (which were broadcast under pseudonyms) and had
1710-484: A stand-alone science-fiction serial entitled The Space Trap , which he submitted to the BBC . There, the Head of Drama Serials wrote back to Holmes, informing him that they were no longer interested in producing such serials, but that he might have better luck if he tried submitting it to the Doctor Who production office. This he did, and had a fruitful meeting with the show's then story editor Donald Tosh ; but when Tosh left
1800-447: A strong hand in almost every other script. It was very much his era of the show, although by 1977 he felt that he had done all he could for the programme. He had intended to leave at the end of the fourteenth season, but was persuaded to stay on for a short while by the new producer Graham Williams . While he script-edited the first two stories he commissioned for season 15, he left the third to his successor, Anthony Read. He also requested
1890-743: A time, the best-selling original Doctor Who novel. World Game , featuring the Second Doctor , is set during " Season 6B ". Later contributions to the range were the Quick Reads books Made of Steel and Revenge of the Judoon , both featuring the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones . His final Doctor Who short story, "Save Yourself", was published posthumously by BBC Books in October 2019. A compilation of his work chosen by fans, The Essential Terrance Dicks ,
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#17328515217131980-411: A variety of sources, such as local or foreign newspapers. In the late 1950s he worked for a time writing and editing short stories for magazines, before receiving his first break in television when he contributed an episode to the famous medical series Emergency – Ward 10 (1957). Holmes found himself working almost exclusively in television drama after 1957. He began contributing episodes regularly to
2070-416: A work does not have to be sought in the one who produced it, "as if it were always in the end, through the more or less transparent allegory of the fiction, the voice of a single person, the author 'confiding' in us." The psyche, culture, fanaticism of an author can be disregarded when interpreting a text, because the words are rich enough themselves with all of the traditions of language. To expose meanings in
2160-448: A written work and producing the interpretation or meaning in a written work that both Barthes and Foucault are interested in. Foucault warns of the risks of keeping the author's name in mind during interpretation, because it could affect the value and meaning with which one handles an interpretation. Literary critics Barthes and Foucault suggest that readers should not rely on or look for the notion of one overarching voice when interpreting
2250-436: A written work without appealing to the celebrity of an author, their tastes, passions, vices, is, to Barthes, to allow language to speak, rather than author. Michel Foucault argues in his essay "What is an author?" (1969) that all authors are writers, but not all writers are authors. He states that "a private letter may have a signatory—it does not have an author." For a reader to assign the title of author upon any written work
2340-537: A written work, because of the complications inherent with a writer's title of "author." They warn of the dangers interpretations could suffer from when associating the subject of inherently meaningful words and language with the personality of one authorial voice. Instead, readers should allow a text to be interpreted in terms of the language as "author." Self-publishing is a model where the author takes full responsibility and control of arranging financing, editing, printing, and distribution of their own work. In other words,
2430-399: Is not one of harmony and neutrality. In particular for the writer, their authorship in their work makes their work part of their identity, and there is much at stake personally over the negotiation of authority over that identity. However, it is the editor who has "the power to impose the dominant definition of the writer and therefore to delimit the population of those entitled to take part in
2520-435: Is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work is in written, graphic, or recorded medium. The creation of such a work is an act of authorship . Thus, a sculptor , painter , or composer , is an author of their respective sculptures, paintings, or compositions, even though in common parlance, an author is often thought of as the writer of a book , article , play , or other written work . In
2610-418: Is to attribute certain standards upon the text which, for Foucault, are working in conjunction with the idea of "the author function." Foucault's author function is the idea that an author exists only as a function of a written work, a part of its structure, but not necessarily part of the interpretive process. The author's name "indicates the status of the discourse within a society and culture," and at one time
2700-678: The ATV series Spyder's Web . Holmes was commissioned to write the first story of season eight in 1971, Terror of the Autons . The story was considered a great success. Holmes would go on to contribute two more stories in 1973, Carnival of Monsters and The Time Warrior . Holmes introduced two recurring alien races to Doctor Who : the Autons and the Sontarans . Terrance Dicks intended to have Holmes replace him as script editor after he left. Holmes accepted
2790-527: The British Army with the Royal Fusiliers . Following his discharge from the armed forces, he worked for five years as an advertising copywriter , and started to write radio play scripts for the BBC in his spare time. His breakthrough into television came when friend Malcolm Hulke , whom he met when he rented a room from him, asked for his help with the scripting of " The Mauritius Penny ", an episode of
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2880-544: The Fourth Doctor ), The Brain of Morbius (1976, for which Dicks was credited under the pseudonym Robin Bland after his displeasure at Holmes' re-writes prompted him to request that it be shown "under some bland pseudonym"), Horror of Fang Rock (1977) and State of Decay (1980), a re-written version of a story originally titled The Vampire Mutations , which had been due for production during season 15 . The BBC decided that
2970-793: The 12-book series, The Unexplained . As well as his numerous fictional works, Dicks also penned several non-fiction books for children, including Europe United , A Riot of Writers , Uproar in the House , A Right Royal History and The Good, the Bad and the Ghastly . Dicks lived in Hampstead , London. In 1963, he married Elsa Germaney, a teacher and later a Quaker recording clerk. They had three sons: Stephen, Jonathan and Oliver. Also, three grandchildren: Amy, Nelly Rose, and Rufus. Dicks died in London on 29 August 2019 after
3060-532: The 1984 story came to be titled, is widely regarded by fans as being one of the best in the programme's entire run from 1963 onwards, being voted "all-time number one" story in a 2009 poll. Holmes felt that Davison's adventures had been too easy, and decided to "put him through hell". John Nathan-Turner wanted to shoot a story abroad for season 22, similar to previous seasons. The show's then US distributor Lionheart initially offered to co-fund filming in America. Holmes
3150-637: The 1990s, Dicks contributed to Virgin Publishing 's line of full-length, officially licensed, original Doctor Who novels, New Adventures , which continued the series' storyline following the TV cancellation in 1989. Dicks wrote three Doctor Who novels for Virgin, and continued to write occasionally for the franchise after BBC Books assumed the licence in 1997. He wrote the first of the Eighth Doctor Adventures , titled The Eight Doctors , which was, for
3240-512: The Congress with the power of "securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries". The language regarding authors was derived from proposals by Charles Pinckney , "to secure to authors exclusive rights for a limited time", and by James Madison , "to secure to literary authors their copyrights for a limited time", or, in the alternative, "to encourage, by proper premiums & Provisions,
3330-502: The Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday (1974) and Doctor Who - The Ultimate Adventure (1989), and an audio drama for Big Finish Productions titled Comeback (2002), which was the first to feature former Doctor's companion Sarah Jane Smith in a significant capacity. He went on to contribute several additional scripts to Big Finish including audio adaptations of his two-stage plays,
3420-687: The Sofa , produced by Richard Molesworth, which appears on the DVD release of The Two Doctors . Holmes' friend, fellow TV writer Roger Marshall , claimed Holmes' work never received the acclaim it deserved because Holmes did most of his work in series television as opposed to television plays or serials. "In retrospect, he spent too much time tinkering around with lesser writers' work rather than getting on with his own". Russell T Davies , head writer and producer for Doctor Who' s 21st-century revival, stated Holmes' serial The Ark in Space as his favourite story from
3510-603: The advancement of useful knowledge and discoveries". Both proposals were referred to the Committee of Detail , which reported back a proposal containing the final language, which was incorporated into the Constitution by unanimous agreement of the convention. In literary theory, critics find complications in the term author beyond what constitutes authorship in a legal setting. In the wake of postmodern literature , critics such as Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault have examined
3600-417: The adventure series Knight Errant before becoming that programme's story editor in 1959. He wrote several episodes of another medical drama, Dr. Finlay's Casebook , before in the early 1960s writing for a range of crime-related dramas: Dixon of Dock Green , The Saint , Ghost Squad , Public Eye and Intrigue all dealt with law enforcement, and benefiting from Holmes' real-life experiences. It
3690-494: The army, deciding to join the police. He trained at Hendon Police College , graduating the top of his year and joining the Metropolitan Police in London, serving at Bow Street Police Station . It was whilst serving as a police officer that Holmes first began to develop an interest in writing as a career. When giving evidence in court for prosecutions against offenders, he would often note the excitement and frantic work of
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3780-407: The author also acts as the publisher of their work. With commissioned publishing, the publisher makes all the publication arrangements and the author covers all expenses. The author of a work may receive a percentage calculated on a wholesale or a specific price or a fixed amount on each book sold. Publishers, at times, reduced the risk of this type of arrangement, by agreeing only to pay this after
3870-410: The author does not pay anything towards the expense of publication. The costs and financial risk are all carried by the publisher, who will then take the greatest percentage of the receipts. See Compensation for more. Vanity publishers normally charge a flat fee for arranging publication, offer a platform for selling, and then take a percentage of the sale of every copy of a book. The author receives
3960-421: The book sales are not the publishers' main source of income, but instead the fees that the authors are charged to initially produce the book are. Because of this, the vanity publishers need not invest in making books marketable as much as other publishers need to. This leads to low quality books being introduced to the market. The relationship between the author and the editor , often the author's only liaison to
4050-432: The case of a work for hire , the employer or commissioning party is considered the author of the work, even if they did not write or otherwise create the work, but merely instructed another individual to do so. Typically, the first owner of a copyright is the person who created the work, i.e. the author. If more than one person created the work, then a case of joint authorship takes place. Copyright laws differ around
4140-462: The company. As Dicks explains in an interview in the documentary Built for War (included on the 2006 DVD release of The Sontaran Experiment ), he served as the unofficial editor of the Target Books range. In this role, he would attempt to enlist the author of the original scripts to write the novelisation whenever possible, but if they refused or had other commitments, Dicks would usually undertake
4230-400: The eventuality of an agreed script falling through. At the beginning of the sixth season, there was no slot available for Holmes' script, but the production staff began experiencing a number of problems with scheduled scripts. The Dominators , the first story in the season, ended one episode earlier, resulting in an extra episode being tacked onto the following story, The Mind Robber . When
4320-477: The first episode, but died in May 1986 after a short illness. Eric Saward intervened and completed episode 13. Saward had agreed to write the final episode, but quickly left the production when he and Nathan-Turner were unable to agree on the ending. Nathan-Turner was forced to stand in as script editor while Pip and Jane Baker (who had written episodes nine through twelve) wrote episode 14. His last work to be broadcast
4410-437: The focus from the reader-audience and putting a strain on the relationship between authors and editors and on writing as a social act. Even the book review by the editors has more significance than the readership's reception. Authors rely on advance fees, royalty payments, adaptation of work to a screenplay, and fees collected from giving speeches. A standard contract for an author will usually include provision for payment in
4500-572: The following year and earned his first writing credit for the programme when he and Hulke co-wrote the 10-part serial The War Games , which concluded the series' sixth season and the Second Doctor 's ( Patrick Troughton ) tenure. The serial introduced the concept of the Time Lords and initiated the Doctor's exile to Earth, which would be a major theme of the Third Doctor 's tenure. Dicks had, however, been
4590-488: The form of an advance and royalties. Usually, an author's book must earn the advance before any further royalties are paid. For example, if an author is paid a modest advance of $ 2000, and their royalty rate is 10% of a book priced at $ 20 – that is, $ 2 per book – the book will need to sell 1000 copies before any further payment will be made. Publishers typically withhold payment of a percentage of royalties earned against returns. In some countries, authors also earn income from
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#17328515217134680-407: The fourth six-part storyline fell through, the story before was extended by two episodes while Dicks worked with Holmes to adapt The Krotons to fill the rest of the gap in the schedule. The story was regarded as a success by the production team, who quickly commissioned Holmes to write a second story for the season, The Space Pirates . This was originally planned to be four episodes long but
4770-460: The inclusion of Sarah Jane Smith as companion). In 1972, Dicks embarked on a parallel career as an author with the publication of his first book, The Making of Doctor Who (a history of the production of the TV series), which was co-written by Hulke. After stepping down as script editor, Dicks continued his association with Doctor Who , writing four scripts for his successor, Robert Holmes : these were Robot (1975, Tom Baker 's first outing as
4860-479: The introduction of its new lead actor, Tom Baker . Holmes continued as script editor for the next three years, seeing Doctor Who through one of its most successful eras in terms of both viewing figures and critical acclaim. Despite this, a number of stories came under fire from Mary Whitehouse of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association for their alleged excessive violence or frightening tone. Some of
4950-559: The journalists reporting on the cases, and decided that he would like to do similar work. To this end, he taught himself shorthand in his spare time and eventually resigned from the Police force. He quickly found work writing for both local and national newspapers , initially in London and later in the Midlands . He also filed reports for the Press Association , which could be syndicated to
5040-528: The later Doctor Who serials, and was required to adapt only one Sixth Doctor story himself ( The Mysterious Planet ; he again replaced Holmes, who had died in 1986). Dicks' name appears on the cover of no Seventh Doctor novelisations. His plans to publish a novelisation of his stage play Doctor Who - The Ultimate Adventure were not realised. As of September, 1980, Terrance Dicks' Doctor Who novelisations had sold three-and-a-half million copies and had been translated into ten different languages. During
5130-639: The most controversial stories were written by Holmes himself. A scene from Holmes' story The Deadly Assassin , in which the Fourth Doctor's head is held under water as the cliffhanger, led to BBC Director General Sir Charles Curran apologising to Mary Whitehouse for the offence caused. On 11 February 1977, the Daily Express published an interview with Holmes by Jean Rook under the title "Who do you think you are, scaring my innocent child?", in which Holmes said "Parents would be terribly irresponsible to leave
5220-454: The most popular programmes screened in the UK. He is particularly remembered for his work on science fiction programmes , most notably his extensive contributions to Doctor Who , which included working as its script editor from 1974 to 1977. Holmes suffered ill health from the early 1980s. He died in May 1986 while working on scripts for the second and final Sixth Doctor season The Trial of
5310-402: The offer while the season was still in production, editing (uncredited) Death to the Daleks . Holmes was known for his morbid sense of humour and his inclination to write dark and disturbing material. The previous producer Barry Letts often had Holmes tone down his writing, but Letts's successor Philip Hinchcliffe wanted to take the programme in a darker and more dynamic direction along with
5400-399: The original series. He said he considered Holmes to be comparable with the greatest screenwriters, describing the first episode of The Talons of Weng-Chiang as having "the best dialogue ever written. It's up there with Dennis Potter ... When the history of television drama comes to be written, Robert Holmes won't be remembered at all because he only wrote genre stuff. And that, I reckon, is
5490-399: The owner of the copyright, especially the exclusive right to engage in or authorize any production or distribution of their work. Any person or entity wishing to use intellectual property held under copyright must receive permission from the copyright holder to use this work, and often will be asked to pay for the use of copyrighted material. The copyrights on intellectual work expire after
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#17328515217135580-411: The planned twentieth anniversary special, due for broadcast that November. Holmes agreed and began writing the script. However, he found it increasingly difficult to include the many elements from the show's past that Nathan-Turner had insisted on. After the rejection of his first outline, he eventually gave up on the assignment (the special was eventually scripted by Terrance Dicks). The ordeal did lead to
5670-479: The process of its production. Every line of written text is a mere reflection of references from any of a multitude of traditions, or, as Barthes puts it, "the text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centers of culture"; it is never original. With this, the perspective of the author is removed from the text, and the limits formerly imposed by the idea of one authorial voice, one ultimate and universal meaning, are destroyed. The explanation and meaning of
5760-492: The producer of the Sunday Classics , overseeing productions such as Oliver Twist , David Copperfield and Vanity Fair , before retiring from the BBC in 1988 to resume his career as a novelist. It was through his work on Doctor Who books that Dicks became a writer of children's fiction, penning many successful titles during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1976, he wrote a trilogy for Target Books , The Mounties , concerning
5850-400: The programme shortly afterwards, the script was forgotten and Holmes moved on to other projects. In 1968, after some work on other projects appeared to be falling through, Holmes decided on the off-chance to re-submit The Space Trap to the Doctor Who office, and again found a favourable response, this time from Assistant Script Editor Terrance Dicks , who developed it with Holmes to cover
5940-498: The publishing company, is typically characterized as the site of tension. For the author to reach their audience, often through publication, the work usually must attract the attention of the editor. The idea of the author as the sole meaning-maker of necessity changes to include the influences of the editor and the publisher to engage the audience in writing as a social act. There are three principal kinds of editing: Pierre Bourdieu 's essay "The Field of Cultural Production" depicts
6030-405: The publishing industry as a "space of literary or artistic position-takings," also called the "field of struggles," which is defined by the tension and movement inherent among the various positions in the field. Bourdieu claims that the "field of position-takings [...] is not the product of coherence-seeking intention or objective consensus," meaning that an industry characterized by position-takings
6120-415: The rest of the money made. Most materials published this way are for niche groups and not for large audiences. Vanity publishing, or subsidy publishing, is stigmatized in the professional world. In 1983, Bill Henderson defined vanity publishers as people who would "publish anything for which an author will pay, usually at a loss for the author and a nice profit for the publisher." In subsidy publishing,
6210-568: The right to parody or satirize ), and many other interacting complications. Authors may portion out the different rights that they hold to different parties at different times, and for different purposes or uses, such as the right to adapt a plot into a film, television series, or video game. If another party chooses to adapt the work, they may have to alter plot elements or character names in order to avoid infringing previous adaptations. An author may also not have rights when working under contract that they would otherwise have, such as when creating
6300-461: The role and relevance of authorship to the meaning or interpretation of a literary text. Barthes challenges the idea that a text can be attributed to any single author. He writes, in his essay "Death of the Author" (1968), that "it is language which speaks, not the author." The words and language of a text itself determine and expose meaning for Barthes, and not someone possessing legal responsibility for
6390-415: The season was far from smooth – the growing tension between Nathan-Turner and Saward, a lack of faith in the production from BBC executives and Holmes's own poor health made the process difficult. Holmes was particularly upset at comments made by BBC drama executive Jonathan Powell regarding his opening four episodes. He eventually agreed to write the closing two episodes of the season. Holmes began writing
6480-485: The season, but after its broadcast in 1978, Holmes felt that he needed to distance himself from the programme. It would be six years before he wrote for Doctor Who again. During this time he wrote for various series, such as the BBC science-fiction show Blake's 7 , on which he had been offered the Script Editor's post when it began in 1978, but declined as he had only just finished his role as such on Doctor Who and
6570-412: The second series of ABC 's action-adventure The Avengers , for which Dicks was awarded a co-writer's credit. Dicks went on to co-write a further two Avengers episodes with Hulke: the second, " Intercrime ", was later re-worked for the sixth and final series. In 1968, Dicks was hired as assistant script editor on the BBC science-fiction TV series Doctor Who . He was appointed head script editor
6660-524: The ship. Other programmes Holmes worked on in the late seventies and early eighties included the police series Juliet Bravo and an adaptation of the science-fiction novel Child of the Vodyoni , which was screened as The Nightmare Man in 1981. He also script-edited detective series Shoestring . In 1983, the then-current Doctor Who production team of producer John Nathan-Turner and script editor Eric Saward contacted Holmes about returning to script
6750-454: The struggle to define the writer". As "cultural investors," publishers rely on the editor position to identify a good investment in "cultural capital" which may grow to yield economic capital across all positions. According to the studies of James Curran, the system of shared values among editors in Britain has generated a pressure among authors to write to fit the editors' expectations, removing
6840-515: The three-part MacMagic series followed in 1990. The Littlest Dinosaur was published in 1993 and The Littlest on Guard in 1994. Other works that Dicks published in 1994 include Woof! The Never Ending Tale , the Cold Blood series and the Chronicles of a Computer Game Addict series (both in four parts). Between 1998 and 2000, Dicks penned Changing Universe trilogy. In 2000 and 2001, Dicks produced
6930-411: The time it's created. A notable aspect of authorship emerges with copyright in that, in many jurisdictions, it can be passed down to another, upon one's death. The person who inherits the copyright is not the author, but has access to the same legal benefits. Intellectual property laws are complex. Works of fiction involve trademark law , likeness rights , fair use rights held by the public (including
7020-408: The uncredited co-writer of the earlier serial The Seeds of Death (1969), having extensively re-written Brian Hayles ' original scripts. Dicks formed a highly productive working relationship with incoming Doctor Who producer Barry Letts , serving as script editor on all of Letts's five seasons as series producer from 1970 to 1974. During his tenure as script editor on Doctor Who , Dicks oversaw
7110-411: The vampiric theme would clash with the plot of its new adaptation of Bram Stoker 's Count Dracula , which was due for transmission at roughly the same time, and replaced it with Horror of Fang Rock . His final Doctor Who script was " The Five Doctors " (1983), a feature-length episode for the programme's 20th anniversary. Dicks' other work for Doctor Who included two stage plays, Doctor Who and
7200-417: The work himself (although he also recruited other writers, including former Doctor Who actor Ian Marter and former series producer Philip Hinchcliffe ). On one occasion, he enlisted Robert Holmes to novelise his script for The Time Warrior , but when Holmes gave up after writing only one chapter, it was left to Dicks to complete the work. Dicks had better success in recruiting the original writers for
7290-472: The world. The United States Copyright Office , for example, defines copyright as "a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to authors of 'original works of authorship. ' " Some works are considered to be authorless. For example, the monkey selfie copyright dispute in the 2010s involved photographs taken by Celebes crested macaques using equipment belonging to
7380-450: Was a vegetarian, so many themes in the story were deliberately intended to represent his views about eating meat and slaughtering animals for consumption. When Doctor Who returned from hiatus in 1986, a new 14-episode story entitled The Trial of a Time Lord was conceived to span the entire length of the season. Holmes was asked to write the first four-part segment of the season, which he subtitled "The Mysterious Planet". Production of
7470-419: Was an episode of the detective series Bergerac , another show script-edited by Chris Boucher, transmitted in 1987. He did little work outside of television, although he did novelize his script of The Two Doctors for Target Books in 1986. It was the 100th Doctor Who novelization published by Target Books. Holmes' work on Doctor Who has been discussed in numerous DVD documentaries, most notably Behind
7560-586: Was commissioned to write the story which was originally set in New Orleans . However, Lionheart suddenly backed out, and a number of other locations were considered. The production team settled on shooting in Seville . Holmes found The Two Doctors a difficult story, as Nathan-Turner had insisted that the Sontarans appear in it. Like much of season 22, the story came under fire for violence and disturbing content. Holmes
7650-486: Was extended to become a six-parter when another story fell through. Holmes and Dicks got on very well, so when Dicks officially took over as script editor he frequently turned to Holmes for contributions. Holmes wrote Jon Pertwee 's debut serial as the Third Doctor, Spearhead from Space , in 1970. During the early 1970s he also wrote for another BBC science-fiction show, Doomwatch , as well as other programmes such as
7740-456: Was in 1965 that he first began writing in the science-fiction genre, when he contributed scripts to Undermind , a body-snatching drama from ITV . He also worked in film once, storylining the movie Invasion , several elements from which would later crop up in his 1970 Doctor Who serial Spearhead from Space , and which had also been inspired by Nigel Kneale 's 1955 Quatermass II serial. The same year, Holmes wrote on-spec an idea for
7830-467: Was not keen to go back to such strenuous work so quickly. Instead, he recommended writer Chris Boucher , who he had used on Doctor Who , to the Producer, and thus it was Boucher who in turn commissioned Holmes to write for the show. One of the most notorious moments in the series occurred in Holmes' episode "Orbit" in the fourth season of Blake's 7 , when Avon stalks Vila in a shuttle wanting to throw him off
7920-606: Was published in two volumes in August 2021. Dicks also wrote for the ATV soap opera Crossroads . He co-created and wrote for the short-lived BBC science-fiction TV series Moonbase 3 (1973), and wrote for the ITC science-fiction series Space: 1999 (1976). During the early 1980s, Dicks served once more as script editor to producer Barry Letts on the BBC's Sunday Classics strand of period dramas and literary adaptations. When Letts returned to directing in 1985, Dicks succeeded him as
8010-568: Was the only son of William, a tailor's salesman and Nellie (née Ambler), a waitress. His parents later ran a pub , the Fox and Hounds, in Forest Gate . He excelled in English at East Ham Grammar School and consumed literature ranging from classics to pulp thrillers and adventure stories. He won a scholarship to study English at Downing College, Cambridge , and later performed two years of national service in
8100-403: Was used as an anchor for interpreting a text, a practice which Barthes would argue is not a particularly relevant or valid endeavor. Expanding upon Foucault's position, Alexander Nehamas writes that Foucault suggests "an author [...] is whoever can be understood to have produced a particular text as we interpret it," not necessarily who penned the text. It is this distinction between producing
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