I got cornered at a Con chatting to Terrance. One of hose odd meetings - I'd seem Jeremy Bentham and a whole load of the old DWAS crowd I hadn't seen for 20 years standing in a group chatting, so I bounced over and said hello, only to discover that I'd just supplanted Terrance as the object of interest. Terrance looked rather bemused as it was explained that the sudden change of focus and ooing and cooing was due to the 20 year absence - so he enquired what I did 'Oh I'm a writer'. 'Oh really! Says Terrance, eyes lighting up as he starts to chat away about scripts and publishers' . 'Oh I don't mean your tupe of writing Terrance, I don't do originality - I write software manauls, everything is written to a strictly prescribed formula where you success is measured in just how bland and predictable your text is
( ... )
I have met Terrance, and he really is a nice guy; as is Barry Letts. ISTR, though, that Barry made a better fist of novelising a Who story (“The Dæmons”, I think) than Terrance did; but, of course, Terrance did so many and I think his apporach was to try to get across the feel of the story as a viewer would have got it.
There are plenty of authors whose text is bland and predictable without the excuse of their having to adapt a visual work (or being the authors of technical manuals). (John Gardner comes to mind.) Reading Timewyrm: Exodus did make me wish Terrance had the chance to write more original material.
Some of those early Targets he novelised are pretty good (given the constraints of the format). Day of the Daleks seems stronger than the episodes, and when not churning them out he didn't do too badly with the later Pertwees he novelised (Inferno, Mind of Evil). I agree though with The Daemons. It was the second Target I bought (couldn't resist Azal on the cover) and it and Gerry Davis's The Cybermen travelled with me everywhere for a while.
Even when he's really bad (Warmonger - can't be certain I remember the name correctly?) he keeps the pages turning.
Yes, some of the time he did a decent job, and they were never boring. Well, the odd strange wheezing and grinding sound apart. ;o)
I can't remember too many details of most of the novelisations now. The ones that stuck in my mind were David Whitaker's ones (which were ones I read in hardback, from the library!), The Daemons because it seemed to be approached as a book rather than just a transcription, and The Zarbi because it was so boring, it had none of the magic of The Web Planet. Of Terrance Dicks's novelisations, I always thought he was best with Pertwee's stories, presumably because he knew them and that Doctor better than the others.
The Cybermen: that was based on The Moonbase, wasn't it? ISTR it had an Invasion Cyberman on the cover, which annoyed me at the time. I found it disappointing (The Moonbase was one of my favourite stories).
Warmonger does not ring a bell (which does not mean you are wrong!).
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I have met Terrance, and he really is a nice guy; as is Barry Letts. ISTR, though, that Barry made a better fist of novelising a Who story (“The Dæmons”, I think) than Terrance did; but, of course, Terrance did so many and I think his apporach was to try to get across the feel of the story as a viewer would have got it.
There are plenty of authors whose text is bland and predictable without the excuse of their having to adapt a visual work (or being the authors of technical manuals). (John Gardner comes to mind.) Reading Timewyrm: Exodus did make me wish Terrance had the chance to write more original material.
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Even when he's really bad (Warmonger - can't be certain I remember the name correctly?) he keeps the pages turning.
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I can't remember too many details of most of the novelisations now. The ones that stuck in my mind were David Whitaker's ones (which were ones I read in hardback, from the library!), The Daemons because it seemed to be approached as a book rather than just a transcription, and The Zarbi because it was so boring, it had none of the magic of The Web Planet. Of Terrance Dicks's novelisations, I always thought he was best with Pertwee's stories, presumably because he knew them and that Doctor better than the others.
The Cybermen: that was based on The Moonbase, wasn't it? ISTR it had an Invasion Cyberman on the cover, which annoyed me at the time. I found it disappointing (The Moonbase was one of my favourite stories).
Warmonger does not ring a bell (which does not mean you are wrong!).
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I read the book when it was first published, and that is pretty much what I thought at the time!
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