Terrance Dicks was born in East Ham, London, probably in 1939. He attended the East Ham Grammar School and later Downing College, Cambridge. He then served two years in the army. After his discharge he became an advertising copywriter—a job that lasted five years. In 1968, after selling some free-lance scripts to radio and television shows, he became the script editor for the "Doctor Who" television series, replacing Derrick Sherwin.

Dicks worked on the last few Doctor Who stories that featured the second actor to play the Doctor, Patrick Troughton, beginning with "Fury from the Deep." When Troughton left the series, there was doubt about whether the BBC would renew it for another season. But the third actor to play the Doctor, Jon Pertwee, proved to be very popular, and the show stayed on the air.

Dicks remained as script editor for all of...