Doctor Who Exhibitions in Scotland
Barry Letts & Terrance Dicks at the Dunfermline exhibition
![[Image: Barry Letts & Terrance Dicks]](images/dunf/bltd.jpeg)
Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks visited the exhibition on August 24th, holding two question and answer sessions, each followed by an opportunity for the assembled fans to get their autograph and chat to them. These men together saw Doctor Who through a difficult period when the production moved to colour for the first time, and a new, Earthbound Doctor was introduced; their years running the series are widely seen as one of its golden ages.
Barry Letts, who was an actor before moving to the other side of the camera, had directed on Doctor Who (“The Enemy of the World”, shown 1967–68) before being asked to take over as producer from late 1969. He produced the series from “Doctor Who and the Silurians” to “Robot” — i.e. from Jon Pertwee’s second story to Tom Baker’s first. During this period he also co-wrote “The Dæmons”, one of the favourite stories of many who watched the programme at the time.
Terrance Dicks’s association with the programme as script editor was slightly longer, beginning towards the end of Patrick Troughton’s tenure as the Doctor and continuing until “Robot”. He is also well-known as the author of many of the novelisations based on the series — until the video era, the only way the series’s old stories could be experienced again. For the programme’s 20th anniversary in 1983 he wrote the special adventure, “The Five Doctors”, which featured most of the surviving Doctors.
Every question from every fan, young and old, got a thoughtful answer from both guests
The question and answer sessions were well-attended, and the relaxed manner in which both men talked to the fans impressed everyone. Talking of the period when they took over the programme, they recalled that there was some doubt about the programm’s future. Barry recalled that Nigel Kneale had been approached by the BBC with a view to possibly writing a new Quatermass serial; in the end, Doctor Who continued, but the new series did have a very Quatermass-like feel.
While Terrance & Barry sign autographs, a young fan gets the chance to climb inside a Dalek
As well as signing autographs, both Barry & Terrance were only too happy to chat with the fans
In response to a question about political points in the programme, both Terrance and Barry said that they had usually not tried to get a message over, they simply tried to tell a story — but they always told writers, Barry explained, that each story should have some sort of point. There was one story, though, which had been written with a message in mind: “The Green Death” was their response to learning of the dangers the world was facing from pollution.
Asked about the stories they were most pleased with, Barry cited “The Dæmons”, which he said he had written in part to show how he felt a Doctor Who story should be written. Terrance expressed his pleasure at having written “The Five Doctors” because it was good to bring together all those characters from the show’s history. He recalled that he took particular delight in introducing the Cybermen — a particular favourite of the then script editor, Eric Saward — to beef up Jon Pertwee’s scenes only to then have them slaughtered by the Raston Robot. He also told of how, when he was writing the special, he was visiting a school in Glasgow. He had barely explained that the new story would feature all the Doctors when a small boy exclaimed, “Ye’ll no get Wiliam Hartnell — he’s deid!”
The subject of the Paul McGann TV movie was raised, and both Barry and Terrance said that the producers had got the single most important thing right: the casting of the Doctor. They did express some reservations about the story, however, commenting on the ease with which the Master got into the Doctor’s Tardis — and why was there a torture chamber in there? Barry commented that the notion of being able to fix anything simply by moving back in time was one which would make nonsense of any plot — this had, of course, been the reason why they had introduced the “Blinovitch Limitation Effect” in “Day of the Daleks”.
The fans who turned up on a sweltering day to see Terrance and Barry (or in one case, just Barry: “Wow! I had no idea Terrance Dicks would be here too!” the delighted fan exclaimed) were not disappointed. The special guests talked easily with everyone, young and old, and if there was anything wrong with their appearance it was only that it was so short; it was a real privilege to have them visit the exhibition.
The fans begin to gather for the question and answer session
Barry & Terrance easily kept the whole room riveted
Terrance gives a typically thoughtful answer to a question
After the session, the crowd of fans examines the exhibits
One of the many fans who queued to get the guests’ autographs
