Announcing the Terrance Dicks World Cup!

BBC Books is to publish a hardback collection of Target novelisations by the late Terrance Dicks next year – and they need your help with the selection.

BBC Books will publish a commemorative single-volume Collected Works of the late Terrance Dicks in 2020. The lavish hardback will include some of the Doctor Who legend’s most popular titles from the Target range, a list to which he contributed over 60 books. How do you choose the best, though?

How does The Abominable Snowmen rate against Genesis of the Daleks? Do you leave out The Planet of the Spiders to make room for The Auton Invasion? What about The Three Doctors? With so many to choose from, BBC Books need some expert advice from the fans!

From Monday 18 November Doctor Who fans can vote on social media for their favourite works by Terrance Dicks to be included in the collection.

Terrance Dicks became Script Editor of Doctor Who in 1968, co-writing Patrick Troughton’s classic final serial, The War Games, and editing the show throughout the entire Jon Pertwee era to 1974.

He wrote many iconic episodes and serials for the show, including Tom Baker's first episode as the Fourth Doctor, Robot; Horror of Fang Rock in 1977; State of Decay in 1980; and the 20th anniversary special, The Five Doctors in 1983.

Many fans remember his contribution to the universe of Doctor Who through the Target novelisations, adaptations of classic television serials onto book form. In total, he novelised over sixty of them, and his books fill the shelves in many Doctor Who fans’ homes.

The World Cup of Terrance Dicks will take place over five days on the Doctor Who BBC Books Twitter account (@DWBBCBooks). 64 of Terrance’s Doctor Who novelisations will be sorted into 16 groups of 4, and each day fans can vote to get closer to a final winner. The book will then be based around the 10 novels that make it to the top of the tournament. Fans can keep track of the tournament through the hashtag #TerranceDicksWorldCup.

A full list of titles in their respective groups can be found below:

Group A

• The Auton Invasion (1974)
• Terror of the Autons (1975)
• The Abominable Snowmen (1974)
• An Unearthly Child (1981)

Group B

• The Planet of the Spiders (1975)
• The Planet of the Daleks (1976)
• The Planet of Evil (1977)
• Planet of Giants (1990)

Group C

• The Destiny of the Daleks (1979)
• The Day of the Daleks (1974)
• The Genesis of the Daleks (1976)
• Death to the Daleks (1978)

Group D

• The Brain of Morbius (1977)
• The Mind of Evil (1985)
• The Face of Evil (1977)
• The Hand of Fear (1979)

Group E

• The Carnival of Monsters (1977)
• The Time Monster (1985)
• The Monster of Peladon (1980)
• The Loch Ness Monster (1976)

Group F

• The Three Doctors (1975)
• The Five Doctors (1983)
• Four to Doomsday (1983)
• The Keeper of Traken (1982)

Group G

• Ambassadors of Death (1987)
• The Seeds of Death (1986)
• The Robots of Death (1979)
• The Smugglers (1988)

Group H

• The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977)
• The Claws of Axos (1977)
• The Horns of Nimon (1980)
• The Sun Makers (1982)

Group I

• The Image of the Fendahl (1979)
• The Invisible Enemy (1979)
• The Faceless Ones (1986)
• The Mutants (1977)

Group J

• Kinda (1983)
• Snakedance (1984)
• The Giant Robot (1975)
• The Androids of Tara (1980)

Group K

• Arc of Infinity (1983)
• The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet (1987)
• The Wheel in Space (1988)
• The Space Pirates (1990)

Group L

• The Caves of Androzani (1984)
• The Pyramids of Mars (1976)
• The Stones of Blood (1980)
• The Power of Kroll (1980)

Group M

• The Revenge of the Cybermen (1976)
• The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1977)
• The Android Invasion (1978)
• The Invasion of Time (1980)

Group N

• The Horror of Fang Rock (1978)
• The Nightmare of Eden (1980)
• The Web of Fear (1976)
• The State of Decay (1981)

Group O

• The Time Warrior (1978)
• Warriors of the Deep (1984)
• The Armageddon Factor (1980)
• The Krotons (1985)

Group P

• The Deadly Assassin (1977)
• Inferno (1984)
• Underworld (1980)
• Meglos (1983)

Keep an eye on the #TerranceDicksWorldCup on Twitter from Monday 18 November, and get voting!