"Lord Aukon has seen the sign!"

Save me from "The Wasting", an early title for the story "State of Decay" by Terrance Dicks. A story that almost never got made as the BBC Drama department had stopped Doctor Who originally doing a vampire story a few years earlier because they were producing Dracula.

But it became part of the E-Space trilogy and introduced the Time Lords vs the Great Vampires mythology to the series, which has since ben picked up in the novels and on audio.

Here joining the tapestry are the 'Three Who Rule", formerly Captain Miles Sharky, Navigation Officer Lauren MacMillan and Science Officer Anthony O'Connor who were better known as King Zargo, Queen Camilla and their councillor Lord Aukon.

 

Here are a few of the work in progress and initial sketch markings that were guides for stitching

RIP Terrance Dicks

I remember one time at school being sent to read for the headmistress, a short while later a message was delivered to my parents that they were surprised to hear a kid my age reading with inflection. But should you really be surprised? I wanted to read, I had a desire to read, especially because that way I could enjoy more Doctor Who adventures. These were the days long before videos. We had Target novels and these brought that lost world of adventure back to life and that was the life force I got from those novels.

So many of those were written by the one and only Terrance Dicks, known to most on the fan circuit as Uncle Terrance. Over the years I’ve the pleasure to meet and thank him for encouraging me to want to read, for the work he did, and I am not the only Doctor Who fan of a certain age that would be in queue of people to credit him with being a vital part of their education.

I had the pleasure, as well, of being his guest’s assistant at several events through the years and had many wonderful hours chatting with him between signings and photo shoots. Not only that, having been born in East Ham he was not that far removed from my own origin of Dagenham.

Thank you once again Terrnace Dicks, my thoughts are for you and with your family.

 RIP Terrance Dicks (1935 – 2019)