Terrance Dicks, one of the original writers of the Doctor Who series, passed away at the age of 84. Dicks has been associated with the long-running sci-fi show from as early as the late 1960s. He wrote the episodes till the early 1980s. He also served as its script editor from 1968 to 1974 and wrote over 60 Doctor Who novels.

Apart from his work on Doctor Who, Dicks also worked on shows  like The Avengers, and produced adaptions of literary classics such as Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, and Vanity Fair.

Neil Gaiman, who went onto pen episodes of Doctor Who, tweeted, "I remember reading his and Malcolm Hulke's book The Making of Doctor Who when I was 11 or 12, and deciding then that I would one day write an episode of Doctor Who, because they had shown me how. RIP Terrance Dicks."

Dicks was born in East Ham, East London, and studied English at Cambridge University before going into television writing. The father of three is survived by them, and his wife, Elsa.