Tag: Terrance Dicks

The Ghost Grabbers

The Ghost Grabbers

by Terrance Dicks (Blackie, 1980)

Book cover: “The Ghost Grabbers” by Terrance Dicks (Blackie, 1980)

After much build-up as to how realistic the so-called hauntings are, the ease of their fabrication is then glossed over. The multifaceted misdirection is clever enough so far as MG goes, but the scheme is at once painfully transparent and laughably overcomplicated.

Star Quest: Terrorsaur!

Star Quest: Terrorsaur!

by Terrance Dicks (W. H. Allen, 1981)

Dicks_Terrorsaur

Dicks concludes his Star Quest trilogy with a fast-moving but inconsequential adventure. The young protagonists are reunited with their friends from the first book and defeat the same enemies—hapless space supremacists—thanks to some guff about a possibly sentient planet-wide ecology.

 

 

The Fagin File

The Fagin File

by Terrance Dicks (Blackie & Son, 1978)

Dicks_Fagin File

A slight, rather hurried volume, even by Dicks’s standards. The narrative chops about more than it did in the first Baker Street Irregulars mystery, and the investigation is something of a doddle. For a middle-grade adventure, though, the stakes are surprisingly adult.

 

 

Star Quest: Roboworld

Star Quest: Roboworld

by Terrance Dicks (W. H. Allen, 1979)

Dicks_Roboworld

Dicks once again borrowed heavily from 1970s Doctor Who in scripting this middle-grade adventure of human outcasts, robot sentience, deranged scientists and plucky rebellion. This second book in the trilogy is more assured than the first, though never reaching any great heights.

 

 

Dr. Ninth

Dr. Ninth

by Adam Hargreaves (BBC, 2017)

Hargreaves_Dr Ninth

As if inspired by a particularly insipid Terrance Dicks novelisation, Hargreaves doesn’t so much attempt a mash-up here as a clumsy retelling of Rose’s first story. The text is belaboured and even the pictures offer little. Jack Harkness is a middling highpoint.

 

 

Derelict Space Sheep