Doctor Who: The Earth Adventures 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 after, including Tom Baker's first episode as the Fourth Doctor, Robot; Horror at Fang Rock in 1977; State of Decay in 1980; and the 20th anniversary special, The Five Doctors in 1983. Terrance novelised over sixty of the original Doctor Who stories for Target books, including classics like Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen and Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion, inspiring a generation of children to become readers and writers. He died in August 2019, only weeks before the publication of his final Doctor Who short story, ‘Save Yourself’, in The Target Storybook.

Born in Wimbledon in the early 1950s, Marcus Platt attended technical college to learn catering before giving up a job with Trust House Forte to work at the BBC on the administrative side, involved in the cataloguing of data regarding the BBC’s radio output followed by a post as a selector in the BBC’s Sound Archives. He was a Doctor Who fan from the programme’s start, which led him to become a member of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society and a contributor to fanzines and Doctor Who Magazine. He submitted a number of ideas to the series towards the end of its initial run. One of these eventually became Ghost Light (1989). He went on to adapt his own story and Ben Aaronovitch’s scripts for Battlefield for the Target range of novelisations. He wrote two original novels for Virgin (Cat’s Cradle: Time’s Crucible, 1992; Lungbarrow, 1997). He also penned the spin-off video Downtime, featuring the Brigadier, Sarah Jane Smith, Professor Travers and the Yeti, and novelised his script of this production for Virgin in 1996. Platt continues to contribute to the Doctor Who universe with several audio scripts for Big Finish’s range of plays and entries in a number of short story anthologies also published by Big Finish. He has also written for the 2007 audio revival of Blake’s 7. His audio story Spare Parts was the inspiration behind the 2006 Doctor Who television story Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel, for which Platt received an on-screen credit, although he himself did not write the teleplay. Author biography by David J. Howe, author of The Target Book, the complete illustrated guide to the Target Doctor Who novelisations.

Marc Platt wrote the TV Doctor Who story Ghost Light first broadcast in 1989. He has written many Doctor Who audio plays for Big Finish Productions including Loups-Garoux, Spare Parts, Cradle of the Snake, The Silver Turk. Auld Mortality, A Storm of Angels and The Doctor’s Tale. He also dramatised two stories by former Doctor Who producer Philip Hinchcliffe: The Ghosts of Gralstead and The Devil’s Armada (both with Tom Baker). He has recently dramatised The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for audio. Blake’s 7 audio plays include Flag and Flame, The Sea of Iron and Drones. He is a published author with several TV tie-in novels and short stories to his name.