Terrance Dicks Describes...

THE DOCTOR:

That mysterious traveller in space and time known as the Doctor.

 

THE FIRST DOCTOR:

A white-haired proud-looking man in checked trousers, old fashioned boots and a frock-coat worn with a cravat and a high wing collar over which he wore a long fur-collared cloak fastened at the neck, a striped scarf and an oddly-shaped fur hat. His whole appearance, shabby, scholarly, with a pronounced nineteenth-century family solicitor feel to it. He appeared to be somewhere in his sixties, though in reality he was very much older. His old face was heavily lined and wrinkled, yet somehow alert and vital at the same time. The blue eyes were bright with fierce intelligence. The commanding beak of the nose gave the old man a haughty, imperious air. He was full of dignity, power, and a touch of cranky bad temper with more than a touch of ruthless cunning.

 

THE SECOND DOCTOR:

An odd-looking middle-aged little man in eccentric and colourful clothing: ill-fitting, shabby ancient frock coat, which he wore with a wide-collared white shirt and a straggly bow tie, and rather baggy and tattered check trousers supported by wide, elaborately patterned braces. Untidy black hair hung in a fringe over his deeply-lined whimsical face, his dark blue eyes seemed wise, gentle, funny and sad all at the same time. 

THE THIRD DOCTOR:

A tall, lean debonair man with bright blue eyes blazing with energy and intelligence out of a deeply-lined, curiously young-old handsome and autocratic face and a mane of prematurely-white hair. He wore narrow trousers, an elegant burgundy velvet smoking jacket with an open-necked ruffled shirt, under a rather flamboyant flowing checkered cloak.

 

THE FOURTH DOCTOR:

A very tall man with a tangled mop of wild curly hair and wide, staring bright blue eyes in a mobile intelligent face. He was untidily dressed in loose, comfortable Bohemian-looking clothes (coordinated in rich burgundy velvet), a long loose elegant tweed overcoat cut in a vaguely Edwardian style with an open-necked flannel shirt, gaily-checked waistcoat and corduroy trousers. An impossibly long multicoloured woolly scarf was wound around his neck and a battered, black broad-brimmed soft hat was jammed precariously on the back of his head.

 

THE FIFTH DOCTOR:

A slender, slightly-built, fair-haired young man with a pleasant open face, and an air of mildly-bemused curiosity and deceptively mild ingenuity about him. His clothes were those of a gentleman cricketer from Earth's Edwardian era: striped trousers, fawn frock-coat blazer with red piping, a white cricketing sweater in red and an open-necked shirt. There was a fresh sprig of celery in his lapel buttonhole.

 

THE SIXTH DOCTOR:

A tall, strongly built man with a slight tendency towards overweight. He had a roundish face, arrogant mouth full-lipped and sensual, crowned with an unruly mop of curly fair hair, with an obstinate chin and a jutting beak of a nose, with a broad high forehead and a hint of something catlike about the eyes. A solid, powerful figure exuding confidence, energy, strength and anger and assertiveness. His extravagant clothes included vivid yellow trousers, a multi-coloured coat in which reds, yellows, greens, purples and pinks fought for dominance and clashed horribly, a bright red flowing cravat with large white spots. The quietly-tasteful ensemble was finished off with green boots surmounted by orange spats.

 

THE SEVENTH DOCTOR:

An unimpressive figure, small, dark-haired and not-particularly handsome, his only distinctive feature was his penetrating keen grey eyes. His undistinguished clothes were some shabby check trousers, a brown sports jacket with a garish Fair Isle pullover. He wore a jaunty battered straw hat and clutched a red-handled umbrella.

 

THE EIGHTH DOCTOR:

A tall, extraordinarily-handsome, piercingly-blue-eyed man with longish brown curly hair wearing old-fashioned, vaguely-Edwardian clothes: a long velvet coat, a wing-collared white shirt and a grey velvet cravat, an ornately embroidered waistcoat, and tailored grey trousers. He looked handsome, dashing and elegant. 

 

THE TENTH DOCTOR:

A tall, thin, youngish man with untidy dark hair wearing a rather scruffy pinstriped suit.

SUSAN:

A slender, pretty girl of about sixteen, tall for her age, wearing denim dungarees. She had short dark hair framing a rather elfin face and big dark eyes.

IAN:

A cheerful-looking open-faced young man somewhere in his twenties in the traditional sports jacket and flannels of the schoolmaster, complete with collar and tie and a handkerchief in the top pocket.

BARBARA:

A slim dark-haired young woman somewhere in her twenties in slacks and a crisp white blouse, with a face that would have been even prettier without being set in her habitual expression of mild disapproval. No child would have been very surprised to learn that she was, or rather had been, a school teacher.

 

BEN:

A tough-looking young Cockney sailor in jeans and a check shirt.

POLLY:

A strikingly pretty girl with long blonde hair, wearing a very long jacket and a very short skirt in some light-coloured material, the outfit completed by high white boots.

JAMIE:

A pleasant-looking, brawny truculent young Scottish Highlander wearing a dark shirt and a battledress tunic over a kilt.

VICTORIA:

A small, dark girl wearing the long, flowing dresses of her own age.

ZOE:

A very small, very neat, very precise girl with with a fringe of short dark hair over an attractive elfin, pixie-like face wearing the simple, functional clothes of her time, all in shining colourful plasticloth.

THE BRIGADIER:

A tall man with a clipped military moustache, wearing the immaculate uniform of a Brigadier.

BENTON:

A tall, burly handsome young soldier. A fine figure in military uniform, completely fearless and utterly loyal.

LIZ:

Extremely intelligent, and good-looking in a rather severe sort of way, she was serious-looking young woman with reddish-brown auburn hair, wearing a blue jacket, a rather incongruously frivolous-looking mini-skirt, and a bright red blouse.

JO:

A very small, very pretty fair-haired blue-eyed girl trendily-dressed in high boots and a striped woolen mini-dress, who looked as if she should still be at school.

 

YATES:

A tall, fair-haired, thin-faced young army officer, a good deal tougher than he looked.

SARAH:

An attractive, slender dark-haired girl wearing fashionable casual, late twentieth-century clothes.

HARRY:

A handsome broad-shouldered young brawny man conventionally dressed in blazer and flannels. His handsome face with its square jaw, frank blue eyes, curly hair and hearty manner, gave him the rather dated good looks of the hero of an old-fashioned Boy’s Own Paper adventure yarn.

LEELA:

She was tall and strong, with brown eyes and long reddish-brown hair, a broad clear forehead and a firm chin. She wore a brief costume of animal skins exposing arms and legs that were brown and smoothly muscular. She moved with panther-like grace and her hand was never far from the heavy fighting knife in her belt.

K9:

A small mobile computer who just happened to look like a sort of squared-off metal dog with a computer display screen for eyes, disc aerials for ears, a long thin antenna for a tail, and a strip of computer-printout
papers sprouting from its mouth rather like a very long tongue. The electronic voice was gruff and metallic.

ROMANA I:

A tall, dark-haired, elegantly beautiful young woman wearing a simple classical dress.

ROMANA II:

Aristocratically beautiful, she was a small, neatly-dressed and thoroughly-composed young woman with long fair hair above an impressively high-domed forehead and, quite unconsciously, a haughtily superior air.

ADRIC:

A smallish, dark-haired, snub-nosed, round-faced young man in a yellow tunic, wearing an expression of cheerful impudence.

NYSSA:

A brown-haired girl with fine, rather aristocratic features wearing a kind of velvet trouser-suit with elaborately puffed sleeves. The product of a highly technological society, and a bio-electronics expert in her own right.

TEGAN: 

An small, slender attractive Australian girl with close-cropped dark auburn hair. She wore (a) uniform skirt and blouse (b) shorts, matching jacket, and a camisole top (c) a vivid, rainbow-coloured dress. She was an
Australian air-hostess, whose involvement with the Doctor had taken her on journeys far beyond the routes of any airline.

TURLOUGH:

Thin-faced, red-haired, and good-looking in a faintly untrustworthy way, he wore the dark blazer, flannels, and straggly striped tie of the perpetual public schoolboy. There was something a little off-key about Turlough, a hint of the shifty and unreliable. He looked as if he might be the school bully – or the school sneak.

PERI:

An attractive, dark-haired young American woman, her piquant features framed in short dark hair.

ACE:

A tall round-faced girl with dark brown hair, wearing a badge-covered bomber jacket.

MARTHA:

An attractive dark-skinned young girl.

THE TARDIS EXTERIOR:

The incongruous shape of an old London police box used for a time on the planet Earth, a rectangular blue affair with small square windows set high in the sides and a blue light flashing busily on top. Above the door were the words Police Box in white lettering, with Public Call sandwiched between in smaller letters. Four square and solid, the battered call box looked sad and lost and completely out of place.

THE TARDIS INTERIOR:

An impossibly-huge brightly-lit ultra-modern oddly-shaped control room, dominated by a complex many-sided control console in the centre, an affair of complicated-looking instrument panels covered with a complex array of knobs, switches, levers and dials, all arranged around a transparent centre column, itself packed with glowing electronic circuitry. Various odds and ends were dotted about the gleaming room: a hatstand, a number old-fashioned chairs, some rather odd-looking statues like some kind of bird on top of a tall column.

THE NOISE THE TARDIS MAKES:

A strange, unearthly mechanical wailing roar, a wheezing and groaning like the sound of some powerful but rather ancient engine creaking into life.

THE WAR CHIEF MASTER:

A tall, dark, satanically-handsome young man with a long thin moustache and a harsh, grating voice.

THE MAGISTER MASTER:

A medium-sized, compactly but powerfully-built figure with a sallow complexion, a darkly-handsome face with heavy eyebrows, deep-set burning eyes radiating energy and power, and a neatly-trimmed pointed black beard. He wore a neat dark suit, with a high-collared jacket and his voice was deep and cultured hypnotic voice, full of authority, with a tinge of some unidentifiable accent.

THE MELKUR MASTER:

A loathsome cloaked and hooded figure that was both wizened and decayed, the ravaged body as worn out as the tattered robes so all that was left was a wasted, walking corpse, twisted and malformed. The cracked, wizened skin was stretched tight over the skull, one eye almost closed, the other wide open and glaring madly from the crumbling ruin of a face and blackened, bloodless lips drew back in a ghastly chuckle. The voice was a deep, sibilant rasp, sinister and silky. One skeletal claw-like hand reached out that might have belonged to a mummified corpse, withered skin stretched tight across the bones.

THE TREMAS MASTER:

A tall figure, elegant in black velvet, his arrogantly handsome features set off by a neatly pointed black beard and short gloss black hair. The blackness of clothes, hair and beard contrasted with the whiteness of his skin. The deep musical voice had an insolently amused undertone like the purr of a great black cat.

THE VALEYARD:

A tall, lean, gaunt-faced figure, somber and malignant, wearing the long cloak, high-collared tunic and skull-cap-like helmet of a Time Lord Court official. He had a deep, harshly resonant voice that rolled the legal jargon around his tongue with all the relish of a gourmet savouring a perfect meal.

DALEKS:

There was a whirring sound a gleaming metal creature with a rounded base. The squat body was constructed of heavily studded metal panels in a pepper-pot shape. A metal arm with a curious sucker-like tip jutted from the front and next to that was a gun stick. The top was a dome from which projected a constantly-swiveling eye-lens on a kind of metal stalk. The metallic screeching voice was harsh and grating.

DAVROS:

The shattered, ruined remnant of what had once been a man, slumped back in a kind of elaborate wheelchair that moved under its own power, speaking in a harsh rusty voice, filteredfiltered through some mechanical reproduction to be almost inhuman. The withered old husk of a body was wrapped in a high-collared plastic coverall, and surrounded by what looked like an astonishing variety of life-support systems. Only one hand was visible, a withered claw hovering constantly over a set of controls built into the wide arm of the chair. The face was the most horrifying thing of all: parchment-thin skin clung to to the outlines of a shriveled skull, the eyes were blank sunken pits, the mouth a thin, cruel lipless gash. Wires and plastic tubes formed a helmet-like arrangement suspended over the head, supporting a single lens that rested in the center of the forehead. . The man could have been only barely alive, more machine than man. Lungs, heart, speech, hearing, sight—everything must have been mechanically or electronically aided. Helpless in his chair, Davros should have been pitiful. Instead, he was terrifying. You could almost feel the burning intelligence, the powerful, inflexible will that radiated from the crippled form.

CYBERMEN:

Giant silver figures, seven foot tall or more, with terrifyingly blank masks parodying human faces with, small round circles for eyes and thin letter-box slits for mouths. Above the forehead was what looked like some kind of lamp, two handle-like projections took the place of ears, and a complicated chest-unit occupied the front of the massive bodies. There was no real difference between helmet and body and clothes, all made out of the same uniform silvery material that might have been either metal or plastic. Immensely strong, they were passionless, emotionless, tireless, and almost invulnerable, interested only in power and in conquest. There were weapons in the Cyberman’s hands, plain foot-long metal rods with white cylinders on the end. There was no emotion in the mechanical voice. Cybermen do not have feelings.

ICE WARRIORS:

A towering giant, its massive body covered with scaly green hide that was ridged and plated like that of a crocodile. Its huge helmet-like head, ridged at the crown, showed a lipless scaly-skinned lower jaw, and its two insectoid huge eyes were like blank, black, glass screens. Its huge hands were like crude, powerful clamps, which had built onto its top a kind of tubular nozzle. Although equally large, the Ice Lord was built on slenderer, more graceful lines than his tank-like troops. He moved more easily, and in particular his mouth and jaw were differently made, less of a piece with the helmet-like head. While the other Ice Warriors grunted and hissed in monosyllables, the Ice Lord spoke clearly and fluently, though there was still the characteristic Martian sibilant voice.

SONTARANS:

They were short and squat with immensely wide shoulders, broad powerful limbs, and great dome-shaped helmets atop massive metal neck collars with matching shining silvery armour. They gave an impression of tremendous, compact power and spoke in strangely-accented English. The leader of the three figures removed his helmet to reveal a face from some ancient nightmare. The head was huge and round and it seemed to emerge directly from the massive shoulders. The hairless skull was greeny-brown and small red eyes were set deep in cavernous sockets. The nose was a snubby pig-like snout, the wide mouth a long lipless slit. It was a face from one of Earth’s dark legends, the face of a goblin or a troll.

JUDOON:

Massive figures marching in strict military formation wearing gleaming black battle armour, long metal-studded leather tunics, huge boots, belts hung with weapons and enormous black domed helmets.It held a blaster in its gloved fist and from within the dark helmet came a deep, rumbling voice. The impressive enormous head with thick grey, ridged skin like that of a rhino. There were two horns, the higher one small, the lower larger, jutting from the centre of the face. The nostrils were flared, and the wide lipless mouth covered rows of yellow teeth that looked like tombstones. Two funny little ears crowned the high, domed forehead. Most striking of all were the slanting brown eyes that were strangely intelligent and somehow sad.

SILURIANS:

Immensely tall, robed figures with brown-skin, with great crested heads and huge bulging eyes. Their reptilian origin was evidenced in their slow, almost stately movements and coldly-measured, calm and dignified deep speech-tones.

SEA DEVILS:

Man-shaped, immensely tall, with tough corrugated scaly skin, a reptilian blunt-snouted head and great staring eyes, the creature wore some kind of armoured jerkin. One mighty clawed hand help up a circular torch-like device. Simpler and more streamlined than their Silurian cousins, they were also more savage - their innate ferocity made them terrifying opponents.

YETI:

A giant shaggy robot-beast well over seven feet tall, but its immensely broad body made it seem squat and lumpy. It had two huge clawed furry feet, the huge hands of a gorilla, the savage yellow fangs and fierce red eyes of a grizzly bear. It let out a low, sinister bloodthirsty growl and a sudden, shattering roar...

ZYGONS:

Squat, powerful figure about the size of a small man. Orange-green in colour, it had small, claw-like hands and feet. There was no neck: the big high-domed head seemed to grow directly from the bulbous torso. The face was terrifyingly alien, with huge, malevolent green eyes and a small, puckered mouth. A row of protuberances ran down its back. When it spoke, its voice had a hissing, gurgling quality. The really horrible thing about the creature was that it seemed to be a grotesque, evil baby.