Line #55 Creator/TerryNation


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/terry_nation_1824.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:320:The ''real'' Davros.]]
3
4	Terence Joseph Nation (8 August 1930 – 9 March 1997) was a British writer and producer from UsefulNotes/{{Wales}}.
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6	His career break came in 1962, when he was commissioned to write material for Creator/TonyHancock – first for Hancock's unsuccessful series for Associated Television broadcast on Creator/{{ITV}} in 1963, and then his stage show. Although Nation accompanied Hancock as his chief screenwriter on tour in 1963, Hancock would regularly neglect Nation's scripts in favour of recycling his old material. Following an argument over this, Hancock fired Nation.
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8	He created two very well-known UK shows.
9	* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. He wrote every episode of the first series, and occasionally thereafter, gradually reducing his role until he did not write anything for the [[PostScriptSeason fourth and final series]].
10	* ''Series/{{Survivors}}''. An AfterTheEnd show, about the aftermath of a massive plague. Nation only worked on the first season, before leaving due to creative differences with the producer, Terence Dudley (who would also work on ''Series/DoctorWho''). He also wrote a novel adaptation, which formed the basis for [[Series/{{Survivors}} the 2008 reimagining]].
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12	His most famous creation, though, was the Daleks. He came up with the concept and wrote the original Dalek story for ''Series/DoctorWho'', while [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Cusick Raymond Cusick]] devised the iconic design. Contributing in a huge way to the show's longevity, Nation was asked to write several other stories over the years (with his writing contributions spanning from the show's first season in 1963 to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E1DestinyOfTheDaleks "Destiny of the Daleks"]], airing in 1979 to open Season 17) , all but two featuring the Daleks.
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14	Because of how character rights worked in BBC scriptwriters' contracts at the time, Nation maintained ownership of the Daleks himself, which he parlayed into a very successful run of annuals and comics during the "Dalekmania" of the Sixties. In later years, he barred Creator/TheBBC from publishing books about the Daleks that didn't have his story approval- the writer John Peel (not [[Creator/JohnPeel the DJ]]) was the only writer he allowed to novelise the Sixties Dalek serials (including the two actually written by Creator/DavidWhitaker), and the [[Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures Virgin New Adventures]] never did a Dalek novel at all (though they made some cameos).
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16	Even after his death, his estate maintains a tight hold on the Daleks and nearly scuttled the eponymous [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek Dalek]] episode of the revived series. The frequent claim that the Nation estate mandate the Daleks are obliged to appear at least once every year is a myth, though. The actual ownership situation is slightly complicated, because while the Nation estate owns the ''concept'', the designer Raymond Cusick was a [=BBC=] staffer, so the Beeb owns the visual design. The two parties have a gentleman's agreement to "share custody", as it were, and neither can do anything with the Daleks without the approval of the other.
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18	He also wrote for many other series, including ''Series/HancocksHalfHour'', ''Series/{{Out Of This World\|1962}}'', ''Series/OutOfTheUnknown'', ''Series/{{The Avengers\|1960s}}'', ''Series/{{The Champions\|1968}}'', ''Series/DepartmentS'', ''Series/ThePersuaders'', ''Series/TheSaint'', and ''Series/{{MacGyver\|1985}}''.
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20	!! Television episodes written by him with TV Tropes pages:
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22	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
23	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks The Daleks]]" (1963-64)
24	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E5TheKeysOfMarinus The Keys of Marinus]]" (1964)
25	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth The Dalek Invasion of Earth]]" (1964)
26	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E8TheChase The Chase]]" (1965)
27	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan The Daleks' Master Plan]]"[[note]]Episodes 1--5 and 7 only; the rest written by Creator/DennisSpooner[[/note]] (1965)
28	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E4PlanetOfTheDaleks Planet of the Daleks]]" (1973)
29	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E3DeathToTheDaleks Death to the Daleks]]" (1974)
30	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]" (1975)
31	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E4TheAndroidInvasion The Android Invasion]]" (1975)
32	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E1DestinyOfTheDaleks Destiny of the Daleks]]" (1979)
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34	* ''Series/BlakesSeven'':
35	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E1TheWayBack The Way Back]]" (1978)
36	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E2SpaceFall Space Fall]]" (1978)
37	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E3CygnusAlpha Cygnus Alpha]]" (1978)
38	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E4TimeSquad Time Squad]]" (1978)
39	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E5TheWeb The Web]]" (1978)
40	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E6SeekLocateDestroy Seek-Locate-Destroy]]" (1978)
41	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E7MissionToDestiny Mission to Destiny]]" (1978)
42	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E8Duel Duel]]" (1978)
43	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E9ProjectAvalon Project Avalon]]" (1978)
44	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E10Breakdown Breakdown]]" (1978)
45	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E11Bounty Bounty]]" (1978)
46	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E12Deliverance Deliverance]]" (1978)
47	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E13Orac Orac]]" (1978)
48	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E1Redemption Redemption]]" (1979)
49	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E5PressurePoint Pressure Point]]" (1979)
50	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E9Countdown Countdown]]" (1979)
51	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E1Aftermath Aftermath]]" (1980)
52	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E2Powerplay Powerplay]]" (1980)
53	** "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS3E13Terminal Terminal]]" (1980)
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55	!!This author provides examples of:
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57	* CrapsackWorld: His science-fiction stories often take place in these sorts of worlds/universes/governments.
58	* CreatorThumbprint:
59	** Characters named Tarrant.
60	** [[DeadpanSnarker Snarking. Lots of snarking.]]
61	** Villains [[ANaziByAnyOtherName who are basically just fantastical Nazis]].
62	** Plagues and biological warfare. Most notably in ''Series/{{Survivors}}'' but also used in many of his ''Doctor Who'' stories and at times in ''Series/BlakesSeven''.
63	** Evolution imagined as a [[GoalOrientedEvolution teleological force with predictable goals]].
64	** {{Man Eating Plant}}s and jungle warfare.
65	** [[invoked]] A very specific type of [[{{Padding}} narrative padding-out]] where a lot of screentime is spent on an attempted escape from captivity that is foiled at the last minute.
66	** TwistedAnkle:
67	--->'''Creator/TerranceDicks:''' He had a habit of falling into patterns. There were a lot of recurrent themes: people planting bombs, and being chased and spraining an ankle. In Terry's scripts, people were always spraining their ankles at moments of crisis.

Context Creator / TerryNation