DOCTOR WHO COMPO Describe Doctor 11, Terrance Dicks Style

You could have your description of Matt Smith’s Doctor immortalised in a future BBC Doctor Who novel!

Here’s your chance to take part in

a competition that’ll let you make

your mark on the Doctor Who universe

Remember these?

They could be your inspiration to be immortalised in a future one of these…

Terrance Dicks is a legend. He is the Tome Lord. As well as script-editing Doctor Who during the Pertwee years, he used to write the vast majority of the classic series novelisations, and his clear, concise, no-nonsense style was unmistakable. He also became infamous for the stock descriptions he would use, such as “a wheezing, groaning sound” for the TARDIS materialising and his classic introductions for each of the Doctors. So much so, some of these phrases have passed into Doctor Who lore. Let’s refresh your memories…

• The First Doctor was, “a crotchety old man in a frock coat with long flowing white hair”
• The Second Doctor had, “baggy check trousers and a mop of untidy black hair”
• The Third Doctor had, “a shock of white hair, a hawk-like nose and an old/young face”
• The Fourth Doctor was, “a curly-haired man in a battered, broad-brimmed hat and an incredibly long scarf” with “a casual bohemian elegance"
• The Fifth Doctor had, “a slight, fair-haired figure with a pleasant, open face”

Which got us thinking. With BBC Books now releasing a brilliant range of all-new, totally original Eleventh Doctor novels, the new Doctor needs a Terrance Dicks-inspired description of his own. And SFX and BBC Books would like you to come up with it.

What will you pick up on? The bow tie? The chin? The dextrous fingers? The elbow patches? It’s up to you!

Terrance Dicks (it really seems like there should be a “Sir” in front of that) himself has agreed to judge the competition, and the prize is something quite unique: you get to see your phrase used in one of the future Eleventh Doctor books. How cool is that?

HOW TO ENTER: As the phrases need to be short and pithy, we’ve decided to run this competition through Twitter. So when you’ve composed you little snippet of literary genius, what you need to do is hop onto Twitter and message us @SFXmagazine with your entry - and be sure to include #SFXWHO at the end. That means you have 119 characters (unless you hate spaces) to compose your Terrance Dicks-style masterpiece of descriptive prose.

So, for example:

@SFXmagazine a curly-haired man in a battered, broad-brimmed hat and an incredibly long scarf with a casual bohemian elegance #SFXWHO

Sorry, but we can’t accept entries without #SFXWHO at the end. And no multiple entries, please!

The competition will run until the end of June. Have fun!