Doctor Who: 10 Behind The Scenes Bust-Ups BBC Doesn't Want You To Know

9. Terrance Dicks Vs. Robert Holmes

Doctor Who John Barrowman Steven Moffat
BBC

A much more amicable falling out during the production of the classic series, the clash between Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes over the Fourth Doctor serial The Brain Of Morbius does have a happy ending, unlike many examples on this list.

Tasked with bringing the scripts for The Brain Of Morbius to life, Dicks took heavy inspiration from Mary Shelley's classic novel, Frankenstein. He wanted to write a story about a character called Morbius who crash-lands on a planet, forcing his robot servant to build him a new body using random parts from other creatures.

Once his scripts were finished, Dicks jetted off on holiday, and unfortunately, this is where his vision for The Brain Of Morbius took a major hit.

Unsatisfied with the story that Dicks had turned in (and concerned that it would be too expensive to produce) script editor Robert Holmes significantly altered Dicks' scripts, making lots of notable changes - including removing the robot servant entirely.

Naturally, Dicks wasn't too pleased when he read the revised scripts, and he demanded that his name be removed from the serial entirely. In response, Holmes credited the serial to "Robin Bland" - which, reportedly, Dicks was greatly amused by.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.