I've not heard that at all about Terrance Dicks. What's your source?
A Doctor Who forum. Assuming the poster there discussing the hiatus was actually and factually correct, but he's written numerous novels for the franchise and seems to know a bit more about the history than most people there - enough where I'd lean toward believing him, though on the flip side he hasn't written any nonfiction material so a grain of salt might be in order? I hadn't heard about Dicks' offering to produce, much less his exasperated quote of "Well if JNT's so hopeless just put me on it", until recently -- he was turned down, but he had done a fair bit of television production so it's not implausible... Of course, all that doesn't mean the poster's info I embraced is correct, but I'd believe him more than believing any old relayed anecdote - there's a fun bit of recursion right there...
Found it:
https://gallifreybase.com/gb/threads/jnts-history-with-the-show.295047/#post-12878290
DW was an extra hard series to produce. Small budgets, tight deadlines, the need to use cutting edge technology, stories that often didn't take place on Earth, etc. all made it a tough show to produce. Letts didn't want to produce it (he wanted to be a director) but the BBC pushed him into producing it and Letts said it was because no one else wanted too.
Letts was a visionary and a creative one. Early CSO did have issues as they were learning by the seat of their pants. Not until "Underworld" did they make massive headway with filtering out the halo, but I've seen American productions circa 1969 that aren't as bad with halo, though the technology was very new either way, and the UK probably developed its own technology (PAL, not NTSC or others) independently... either which way, just getting the basic idea across was all that mattered. Keep visual timing tight enough and even that dinosaur episode doesn't fall as badly as it might otherwise do. Even then, the best effects will date so it's still best to have a meatier plot with robust acting than relying solely on visual styles. IMHO.
Letts was a class act and in so many ways. Didn't know he didn't want to make it either, but his era is memorable and his interviews on the DVD releases are fantastic... (I recall from one of the season 18 DVDs that his involvement in it isn't all that much, surprisingly. Season 18 feels more like season 11 or 12 with more STEM-centric ideas thrown in (at a high level, of course.))
Fact is, BBC told JNT that if he left DW would end. And, when he decided to leave, it ended.
Very true. That's well-documented.
Both a curse and a blessing, I'm glad the final years ago made - even if they're uneven. The core scripts show exactly what was needed in terms of improved storytelling. What's even more sad is JNT drinking himself to death, and why... I recall reading of liver failure via alcoholism from various books, but I didn't expect to stumble upon - of all things - TV Tropes:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/JohnNathanTurner
A long term drinker and smoker, this ultimately developed into full-blown alcoholism, leading to his health failing in his waning years; he died of an infection at the age of 54 in 2002
No one wanted to produce it.
I believe there was one other person. Clive Doig I believe was his name (??), but "Paradise Towers" contains an interview with him saying he wanted to make the show as well. (I know he'd worked with McCoy in casting, but maybe his contributions were limited to just casting and I'm not remembering it right... time for me to whip out the DVD since I not only want to see that story again along with most of season 24, but this could be an example of "the memory cheats". Unless it doesn't, in which case there were two people claiming they wanted to make it as response to another claim nobody wanted to make it...)
