Who's Next?: a Memoir

by Derrick Sherwin

In a long and varied career, Derrick Sherwin has been an actor, writer, script editor, TV producer… and also a house builder and renovator, bar owner, restaurateur and bungee-jump proprietor! In 1968 he joined the production team of Doctor Who as assistant story editor during the Patrick Troughton era, and went on to become the programme’s script editor and eventually its producer. During this time Sherwin commissioned Robert Holmes’ first script for the series; oversaw the transition from black-and-white to colour and the introduction of the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee; was instrumental in conceiving the Earth-bound aspect of Pertwee’s era; and is credited with creating two of Doctor Who’s most enduring the intelligence taskforce UNIT, and the Doctor’s own race – the Time Lords. He is now the earliest producer of Doctor Who still living. In this candid and unflinching memoir, Sherwin discusses the pressures of writing and producing a cult science-fiction TV show for a family audience, his subsequent experience as an independent producer and creator of TV formats, and his ‘new life’ in one of the world’s most exotic Thailand.

Genres: Nonfiction, Doctor Who

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Derrick G. Sherwin was script editor of Doctor Who from The Web of Fear to The Mind Robber. He was then producer from The War Games to Spearhead from Space, overseeing the transition from Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor to Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor, the production's conversion from monochrome to colour, and the re-tooling of the series to a one of Earth-bound, present-day adventures.

Sherwin is also an actor, with a several roles on television in the 1950s and 1960s. He made a cameo appearance in Spearhead from Space as a UNIT commissionaire.

His wife, Jane Sherwin, guest starred in his first story as producer, The War Games.

Reviews

[John Mcpheat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not at all what I was expecting!

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2530822.html

On paper, Derrick Sherwin was producer of Doctor Who for only two stories and 14 episodes, the shortest tenure of anyone in the old regime. In fact he was the man who rescued the programme from collapse in Seasons 5 and 6 (as script editor and de facto assistant producer), invented UNIT and the Time Lords, and successfully rebooted the show in colour with a new Doctor in 1970. He also wrote, uncredited, one of the best single episodes of the entire original run, the first part of The Mind Robber. This is his autobiography, written pretty blatantly with the intent of cashing in on the 50th anniversary of the programme, published by Fantom as one of their large biographical range with a Whovian bias.

Less than 30 pages of over 200 are about Doctor Who, which is not terribly surprising as it was just two years in the life of an author now in his late seventies. Sherwin is frank but also very sympathetic about the difficulties of Patrick Troughton's difficult relations with the BBC and the show, and frank but less sympathetic about some of his other colleagues. His career in television lasted only a few years after Doctor Who; after various failed experiments (and relationships) he moved to Thailand, and more than half of the book is taken up with the details of his efforts to make a decent expat living there, mainly catering to tourists through hospitality and bungee jumping.

To be honest, this book would have been well served with a bit more editorial input; there is a sense that it was rushed out for November 2013. The first part is rather over-supplied with exclamation marks, and the long Thai section could perhaps have cut down on the detail of every single failed project and relationship that Sherwin started over three decades. I was really shocked to find a blatantly anti-Semitic remark on page 81. I can't warmly recommend it as an example of the showbiz autobiographical genre, but Whovian completists like me will want it on the shelves.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Derrick Sherwin was the script editor, and then producer, of "Doctor Who" during a critical time in the show's history - the end of Patrick Troughton's time in the lead role, and the beginning of Jon Pertwee's time. "Who" fans might be disappointed by this memoir, however, as Sherwin only devotes a couple of chapters to his time on the show. Furthermore, he is quite critical of some of the people he worked with, including the previous producer, Peter Bryant - and Troughton himself, who Sherwin says was suffering from stress and becoming difficult to work with by the time he left the series.
Sherwin also says that he created "UNIT", an organization that has become a lasting part of Whovian tradition, but has never been recognised for doing so..... which, even if it's true, brings me to one annoying aspect of this book: Sherwin keeps portraying himself as a victim, always being taken advantage of by other people!
The last part of the book deals with him moving to Thailand, trying to set up a business there, and eventually marrying a Thai lady. It details his difficulties in coming to terms with Thai culture and was, in fact, the most interesting part of the book for me. This is an interesting memoir overall, but I would actually not recommend it for "Who" fans who are only interested in Mr. Sherwin's time working on the show.

[John Peel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book when I met the author, Derrick Sherwin. I was at a convention with him, and we shared a couple of panels. I found his stories interesting, and looked forward to the book, ostensibly about his work on "Doctor Who". In fact, the larger portion of the book is taken up with his life in Thailand, and the sections on his career are pretty truncated. If you're interested in a list of what's wrong with life in Thailand, or what it's like to live there as a dirty old man, then you'd probably enjoy the volume more than I did. But a lot of his comments reek of prejudice, and his honesty reveals a lot of character flaws.

[T P SCRAFTON · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommend but his later life is so much more fascinating than the a lot of the Doctor Who anecdotes. Frank and revelatory, an astonishingly good read.