Having completed the seven key humanoid aliens of the show
(other than the Time Lords themselves), I’m now going to turn to aliens that
appeared less frequently, as well as those that are less humanoid in form. One
of the ground rules here is that I will still be looking at races, and not at
beings that are said to be unique, or that are unusual or “high level” examples
of their kind. I’ll also pass over races that aren’t, in terms of basic game
statistics, especially notable, most often because they’re physically
indistinguishable from humans.
I’m going to approach this by running through the eras of
the various TV incarnations of the Doctor. The first batch consists of “monsters”
and other aliens that appear during the Third Doctor’s era, of which there are
quite a few.
- Spearhead from Space is the Third Doctor’s debut story, and features the autons.
- Doctor Who and the Silurians is the debut for the eponymous reptiles.
Next up, however, is The Ambassadors of Death. The
aliens that appear in this story are never named on-screen, although I have to
call them something for the purposes of this post. As of the time of writing,
they have never appeared again in any other story, either on TV or in any of
the spin-off media.
Description and Biology
For most of the time that the aliens appear on-screen, they
are wearing spacesuits with tinted visors, making it impossible to see what
they look like. It is nonetheless clear, even from this, that they are
basically humanoid in both size and body form since the stolen suits they are
wearing were designed for humans. The
alien captain that the Doctor talks to onboard their spaceship is himself only
seen from behind a Venetian blind, making it difficult to see anything beyond a
humanoid form that may, or may not, be wearing clothing that obscures his
features further.
There is, however, one brief scene in which one of the ambassadors
removes his space helmet, allowing us to see his face for a split second before
the camera cuts away. Doubtless, this was intended to be too brief for the
viewer to see anything beyond a brief glimpse, but this was in the days before
DVDs (or even home videotape) with freeze-frame functionality. As a result, we
can see that he had blue skin and hair and warty or blistered skin, at least
some of which might be the result of sickness induced by his forced sojourn in
an unfamiliar environment.
The aliens are suffused with radiation that is deadly to
humans, presumably gamma radiation, since there’s no indication that it’s
anything unfamiliar. This implies an entirely alien biochemistry, since gamma
radiation is, by its very nature, damaging to organic molecules; highly
resistant creatures with effective DNA repair mechanisms might resist it in
moderate doses, but probably not at the levels seen here, and not as an inherent
part of their biology. They also appear to communicate with one another using
radio waves which, again, tends to imply an alien physiology.
Game Attributes
Having said all this, there doesn’t seem to be much
indication that the aliens have physical attributes notably different from the
human norm. They are impervious to bullets, but that’s apparently due to a
forcefield that projects beyond the spacesuits they are wearing and may well be
a technological form of protection rather than anything inherent in their
makeup. They are probably intended to be more intelligent than humans, although
it’s difficult to separate that from their higher native technology so it could
be argued away in systems that place more emphasis on individual skills.
In terms of skills, I’ll assume that the ambassadors are
essentially space pilots, part of the crew of a highly advanced spaceship. They
don’t carry guns or weapons (although admittedly, they don’t need to) but they
likely have a range of technical and scientific skills and know how to
effectively pilot their own spacecraft. Despite the title of ‘ambassadors’ used
in the story’s title, diplomacy does not appear to be part of their skill set,
although this could be largely down to their inability to easily communicate
with humans. Their alien physiology likely makes them immune to any terrestrial
poisons, although it’s possible that other substances could have a similar
effect.
Special Abilities
Apart from the forcefields, and the radio-based
communication, the primary special power of the ambassadors (and, presumably,
the race as a whole) is their ability to emit intense radiation from their
bodies, sufficient to destroy electronic equipment and to seriously injure
living targets. We can assume that this is related to the general radiation
suffusing their bodies; it’s effectively a touch attack, although it is implied
that they can focus their energy to some extent to achieve specific effects.
5E - Ambassador
Medium humanoid, neutral
Armour Class: 18 (force field)
Hit Points: 18 (4d8)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 10 (+0) | DEX 10 (+0) | CON 10 (+0) |
INT 12 (+1) | WIS 10 (+0) | CHA 8 (-1) |
Saving Throws: Constitution +2, Charisma +0
Skills: Technology +3
Combat Skills: Melee Attack +2, Missile Attack +2
Damage Immunities: Poison, Radiation
Senses: Passive Perception 10, Radiosense
Radioactive Touch (Recharge 5-6). Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature.
Hit: 14 (3d8) necrotic damage.
Challenge: ½ (100 XP)
BRP - Ambassador
STR 3D6 (10-11) | CON 3D6+6 (10-11) | SIZ 2D6+6 (13) |
INT 2D6+9 (16) | POW 3D6 (10-11) | |
DEX 3D6 (10-11) | CHA 2D6 (7) | |
Hit Points: 12 | Move: 10 | |
Base SR: 5 | Damage Bonus: 0 |
Armour: 10-point force field
Skills: Communication Systems 50%, Pilot Spacecraft 60%, Repair (Electrical) 40%, Science (Physics) 30%
Combat Skills: Brawl 40%
Radioactive Alien: The ambassador is immune to the effects of terrestrial poisons and to all effects of radiation. When it hits with a brawl attack, or grips an inanimate object, the ambassador can deliver a blast of radiation doing 2D6 damage.
GURPS - Ambassador
ST 10 | DX 10 | IQ 12 | HT 10 |
Thrust: 1d-2 | Swing: 1d | ||
Speed: 5 | Move: 5 |
Advantages: Immunity to Poison, Innate Attack (burning,
1d, surge, melee attack), Innate Attack (toxic, 2d, radiation, melee attack),
Radiation Tolerance-1000, Telecommunication (radio)
Disadvantages: Dependency (radiation, weekly), Mute
Skills: Electronics Operation (comms)/TL10-13,
Electronics Operation (security)/TL10-12, Electronics Repair (comms)/TL10-12,
Innate Attack-12, Physics/TL10-10, Piloting (low performance
spacecraft)/TL10-14, Vacc Suit/TL10-12
Equipment: Personal force field (DR 30)
Savage Worlds - Ambassador
Agility: d6 | Smarts: d8 | Spirit: d8 |
Strength: d6 | Vigour: d6 |
Skills: Electronics d4, Piloting d8, Repair d6,
Science d4
Hindrances: Mute
Powers: Broadcast, Immune to Poison and Disease,
Immunity to Radiation, Melee Attack +d6
Gear: Personal force field (armour +4)
Pace: 6 Parry: 2 Toughness: 9 (4) Size: 0
STA - Ambassador
Control: 9 | Fitness: 9 | Presence: 8 |
Daring: 9 | Insight: 8 | Reason: 10 |
Command: 0 | Security: 1 | Science: 1 |
Conn: 2 | Engineering: 2 | Medicine: 0 |
Stress: 9 | Resistance: 2 |
Traits: Immune to Radiation, communicates only by radio
Attacks: Radioactive Touch (Melee, 3^)
No comments:
Post a Comment