Settings: The OK Corral (The Gunfighters)

There’s practically a rule in TV series that involve time travel that, sooner or later, at least one episode must be a Western. Based on the same historical event as Star Trek’s “Spectre of the Gun”, this is classic Doctor Who’s offering. While it has the benefit of surviving in its original form, it is regarded as middling to weak by most fans. 

That may partly be due to the English actors not making convincing Americans, and partly due to the comedic tone of the early episodes, but perhaps mainly because it is narrated using a repetitive song. Fortunately, few RPGs insist that the GM sing out descriptions of events, so we can at least escape that element.

Where & When

Because the gunfight is a famous historical event, this is another serial that we can date precisely: it takes place on the 25th and 26th of October 1881. Most of the story is set in the town of Tombstone in what was then the Arizona Territory of the United States.

Settings: The Celestial Toyroom

This next story is, arguably, the most divisive in the show’s history. According to review aggregator websites, fans are pretty much evenly split as to whether it’s a masterpiece, complete rubbish, or somewhere in between. Given the simple nature of the plot, it’s unlikely that the fact that it’s largely missing makes much difference here, especially now that an animated version exists. Whether or not it would succeed as an RPG scenario is, perhaps, something that equally relies on the tastes of the players.

What’s more significant for these posts, however, is that, like The Edge of Destruction, it doesn’t fit with the usual format. So, as with that story, this is going to be a placeholder post rather than something more detailed. Largely because there isn’t much detail to go into.