It’s the first of many Second Doctor base-under-siege stories, which tend to lack the detailed background we had in the more exploratory Hartnell tales. Nonetheless, the setting did break ground for the series at the time, and there’s arguably much that’s implied by it that we don’t get to see directly. So, with Hartnell’s run completed, let’s see what we can do with the stories of his successor…
Where & When
The story is set on the planet Vulcan, one of Earth’s first colonies outside our solar system. No date is given in the serial itself, but the original trailer stated that it took place in the year 2020.
Setting
The 2020 date is likely to present a few problems for modern players, especially since we are told that the colony is several decades old at the time of the story. Later serials will settle on mankind developing faster-than-light travel in the late 21st century, meaning that this would have to be at least that late.
However, some fan theories go for a date much later than that, while others seek to justify 2020 as being more plausible than it appears. Those opting for an early date assume that Vulcan is in our own solar system, not beyond it, and it’s possible that this was the writers’ intent. However, it requires an extra habitable planet to have popped into the solar system, much as Mondas did in the previous serial. If we take that as unlikely, we are left with a probable date early in Earth’s colonisation of the galaxy, when only a few extrasolar colonies exist, but before Earth becomes aware of Daleks during the invasion of 2157.
Given that assumption, we might question which star Vulcan happens to be orbiting. This depends in part on how common habitable worlds are in the Doctor Who universe, which isn’t something we know. The Milky Way contains at least 100 billion stars, so even if there are a million habitable worlds in it, they would still, on average, be a long way apart. Sufficiently so that the range of options for any given world would be too large to be meaningful… as is certainly going to be the case for worlds that are intended to be distant from Earth, such as Kembel or Aridius.
However, we know (from The Curse of Peladon) that the Alpha Centauri system has a habitable world, which implies that these are not vanishingly rare. Given that Vulcan is supposed to be one of Earth’s first extrasolar colonies, it would logically be in a system close to our own, and that narrows down the options enough that we could make some guesses.
Let’s assume, for the sake of simplicity, that Vulcan is within 20 light-years of Earth – roughly one subsector in Traveller. Even within that relatively short range, there are 81 star systems, not counting our own and those whose stars aren’t hot enough to burn regular hydrogen. That sounds like a lot, but it turns out that most of them host only red dwarf stars. These are so faint that any planet close enough to them to reach Earthlike temperatures would probably be tidally locked, with one side facing permanently towards the sun. They also send out regular bursts of deadly radiation that might well strip any breathable atmosphere away. So these are not a good fit for Vulcan’s star.
We can rule out Alpha Centauri and Tau Ceti (The Stones of Blood), along with a few systems that are unlikely to be habitable for various reasons. Depending on how picky we want to be, this could still leave us with 15 different options. Most of these are fainter and cooler than our star, suggesting a short year for Vulcan, but since it isn’t an especially hospitable planet, this doesn’t rule them out. I’d argue that the most likely are Sigma Draconis (18 light-years away), 82 Eridani, and Delta Pavonis (both 20 light-years away). But many others are viable, and there’s always the possibility that habitable systems are rarer than this, and even the closest are much further away than we might suppose.
We are on much firmer ground when we consider the planet itself. We are told that the landing site has a daytime temperature of 86°F (30°C) and is free from radiation. It also has an “oxygen density of 172”, which is apparently safe. While ‘oxygen density’ isn’t the real-world term, this probably refers to the oxygen partial pressure, a measure of an atmosphere’s breathability. This is 0.21 atm at sea level on Earth, so the Doctor is probably just listing the numbers after the decimal point. This is supported by the fact that an oxygen partial pressure of 0.172 atm is, if not perfect, not going to cause anyone any problems… in fact, it’s about what you’d get inside a long-distance passenger jet.
Whether this is lower than Earth’s sea level value because the atmosphere is thinner than ours, because we’re at high altitude, or there’s just less oxygen in it to start with, we don’t know. According to current scientific knowledge, planets can’t maintain Earthlike atmospheres without photosynthetic life, which suggests that Vulcan isn’t quite as lifeless as it appears. (Oxygen is possible, but only on waterworlds or those hot enough to boil water into steam, neither of which is true here). Life could, of course, be restricted to a sea a long way away from the colony site, and may be no more than microscopic algae, so there’s no reason we’d see any.
One thing we do see just outside the colony is the ‘mercury swamp’. This is a hellish and barren landscape dotted with bubbling pools of mercury. This is highly toxic, and it’s likely emitting fumes. We’re specifically told that the atmosphere isn’t safe to breathe for long periods, and visitors are supposed to wear at least protective masks, and preferably body suits (which must be uncomfortable, considering the air temperature). The mercury fumes are likely part of that, and these can cause tremors and mental confusion. However, something is bubbling up through the pools, and mercury doesn’t boil until 356°C (674°F), so it isn’t that. Sulphurous gases from underground thermal vents are a distinct possibility here, and they would further taint the atmosphere.
The day appears to be of similar length to that on Earth. We don’t know whether the planet has a moon, but most of the action takes place indoors anyway.
Meteorite storms are common enough that a warning system has been created to avoid damage to Vulcan’s weather satellites. More importantly, this implies that they need to monitor the weather. In the serial, of course, we only ever see a dry rocky desert, but if there’s no visible life, it’s going to look like that even if rainstorms are common. If the atmosphere has a high sulphur content, the rain may even be mildly acidic, which is a good reason to want to be forewarned of it. Deadly sandstorms are another possibility.
Visiting spaceships are expected to land at a designated but unmanned site some way outside the settlement, although it is not unusual for them to overshoot, so it may not be as well-marked as it should be. The colony itself consists of an ‘interior’ and a ‘perimeter’, although we only see the former. The perimeter presumably extends to the mercury swamp on at least one side, and since the governor expects to spend a couple of days there at one point, it must have suitable facilities, even if we don’t see them. Judging from what we do see, it is at most a couple of hours’ walk away from the ‘interior’, something not helped by the fact that the colony doesn’t appear to have any vehicles.
At least in the animation, the interior section of the colony is a multi-level structure with multiple towers, perhaps the size of a small city. It contains some patches of greenery, likely in walled-off gardens, and is powered by a small reactor. Its basic purpose seems to be mining, which may suggest what sort of structures we would find at the perimeter. We’re not told what it is that they mine, beyond the fact that it’s an ore that requires processing, which doesn’t narrow things down much. Whatever it is would have to be both reasonably valuable and abundant in the local area in order to explain the placement and expense of the colony. It doesn’t have to be anything exotic, so tungsten, titanium, and even gold or platinum are perfectly viable options.
Conditions in the colony are harsh, but not intolerable. It is said to be struggling, so the revenue from the mining may not be what was envisaged when it was established. At one point in the animation, fruit is provided for the visitors, suggesting some enclosed agriculture or hydroponics. On the other hand, a notice posted in another scene refers to milk rationing, with dog’s milk being offered as a substitute. This implies both a shortage of cows, goats, or other regular livestock and the presence of at least some dogs. Plus, a generally limited diet.
Colonists include both men and women, and the notice about the rationing makes reference to children, so the population is intended to be at least partially self-sustaining. Clothing is light and short-sleeved, with at least some women wearing shorts rather than the full-length trousers of the men. All of the locals have badges with their surnames on. It’s also notable that Ben and Polly (but not the Doctor) are provided with local clothing for the duration of their stay, minus the badges.
In addition to the laboratory, the governor’s office, and the guest quarters that the protagonists are provided with, we briefly see some other areas. There’s the prison area, with the cell locks controlled by sonic devices, providing an unusual challenge for any PCs that may be locked up in them. A meeting takes place in ‘Rocket Room P’, which appears to be a simple storeroom. Although we know visiting spaceships land some distance away at a completely unstaffed location, the same may not be true for the ships carrying the mined metal back to Earth. Even if these are unmanned, they would need some sort of maintenance, or at least loading equipment, and that may be what is being stored here.
We are told that there is a hospital, although we don’t see it. Given the small size of the colony, it’s more likely a clinic and sickbay, but it’s admittedly an important part of any remote colony. Since there are children, there is probably a school too, among other essentials.
An oddity is the presence of a ‘radio room’. This is fair enough if Vulcan is, as some fan theories suggest, in our solar system, not a different one. Otherwise, there isn’t anyone to contact, bar the occasional visiting spaceship, and if that’s all it does, there would be little point in sabotaging it. A possibility here is that it isn’t literally a radio but rather an FTL communicator – something we know exists by Vicki’s time, a few centuries later.
The colony is headed by a Governor and his deputy. There’s every indication that they answer to a higher authority on Earth, not least because somebody must have sent the Examiner who gets shot in the opening scenes. In the novelisation, the colony is operated by a mining company, but there’s no evidence for this in the televised version. Equally, however, it’s unlikely to be a single Earth government, so it may be the United Nations or some similar supranational cooperative.
Whoever it is must appoint the Governor, but everyone expects his deputy to take over when he retires, so this may be something of a rubber-stamping exercise – possibly because of a lack of interested candidates. In the serial, the Governor names his new deputy when the original is arrested and barred from office, but this may be an emergency power subject to later ratification by his superiors. The Governor’s powers seem to be broad, and he can, for example, have people locked up without trial for at least some time.
In addition to the Governor, the rationing notice mentions an Organisation Committee. Likely headed by the Governor himself, there is no reason to assume that this is in any way democratic or a legislature in the usual sense. It’s perhaps more likely to be made up of the heads of various departments, in charge of technical support, food production, mining operations, healthcare, and so on. Bragen is Head of Security, in charge of a squad of armed men in dark uniforms, heavier than the usual clothing of the citizens, and without name badges. The colonists regard this force as consisting largely of thugs, which is a fair description based on what we see of them.
The colony’s Earthbound operators don’t seem very interested in events on the planet, at least so long as the mined goods keep coming; the Examiner wasn’t expected for another couple of years. On the other hand, the fact that he came at all indicates that things can change if they get wind of something significant.
Precisely what the rebels are rebelling about is never specified on screen, although the colony’s conditions are poor, which would tend to breed resentment. Indeed, underfunding is cited as a key motivation for the rebels in the novelisation, in a scene that didn’t make it to the final televised script. If so, they are perhaps hoping for a different approach to colonial negotiations with the Earth authorities, or for some democratic say in their own government, but short of full independence. The latter, after all, is probably just going to make the shortages worse, with nowhere else to get funding from.
If we’re transplanting Vulcan to a different setting, the key requirement is that it be a moderately sized colony that’s difficult to reach. In the serial, we also know that it’s no more than a few decades old, but this has little effect on the plot beyond the Dalek ship having to be older than that. The idea of mining colonies is a common one in space opera settings, so it should fit into most such RPG settings without any real difficulty.
In Traveller, for example, interstellar travel takes weeks, so we have some degree of isolation already built in. All we’re looking for in this case is a non-industrial or low-population world with a type 6 government, and ideally one that’s off the main trade routes so that incidental visitors are rare. For that matter, it doesn’t absolutely have to be a colony world if it has some interstellar authority to be answerable to, whether that be the Imperium or a pocket empire.
Star Wars also has mining colonies, and the required isolation can be provided by simply being out on the Rim, where most campaigns are probably set anyway. We may also be able to justify the supply ships used to ferry away the mined minerals being manned by droids, so that the world has few organic visitors. If we set the scenario during the Rebellion era, the fit is even better, with Hensell and Bragen being Imperial officials. Even if not, rebellions in general are very much part of the trope.
Star Trek is a little trickier, and not just because we would have to change the planet’s name (which we’d likely want to do anyway in a non-DW campaign). True, colony worlds are common, and mining is as plausible a basis for one as any. Maybe they would be mining something exotic like dilithium, but that’s about the only change we need. Instead, the problem comes with the rebellion subplot, which doesn’t fit with a Federation colony. One possibility is to make the world an independent colony that has struck out on its own, possibly somewhere remote like the Gamma Quadrant, and come up with some other role to replace the Examiner.
Scenario
If we’re running this as a one-off, perhaps the easiest way in for the PCs is to have them genuinely be the Examiner and his team. In the serial, Bragen is able to threaten the protagonists because he knows they aren’t who they claim to be, but this has little impact on the overall plot. Having PCs be inspectors from whatever the superior authority is allows them all sorts of access, and we can still have the murder mystery element with somebody else as the victim – somebody who just happened to know too much about Bragen’s plans.
Otherwise, it’s perfectly plausible for a party of PCs in a far trader or YT-freighter to need to stop off on the planet and become embroiled in the plot incidentally. This may be as simple as a trading mission exchanging much-needed supplies for mineral wealth. Or they could have been hired to help out Lesterson’s investigation or to provide some other support that the colony needs. To involve them more directly in what’s going on, and disguise the involvement of the main villains, they could be on the planet to help the rebellion (this makes particular sense in a Star Wars setting). The last would, of course, require a cover story, and it may be best to let the players come up with one themselves rather than be given one by a patron.
A key question if we’re moving the story concept to a different setting is, as always, what will replace the Daleks. In this instance, they are not simply invaders but, from the colonists’ point of view, initially appear to be friendly. This is because they believe them to be robots, which they naturally assume must have been created to assist organic beings. (In the serial, it’s notable that the tech level of the setting does not allow for sentient robots, although they are aware of non-sentient AI, at least as a theoretical idea).
Other plot elements also point to the need for the Dalek substitutes to be primarily, or entirely, robotic. For one, their capsule has been submerged in a mercury swamp since before the colony was founded (which could be a long time in some settings), and yet they can still be brought back to ‘life’. For another, it’s hard to justify how else they could reproduce so rapidly once they acquire the necessary supplies and power source.
Possibilities include evil droids created by some ancient Sith Master, the product of a long-forgotten Ziru Sirka weapons program, or just regular killer robots. We just need to make sure that the colonists won’t recognise what they are. In fact, in a game, the PCs might not work it out straight away, either, perhaps seeing them, as Janley does, as a potential resource to help them fight the ‘real enemy’ and help the rebellion. Here, some of the reworked story may revolve around the PCs discovering that they’re hiding something… which, PCs often being suspicious, may not be hard.
In the serial, the Daleks are defeated because the Doctor works out how to overload their power supply, using the key thing they’ve been after against them. In a game, we would need to be open to other approaches, one of which may simply be to end with a climactic battle scene. Perhaps the Daleks can be defeated if the PCs can persuade the rebels and authorities to work together – probably after removing Bragen from the picture. But other technical possibilities may exist to even the odds, especially if we’re using robots of some kind rather than something more obviously Dalek-like.
Much of the strength of the setting comes from the three-way clash between the rebels, the authorities, and the alien intruders, even before we have a coup attempt, Lesterson going insane, Janley having doubts and so on. Take that away to use the setting with a different story, and there isn’t so much left. The planet is otherwise uninhabited and, while there could be other Dalek ships out there, the colonists know what they are now. There’s a lot of rebuilding to do after the conflict, but, on its own, that isn’t a basis for a typical RPG scenario.
Still, the colony is isolated, and its conditions are, if anything, worse after the events of the story than they were beforehand. Despite his best efforts, Quinn could find himself facing a rebellion of his own, or the colony might collapse, leading to a desperate struggle to get off the planet before the last supplies run out. It could also be menaced by pirates or other local threats short of a full-scale invasion.
Most importantly, as implied in the closing moments of the story, the Daleks may not be entirely dead. They can’t simply repeat their plans, and they don’t have a way of making more of themselves. However, a few might manage to hide out somewhere and devise a more subtle scheme to exact revenge and destroy the humans. Small things start going wrong, and, as they get worse, a band of PCs has to enter a section of the colony abandoned after the power failure to try and find out what’s behind them…
Rules
Other than the presence of regular space travel, there is little in the story that exceeds present-day technology – although that was less true in the ‘60s when it was made. This is part of the reason for some fans suggesting that the world lies within our own solar system but, from a gaming perspective, it just means that we need to use the lowest tech level that allows FTL travel. This is 9 in both GURPS and Traveller, and 6 in Doctors & Daleks. It’s notable, for example, that the only weapons available are ballistic firearms, rather than lasers or blasters. While we’d want to replace these if transplanting the story to Star Trek or Star Wars, most SF RPGs should have rules for such things. Specifically, the security guards carry submachine guns, and a few other characters have access to automatic pistols.
The Daleks, of course, have a higher tech level than this, and keeping this the case with any substitute race would be important in any setting where it’s plausible. If this doesn’t otherwise fit well with the campaign setting, however, they just need access to superior weaponry that the colonists can’t acquire for themselves.
While Vulcan has, so far as we can tell, the same gravity as Earth, the atmosphere requires filter masks to breathe safely – in Traveller terms, it’s “tainted”. We don’t know the colony’s population, but it’s evidently low, probably no more than a few thousand, and possibly less. The restrictive, non-democratic government implies a high law level, which may change if Quinn successfully takes over. While the Examiner’s ship is expected to land at an unstaffed landing point, the presence of Rocket Room P and the need for regular export of minerals imply that there is more than that somewhere else. But with a poorly resourced colony, it’s probably not much more.
Taking all of this into account, the UWP of Vulcan would be something like D-873368-9.
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