Settings: Inverness and Culloden (The Highlanders)

The Highlanders is partly notable for introducing one of the longest-running companions in the show’s history, but perhaps more so for being the last of the Hartnell-style historicals. This doesn’t mean it will be the last of these posts to address a historical setting, but even the one story after this that lacks SF elements is very different from anything in the black-and-white era. The story is entirely missing and has a relatively weak reputation, typically regarded as being below average but not actively bad. 

Where & When

The story takes place in and around the city of Inverness in northern Scotland. As with some of the other pure historicals, it includes a real-world event, allowing us to date it precisely: the TARDIS arrives around 2 pm on 16th April 1746, and leaves late at night on the following day. 

Setting

The historical event that opens the story is the Battle of Culloden. I’ve gone into the background of this before in another context, but here it is again. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 saw King James II expelled from the country, and was followed by a law banning his descendants from taking the throne. Over the following decades, he and, later, his son, strove to do so anyway. Their supporters were referred to as ‘Jacobites’.

The closest they ever got was the Rising of 1745, in which James II’s grandson, Charles Stuart (or “Bonnie Prince Charlie”), led an army of his supporters from Scotland to as far as the English Midlands before being forced to turn back. They retreated further and further north, making their final stand at Culloden, where they were decisively defeated. Jacobitism was effectively over, leaving the way clear for the family from which our current monarch is descended.

The story depicts the Jacobite army as consisting entirely of Highland warriors, but, in reality, these only made up around half the force. The others were mostly Lowland Scots, Irish rebels, or English deserters, plus a few French soldiers. Many were inspired by Charles’ promises of greater autonomy for Scotland, restoring the Scottish Parliament that had been abolished in 1707. Others may have had religious motivations or more general complaints about taxation. Many more were simply told to fight by their local lords.

This may influence which side the PCs sympathise with, although since Grey is a villain either way, that might not make a significant difference. What will almost certainly impact the PCs, if some of them are captured as the time travellers in the story are, is their real or apparent nationality. For which we need to take our usual look at the status of the rest of the world at the time.

The King against whom the Jacobites are rebelling is George II, with Henry Pelham as his Prime Minister. (The country is, incidentally, still Great Britain, using the older version of the flag without the red ‘X’, and is not yet the United Kingdom). France, under Louis XV, is an ally of the Jacobites largely because they are enemies of the English. Italy has yet to be unified, and the Holy Roman Empire is still going strong, stretching between what are now Belgium and the Czech Republic. Characters appearing to be Scottish, French, Spanish, or Italian will be assumed to be on the rebel side, but Germans may have an easier time of it, as the Doctor tries to in the story. Depending on how they act, those appearing to be English may be identified as deserters, as happens to Ben.

We don’t see the battle itself, which, in any event, is finishing just around the time the TARDIS arrives. What is more relevant is what happened to captured Jacobite soldiers afterwards. Although we are well before the Geneva Conventions, there were still agreed-upon rules on what could be done with prisoners of war. These did not include summary execution, so the sergeant in the story is overstepping his authority – which isn’t to say that such things never happened.

Instead, prisoners would be taken before a court to be tried and, in almost all cases, sentenced to death. In practice, with the exception of senior officers and English deserters, this sentence was usually commuted to penal servitude before it could be carried out. The prisoners would be shipped out to the American and Caribbean colonies to work on plantations alongside African slaves and would experience a similar life.

Unlike the slaves, their period of indenture was time-limited (although, as indicated in the serial, this didn’t guarantee you’d live that long) and their legal status was not passed on to any children they may have had. Having said which, they were barred for life from returning to Britain and, when this proscription was eventually lifted, passage may well have been too expensive anyway.

In 1746, there were fifteen British colonies in continental North America, although the northern two would later refuse to rebel and ended up in Canada. However, just as the more southerly North American colonies relied on slaves, so did the British colonies in the Caribbean, focusing more on sugar cane plantations than cotton at the time.  Barbados is mentioned in the story and was, indeed, a major centre for the sale of slaves, with the Atlantic slave trade being at its height.

For what it’s worth, the Australian colonies didn’t exist yet, which is why transported convicts and rebels were sent to the Americas.

The battlefield and moor

The TARDIS arrives on Culloden Moor just as the battle is concluding. The moor is quite extensive, but the battlefield proper stands about 7 km (4½ miles) east of the centre of Inverness. Today, it’s a mixture of agricultural fields and woodland just outside the modern suburbs, but in 1746, it was more open, having been used to graze sheep. Heather and gorse would have been the dominant vegetation other than grass, with trees restricted to some walled-off orchards. 

PCs staying on the moor for any length of time should note that it would be cold in April, but not freezing. Temperatures typically range from 12° C in the day to 4° C at night (54 to 39 °F), and it rains about one day in three. The exposed nature of the moorland means that it can often be windy, and it’s cloudy more often than not.

The time travellers seek shelter in a cottage in a part of the moorland away from the main battlefield. This is plausible, although the real equivalents might be cruder than what we see in the reconstruction, a simple shepherd’s hut that might only have a single room. Larger cottages did exist on the north side, but these were being used as field hospitals by the English, so they were probably not the best place for Jacobites to hide. 

At another point, Kirstie and Polly hide in a cave. There aren’t really any significant caves in the area, but the River Nairn forms a steep-sided valley along the southern edge of the moor. This was lightly wooded at the time and largely undeveloped, so hiding there would be possible. Beyond that, the land rises into a range of barren and rugged hills that might provide another alternative.

The action soon moves to Inverness. This is Britain’s most northerly city, which had a population of just under 8,000 when the first census was conducted in 1791. It had been under Jacobite control for some time prior to the battle, with both the old castle and Fort George guarding the mouth of the river having been destroyed to prevent them from serving as a base for the English. (A new ‘Fort George’ was subsequently built further along the coast, and is the one you’ll see on modern maps, while the castle was rebuilt in the 19th century). After the battle, of course, it was under military occupation.

The serial visits four locations in the city. One of these is a barn on the outskirts, which can be placed just about anywhere. The jail is more significant. The Jacobites had removed all the regular prisoners to make way for English prisoners of war, and now, naturally enough, that situation was reversed. We can fairly assume that it was at least as crowded as shown in the serial.

As described, the bottom of the cell has about six inches (15 cm) of water on the floor, and a tide mark higher up the wall, indicating that it’s below the water table and affected by the tides in the Moray Firth. The tidal range at Inverness varies from around 120 to 200 cm (4 to 6 feet), so we had better hope that the six inches doesn’t represent low tide or else that we’re far enough inland that it isn’t quite so extreme.

The characters spend rather more time at an inn taken over by the English. This is never named in the serial, but is called ‘The Sea Eagle’ in the novelisation. In addition to the common room, this includes the room that Grey has set up for his office and a back room with a trapdoor leading to an underground channel to the sea. (One imagines this may originally have been built by smugglers since there’s little reason for it otherwise.) It is evidently a large inn, although its rooms must currently all be taken by the occupiers.

The final location is the docks. 18th-century Inverness was not a significant port, with just a couple of small harbours for fishing and rowing boats, and for the ferry to the north side of the Beauly Firth. Full-sized ships had to anchor elsewhere along the coast and send boats out to pick up supplies, load and unload passengers and crew and so forth. The supply ships for the English army, for example, were anchored about nine miles (15 km) away near the northern end of what was then called the Firth of Inverness and is now the Inner Moray Firth. The Annabelle is likely closer than that, but it still has to be in the Firth, not the Ness River, and can’t be too close to the shore or it would ground on sandbanks.

The Annabelle is described as a brig, which is a moderately sized two-masted ship with square sails. These were often used for taking convicts across the Atlantic, so it makes sense – it’s where we get the term ‘brig’ for a shipboard prison cell from. Later brigs could be much larger, but a length of around 120 feet (36 metres) is quite plausible for the Annabelle. 

The story includes no real historical figures, but the closest equivalent is probably the laird, Colin McLaren (sic). Clan MacLaren was present at the battle, although Colin and the other clan members we see are fictional. Their slogan and battle-cry was, as mentioned here and in later Doctor Who stories, “Creag an Tuirc!” 

For what it’s worth, however, the MacCrimmons served the MacLeods, not the MacLarens. Clan MacLeod had backed the government, and their main force was not present at Culloden, although a breakaway group did fight on the Jacobite side under a different banner. But, unless we’re directly re-running the original serial as a scenario, we probably want to replace Jamie with somebody else anyway.

Algernon Ffinch is said to serve in Colonel Attwood’s regiment, which is fictional. Plenty of government regiments were present at the battle, of course, and we could pick any of them, should we wish to be historically accurate.

Scenario

Regardless of its merits as a TV serial, as written, The Highlanders presents some issues when adapting it to an RPG scenario  - at least, if the PCs aren’t stumbling randomly into the middle of the situation as they do in the story. One of the reasons for this is that it begins with a large-scale defeat for the characters we’re supposed to be sympathising with. In most typical settings, whether we’re doing this as a straight historical, or perhaps adapting it for a fantasy world, the PCs are going to be aware of the conflict, and they’ll have to either join in and be railroaded into losing or turn up just a little too late to take part, which is likely to feel disappointing.

The second problem is that the plot, as written, requires at least half the party to be captured. While that can be achieved by railroading and/or the sudden arrival of overwhelming force, in general, it may not be something you want to rely on.

Some genres, however, can get around this issue. For one thing, it’s less of a problem in a one-off game, where the players can be presented with the starting situation and will know that they’re not “missing out” on a dramatic combat scene, or the chance to turn things around for the rebels. An example here might be an 18th-century Call of Cthulhu (or similar) scenario where a desperate start to the game is potentially in-genre. In this instance, we’d want to add something supernatural to the plot, most likely that Grey is a cultist planning to sacrifice his captives rather than enslave them. Trask could then be a Deep One hybrid able to call on more of his batrachian allies at the climax of the story.

Inverness, 1746

Another way of using the original setting is in a game based around a Time Patrol keeping history on track or seeking to change it in some specific way. Here, the characters are not seeking to alter the outcome of the Battle of Culloden, so they expect to arrive in its immediate aftermath. Instead, their goal is to protect one of the NPCs, preventing them from being shipped to Barbados and dying on a sugar plantation. They might not even know that that’s the NPC's fate, just that they mysteriously disappear from history.

The laird is the obvious candidate here, since he’s the one everyone in the story is focused on, but he may not be the most interesting choice. The story would work just as well if the person to be saved is someone who won’t abandon the laird, thus compelling the PCs to come up with a scheme for rescuing everyone. If their information on their target is limited, having some of their own be captured to get in among the people they are trying to rescue might even be a viable plan, albeit not the only one. Suitable targets here are Kirsty and the stand-in for Jamie.

Assuming we can get around the issue of starting with a predetermined defeat for the ‘good guys’, fitting the general idea of the battle and its aftermath into other genres can work. In fantasy, we could even keep the basic reason for the rebellion intact, since fighting to restore the rightful king to his throne is very much in genre. But we could change it to some other battle, so long as the losing side is potentially sympathetic to the PCs. Given the highland theme, replacing the Jacobites with dwarves might work… or then again, it might be a bit too obvious.

On the other hand, we might not want to make the stand-ins for the English too villainous. That’s not just because we might want some counterpart to Ffinch, but also because it changes the theme of the story. If we replace the Duke of Cumberland with a mighty necromancer, for instance, then defeating him after we’ve rescued the convicts could become more of a focus than we’d want. Although, if we’re planning that sort of war for a campaign anyway, inserting this as a side-quest could be effective.

When we’re talking about rebels against an oppressive Empire, Star Wars is another setting that’s likely to spring to mind. Here, the PCs might be called in on a sudden mission of mercy to lift some rebels from a planet where things have recently gone badly for them and end up facing the risk of being captured themselves. Ffinch becomes a decent, if clueless, Imperial officer, Perkins is a droid press-ganged into working for the Empire, and Trask is an alien slaver.  

Here, a key point to bear in mind, if we’re sticking to the themes of the original, is that since sending captured rebels to slave camps is exactly the sort of thing we’d expect the Empire to do anyway, we need Grey (or whomever) to be subverting that somehow. Most likely, he’s snatching them away to make a profit for himself, not declaring his income to his superiors and fiddling the books to cover it up. The Empire may expect some degree of corruption from its agents, but it’s probably not going to like it…

Rules

As with most previous straight historicals, we don’t require many rules decisions for this scenario, assuming our system covers pre-industrial technology – as most generic or sci-fi systems do.  The serial as broadcast includes the use of a range of skills, including Disguise and Escapology, not to mention Persuasion, Swimming, Stealth, and good old combat. But these are all easy enough for any system to handle, even if we follow things precisely, which we probably don’t want to. The animal trap that Polly falls into, for instance, is pretty much a default concept in many games.

The tech level is 4 in GURPS, 3 in Doctors & Daleks, and 2 in Traveller, although, with the Industrial Revolution around the corner, only just in each case. Soldiers are no longer wearing armour by this point, with those on the government side wearing highly visible red coats to distinguish themselves, making stealth difficult during the daytime. Typical English soldiers would be armed with a .75 calibre flintlock musket with a bayonet (which essentially turns a musket into a spear) and a shortsword. 

The weaponry of the highland clans was less standardised. In theory, most clansmen should also have been armed with flintlock and sword, but swords were in short supply. Reports of looted bodies and captured prisoners after the Battle of Culloden indicate that only around one in five carried a sword. Although muskets were essential, they were not mass-produced to a single standard, so the calibre could vary. This means that bullets can’t be swapped from one batch to another, although it’s unlikely that the difference is large enough to affect the weapon’s statistics in most game systems. 

Apart from the musket, and any sword he might have had, most clansmen would also be carrying a dirk (dagger) and a targe. The latter is a kind of shield, something the English (and foreign troops employed by the Jacobites) no longer bothered with. It is comprised of two layers of thin wooden boards pegged together and covered on the outer edge with a sheet of leather bolted on with brass or silver studs. At about 50 cm (20”) in diameter, it likely qualifies as a medium shield in systems that make a distinction between types.

Settings: Vulcan (Power of the Daleks)

The Second Doctor’s run kicks off with a Dalek story, providing continuity with the previous seasons despite the change of lead actor. The fourth season of the show is notable for having no serials that fully survive in their original form, and The Power of the Daleks is one of four that are entirely missing. Like most of the missing stories from the Troughton era, however, it has been reconstructed in animated form from the sound recordings and, as of this writing, has been widely available for some time. It has a good reputation, generally considered well above average for its era, and is often highly praised. 

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…

Settings: Snowcap Base (The Tenth Planet)

The Tenth Planet is undeniably one of the most significant serials of the black-and-white period of Doctor Who. Most obviously, it is the last Hartnell story, and first regeneration story, thus marking the end of at least the current phase of these posts. But, in addition to that, it is also the first Cyberman story, introducing the series’ second most common enemy race, and is generally regarded as one of the best of the Hartnell serials. 

For our purposes here, however, the real point of significance is different again: this is the show’s first true base-under-siege story. That will become a standard trope of the series going forward, and it’s notable here because it’s a different style of story than the exploratory adventures that Hartnell is better known for and less of a fit for what I’ve been doing. That leaves the question of whether I will move on to Troughton open (there will certainly be a lengthy pause), but until that’s decided, let’s take a look at the setting of the final First Doctor story.

Where & When

The story is set in the “near future” of December 1986. It takes place at Snowcap Base, Antarctica, which is described as being at the South Pole. While this is generally interpreted as meaning the literal geographic pole, since ‘Antarctica’ is never mentioned by name, it may be only a euphemism for the continent in general.

Settings: 17th-Century Cornwall (The Smugglers)

The last of the Hartnell historicals, The Smugglers is a pirate adventure, something that has a long tradition in TTRPGs. The general consensus is that it’s a failure in this regard and one of the weaker Hartnell stories. It doesn’t help that it’s another completely missing story and, worse still, has no incidental music, which hits even harder when you don’t have the visuals. But in a game, we can ignore that and have… well, a story about pirates and hidden treasure. Which is generally a plus.

Where & When

The date is never specified, except that it falls in the 17th century. The costumes suggest the latter half of that century, and the mention of a king narrows it down further. Fan consensus tends to opt for the 1690s, but not universally, and we can pick any date from 1660 to 1700 without contradicting anything. The story is set in an unnamed village on the Cornish coast that is likely not intended to represent any specific real-world location.

Settings: The War Machines

The last serial of the third season is another one available to watch in its original form. Fan opinion tends to divide between ‘middling’ and ‘good’, which is a positive for the Hartnell era. It’s significant in being the first full-length story with a contemporary setting where the protagonists can interact with the people around them. Naturally, this makes for a different type of story than space opera sci-fi or most time-travel games. Moreover, it’s one where the focus is not on the setting, since that’s merely today’s world (or what was today’s world at the time of broadcast). Although this will become more common later, this is the only instance in the Hartnell era, so let’s see how that affects things.

Where & When

The date is specifically stated: the main story takes place between the 12th and 14th July 1966, with the brief final scene six days later, on the 20th. The action is almost entirely confined to the West End of central London, from Bloomsbury to Fitzrovia. 

Settings: The Savages

After a brief respite, we’re back to stories that are entirely missing again, with another piece of relatively high-concept science fiction. The opinion of those who have watched the fan restorations or listened to the soundtrack is generally not positive. This may be because of the time spent building up the setting, and how long it takes to get to the action, and, as always, it’s worth noting that there are dissenting voices that find it a worthy story. This may improve now that the soundtrack has been animated and, in any event, something that’s strong on setting is a perfect fit for what I’m doing here…

Where & When

The story is set on an unnamed human colony world in the “far future”. With no other reference points, it’s impossible to say just how far into the future this is, or, for that matter, whether the planet is in our own galaxy or another. A common interpretation among fans is that it is set after the destruction of Earth, perhaps thousands or millions of years after The End of the World, but that’s merely a guess.

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.

Settings: The Ark and Refusis

It’s not until we reach this, the sixth story, that we find a third-season serial that fully survives in its original form. While the story is relatively high-concept and uses an unusual plot device for the show, it’s widely regarded as a middling example of its kind, rather than anything particularly memorable (for good or ill). The biggest problem is that the underlying message of the story can be interpreted negatively if one takes the Human/Monoid relationship as a metaphor for apartheid-era South Africa or for the southern US at the time of broadcast. But so long as we don’t play it that way, this doesn’t have to be insurmountable.

Where & When

The first part of the story is set ten million years in the future, on a vast spaceship travelling between the stars. The second half takes place on the planet Refusis II, seven centuries after the first. This is apparently a very long way from Earth, perhaps not even in our galaxy, although we don’t have any specifics.

Settings: The St Bartholomew's Day Massacre

Following The Daleks' Master Plan, we’re back with another historical, and this time it’s perhaps the most obscure period of history the show has picked for such a story – at least for those of us who aren’t French. It’s another one that tends to divide opinion, with older fans regarding it as above-average for the era, and newer ones generally disdaining it. A lot of that may have to do with the fact that it’s entirely missing, with just a few publicity photos surviving and not even the on-set shots and stills that we normally have. Leaving that aside, let’s see what we can do with a story that not only leaves out the sci-fi elements but is set during a period most players probably have very little knowledge of.

Where & When

For the first time, we return to a previous setting for a full-length story: Paris. As with The Reign of Terror, it’s built around a real-world historical event, so we can state the date precisely: it takes place between the 20th and 24th of August 1572.

Settings: Giza (The Daleks' Master Plan, Pt 2)

The second half of The Dalek’s Master Plan covers even more settings than the first, including, as it does, a whistle-stop journey through time and space in the style of the mid-section of The Chase. However, most of these settings are visited only briefly, so we don’t have scope to say much that’s definitive about them. While the focus of this post will therefore be the section of the story set in Ancient Egypt, I will also take a quick look at the other places we see.

Where & When

Before returning to Kembel for the conclusion of the story, the protagonists make short stops at various locations on 20th-century Earth before arriving on the planet Tigus. This is uninhabited, leaving the date both irrelevant and impossible to determine. The main setting of this half of the story, however, is Ancient Egypt. This section is set in the Giza pyramid complex at an unspecified date in the early 26th century BC. 

Settings: Desperus (The Daleks' Master Plan, Pt 1)

The Daleks’ Master Plan is the longest Doctor Who serial that everyone can agree is a Doctor Who serial. Unfortunately, nine of its twelve episodes are missing, and the whole thing is too large to have been animated yet, so it remains less familiar than many of its counterparts. It’s epic in scope, and those who have experienced it in some unofficial reconstructed form generally rate it as one of the best Hartnell stories. On the other hand, because that epic nature leads to it visiting so many different worlds and time periods, it, like The Chase, is going to have to be split into two for the purposes of this blog. This post covers episodes one to six.

Where & When

The story starts on the planet Kembel, shortly after the events of Mission to the Unknown. The protagonists escape, not in the TARDIS, but a spaceship, and spend a short time on the nearby world of Desperus before heading off towards Earth, and then arriving on Mira, a more distant planet. The date is revealed to be the year 4000, which, as I noted in an earlier post, is probably during, or slightly before, the early years of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire (the one that enslaved the Ood).

Settings: The Fall of Troy (The Myth Makers)

To the surprise and apparent confusion of some audiences at the time, Mission to the Unknown is followed, not by a continuation of its Dalek plotline, but by an unrelated historical. It’s primarily a comedy and lacks the evident educational remit of the earliest historicals. Like much of season three, it’s entirely missing in its original form, and, unlike the previous two stories, there is no animated or live-action reconstruction. This probably leaves it as one of the more unfamiliar stories to most viewers, and it's generally regarded as an average story by those who know enough about it to have an opinion. The comedic nature and the fact that it isn’t even trying to be historically accurate may present problems in typical time-travelling RPG settings, but let’s see what we can do.

Where & When

The story is based around the end of the Trojan War, as depicted in Homer’s Iliad, rather than as it would have been in real history. Troy, also known as Ilium, did exist, lying just south of the western entrance to the Dardanelles Strait in what is now Turkey. Based on archaeological evidence, the most likely date for the War is around 1180 BC, although, judging from the few surviving stills, the look of the story borrowed more from the Ancient Greece of at least four centuries after that.

Settings: Kembel (Mission to the Unknown)

Mission to the Unknown is an unusual episode. It’s a single 25-minute tale, and thus the shortest regularly broadcast Doctor Who story. Moreover, it does not feature any of the regular cast, functioning instead as a prolonged ‘cold open’ for the next-but-one serial. For this reason, it’s often either skipped or dealt with briefly in written accounts of the Hartnell stories. For the purposes of this blog, however, The Daleks' Master Plan has plenty to cover as it is, leaving this post free to look at Kembel. 

Where & When

The story is explicitly set in the year 4000, on the planet Kembel. This is an unclaimed world not directly controlled or claimed by any external power. The date is notably later than that of any of the earlier Hartnell serials, and The Daleks' Master Plan refers to the fact that technology has advanced since the time of the latter half of The Chase. Later stories will place it as (probably) happening during the early years of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire, which reaches its height a little over a century later.

Settings: Galaxy 4

The opening serial of season three marks the beginning of a run of serials that are wholly or partly missing in their original form. In its case, however, it has been animated from the original soundtrack, so it is at least possible to watch it legally. It’s regularly rated as one of the weakest of the Hartnell stories, and this may be partly down to a relatively bland setting. On the other hand, the exotic aliens and cultures at least imply that it's striving for something beyond that, so there may be more to work with than initially appears.

Where & When

The story is set on an unnamed and uninhabited planet in the eponymous galaxy. Since there is no connection with humanity’s history, there is no way to date the story in any known calendar. If, as seems to be the case, it’s set before humans have reached the galaxy in question, it’s probably (judging from later stories) earlier than the mid-fourth millennium, but that’s all we can say, and all that we need to.

Settings: 1066 and All That (The Time Meddler)

The Chase was originally intended as the second season finale, and that’s apparent from watching it. This, however, means that The Time Meddler feels a little like a season opener, even though it takes the finale slot. It’s another episode where opinions tend to differ between older and younger fans, with the former holding it up as a particularly strong episode and the latter often finding it more middling. 

What can’t be denied, though, is that it’s a significant story in the ongoing development of the series. Most notably, perhaps, it’s the first of what fans refer to as ‘pseudo-historicals’ – stories set in the past that nonetheless have science fiction elements other than the presence of the time travellers themselves. Later, that will usually be the presence of monsters, but here, it’s arguably more low-key. It’s also much closer to the sort of story that time travel RPGs tend to focus on… and not just because it’s set at a particularly memorable moment in history.

Settings: Mechanus (The Chase)

The Chase is structured in three two-episode segments. First, there is the section on Aridius, then a couple of largely comedic episodes based on the chase itself, and then a final show-down with the Daleks. Thus, while this post will largely focus on that finale, it will also cover the “spooky” comedy of episode four.

When I started this series, I stated that updates would be very irregular. It hasn’t turned out that way, but the time has now come when my schedule requires me to take a break and concluding with a serial that feels like a season finale (even if it isn’t one) is as good a place as any. I have every intention of returning in the new year and moving on to season three, but the dates are uncertain. 

Where & When

The closing segment of the story is set on the planet Mechanus, close to, or just beyond, the edge of human-inhabited space. There is no indication of the date in the story, and the tie-in media have come up with various interpretations ranging from the 22nd to the 36th century. The more popular assumption, however, seems to be that it’s in the mid-third millennium, somewhere between the settings of The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Rescue. This is the sort of question that would have to be answered in a game (since we do interact with people from Earth) but here, I’ll just note that various options exist.

Settings: Aridius (The Chase)

Although, at six parts, The Chase is not exceptionally long for its era, it does visit more than the usual number of settings. The third of the Dalek stories, it’s generally not as well regarded as the other two, scoring middling to low with many older fans. But, as so often, there is disagreement here, with many finding it one of the more entertaining Hartnell stories, not least because of its scope – plus, it has to be said, a particularly good final sequence after the Dalek defeat. Either way, the fact that it visits two distinct alien worlds and multiple points in Earth’s history gives plenty to build on. 

As with An Unearthly Child, the differing settings means that my coverage of this story will be split into two posts. This one covers the first three episodes, focussing on the alien world where it all starts off.

Settings: The Space Museum on Xeros

With the next story, we are off to an alien planet again, albeit one inhabited by a race virtually indistinguishable from humans – if, indeed, they’re supposed to be distinct at all. The opening episode, which plays with the concept of time, is reasonably popular, but what follows drags the whole down for most fans. But, as usual, that isn’t a universal opinion. Unlike, say, The Sensorites, very few people seem to really like this, but a significant minority regard it as middling rather than weak. The problem, as so often in this era, is usually cited as being the slow pacing, with some claiming that Vicki only starts the revolution because she’s bored by the plot up to that point. The setting is also, perhaps, less memorable than the likes of Marinus or Vortis… but let’s see what we can do with it.

Where & When

The story is set on the planet Xeros, within the interstellar Morok Empire. No date is given for the story, but it clearly takes place later than The Dalek Invasion of Earth because of the design of the Dalek seen in the museum. Although it’s not obvious that the Moroks are also specifically aware of humans, we can at least say that the story is not set so far ahead that the exhibit has obviously degraded. This probably places it a few centuries into our future and, fitting with this, the tie-in media have tended to select dates towards the end of the third millennium. 

Settings: The Third Crusade

Next, we reach another pure historical episode, and it’s one in the style of the first-season historicals rather than the more light-hearted tone of The Romans. It’s the only story of its season not to wholly survive in its original form, with only the first and third episodes available. Nonetheless, and despite lacking science fiction elements, it’s comparatively well-known for a ‘missing’ story, probably because it’s quite early in the run and it’s at least possible to watch half of it. It’s generally regarded as unremarkable, neither particularly good nor particularly bad. To modern eyes, the use of brownface for most of the Middle Eastern characters is a drawback, but it’s not one that applies if we use it as a game setting.

Where & When

The story is set in 1191 in and around the port city of Jaffa. It is based, albeit loosely, around a real historical event that occurred in autumn of that year. Since the details are changed, and the timeline greatly compressed, it’s difficult to narrow down an exact date, but we’re likely in either October or November. Shorter than the previous historicals, the story takes place over the course of just two days.