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: 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.

Settings: First Century Rome

We are overdue for a historical by this point, so it’s no surprise that the fourth story of the second season fits that description. Unlike the previous historicals, however, this one is a comedy and fan reactions tend to depend on whether or not they find that it works as such. In game terms, however, there is enough present that it’s possible to play it mostly straight and try to let the humour follow naturally, rather than forcing it.

Where & When

As with The Reign of Terror, the story includes a real-world historical event, making it possible to date it precisely. The bulk of the story runs from 10th to the 18th July in the year AD 64, although the characters have been in Italy for “four or five weeks” when it starts, and there is a gap of a few days at the end before they leave. Most of the action takes place in Rome, although there are some scenes set in other nearby parts of Italy.

Settings: The Reign of Terror

With the stories still alternating in theme, we turn to another pure historical for what became (but was not originally planned to be) the first season finale. While two of the original episodes no longer survive in their original form, animations have been made from the soundtracks and are now widely available, so it’s likely that these are the oldest “missing” episodes that have been widely viewed in some form. Fan opinion is largely consistent in rating the serial as middling to weak despite it being set in a dramatic and significant period in history so it’s worth seeing if other options present themselves.

Where & When

The story takes place in, and just outside, Paris during the eponymous Reign of Terror. For the first time in a historical story, we can place the date exactly because it includes a known event from real-world history. Specifically, it takes place over a six-day period concluding on 28th July 1794.

Settings: The Aztecs

The first season of Doctor Who alternated between science fiction stories on alien worlds and ‘pure’ historicals in Earth’s past, with the exception of the one story written at the last minute to fill a gap. This may not have been wholly intentional, but it is the pattern we have and means that serial number six is once again historical. Moreover, it maintains the exotic feel of its predecessor, Marco Polo, by not being set in the European history that we in the West tend to study most in school. It’s a very popular story with old-time fans, often stated to be the best of all the Hartnell serials, but tends to score as only decent-to-middling with younger fans, perhaps because of the over-the-top nature of the villain and the use of white actors as non-white characters. Neither of which are a problem in a game based on the story.

Where & When

The story takes place in Mexico, during the time of the Aztec Empire. While the exact date is impossible to pin down the Empire only lasted a hundred years, which narrows down the possibilities. Since the tomb in the story is dated to the 1430s and its architect’s son is still alive, the mid-15th century seems the most likely timeframe.

Settings: Cathay

The fourth serial is arguably the first of the Hartnell ‘pure historicals’; stories set in the then-past that contain no science fiction elements beyond the presence of the time travellers. This, of course, assumes that you don’t consider 100,000 BC separately from the first episode, although, if you want to be really nitpicky, “prehistory” also isn’t quite the same thing as “history”, either. At least as significantly, it’s the first “missing story”, with only the soundtrack surviving in its original form. Fortunately, that’s enough for us to be able to experience it in some limited way, and certainly sufficient for what I’m doing here. 

Where & When

The story is set in 1289, earlier than most modern series historical settings, although not remarkably so. It involves an epic journey, taking the protagonists from the Pamir Mountains, through the Gobi Desert, and across China to eventually reach Beijing. It refers to China by the name that Marco Polo used for it historically and that was standard in Europe at the time – Cathay.

Settings: 100,000 BC

Although An Unearthly Child is marketed as a single story, and was produced and directed as such, it involves two quite different settings and there’s a notable change in tone between the first episode and the subsequent three. Those three episodes give us our first exotic setting to explore, even if it’s one that we wouldn’t normally associate with a science fiction show. For that reason, I’ll treat it separately from the first episode here, and I’ll likely do something similar for other stories that spend significant time in more than one setting, such as The Chase. 

Where & When

Based solely on internal evidence, there is no way to date the setting of the story much more precisely than ‘the Stone Age’. This is a vast stretch of time, perhaps 99% of the whole of human history, depending on your definition. However, we know that the writer envisaged the date as 100,000 BC and that that was even the title used in some early BBC publicity in the days before the serials had onscreen titles. The geographical location is even vaguer, and, again based solely on the story as televised, we can’t even be confident it’s on Earth, since the DW universe has many alien races physically indistinguishable from humans. However, it’s clear that that’s not the intent, so “somewhere on Earth, approximately, 100,000 BC” it is.