Settings: The Sense-Sphere

Continuing with the alternating themes of the first season, we are back to an alien planet with The Sensorites, in the first story to show some of Earth’s future. It is one of the less popular stories of the Hartnell era, with many fans feeling that it’s just too long at six episodes or taking issue with some of the themes of the titular aliens. Having said that, this is not a serial that nobody likes, with a significant minority enjoying the relatively subtle ‘60s sci-fi. In either event, these are not the sort of issues that would get in the way of a scenario based on the story.

Where & When

The story takes place on, and in orbit around, a planet somewhat strangely named the Sense-Sphere. This is at least in the same galaxy as Earth, but beyond the area of space governed/inhabited by humans at whatever the date may be. Maitland states that that is the 28th century but doesn’t give any more precise figure. If one has to pick a specific year, 2764, eight centuries after the broadcast date, is as good as any. Since it is the first story to be explicitly set in the future, rather than on an alien planet with no apparent connection to Earth, the date had, at the time, no larger context of future history to be placed in – it might as well be plucked from thin air.

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: Marinus

It’s not until the fifth serial of the original series that we have the second story to feature aliens other than the Doctor and Susan. It’s also, of course, our second alien planet, although the new series would take even longer to get around to that. The story The Keys of Marinus has a poor reputation among many older fans, scoring badly in rankings on review aggregator websites. Unusually, however, it seems to be almost universally popular among fans of the modern series who dip into the classic one for the first time, perhaps because of the story structure. Despite being first broadcast in 1964, this resembles a video game and, importantly for our purposes, involves visiting different and varied locations as the protagonists collect the items that they need in order to leave.

Where & When

The story is set on the planet Marinus, which has no known connection to Earth. The world is barely even mentioned again, and never in any context that allows us to date this story. The implication would be that it’s a long way from Earth, probably in a different galaxy, but even that is supposition. Different fan theories and a comic story come up with wildly different answers from the distant past to the distant future. Without any connection to Earth, it honestly doesn’t matter.

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.

Character Templates: Time Student

So we come to the final character template, the one that's essential in a game like this, even if only as an option. I have found that the character isn't as popular as one might expect, probably because players realise that the ability to control a time machine isn't terribly relevant in a one-off convention game that's likely to have only a single setting. Which is why, in fact, it isn't essential for anyone to pick this character, or even the time agent... the TARDIS is a means to get characters to the plot and they don't really need to be able to steer the thing. Or, at least, not in anything I've written so far, since possibilities clearly do exist for such a scenario.

DWAITAS has mechanisms built in to balance Time Lord characters against regular humans - essentially giving them high skills at the expense of limited plot points - but here I've made that more apparent by making this particular Gallifreyan a student who's basically on an unauthorised gap year. So, while she does have some clear advantages, she's not a fully qualified Time "Lord" yet (though she might claim otherwise, depending on how the player interprets her) and shouldn't overshadow the others, or take a clear leadership role.

Settings: Inside the Spaceship

Not all of the stories in the Doctor Who TV series will lend themselves to the sort of posts I’m doing in this series, and so it is with the third serial, The Edge of Destruction. A major reason for this is that I’m focussing primarily on the setting, and how it can be expanded upon or used elsewhere and this one… doesn’t have a setting. Or, rather, apart from the teaser for the next serial, the story is set entirely inside the TARDIS with no guest characters, monsters, or anything else external.

This is therefore going to be a much shorter post than usual.

A second reason is that the story, as written, is unlikely to work well as an RPG scenario. There are no NPCs or monsters and, in game terms, what’s basically happened is that the Doctor has fumbled a roll operating the TARDIS and it takes everyone the better part of an hour to figure that out. During which time, they act strangely for no particularly good reason; the story relies on them doing that and not finding the source of the problem early on. That could happen in a game, certainly, but you probably wouldn’t want to rely on it.

Character Templates: Alien Rogue

The penultimate character template in my set is another one that's usually very popular. There are, I suspect, at least a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, the concept of a 'rogue' is one that's common to a lot of RPGs - it's a standard character type that's as easy to understand as the combat jock and that has a clear role in any party. Secondly, there are many players who, when faced with a science fiction RPG, are keen to play the aliens; there's an appeal in being something out of the ordinary and a little bit special.

Doctor Who, however, presents a problem with alien PCs that most other science fiction shows do not. If the character is obviously alien, it's going to be difficult to justify them doing much in a historical or contemporary setting. And, in fact, even in mid to late 21st century settings. To get around this, when I have run non-convention games where the players design their own characters, I stipulate that all PCs must at least be able to pass for human on cursory examination, and I've used the same principle in these templates. An alien that simply looks human (such as Trion or a Drahvin) isn't terribly interesting unless, like Time Lords, there's something else inherently cool about them. Human-seeming androids might well work since they, too, will likely have unusual abilities. But your other options are some device that disguises the alien's appearance or... well, shapeshifting.