This involved a significant shift in the show's direction and style, with a lot of changes behind the scenes as well. For the purposes of this blog, though, what matters is that, coincidentally, it happened in 1980. And that means that there are three well-defined periods of the show's history, which just happen to line up with chronological decades. I previously looked at four characters from the '60s era of the show who never became companions in reality, but who perhaps could in our own RPG campaigns. Now it's time to do the same for the '70s.
We begin with Hal the Archer from the Pertwee story The Time Warrior. One reason he's a choice is that he came quite close to becoming a companion in real life. The producers dropped the idea before the role was even cast, so it never really got anywhere, but it's easy to see him in the same mould as Jamie, and he's certainly quite heroic in his one story.
Hal comes from southern England at some point in the early thirteenth century - we don't know exactly when, but the reign of King John (1199-1216) seems a plausible bet. At any rate, Hal is evidently of peasant stock, and seems to work as a professional soldier for the local lord. As such, his primary weapon is the longbow, which has its uses, but is probably a bit awkward to lug about on space stations or whatever.
Physically fit, courageous, and loyal, he can likely fight with a dagger as a back-up weapon (as both Jamie and Leela do), and is probably pretty handy with his fists, too. Add on a few craft and survival skills, and you probably do have a character who is just as effective as Jamie was, and who has no difficulty rationalising alien monsters as demons or whatever.
We can't go through the Pertwee era without including at least one UNIT character, though, and there is only one apart from the regulars who appears in more than one story. This is Corporal Bell, who appears in both The Mind of Evil and The Claws of Axos. Although it's never specifically mentioned, her uniform indicates that she's a member of the Women's Royal Air Force, rather than the army. Her duties appear to be administrative, this being before the WRAF took on combat roles (and eventually ceased to exist as a separate entity from the RAF proper in 1994).Nonetheless, she probably has reasonable technical skills, perhaps based around signals and communication equipment, and may have some training as a mechanic. First aid and at least some self-defence would also seem reasonable, especially given the sometimes extreme circumstances in which UNIT operatives are expected to find themselves.
Still, we do have a lot of freedom as to how to interpret the character, since she doesn't, to be honest, do a lot on screen apart from take phone calls. According to the novels, her first name is Carol, and she may be promoted to at least Sergeant before eventually leaving UNIT in 1979 to take up a business career. She was probably born during WWII, which at least gives us opportunities to use her going on into the 1980s or '90s, should you wish to do something outside the original UNIT era.
Moving onto the Fourth Doctor, and back to a rather more obvious PC-type, I present Bettan from Genesis of the Daleks. Or, if not her specifically, at least the general idea of Thal Dalek-resistance fighters; there's a number to pick from throughout the era. Bettan herself, however, is a female soldier from the struggling, war-ravaged Thal society as it exists just before the coming of the Daleks. She's therefore going to be less experienced at specifically fighting Daleks then some of her later counterparts, but she's certainly a good all-round soldier, with stealth and survival skills as well as knowledge of guns and explosives (the latter might suggest some technical knowledge - you need to know where to plant the things).Like many other characters in this era, she stays behind at the end of the story to help rebuild her world now that the Doctor has saved it. But there's no reason that circumstances couldn't cause that to change, and, as I mentioned, she's a good representative of a type of character that fits in the Doctor Who universe. One advantage she might have over later Thals, though, is that she's from a society that, out of desperation, habitually uses and is familiar with a mix of different tech levels.
And, for my fourth and final choice... I'm going to cheat, and pick Jago & Litefoot from The Talons of Weng-Chiang, despite them obviously being two different people. The fact is, Jago and Litefoot are fan favourites, having appeared not only in three Doctor Who audio plays, but even their own spin-off audio series, which, as I write this, has just finished its seventh season. Litefoot also appears, albeit without his usual compatriot, in the 1997 novel The Bodysnatchers. So they're not exactly obscure, then.
Of the two, Professor George Litefoot is probably the more obvious potential player character. He was born around 1830, and moved to China when his father became a diplomat there after the Second Opium War. Returning to London in 1873, he became a pathologist. Aside from the obvious scientific and medical knowledge this implies, he also seems handy with firearms and has (if we set the game exclusively in late Victorian London rather than time-travelling) useful social contacts.Henry Gordon Jago, on the other hand, is a theatrical impresario, running the Palace Theatre in Whitechapel. He was apparently an actor in his youth, although not necessarily a very good one. His primary skills appear to be social, largely based around wheeler-dealing and bluster. In practice, he may well be the sort of character that relies on spending Story Points as much as on regular skills.
Honourable mentions go to emotionally repressed 161st (ish) century medical officer Vira from The Ark in Space, bored sand-mining socialite Toos from The Robots of Death, professional TARDIS technician and proto-Romana Rodan from The Invasion of Time, and, just for laughs, all-round moron and glass-smashing two-fisted detective Duggan from The City of Death. And if you're disappointed that all of those are from Tom Baker's years on the show, I'll also throw in implausibly well-manicured guerilla fighter Anat from Day of the Daleks, even though her entire timeline was wiped out, and she presumably never existed.
Of my main choices, only Hal is given stats in DWAITAS, so here's my offering for the rest, with Story Points suitably adjusted and skills fleshed out to PC-appropriate levels:
Cpl. Carol Bell
Awareness
|
3
|
Presence
|
3
|
Coordination
|
3
|
Resolve
|
4
|
Ingenuity
|
4
|
Strength
|
3
|
Skills
Athletics 2, Convince 3, Fighting 1, Knowledge 3, Marksman 2, Medicine 2, Science 1, Survival 1, Technology 3, Transport 3
Traits
Brave, Obligation (UNIT)
SP: 12
TL: 5
Bettan
Awareness
|
4
|
Presence
|
4
|
Coordination
|
4
|
Resolve
|
4
|
Ingenuity
|
3
|
Strength
|
3
|
Skills
Athletics 2, Convince 1, Fighting 3, Marksman 4, Medicine 1, Subterfuge 3, Survival 3, Technology 1, Transport 1
Traits
Brave, Time Traveller (Minor, TL 5)
SP: 12
TL: 6
Prof. George Litefoot
Awareness
|
4
|
Presence
|
3
|
Coordination
|
4
|
Resolve
|
4
|
Ingenuity
|
4
|
Strength
|
3
|
Skills
Craft 2, Fighting 1, Knowledge 3, Marksman 2, Medicine 4 (Pathology), Science 3, Technology 2, Transport 2
Traits
Brave, Code of Conduct
SP: 12
TL: 4
Henry Gordon Jago
Awareness
|
3
|
Presence
|
4
|
Coordination
|
3
|
Resolve
|
3
|
Ingenuity
|
3
|
Strength
|
3
|
Skills
Craft 1, Convince 3 (Showmanship), Fighting 1, Knowledge 2, Marksman 1, Subterfuge 2, Transport 1
Traits
Eccentric, Lucky, Inexperienced
SP: 15
TL: 4
["Companions as PCs" will have to take a break for a while, but should return in October.]
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