Settings: Det-Sen (The Abominable Snowmen)

With The Abominable Snowmen, we have the first self-contained historical to feature a science fiction ‘monster’, rather than a rival time traveller. The historical elements are, however, relatively minor, due in part to the remote location, which means that the story could almost be contemporary. Traditionally regarded as a middling serial, younger fans have been more critical, although this may be less true now that an animation is available for the missing episodes. Either way, it is, perhaps, better remembered for introducing a threat that recurs in a more popular story later in the season than it is in its own right. Nonetheless, the setting is exotic and, for a historical, surprisingly adaptable to some SF settings, so let’s take a look.

Where & When

The story is set in the Himalayan Mountains of southern Tibet. No specific date is given in the serial, but The Web of Fear later states that it took place in 1935. The animation has plenty of snow on the ground, which may suggest either winter or spring, depending on the altitude.

Settings: Telos (Tomb of the Cybermen)

Season five kicks off with a Cyberman story, cementing the intention of using them as the main villains from here on, instead of the Daleks. It’s widely regarded as one of the better Second Doctor stories and perhaps the single best Cyberman story of the classic era, and it has the obvious advantage of being the earliest Troughton story fully available in its original form. For our purposes here, however, it’s worth noting that little of the appeal has to do with the setting. Having said which, the story does involve exploring and negotiating the traps and monsters in an underground tomb, something that’s not entirely foreign to certain RPGs…

Where & When

Although no specific date is given in the story, it’s stated to be set approximately five hundred years after the events of The Moonbase. Depending on whether Parry is rounding up or down, and how far we want to adjust for the known dates of future Cyberman stories, this places the story somewhere between the late 25th and mid-26th centuries, with most fan theories leaning towards the later date. This is probably shortly before the founding of the original Earth Empire.

It takes place on the planet Telos, a few weeks' travel from Earth. Given the date, this most likely places it in our own galaxy (although one of the audios will later contradict this), but in the relatively unexplored fringes beyond the edge of human colonisation, perhaps even on the opposite side of the galactic nucleus from Earth.

Settings: The Evil of the Daleks

The season finale of season four is arguably the first such serial to actually feel like a season finale. It’s one of the more popular Second Doctor stories, despite all but one episode being missing – albeit they are now animated. From the perspective of these posts, however, it’s very much not an exploratory story, and there’s relatively little to say about the setting. But still, we can work with the basics that we have.

Where & When

The story has three distinct settings. It starts off in southern England on the 20th July 1966, immediately after the events of The Faceless Ones. The main section, however, takes place on the 2nd and 3rd June 1866, at an English country house, with all of the action being confined to the building and its grounds.

Settings: Gatwick Airport (The Faceless Ones)

With The Faceless Ones, we return to present-day Earth, and the setting of a modern airport. Like everything else in season 4, most of the story is missing, although both the surviving and missing episodes have been animated for some time, making it readily available. It’s generally regarded as a middling episode, with some praising the mystery elements, and others finding it too long for its plot at six parts, as well as cutting out two of the three companions. But few people seem to actively dislike it, and an airport is, if nothing else, at least different from what we’ve seen so far.

(This series of posts will take a break after this, taking the companion departure, rather than the season finale, as a good place to do so. I’ll be back in a few months with Evil of the Daleks.) 

Where & When

The story is set on the 20th July 1966, with a minor plot point revolving around the fact that this was also the final day of the earlier serial The War Machines. The Earth-based sections are set entirely on the grounds of Gatwick Airport in London, although there is also a brief journey to near-Earth orbit.

Settings: The Macra Terror

The fourth season moves back outside the solar system for its fourth base-under-siege story. This is another serial that’s entirely missing in its original form, although it has been animated and so is more available than some of the others. Its reception ranges from middling to good, and the existence of the animation has likely increased that in recent years. For our purposes, an issue is the similarity of the setting to that of Power of the Daleks, but there are at least some significant differences to explore.

Where & When

The story is set on an unnamed human colony world at an unspecified point in the future. The colony is stated to be “centuries” old, which places the earliest possible date at around 2300, while we also know that it must be significantly earlier than Gridlock – but that’s a vast range. Fan theories tend to place it early on, before the foundation of the original Earth Empire, and thus somewhere in the 24th to 26th centuries.

Settings: The Moonbase

The first of four Cyberman stories in the Second Doctor’s three-season run, this is not the most highly regarded, but it’s no means unpopular either, a solid example of its type. For our purposes, however, what’s interesting is that it attempts to take a hard sci-fi tone, something we don’t often see on the show. It’s also the first time we’ve visited a world other than Earth that actually exists, so that it’s possible to make some concrete statements about it.

Where & When

The story takes place in and around the eponymous base, an unnamed international station located on the Moon. The year is given as 2070, which later stories will confirm is at a time when mankind has expanded through at least the inner solar system (Waters of Mars is set in 2059), but has yet to develop faster-than-light travel. 

Settings: Atlantis (The Underwater Menace)

 

With the last of the Hartnell-style historicals out of the way, the next story is more of a science fiction adventure, albeit one set on near-contemporary Earth. The specific setting, however, is an unusual one, used in other science fiction stories, certainly, but less often than one might think. Its reception has traditionally been poor, but in recent years, many younger reviewers have embraced its over-the-top pulpy feel. And that’s a good match for some TTRPGs, so let’s see what we can do with it…

Where & When

The story is set in the Lost City of Atlantis at some time in the very near future. While no date for the setting is explicitly given, Polly estimates it to be 1970, and nobody contradicts her. We can be more confident about the day, since the narrative starts on the vernal equinox, which occurs on 20th March, almost (but not quite) regardless of the year; at the most, the story finishes the day after, and it may not even be that long.

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. 

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…

The Companions That Weren't: the '60s

In Doctor Who stories, it's not unusual for there to be a character who takes on a companion-like role, but who does not, in the end, join the TARDIS crew. Granted, this is often at least partly because they've just died, and many wouldn't make great player characters anyway. But there are some exceptions, who can, if nothing else, give us inspiration for character ideas that fit with the setting.

I'm going to start on the Third Doctor's era shortly after the relevant sourcebook comes out, but that leaves me with a slight gap. So today I'm going to look at four characters from the show's first six seasons who either came close to being actual companions, or are particularly suited for it.

First up, and my only choice from the Hartnell era, is Jenny, from The Dalek Invasion of Earth. She's a resistance fighter against the Daleks and their robomen, and, from the dates given on screen, therefore hails from the 2170s, or thereabouts. She appears on my list because the character was seriously considered as an ongoing companion, replacing Susan, who left in that story. In the event, the writers decided they wanted somebody younger, and introduced Vicki in The Rescue, but it could have been otherwise.

She isn't given a surname, nor do we know how, exactly, she joined the resistance. Unlike the menfolk, she doesn't really do any fighting, although it's hard to imagine that she can't if it comes to it. Her main roles in the resistance are organisational, including such things as manning the communications system. But, given that she's been living in a post-apocalyptic world for ten years, it's also a fair assumption that she has good survival and stealth skills.

DW Companions as PCs: Zoe Heriot

As has become almost traditional for companions by this point, Victoria leaves in the penultimate story of a season - in her case, the fifth. Having concluded the story arc of Victoria's desire for a normal life eventually getting the better of her, her player comes up with a character that, in some ways, breaks the mould: Zoe Heriot.

Apart from the mumsy Barbara, all the female companions on the show so far have been, to a greater or lesser extent, Peril Monkeys, whose primary function is to be menaced by the monsters. It's true that this does happen to Zoe, too - for example, she spends a couple of episodes of The Invasion drugged and locked in a trunk while the bad guys use her to lure Jamie and the Doctor into a trap. But that's combined with the fact that she's a technical and scientific genius.

In a sense, we've been here before: both Susan and Vicki could be described in this way. But Vicki's skills only rarely saved the day, and Susan might as well not have had any, for all she used them after the first episode. Zoe, on the other hand, does so frequently, making her a competent scientific specialist - a Science Geek, whose player has maxed out on Intelligence and science skills. In DWAITAS, she has to take two levels of 'Experienced' to justify her skills, and, she's obviously had plenty of boosts over the course of her adventures, since she's over-powered even for that.

(In fairness, this is also true of Ben, while Jamie appears to be under-powered, and might justifiably get three extra story points to compensate).

DW Companions as PCs: Victoria Waterfield

Ben and Polly leave in the penultimate episode of the fourth season. With Jamie already filling the 'action hero' role, it's only Polly that needs to be replaced.

If we're honest, it's been hard to really see Doctor Who as the account of a role-playing game since The Dalek Invasion of Earth, or thereabouts. That's because it's about that time that the Doctor really becomes the hero of the show, and the other regular characters 'just' his companions. In the first season, he may have been the title character, and, to some extent, the focal point, but he was still more or less evenly balanced with Ian and Barbara, if not Susan.

But, from the second season onwards, he's much more obviously the hero, and that becomes even more the case once Troughton takes over and the mythology of the Doctor really starts to build. This works well in a TV show, but having most of the PCs be in the shadow of one of the others isn't such a good recipe for an RPG. The stories arguably also diverge from a 'gaming' look as they become more tightly plotted, again, from about the second season onwards.

Nonetheless, I'm going to stick with the analogy, at least for now. Because, why not?

DW Companions as PCs: Jamie McCrimmon

One clear problem with setting a game during a specific period of Doctor Who's television history is that the Doctor rarely travels with more than two companions, creating problems for any group with more than three players. Indeed, there are only four points in the history of classic Who where there are more than three regular characters. The first of these occupies the first two seasons, with the Doctor, Ian, and Barbara, plus either Susan or Vicki. The second occurs during the fourth season, when Ben and Polly are joined by a third companion.

In fact, it's interesting to note that this season includes one of the few points where we can definitely say that there must (rather than 'might') be a whole bunch of stories we don't see. Most of the stories in this period end with the beginning of the next one, so that there's no gap at all. But not only is that not true of the gap between The Macra Terror and The Faceless Ones, but, in the first of those stories, Polly gets her hair cut short. By the start of the latter story it's grown back to full length, suggesting a few months have passed at the very least. Who knows where they travelled during that period?

At any rate, with the number of companions having gone back to three again, a new player has obviously joined the group. He comes up with an idea that has apparently never struck the existing players: since this is a time travel game as much as a science fiction one, there is no reason he can't play a character from the past. The character he comes up with is Jamie McCrimmon, a Jacobite piper from the year 1746.

DW Companions as PCs: Polly Wright

While Steven's former player decides to make his next character, Ben, more down-to-earth, Dodo's has the opposite problem, and decides to make her next character useful at... well, anything, really. The result is Polly Wright.

Polly's surname is never mentioned on-screen, and for a long time there was fan speculation as to what it might be, with a number of suggestions being made. Once it was confirmed, however, that the BBC's audition scripts for the character gave her surname as 'Wright' that became the one that everybody accepted. It's unclear as to whether this ever intended as any more than a place-holder at the time - it's also Barbara's surname, and the two characters are entirely unrelated. Possibly nobody at the BBC took it seriously as a name, but neither did they bother to come up with anything else, so it's what we have.

While her predecessors are mostly sixteen-year old girls, Polly is a grown woman. Assuming she's the same age as Anneke Wills was at the time, she's 24, notably younger than Barbara, and clearly cut from a different mould. She's a secretary from London in 1966, which, at first glance, may not be the most exciting concept ever for a player character. While the ability to brew a nice cup of tea is one that's quite important in British culture, for instance, it's rarely high on most player's wish-lists.

DW Companions as PCs: Ben Jackson

Steven and Dodo left in consecutive episodes at the end of the show's third season. Although the actual reasons probably had more to do with the new producer's desire for a more glamorous cast, in our imaginary RPG campaign, perhaps the imbalance between the over-powered Steven and the under-powered Dodo was becoming a bit of an issue rules-wise. Which might explain why their replacements are both down-to-earth, while still being fairly capable.

Stepping into the 'Action Hero' role recently vacated by Steven is Ben Jackson. Like Steven, he's served in the military, but that's about as far as the resemblance goes. While Steven is a fighter pilot from the future, Ben is a regular rating on a Royal Navy ship from 1966. From the perspective of someone watching the show, it's the difference between the wish-fulfilment of wanting to be Dan Dare, and the feeling that somebody who's kind of like you might still have a chance at exciting adventures with the Doctor. Which is still wish-fulfilment, admittedly, but of a different kind.

Merely from his profession, we can deduce quite a bit about the skills he ought to have. He should be good at fighting, have some ability as a mechanic or electronics operator, be able to swim, and have at least some idea how to steer a motorboat. Aside from the last one, these are all things that we do, indeed, see him doing to quite high levels of competency. In The Highlanders, for example, he's thrown into a deep firth while tied to a chair, and still manages to swim away to safety without breaking the surface. (So we'd better add escapology to his skill set, then... don't know if the Navy teaches that).

DWAITAS: 2nd Doctor Sourcebook

The Second Doctor's era is a crucial one in the development of Doctor Who as a series. There's the obvious point that the regeneration itself, and the show's re-invention that followed it, are a large part of why it has survived so long. But it's also significant that much of what we now associate with the show originated with the Second, not the First, Doctor. The First Doctor's adventures, as I mentioned in the previous review, were quite different to what we have now, and often at least tried to be fairly sophisticated science fiction, with a focus on alien culture, moral quandaries, and the practicalities of surviving in a hostile past.

While there certainly are some pretty sophisticated stories in the Second Doctor's era (The Mind Robber particularly springs to mind), there was also a change in focus. This era became about monsters in a way that the first three seasons had never really tried to be - aside, of course, from the Daleks. Other features of the era that have since been commonplace include the 'base under siege' trope, with an isolated outpost menaced by hostile aliens. That's first seen in The Tenth Planet, the very last Hartnell episode, but it becomes much more common under Troughton, notably describing all but one story in the fifth season.

It's also the first time we have a companion joining for the sheer fun of time travel, and the last of the truly reluctant companions. In this respect, the dynamic of the show is also becoming something we more readily recognise today. It's also, for that matter, the first appearance of the sonic screwdriver. This, incidentally, is first seen in Fury From the Deep, a story in which it's only used to, of all things, undo some screws! Even in this era, it gets to do more later on...

This gives the second volume in the DWAITAS sourcebook series an advantage that the first volume could never really have. The stories here are more familiar in style, more the sort of thing somebody who'd only ever seen Nu Who (or, indeed, much of the colour era of the classic series) would expect. In particular, there are a host of monsters to throw into our own scenarios, where in the first sourcebook there were only Daleks and a bunch of alien cultures - many of which, like the Drahvins and the Moroks, look essentially human.