Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a long-running (and we do mean long; it predates Star Trek) British science-fiction television show. And it is fantastic. The Doctor, an immortal/regenerating alien that has been portrayed by a variety of stellar actors since the show's inception, travels through space and time in a 1960s-era police box super-advanced, living spaceship called the TARDIS. Joined by a variety of companions (mostly female), they solve kinks in time and sees the wonders of the universe. It's also famous for the various monsters it created, most notably the Daleks (cyborg space Nazis) and the Cybermen (cyborg space Communists)... and especially, the Silence, Weeping Angels, and those fuck terrifying gas mask zombies. Don't blink!

The Show

Doctor Who is the longest ongoing sci-fi series in the history of television. It started in 1963 and ran until 1989 where it was temporarily frozen. It attempted a restart with a 1996 movie, but the circumstances were not yet ripe. The show finally started again in 2005 and is currently still running. Throughout this history the show has maintained the same continuity, thanks to the fact that the main protagonist Doctor Who (aka The Doctor) is an alien capable of "regeneration" upon the time of death or when they grow old. This rejuvenates and replaces all the cells in their body, effectively changing their appearance and somewhat their mannerisms and personality (because it also changes the brain). In this way, the series has been able to continue with different actors without resorting to "remakes" or "reimaginings" or "spinoffs" like Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica. There were a couple of unsuccessful attempts at making spinoffs (One during the original run and one more recently, both based on the rather twee K-9 the tin dog), and three more successful, the recent Torchwood (on indefinite hiatus despite massive popularity... come on BBC, give us Season 5...), Sarah Jane Adventures (cancelled during its fifth year due to the death of the lead actress), and Class (ended after one season). The Sarah Jane Adventures depict the adventures and encounters with alien life that the ex-companion of the 3rd and 4th Doctor goes through with her alien-made son and his friends. Torchwood is Doctor Who with a large dose of GRIMDARK (if you're a horny 12 year old and just comedy for those who aren't, Children of Earth is when Torchwood becomes worth watching), along with a literally immortal lead character with a Charisma score so high that Alpenhorn-mancers turn gay for him within a sixteen mile radius. Everyone is gay for Captain Jack Harkness. He even has a sexuality test named after him. Class depicts what happens when the Doctor sets one of their long plans in motion, and then fucks off for a good while, letting all hell break loose in the meantime.

The main show is heavily episodic, with the Doctor travelling through time and space in their TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension(s) in Space) and landing in different historical periods on Earth and elsewhere in the universe, often when there is some sort of trouble or disturbance nearby. The Doctor protects the flow of history, preventing paradoxes and manipulations and attempts to stop evil and violence everywhere. This gains them the enmity of their own race, the Gallifreyan Time Lords who have pledged to use their time-travelling technology only to observe but not interfere. Even so they often ask the Doctor to act on their behalf. The Time Lords got a bit shit towards the end of the original run, and were unceremoniously killed off en masse during the gap between the original and new runs in an offscreen "Time War". As of the new revival series, there has been the theme of a season long arc within the episodes, which usually takes the shape of a recurring phrase or item, which is resolved in the two part finale at the end of the season.

The show has become iconic in British culture and science fiction fandom around the world for many reasons, amongst them:

• Having been around for fucking ever. Even if you were born during the window when Dr Who was not being made, the chances are you remember it from re-runs or carefully archived bootlegged copies made by that one uncle you had (No, not that one).
• Cheesy low budgeted effects and monsters which gave the show a special charm and made it rely on story instead of flashy visuals.
• The TARDIS machine which has a "chameleon circuit" which allows it to change external appearance to fit into different environments where it "lands", its inside is much bigger than the outside, potentially infinite, thanks to the space-time technology it uses. The Doctor's TARDIS got its chameleon circuit busted and is permanently stuck in the iconic shape of a 60's British Police Box. And when we say iconic we mean the British police have to ask Doctor Who before they can use its likeness, not the other way around.
• The character of The Doctor and their eccentric figure, with their alien traits like regeneration and a double heart.
• The show has been known to be aimed at a younger audience but scare them at the same time, so "hiding behind the sofa" has become a phrase connected to it.
• It also retains a big following amongst older fans because its two-sided nature; it is largely easy-going, tongue-in-cheek and comical but often turns to darker and serious tones, with good storytelling.
• Comical yet fearsome enemies like the Daleks (Genocidal Nazi Pepper-pots with death rays and the best E-VIL VOI-CES E-VER while exterminating FUCKING EVERYTHING, think of the already-overpowered and omnicidal Necrons mixed with Nazis and turned up to 11 billion), Sontarans (Huge domed heads, eyebrows and foreheads of a 4e Tiefling-basically Mr. Potato Head), Autons (Shop Dummies of Death), Weeping Angels (Scared the shit out of children everyone everywhere, don't ever blink) and memorable "supervillain" antagonists like The Master, a rival Time Lord, and the ever-wrinkly Davros, who's basically Palpatine, the Joker, Honsou, Abaddon, Trayzn the Infinite, Asdrubael Vect, & Kheradruakh the Decapitator all rolled into one.
• Hiding behind the sofa from the aforementioned Daleks was such a common event in the lives of several decades of children that the phrase "Hiding behind the sofa" has entered Britfag slang as a slightly tongue-in-cheek way of saying "Scared shitless".
• Various toys, gadgets and gags the Doctor uses, including a 'Sonic Screwdriver' tool and the use of Jelly Babies candy to distract or bribe people.
• The theme tune. You know it, you love it. Yes you do, stop lying.
• Not being your average Science-Fiction story. While many normal Space Opera-style Sci-Fi stories are samey and bland, Doctor Who has practically every kind of adventure imaginable taking place. From dinosaurs on a space ship to gas-masked zombies (who are creepy as all Hell) to literally going to hell, Doctor Who has it all.
• For being a thorn in the side of Mary Whitehouse for the entirety of their parallel existence because of how scary it got in the mid-70s.
• Constantly being political, but in an accessible way. Ever since it's inception it has had political overtones, be that support for the civil rights movement, hatred of Thatcher, or raising concerns about climate changes eventual effect on society and the world. it does this however, in a medium that is accessible for children, which allows it to present the message of the week in very different creative formats - The Happiness Patrol being the best example of this.

The Doctors

But compared to anyone else besides himself he is irrevocably Chaotic Good

Originally the Doctor could only regenerate 12 times, resulting in 13 different versions of themself (12 because David Tennant once managed to regenerate into themself) but during the 2013 Christmas special they managed to restart a new cycle (something that the Timelords offered The Master in The Five Doctors all the way back in 1983.). He is currently in his 12th incarnation (13th counting John Hurt who doesn't get an official number for watch-the-damn-show reasons), meaning that he's had thirteen official actors so far. That's most of them around that logo, starting top-left and not including Matt Smith, John Hurt, Peter Capaldi, or Jodie Whittaker. Man, it might be time to update that thing, innit?

• William Hartnell (1963-1966): A mysterious grumpy old professor. Didn't like to have humans tag along with him, but changed his mind after a while. Extremely intelligent (like all Doctors, duh), but also short-tempered. And a pretty good fighter, despite being old: Once beat up a big man in fisticuffs, while laughing. The Daleks and Cybermen were introduced during his time. (Evidently, one of the replacement actors for Hartnell is a fan of 40k. Duncan got a request to paint flayed wracks from either Hurndall or Bradley, Hartnell been died in 1975 so it couldn't be him.)
• Patrick Troughton (1966-1969): A cosmic hobo. Likes music, and plays recorder. More of an anti-authority figure than his predecessor. Looked like a total idiot, made his enemies underestimate him, and ran away quite a lot. It was also during his time that his race, the Time Lords, was first introduced. At the end of Troughton's run they banished him from Gallifrey for breaking the Prime Directive, and forced him to regeneration as punishment.
• Jon Pertwee (1970-1974): A gentleman and a dandy. Spend a lot of time stuck on Earth, thanks to his stupid race putting him into exile (and not at all because the BBC decided to save money in the cash-strapped 70s by not set-building any more alien worlds, which cost more to look good on 625-line colour TV - ushered in by Pertwee - than they did on 405-line black & white). Could do Venusian Aikido and liked fast cars. The Master, his arch-nemesis and a fellow Time lord, was introduced: He tried to conquer the world with plastic chairs! We're not kidding.
• Tom Baker (1974-1981): The bohemian, a total weirdo, who liked candy and had an extremely long, very colorful scarf. Very good in playing a fool: No one could be as stupid as he seemed. Could switch from manic to serious in a single moment. The most iconic Doctor from the old series, probably due to his long tenure. Davros, the creator of the Daleks and a total maniac, was introduced. Baker briefly married and then divorced Lalla Ward, who played his travelling companion; their marriage difficulties contributed to Baker's end in the role.
• Peter Davison (1981-1984): Pretty much the complete opposite of his predecessor. Very much human, very noble, liked cricket. Was the youngest actor in the role, until Matt Smith some 25 years later. Some people hated him just for replacing Tom Baker. People died a lot during his time: Sometimes there was literally no one left but him and his companions - or, in case of his last story, only his companion. Is the father-in-law of David Tennant (Tenth Doctor).
• Colin Baker (1984-1986): An unstable maniac. More violent than the rest of his incarnations put together. The whole show became bloodier during his time. Thought he was awesome, despite always wearing that awful coat. Generally regarded as being the worst Doctor, at least in the TV shows, but became much more awesome in the audio. Had already played a minor character in the series before he was cast as the Doctor.
• Sylvester McCoy (1987-1989): Started like a goofy wacky fellow, but became more serious later on. Seemed like a god walking among lesser people, and could probably out-manipulate Tzeentch. During his time, they started to turn onto some big questions, like who the hell the Doctor actually is, but then the show got cancelled. Bummer. Had the first CGI intro; all previous intros were generated using some combination of optics and analogue electronics.
• Paul McGann (1996): A romantic. Told people to make the best use of their limited time on this world and embrace their lives instead of being all emo and crying in a corner. But he also stated that he was half-human, which is a lie. The books and audio fleshed him out a bit. Too bad his movie didn't do well enough in America to spawn a new series (damn you America!).
• John Hurt (secret bonus Doctor, 2013): The Doctor as he was fighting in the Time War, known by some as the "War Doctor". In setting chronology, this incarnation fits between McGann's and Eccleston's, but due to committing some horrible war crimes in order to end the Time War, he denied himself the title of "the Doctor" and later regenerations refused to acknowledge his existence; so much so that Matt Smith's version is still referred to in-universe as the Eleventh Doctor, even in mysterious prophecies, despite technically being the twelfth incarnation. He was seen only briefly in the finale of season 7 played a major role in the 50th anniversary special, and had a set of audio adventures, but probably won't be seen again (RIP, John).
• Christopher Eccleston (2005): The only survivor of the horrible Time War, which will never be fully shown, but we have seen parts of. All the other Time Lords died in it (or did they?). Dark and moody, probably because of the survivor's guilt, tended to hide it behind a horribly manic and happy outward appearance. Was pretty dependent on his friends and companions when it came to moral issues. Often found himself in a kind of fix where he couldn't do shit without blowing the hell out of the area around him (the guy dropped missiles on his own head to kill a damn alien threat near him for fucks sake). The first Doctor not to wear (particularly) weird clothes. "You were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And you know what? So was I."
• David Tennant (2005-2010): Probably the outwardly happiest of all Doctors... or maybe the most Machiavellian. A total crackpot. Talks a lot of technobabble, at like 90mph, sometimes of something completely unrelated. If Time Lords could have ADHD, he probably does. Attracts a lot of women. For some reason, one of the last monsters featured was EAT. Yeah, that EAT. Oh and, when he'll offer you a chance of redemption and says that he can help you, you bloody well should take that offer! Because he doesn't believe in second chances, nor in letting someone walk away (Unless you're an arch villain). "I've gotten too old, Wilf, and too clever; I don't kill people, but I get them to kill themselves." (you just read that entire paragraph in his voice, didn't you?) Alternatively a child on Christmas morning and the MASTER of the resting bitch face whilst he destroys you, or he watches you destroy yourself. His performance was so good that BBC actually considered to end the series after his tenure because they thought that the show would fail without him.
• Matt Smith (2010-2013): The biggest nutjob since Tom Baker's Doctor. His stories tend to feature fuck-terrifying monsters and situations, including: an army of quantum abominations who only move when you're not looking at them, but logically should be of no threat to anyone who owns a time machine, being trapped in a false-awakening loop, a crack in the wall that eats reality, and an entire fucking race of Slendermen (whom you completely forget even exist when you aren't looking at one). Two of his assistants are insanely hot and another spends most of his time getting killed (and rest of the time being awesome). "I wear a bow-tie now; bow-ties are cool."
• Peter Capaldi (2013-2017): Something in between the Ninth and Fourth Doctors, making him an all-out sinister badass if you know anything about those Doctors. The actor has appeared twice in Doctor Who (well, once in Torchwood) in other roles before becoming the Doctor, which was explained as the Doctor trying to tell himself something. Thus far fans have imagined him in the role as the Doctor in the same style Peter Capaldi has appeared on the show The Thick of It, where he was exceptionally foul-mouthed. It turned out he's pretty damn hilarious. And Scottish. Quite eccentric, though. Apparently a lot of the female fans were outraged that an older guy got the role. It says a lot that the closest thing he had to a catchphrase was "Shut up!"
• Jodie Whittaker: (2017-present)): The first female Doctor in canon. The precedent for Time Lords changing gender was established earlier during the Eleventh Doctor's era, when he mentions banging a Time Lord named the Corsair when he became a she. An actress from Broadchurch to go along with the producer of the same show. Meanwhile David Tennant fangirls cry out in horror. For the third straight time in a decade. Oh and her actress is a feminist. Many fans of the Doctor up until this point cried out in horror when she was announced. Other fans simply shrugged and settled in for new Who, gratified to know that they still weren't having to wait 16 years between episodes anymore. Her first season ranged between mediocre to just above average with an awesome season finale that made the Daleks the powerful threat they should have been during Twelve's tenure, where a Scout takes out an a whole armored British Platoon with no effort. However it seems that the BBC is trying to compete with Paramount, CBS and Disney on who can run a decades old franchise into the ground first, as regardless of quality, the following season wasn’t out until (very) early 2020. Making Capaldi's comments about "The Beeb" neglecting the show prophetic. Well this is typical for the BBC dramas. Long breaks between seasons will have the typical TV viewer lose interest. For fans it's hard to generate hype for a Sci-fi show that won't have another season for at least a year or more. And when that season did come out, it was divisive, to say the least, although almost everyone agrees that it was better than the previous season. Hey, at least Jack is back!
• "Doctor Ruth" - Another "missing" Doctor played by Jo Martin who debuted in Series 13 of the modern era. It's unknown where she fits in the timeline but she is confirmed to be a pre Hartnell Doctor. As it's now revealed The Doctor is "The Timeless Child" and isn't a Time Lord or from Gallifrey, but a being from a different universe stolen and experimented on by the Time Lords, she is confirmed to be a real Doctor and not a trick or a misunderstanding. She is the result of fixing a plot hole created all the way back in the classic era episode "The Brain of Morbius". Where the battle between Four and the Time Lord war criminal Morbius revealed several Pre-Hartnell Doctors. Whether this was a plot hole worth fixing is a matter of Skub among fans. Something that other writers have tried to explain in side materials before now. An attempt to explain said plot hole was used earlier during the McCoy era to make him not just "an ordinary Time Lord" and restore mystery to the character with the incarnation called "The Other".

Non-canon and other Doctors

There have been a number of Doctors who were either the Doctor in strange circumstances, were later retconned or were never intended to be canon in the first place.

• Peter Cushing (1965-66): Yes, THAT Peter Cushing, the guy that played Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars and was so oldschool he once played alongside Laurel and Hardy. He played a human scientist called Dr. Who (yes, his last name is Who) in two movie-length remakes of early episodes featuring the Daleks. The movies were not very good, as one would expect when they didn't use the iconic theme tune, had blaring jazz instead of electronic music, were directed by someone who'd never actually watched Doctor Who and didn't even realise that the Daleks' head lights are supposed to flash in modulation with their voices, and rumours had it that Cushing was taking any work he could to keep his mind off the recent loss of his wife. He is easily the best thing about the movies, mind, and his sweet, grandfatherly Doctor is a flavour almost worth seeing if you don't mind wading through all the crap. It also featured a set of groovy-coloured Daleks (who had decorated their base with lava lamps!), which was considered silly because Daleks are supposed to be drab... at least until they returned in Matt Smith's run as a group of happy fascist murderous rainbows. This particular Doctor has the dubious honour of having successfully defeated the Daleks' latest world-domination plan by quite literally pointing at nothing and yelling "Look!"
• Rowan Atkinson, Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley (1999): The BBC has a tradition of making silly parodies of their shows for charity. Dr. Who got one called Doctor Who and the Curse of the Fatal Death, where the aforementioned actors played the Ninth through Twelfth Doctors in quick succession. Rowan Atkinson played the role magnificently as the Time Lord Blackadder. He announces to the Master that he is going to marry the only companion he ever had, but the Master enlists the help of the Daleks to kill his archenemy once and for all. Belayed explanations, Zektronic energy, communication based on breaking wind, a couple of Dalek chairs, and LOTS of hijinks later, the Doctor burns through pretty much all of his regenerations in two minutes. It is a very funny short and should be watched, if only for the magnificent snark that only Rowan Atkinson can produce.
• Richard E. Grant (2003): Just a few years after playing the Tenth Doctor in Curse of the Fatal Death, Grant returned as the Ninth Doctor for the "webisode" Scream of the Shalka. This incarnation was angry, moody, looked like a vampire, and compared to Sherlock Holmes by the actor himself (which is funny when you consider that Benedict Cumberbatch, of Sherlock fame, was in the running to be the Eleventh Doctor), but he was still a good man who left no monster rampaging (or at least unstudied) and no woman unsaved. He fought the exeptionally creepy Shalka, whom he defeated with... no, no spoilers, you wouldn't believe it anyway. He also traveled alongside none other than the Master, who was confined to an android body stuck in the TARDIS. They share homoerotic subtext to the level it becomes homoerotic SUPERtext; the author commented that this was intentional.
  • As a side note, while they were making the special, some kid pretty much kicked down the door, ranted about how much he loved Doctor Who, and begged for a role in the short. The producers gave him one, causing the kid to all but explode. The kid's name? David Tennant.
• David Morrissey (2009): In the episode "The next Doctor", the 10th Doctor stumbles upon cybermen, cybermonkeys, and a man who calls himself the Doctor, played by David Morrissey, in 1851. He claims to be an incarnation of the gallifreyan time-traveler we have had for 50 years, but something is amiss; his memory is practically gone, his sonic screwdriver isn't sonic, and his TARDIS is a balloon. In the end, it turns out he was actually a regular person who absorbed all information the cybermen had about the Doctor and only thought he was him.

Villains and Big Players

Sufficed to say when you have hundreds of episodes of the week format over half a century of TV as well as tie in novels, comics, audio dramas and whanot with a a guy that can go anywhere and any when with an episode of the week mentality you'll build up quite a rogues gallery. Here are a few of the more notable groups and prominent non doctor characters.

• Daleks: Nazism distilled into octopus form riding around in pepper shakers. Each Dalek is a psychopathic genius riding around in what is basically it's own tank motivated by an unending hatred and desire to Exterminate every living thing that's not a Dalek. They're also notable for being as indestructible as the show needs them to be; that is to say they have been pushed out of a window one story up and exploded, died from baseball bat attack enhanced by a Macguffin of the week, and been spun around too much and died, but at the same time a single Dalek is capable of downloading the internet, and taking on a full platoon of highly trained soldiers. Yay for consistency!
  • Davros: Creator of the Daleks (twice), Davros is one of the Doctor’s worst enemies. Startlingly similar to the God-Emperor of Mankind, as both are geniuses in genetics who regard their creations as their children (or tools), but Davros is a twisted evil genius who would destroy all life - hell, all reality - if given the chance, basically just so he could say that he did. His relationship with the Daleks is complicated, as while they don’t view him as a Dalek, they also acknowledge him as their creator and that they wouldn’t exist without him. As such, they tend to spare him and sometimes follow his orders, on occasion even letting him be the emperor, but may just as easily turn on and kill him if the situation arises - or they feel like it. Covertly created a second generation of white-and-gold "Imperial" daleks that actually did revere him as their emperor, after the first generation of grey-and-black "renegade" Daleks rejected him. Needless to say, these two different Dalek factions (arguably subraces, since Davros genetically engineered the first batch from the last survivors of his own species, the Kaleds, and the second batch from human bodies he stole on Necros) did not get along very well. As of Capaldis era he seems to have a very love-hate relationship with the Doctor that stems from 12 saving his life as a child... watch this space, there could be a long story in this.
• Cybermen: Borg before the Borg, an army of Cyborgs which seek to turn everyone else into a Cyborg. Absolutely fucking terrifying when done in the right way, and generic robots when not. There are some *amazing* audiobooks with them in, notably Spare Parts and The Silver Turk.
• Time Lords: Ancient Civilization who long ago mastered Time Travel. Insanely powerful scholarly types who are mostly True Neutral isolationists. Currently all dead. Again. Ffs. At times their assholes who are no better than the Daleks. Mostly because their Founding members were jerks too. The fact that these guys produced some of the Doctor's greatest enemies and their own is a testament to their assholery. Small wonder that the Doctor doesn't come home to visit very often.
  • The Master: The arch-enemy of the Doctor. Once his childhood friend, the two have become bitter, almost flirtatious, enemies. The flirtatious part isn’t an exaggeration as when the Master regenerated into a woman she kissed the Doctor as soon as they met, though she was just messing with him - and didn’t take it kindly when the Doctor called Davros his greatest enemy. The various incarnations tend to be incredibly cunning and often devise schemes to either gain power or just fuck over the Doctor in anyway they please. Though there have been several moments where he seems to have died, the Master always manages to come back. This is what happens when you’re in a fifty-year old franchise and are one of its most iconic villains.
  • The Rani: John Nathan Turners's attempt to make a 'mad scientist' character that wasn't an homicidal manic in a space wheelchair. Appeared in stories that are universally considered shit, and then never appeared again. Notable for being far cleverer than both The Master and The Doctor - she was top of her science classes.
• Sontarans: Mr Potato Men who live to fight and die in glorious combat for the Sontaran Empire. So balls to the walls crazy for war that they genetically designed themselves so that they can never retreat; their only weak spot being a probic vent at the back of their neck. Susceptible to tennis balls, however. They plan like Tzeentch itself designed them, fight like Khorne himself had designed them, and look like Nurgle himself had designed them. Now all that's missing is Slannesh. I guess that probic vent is used for more than just food then...
• Silurians: "Homo Reptilia" who owned the planet before humankind had evolved, and will rule it again! They went to hibernation/into space when the Moon came near to the Earth, and their scientists predicted that it would collide with them. And then it didn't. And they stayed sleeping. Almost all of their stories are the same - mining operations woke up a small colony; they fuck up all humans in a ten kilometre radius; The Doctor shows up; a peace settlement that will change the planet forever is written; and then the armed forces fuck things up for everyone and lots of people die. Actually serve to show a very cynical attitude towards humanity if you look at the subtext of most plots, particularly The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood and The Silurians.
• Weeping Angels: Don't blink. Blink and you're dead. Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And don't blink. In essence, the scariest damned things to be spawned from the revival. They aren't statues and they aren't angels, they just look like them. When someone sees one, they turn to stone, but if you so much as blink, they can snap your neck in a fraction of a second or send you back in time to die, while they feed off your the life you could have lived. Worse, they don't have to appear solely as angels. They can be any kind of statue - though when one of them became the Statue of Liberty it kind of nullified the scare factor.

Miniatures and Doctor Who

Miniatures based on Doctor Who have been around since the Eighties. In fact, one of Citadel's earliest plastic kits was a Dalek and a Cyberman, and a few Who-inspired models were also manufactured and sold by Games Workshop itself. FASA also made a few models.

The license got picked up by Harlequin in the Eighties, who made a few minis as well as some skirmish rules. The game was a skirmish combat affair that didn't really fit the show. Harlequin went bust decades ago and the official license lapsed at some point, but BlackTree Miniatures "own a huge stock" of unsold models (or they own the moulds and simply claim they have a huge stock. No one really cares).

Character Options produced a version of Heroclix called Doctor Who Microuniverse. It wasn't really a game, and the minis were pretty awful pre-painted, 28mm-scale minis. It is now out of print, thankfully.

Warlord Games acquired the license for a Doctor Who miniatures game in 2016, which has yet to be released as of 2017. Gale Force Nine is also licensed to produce a card game based on the series.

The Doctor Who Miniatures Game

In part thanks to so many terribly produced games and models in the past, small firm Crooked Dice wrote a scenario based action adventure miniatures game and called it The Doctor Who Miniatures Game. Slick, clever, quick to play and simple to get in to, it went down very well amongst nerds.

Originally produced for fun, it found a great deal of popularity in the part of the UK wargames community who wore tweed and smoked pipes. Buoyed by this success, Crooked Dice approached the BBC for an official license. Auntie Beeb said it would cost ££££ for an official license, but they it was aluded that they could continue to produce the game provided no direct profit was made.

Crooked Dice give the Doctor Who Miniatures Game away for free, and also produce a more generic action-adventure scenario based game called 7TV (Seventies TV, you see). So in a weird reversal of the way things are done, the generic rules cost money but the specific rules are free.

Unfortunately Crooked Dice, who already was producing "look alike" miniatures - started selling hard copies of the rules. This led to problems for them when Warlord Games acquired the Doctor Who license to produce a Miniatures Game and Miniatures - and not only was their Ruleset dropped, but also their range of unofficial Miniatures.

The RPGs

sample charsheet from the Cubicle 7 game

There have been three Doctor Who RPGs published to date. The first was produced by FASA, using the Star Trek RPG system . The FASA game was notable for its strange use Doctor Who continuity and official fluff. For example, it overused the Celestial Intervention Agency from the The Deadly Assassin episode. An odd choice.

The Time Lord RPG was closer to the series and sported a simpler system, along with mechanics that tried to emulate the show (macguffins, bench thumping etc). Published by Virgin and written by Ian Marsh and Peter Darvill-Evans, it can easily be found on the web. Legendary in the Australian con scene for one of the fastest Total Party Kills ever (GM: "You're in a moving TARDIS..."; Players: "We get out.")

A new game was made in 2010 (and remade in 2011) by Cubicle 7 Entertainment (SLA Industries, Victoriana, Starblazer Adventures), this time in conjunction with the BBC and based on the most recent series. It is rules lite, and biased against combat (much like the teevee show itself). For example: initiative depends on what you're doing, and goes in this order: Talkers, Movers, Doers and Fighters. It is a much better game than the last two, in the sense that it has modern mechanics and actually reflects the show.

External Links

• Doctor Who Minatures Game website with free downloads. Regularly updated.

• Time Lord RPG by Marsh Now out of print, you can download this game for free.

• Cubicle 7 RPG store (10th Doctor edition) Cubicle7 doesn't have any promo material of it's own about the game. Odd.

• Cubicle 7 RPG store (11th Doctor edition)

• http://tardis.wikia.com A wordy wiki if you want to read up on the series and lore.

[1] This is to Doctor Who as 1d4chan is to 40k.