Doctor Who
The Show
Doctor Who is the longest ongoing sci-fi series in 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, continuing at least until 2013, but probably longer. Throughout this history the show has maintained the same continuity, thanks to the fact that the main protagonist The Doctor (aka Doctor Who) is an alien capable of "regeneration" upon the time of death or when he grows old. This rejuvenates and replaces all the cells in his body, effectively changing his appearance and somewhat his 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 two more successful, the recent Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures (cancelled during its fifth year due to the death of the lead actress). Torchwood is Doctor Who with a large dose of GRIMDARK(if your 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.
The show is heavily episodic, with the Doctor travelling through time and space in his 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 him the enmity of his 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".
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 budged 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 his eccentric figure, with his 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 (Pepper-pots with death rays and the best E-VIL VOI-CES E-VER), Sontarans (Huge domed heads, eyebrows and foreheads of a 4e Tiefling) and Autons (Shop Dummies of Death) and memorable "supervillain" antagonists like The Master, a rival Time Lord, and the ever-wrinkly Davros.
- 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 "Shit scared".
- Various toys, gadgets and gags the Doctor uses, amongst others a 'Sonic Screwdriver' tool and the use of jellybabies candy to distract or bribe people.
The Doctors
The Doctor can regenerate 12 times, resulting in 13 different versions of himself. He is currently in his 11th incarnation, meaning that he's had eleven official actors so far. That's them around that logo, starting top-left and not including Matt Smith.
- 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.
- 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.
- Jon Pertwee (1970-1974): A gentleman and a dandy. Spend a lot of time stuck on Earth, thanks to his stupid race putting him on an exile. 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 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 well-known Doctor, probably due to his long tenure. Davros, the creator of the Daleks and a total maniac, was introduced.
- Peter Davison (1981-1984): Pretty much the complete opposite of his predecessor. Very much human, very noble, liked cricket. Had the youngest actor. 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 told that he was half-human, which is a lie. The books and audio fleshed him out a bit. Too bad his movie didn't make well enough in America to spawn a new series (damn you America!).
- Christopher Eccleston (2005): The only survivor of a horrible Time War, which we're never going to see. All the other Time Lords died in it. 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. Often found himself in a kind of fix where he couldn't do shit. The first Doctor not to wear weird clothes. "You were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And you know what? So was I."
- David Tennant (2005-2010): Probably the 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. 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?)
- 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, false-awakening, a crack in the wall that eats reality, and an entire fucking race of Slenderman. One of his assistants is 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-):
Miniatures and Doctor Who
Mini's based on Doctor Who have been around since the Eighties. One of Citadel Miniatures's earliest plastic kits was a Dalek and a Cyberman, and a small number of Who inspired models where also manufactured and sold by Games Workshop. FASA also produced models.
The license got picked up by Harlequin models in the Eighties, 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 long ago 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, it was top trumps with pre-painted 28mm scale minis. It is now out of print, thankfully.
At the moment, no one has the license for Doctor Who miniatures. Wargame companies Heresy, Hasslefree and Crooked Dice all do models that look enough like Doctor Who to work in a game but not quite so much that they risk prosecution)
The Doctor Who Minatures 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 Minatures 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. Bouyed by this success, Crooked Dice approached the BBC for an official license. Auntie Beeb said it would cost ££££ for an official license, but 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.
The RPGs
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.
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 refelcts 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.