Doctor Who

"232. It is not possible to recreate any scene from Dr. Who in Crinos."

– The List of things Mr. Welch can no longer do in an RPG

Doctor Who is a long-running (and we do mean long; it predates color television in the UK) British science-fiction television show. It follows The Doctor, an immortal/regenerating alien who travels through space and time in a 1960s-era police box super-advanced, living spaceship called the TARDIS. (To give you an idea of how iconic this series is, the London Metropolitan Police who invented those police boxes have to ask the BBC before using them in publicity photos in case somebody mistakes one for the TARDIS.) Joined by a variety of companions (mostly female and often young), they zoom around time and space, solving problems and seeing 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 more recently the Weeping Angels. Because of this (and a focus on scripting over special effects due to the Beeb's perennial budget issues) the series is inextricably linked with the image of British kids running behind the sofa to hide from the scary monster whenever it did appear - though the monster was usually made of shag carpeting and trash cans on a closer look.

The Show

Doctor Who is the oldest sci-fi series in the history of television that still gets new episodes on a regular basis. It started in 1963 and ran until 1989 where it was cancelled due to studio politics and stiff competition from other series like Coronation Street. It attempted a restart with a 1996 movie, but a full reboot was conditional on American audiences tuning in and since only pointdexters watching PBS had heard of it the project died. The show finally started again in 2005 and lasted another twenty years, though it's in limbo now as the BBC hasn't officially cancelled or renewed it. Throughout this history, the show has maintained the same canon-less continuity, thanks to the fact that the main protagonist Doctor Who (aka The Doctor) is from an alien species capable of "regeneration" to escape death, whether from violence or old age. 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 (mostly) uninterrupted by simply having the Doctor regenerate whenever his actor quit, without resorting to "remakes" or "reimaginings" or "spinoffs" like Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica. Any continuity errors (of which there are many) can be brushed off as side effects of the Doctor or one of his enemies changing time.

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" since 2012), Sarah Jane Adventures (cancelled during its fifth year due to the death of the lead actress), Class (ended after one season) and the upcoming The War Between. 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 grimderp and forced raunchiness (Children of Earth is considered the point where it becomes watchable unironically), 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 his long plans in motion, and then fucks off for a good while, letting all hell break loose in the meantime. The War Between comes out in the end of 2025 and will feature the classic Sea Devils returning, complete with UNIT trying to prevent another global war.

The main show is heavily episodic, with the Doctor travelling through time and space in the 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 except when you piss the Doctor off, 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" with their arch-enemies the Daleks, being locked in a pocket timeline for good measure. 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:

• 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. On the brighter side, there were hundreds of really good tie-in books and audio dramas (and a few films).
• Not only has it been around for fucking ever, but we also don't even have all the episodes. Of the 253 episodes of the first six seasons, 97 are lost for all time because the BBC didn't think the content was worth saving long term (also because the BBC archives had a nasty habit of bursting into flames before digital archiving became the norm).
• Cheesy low budgeted effects and monsters which gave the show a special charm.
• It is largely easy-going, tongue-in-cheek and comical but frequently turns dark (especially in the reboot) and has had a political agenda (especially in the reboot) almost from day one.
• Doctor Who is something of a variety show of up and coming writers. Terry Nation (creator of Blake's 7) wrote ten stories for Doctor Who, including the now-legendary The Daleks. Douglas Adams was credited with writing one but actually wrote a couple more uncredited and contributed to MANY others during the 4th Doctor. More recent guest writers include Neil Cross (Luther), Neil Gaiman (Coraline), and Mark Gatiss (Sherlock).
• Comical yet fearsome enemies like the Daleks (Genocidal mutant squid Nazi pepper-pots with death rays and the best E-VIL VOI-CES E-VER while exterminating FUCKING EVERYTHING), Sontarans (Huge domed heads, eyebrows and foreheads of a 4e Tiefling-basically Mr Potato Head), Autons (Shop Dummies of Death), Weeping Angels ("Don't blink. Blink and you're dead.") 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 "Scared shitless".
• Various toys, gadgets and gags the Doctor uses, including a 'Sonic Screwdriver' (a lazy but cool plot device) 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 spaceship to gas-masked zombies (who are creepy as all Hell) to literally going to hell, Doctor Who has it all. If not, then the spin-offs have done it.
  • Adding to this is the writers' consistent refusal to resort to violence as an easy out for its conflicts. The Doctor almost never solves problems by raw force, and is always willing to bury a hatchet against all but his most bitter enemies (the Daleks and the Master being the only beings he carries a true grudge against).
• 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.

The Doctors

This page is in need of cleanup. Srsly. It's a fucking mess.

Not to be confused with Batman

Originally the Doctor could only regenerate 12 times (first he was just a dude, then there was no limit; this has since been forgotten), resulting in 13 different versions of him (12 because David Tennant once managed to regenerate into himself, don't ask) but during the 2013 Christmas special they managed to restart a new cycle for him (something that the Time Lords offered The Master in The Five Doctors all the way back in 1983.). He's currently in his Who-The-Fuck-Knows incarnation (We know of over 100 across every medium), of which at least 16 have taken up the mantle of 'The Doctor'.

• William Hartnell: A mysterious grumpy old professor. He 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. Speak a bit in Yoda manner. 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. Some of these episodes are actually lost to the ages due to the then-common practice of not preserving film and tape after a certain point, due to a mix of retention costs and actors unions demanding absurd residuals for repeats after a certain point, assuming the ability to re-air old programs over and over would kill demand for new material. (This may sound silly to a generation raised on reboots, but given how often streaming services will cancel series after the first couple seasons it may be prophetic.) The BBC has since gathered whatever scraps and bootleg recordings they can find and funded animatic versions of these "lost episodes" so at least some record of them can be kept for posterity.
• Patrick Troughton: A cosmic hobo. He liked music and played the recorder. He was 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 regenerate as punishment. The Great Intelligence was introduced along with the robotic yeti during this time period, as was UNIT (more on those guys later). He is also distinguished by the fact that he may just be the most influential Doctor ever - not only would the show have failed if he didn't succeed, but over half of the later actors have claimed inspiration from his performances when they first took the lead role. The BBC was still wiping tapes at this point so most of Troughton's run has also been lost to time, at least until someone finds a TARDIS of our own.
• Jon Pertwee: 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, liked vintage cars, and at the end of the day was very much a less-womanizing, more science fiction-based James Bond. The Master, his arch-nemesis and a fellow Time Lord, was introduced here as the Blofeld to his James Bond. He tried to conquer the world with plastic chairs! We're not kidding.
• Tom Baker: The bohemian, a total weirdo, with a disarmingly devilish grin, bottomless pockets full of jelly babies and an extremely long, very colourful scarf. Very good in playing a fool: to quote Count Scarlioni: "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 here. Baker briefly married and then divorced Lalla Ward, who played his travelling companion; their marriage difficulties (On the question, which was the most terrible monster in Doctor Who, Ward quipped: "Tom Baker!"), alongside Baker's bad relationship with the incoming showrunner John Nathan-Turner, contributed to Baker's end in the role.
• Peter Davison: Created to be pretty much the complete opposite of his predecessor. Very much a human, very noble, liked cricket. Was also a complete sociopath. Davison was also 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 the case of his last story, only his companion. Davison the father-in-law of David Tennant (Tenth Doctor), which means that The Doctor's Daughter actually played The Doctor's Daughter.
• Colin Baker: An unstable maniac. More violent than the rest of his incarnations put together, shocking the audience by dumping executioners into acid baths, and having the genetic torture of his companion broadcast live on TV - and they both happened in the same episode! The whole show became bloodier during his time which gave the "down with this sort of thing" types fits. Thought he was awesome, despite always wearing that awful coat. Generally regarded as being the worst Doctor, at least in the TV shows; he's better in the Big Finish audio dramas. Had already played a minor character in the series before he was cast as the Doctor, making this the first instance of a casting choice of a Who veteran, as it were.
• Sylvester McCoy: Started like a goofy wacky fellow, but quickly became more serious later on. Seemed like a god walking among lesser people, quite literally destroyed a pantheon of gods, and could out-manipulate Tzeentch if they were unfortunate enough to share the same universe. Often beat the villain of the week before he even came onto the scene, because of some centuries-long plan concocted in a prior regeneration. During this time, they started to turn onto some big questions, like who the hell the Doctor actually is, but then the show got cancelled due to shit ratings and a general weariness behind the camera. Bummer. He could also seem to be a dick to his companion (even if his motives were good), taking her to a circus despite being told about her fear of clowns, taking her to a house that she burned to the ground even when she requested not to, and manipulating her into a sense of hopelessness/depression so that he could slightly weaken a cosmic entity. Had the first CGI intro; all previous intros were generated using some combination of optics and analogue electronics.
• Paul McGann: A romantic. Told people to make the best use of their limited time in 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 Big Finish fleshed him out a bit. Too bad his movie didn't do well enough in America to spawn a new series. There's an animated version of Douglas Adams' Shada with the Eighth Doctor that practically everybody has forgotten about, but it's an official animated story nonetheless, so there. Also turned up unexpectedly, but to everyone's surprise, in a quick minisode in 2013 written by Steven Moffat, which, by a rare fan consensus, is considered superior to the movie in every fashion. It probably had something to do with the lack of that wig he had to wear in 1996…
• Christopher Eccleston: The only survivor of the horrible Time War (which is a rip-off of the War in Heaven, a war that happened in the Eighth Doctor books which had horrible consequences for everybody involved). All the other Time Lords died in it, or at least were trapped in a pocket timeline with an alliance of their enemies. (We later find out the Doctor did this to them lest the collateral damage destroy everywhere and everywhen.) 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.
• David Tennant: Probably the outwardly happiest of all Doctors... or maybe the most Machiavellian. A total crackpot. Talks a lot of technobabble, at like 90mph, sometimes about 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). 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 ending the series after his tenure because they thought that the show would fail without him. Tennant himself was a hardcore Whovian growing up, and taking role was literally a dream come true for him.
• Matt Smith: The biggest nutjob since Tom Baker's Doctor. Acts like an awkward, hyperactive child most of the time, with a weird taste in clothes and an even weirder taste in food, but is also an old man, weary and reserved. Will deceive people for their own good, but this later backfires and makes him more cautious. Great with kids. Has one hell of a nasty streak: piss him off enough, and he will destroy you without so much as an offer of mercy. 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 and eat time, 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 the rest of the time being awesome). Suffers a lot over the course of his tenure, but eventually achieves something of a happy ending before his regeneration into the Twelfth Doctor.
• John Hurt (secret bonus Doctor): 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 a rather grim and serious character and quite put off by the perceived silliness and light-heartedness of his successors. 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).
• Peter Capaldi: Something in between the Ninth and Fourth Doctors, making him an all-out sinister badass. Went from a prickly old man to a communist punk-rocker grandad in the span of three seasons. 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. When he was announced as the Doctor, fans 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!" Despite that charming catchphrase, his character eventually got his head out of his arse, and then decided to try and make everyone see that we should all be kind to each other. Probably also the most stubborn and loyal Doctor ever, spending roughly 7000 years in a sort of prison to save the life of his companion. He was also the absolute GOD of speeches, with arguably his best episode being a 45-minute long monologue over the idea of grief. On top of that, he is the only Doctor thus far to bring the Master round to the side of good, has stopped Zygon terrorists with nothing but words, and he became the Lord-President of Gallifrey... again. His tenure as The Doctor had ginormous levels of character development, for both him, his companions, and his own rogues gallery. Did we mention that the actor is a massive Whovian too?
• Jodi Whittaker: Nurse Who. Brought in from Broadchurch by the producer of that series, Douglas Chibnall Chinballs. As overly hyperactive as Four and Eleven, while also being utterly incapable of expressing her feelings to anyone. While Time Lords sex-shifting through regeneration was established as early as Tom Baker's tenure and had been referenced or shown multiple times in the reboot era, the rather crap writing of her first season led fans to suspect ulterior motives and tune out in droves, something Capaldi predicted on his way out. Failed so hard that the BBC kicked Chinballs out and brought Russel T. Davies back as showrunner after three seasons.
• David Tennant (again): BBC's attempt to regenerate the golden goose, Tennant returned in 2023 for three 60th anniversary specials. This is Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor, who immediately links up with his old companion Donna Noble for reasons that have nothing to do with the episodes when they were together being the most popular of the reboot era. He also gains a transgender companion for a bit, just in case you thought you find an escape from "the Message" here. After the third special (guest starring Neil Patrick Harris of all people) he "bi-generates", meaning there's two Doctors running around now, one played by David Tennant and running around with Donna, the other being...
• Ncuti Gatwa: A fashionista. The first Doctor to consistently have more than one outfit and the first black Doctor. Also cries a lot. The writers having seemingly run out of ideas involving the usual baddies, this Doctor deals with a whole gaggle of fantasy tropes, ranging from fairies to baby-eating goblins to a pantheon of rogue gods who all seem to have it out for him. Unfortunately he seems to get out of these troubles through plot armor rather than the quick thinking we've come to expect. Ncuti "quit" (definitely wasn't fired due to garbage ratings only somewhat buoyed by a partnership with Disney+) after two seasons and the series is now effectively in limbo.

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 the director had never actually watched Doctor Who and did almost no research, giving us blaring jazz instead of electronic incidental music and a set of groovy-coloured Daleks (who had decorated their base with lava lamps!) that didn't even have their lamp "ears" flash in time with their speech; rumor has 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. 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 the rest of his regenerations in the span of 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.
• Tom Baker (2013): Appears in "The Day of The Doctor" as The Curator, a retired Doctor working as curator of the Under Gallery. A blatant excuse to get Baker in front of the camera again for nostalgia points.

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 uncountable tie in novels, comics, audio dramas and whanot with a a guy that can go anywhere and anywhen, you'll build up quite a rogues gallery. Here are a few of the more notable groups/races and prominent non-doctor characters.

• Daleks: Genocidal pepper pots and what Terry Nation wants you to think Nazis are. Each Dalek is a psychopathic genius encased in a one-man tank, which is equal parts weapons platform and life support. The mutated survivors of a nuclear war on their home planet of Skaro, they are motivated by unending hatred and a drive to EX-TER-MIN-ATE every living thing that's not a Dalek, along with any Daleks they regard as insufficiently "pure". Yes, this is rather on the nose, and yes, that's the point; to their credit they recognize how limiting this is and will find stooges to handle things like creativity for them. Iron Hands wish they could be as hateful and disdainful of their weak flesh as these bastards. Terry actually stole them from his former partner Tony Hancock; one of their proposals had the survivors of a nuclear war living in dustbin-shaped robot shells and surviving on fallout- sound familiar? Their hovercraft-like bodies (essentially an upturned rubbish bin on casters; the earliest Dalek operators were former ballet dancers who knew how to make the shell appear to "glide" from inside) were a cultural punchline for decades as they could be foiled by a flight of stairs, until the writers got sick of it and gave them anti-gravity. They're also infamous for being exactly as powerful as the writer needs them to be at that moment: they have been defeated by a second-story fall, a baseball bat attack enhanced by the Macguffin of the week, paintballs to the eyestalk, and being spun around too fast, but at the same time a single Dalek is capable of downloading the internet and wiping out a full platoon of highly trained soldiers.
  • Davros: Creator of the Daleks (at least 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) and want to conquer the universe, but Davros is a twisted evil genius who would destroy everything if given the chance, just so he could say that he did. His response to his species wiping itself out over a thousand years of pointless war was making them even more hateful and warlike, stripping them of any positive qualities they had left in the process. His relationship with the Daleks is complicated: while they respect him as their creator and sometimes even accept him as their leader, they don't consider him a Dalek and they can and will exterrrrrrrminate him if he gets in their way, or if 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 did not get along very well. As of Capaldi's era he seems to have a very love-hate relationship with the Doctor that stems from 12 saving his life as a child.
  • The Supreme Dalek: Likes shouting orders and being on the cusp of victory before it all turns to shit. Notable for having one of the coolest designs for a Doctor Who monster EVER and effectively being the Darth Vader to Davros's Palpatine.
  • The Cult of Skaro: Created by the Dalek Emperor (no, not Davros, the other one) to think like the enemy, act not as Daleks, and to experiment. The four members were specifically chosen for their incomprehensible ability to innovate, and were tasked with ensuring the survival of the Dalek race, no matter the cost. Evidently three of the members forgot this, because when their leader was one step away from recreating the Daleks as a better species, they mutinied and killed him. The final member, Dalek Caan, later went on to save Davros's life and then went insane, betraying the Daleks and summoning the Doctor to stop Davros from enacting his greatest plan yet: THE DESTRUCTION! OF REALITY! ITSELF!
  • Rusty: The Good Dalek. The 12th Doctor got miniaturised, stuck himself inside of a malfunctioning Dalek, and fucked around enough with the circuits enough that the Dalek started hating the Daleks, and then left it to go do it's thing. A grand speech was also involved, but with 12 there's always a grand speech somewhere. Their exchange gives us simultaneously one of the most metal lines in Doctor Who and one of the most gut-wrenching things anyone could possibly say to the Doctor: "Good man!" "No. You are a good Daaaaalek."

• Cybermen: The Borg before the Borg. An army of emotionless Cyborgs which seek to "upgrade" everyone else into a Cyborg too. Came from Earth's twin planet Mondas in our universe, and from not!Apple in another. 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. Due to their faceless, "we are all alike" aesthetic, there are very few 'special' Cybermen, but there are a couple.
  • John Lumic: In a parallel universe, John Lumic is the head of Cybus Industries and the creator of the Cybermen. Initially conceived them as "Human 2.0" - a way of prolonging his own life due to a debilitating and terminal illness. Started an attempted world conquest with his creations before being forcibly converted into the Cyber-Controller. As such, he gives himself the flashiest suit of armour and a massive silver throne as life support. Now where could we have seen that before...
  • Bill Potts: The 12th Doctor's companion in the 10th season of the revival. Being fridged in the finale, she has the dubious honour of being the first Cyberman. Ever. However due to some very strong willpower she keeps her emotions and personality, eventually dying in a badass explosion, wiping out thousands of Cybermen at once.
  • The Cyberking: Evil Victorian woman installed into a battleship class cyber-suit. Unfortunately for the Cybermen, she likes emotions, and starts stomping on London before the doctor can blow her up and throw her into the Time Vortex.
  • Ashad/The Lone Cybermen: Arguably the coolest individual Cyberman EVER. He was a patchwork creation from various cyber-suits, but without an emotional inhibitor. Was the inspiration for Frankenstein's monster. He could time-travel, and actually singlehandedly defeats the Doctor without blinking an eye, and without repercussion later. Not only that, but he was a willing volunteer to become a Cyberman, as he slit his own kid's throats when they joined the resistance. Other Cybermen are so terrified of him that they actively scream upon seeing him. He was temporarily killed by the Master but was brought back for "The Master's Dalek Plan", in which he had a badass sequence where he mowed down a ton of UNIT troops in one unbreaking shot. Was put down later on in the episode, unfortunately.

• The Master: The arch-enemy of the Doctor. Once their childhood friend, the two have become bitter, flirtatious, and homoerotic 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. For what it's worth, the Doctor's confession dial, essentially the time lord equivalent of a last will, is addressed to the Master. The Master's motivation invariably boils down to infatuation with the Doctor, be it wanting his acknowledgement, or wanting to beat him at something, or wanting him to break his principles and be more like the Master. He is as intelligent and cunning as the Doctor, with the downsides of being an unscrupulous, psychopathic egomaniac that makes no effort to hide his contempt for lesser beings. 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. Notable episodes include The Auton Invasion, Survival, and Spyfall. (Also World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls, but that's already been recommended above.)
  • Roger Delgado: The original one on screen. Just turned up one day and immediately set about causing a mess. If you think they come off as a bond villain at points, then well done, guess what was very popular while Delgado had the role! Had some of the wittiest conversations with The Doctor ever, with gems like "Come now Doctor, you mut see sense." "No." being frequent. Almost always invaded Earth with another monster of the week to act as the supporting cast and meatshields. Was going to be revealed as The Doctor's brother, but then the actor died in a car crash in Turkey, so one day they just never came back on screen.
  • Crispy Master: Played by two different actors because their appearances were like half a decade apart minimum. Showed the Master at the end of his lifespan, literally just running on energy drinks and spite. Had a really dark ending, by literally possessing and killing the body of Five's companion's father. Also is anyone going to talk about the fact that the prior actor died in a car crash, and then the next time we see the Master, they look like a really bad burn victim? No? Alright then.
  • Anthony Ainley: Ran around the show like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, with a costume and goatee to match. Seemed to want power for the sake of having power, and was killed multiple times on-screen, only to turn up a few episodes later to the surprise of no one at all. Also admitted on-screen that they were unable to die ever, which explains recent developments.
  • Eric Roberts: Appeared for the TV Movie and that's it SIKE, Big Finish have finally got the actor to make a series, and apparently it's pretty damn good, which is nice to hear. Hopped between being The Terminator, Hannibal Lector, and saturday-morning cartoon villain depending on the scene they're in. Notable for this absolutely hilarious line in what is otherwise a really serious scene.
  • The War Master: A fairly tragic and callous figure, played by none other than Sir Derick Jacobi in a series of Big Finish dramas about the War Docter. He eventually turned himself into a human named Professor Yana and hid at the end of the universe to avoid being trapped in the Time War.
  • John Simm: An absolute nutcase who at one point... gained superpowers? Don't question it. This iteration of The Master has trauma to spare, and a deep-seated hatred of The Doctor, to the point that they end up killing themselves to stop themselves from aiding The Doctor. Their madness and batshit crazy shenanigans can be explained, because it turns out that The Time Lords planted a whole-ass Doomsday weapon into their head, and then set an audible countdown noise inside it too. bang-bang-bang-bang. You just heard it didn't you? Nearly sacrificed themself for the Doctor, and got the drums removed after "shoving white point stars into Rassilon's mouth until he regenerated". After this, he took the Delgadopill, getting kicked out of Gallifrey and becoming a cool, collected psycho. No, seriously. He did the most fucked up shit to a companion that we've seen on screen.
  • Missy: Missy is pure, refined character development. She starts out trying to make The Doctor like her by giving them an army of cybermen with which to conquer the universe, but when that fails decides to change tactics and attempts to be good, with mixed consequences. Oh yeah, she also created heaven. Which was used to make cyber-zombies. Notable for firmly impressing upon the modern audience that Time Lords could change sex, and also for continuing the New Who trend of making the Master's first appearance in a given incarnation an absolute surprise to everyone. Also fits the standard Steven Moffat trope of "horny bisexual flirtatious top" that he seems to fall into whenever writing powerful women. He matures out of this though, and not a moment too soon. Again a rare point of fan consensus in that the majority of fans consider her to be the best onscreen version of The Master, with only Delgado getting a similar level of appreciation.
  • Sacha Dhawan: Out of the blue Chibnall hit the entire viewership in the nutsack with a new, maniacal Master who really has it out for The Doc. Continues the trend of using the Cybermen as background villains for some reason, and also uses a Tissue Compression Eliminator! Appeared in 13's last episode dressed as Rasputin (yes, he does dance to the song, and yes, it is majestic) where he assembled an alliance of Daleks and Cybermen with the goal of stealing the Doctor's body. A highlight of the overall skubby Chibnall era, for sure.

• Time Lords: Ancient Civilisation who long ago mastered Time Travel. Insanely powerful scholarly types who are mostly True Neutral isolationists. Spent almost all of the reboot series dead, as insanely powerful scholarly types are very hard to make interesting and the classic writers made them utter jackholes when they tried. The fact that these guys produced some of the Doctor's greatest enemies and their own is a testament to their assholery, and by the end they were little better than the Daleks. Small wonder that the Doctor doesn't come home to visit very often.
  • 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 appeared in the Fifteenth Doctor's series, which is only almost universally considered shit. Notable for being far cleverer than both The Master and The Doctor - she was top of her science classes.
  • The Valeyard: Literally the Doctor with none of his good qualities and all of his intelligence. Showed up for one story arc which encompassed an entire season, where the Doctor was on trial and the Valeyard was the prosecutor. When it was revealed the Valeyard was the Doctor, everything changed and went pear shaped. Notable for being capable of scaring the Master. Hasn’t shown up again after that one story arc, despite being either the Doctor’s darker nature given form or just the Doctor turning evil, but hey, you never know...
  • Rassilon: Surprisingly not a ripoff of Shiv Palpatine, if only because Doctor Who came first. Basically Time Lord Mussolini, an incompetent warmongering dick with a serious hateboner for the Doctor.

• Sontarans: A clone race of Mr Potatoheads who live to fight and die in glorious combat for the great 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... Notable episodes include The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Experiment, The Sontaran Strategem/The Poison Sky, and War of the Sontarans.

• Silurians: "Homo Reptilia" - a race of lizard people who owned the planet before humankind had evolved and want to 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. And y'know what? They all go hard nonetheless, serving to show a very cynical attitude towards humanity on the part of the writers. Modern depictions seem to revolve around the human face subspecies stemming from The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood. Notable episodes are Doctor Who and the Silurians (should have just been called The Silurians, but a rookie forgot to remove the "Doctor Who and the" bit before the final production and so it stuck), The Sea Devils, and The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood.

• Weeping Angels: "Don't blink. Blink and you are dead. They are fast, faster than you could ever believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink." Behold, some of the scariest fucking things to be spawned from the revival. On the surface, the Angels are usually stone statues of Angels covering their eyes, but they are neither. When someone sees one, they turn to stone, but if you so much as blink, they can get you in a fraction of a second. What they do varies - sometimes they just snap your neck, sometimes they send you back in time to die, while they feed off your energy from 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.

• Ice Warriors: Reptilian Martians that live in giant metal suits. One of the most feared warrior races around, they used to live on Mars before the planet became uninhabitable. Most encounters with them begin with a misunderstanding that forces the Doctor to try and persuade them to leave the poor, stupid humans alone.

• Nestenes/Autons: An eldritch consciousness that exerts complete and utter control over plastic, able to make it come to life. Invades planets and strips them for oil, gas, and other yummy things like that. Has tried invading earth many times, mostly through the use of its Auton servitors. This is because it lets hack writers use the image of Auton shop window dummies breaking their way out and killing a shit ton of people, which is a cheap trick but a really good one.

• Judoon: Lawful Neutral rhino alien thugs for hired usually act as a policing/mercenary force. An autisticly logic-based bunch - they follow the word to its exact letter, and struggle to perceive much outside of that framework, which obviously leads to misunderstandings when they come down and start disintegrating people for asking questions. Notable appearances include Smith and Jones and Fugitive of the Judoon.

• Zygons: Shapeshifters supreme. Can flawlessly replicate the form of any living being and even access their memories (as long as the original is still alive, that is). In their true forms they're horrific - big, rubbery red monsters covered in suckers. Are responsible for the myth of the Loch Ness Monster. Notable appearances include Terror of the Zygons, Day of the Doctor, and The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion.

• Zagreus: Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed, and eats you when you're sleeping. A Time Lord fairy tale that came to life. We won't elaborate too deeply on it, given that Zagreus appears in like three Big Finish stories, but good god are they good.

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 then it was aluded that they could continue to produce the game provided no direct profit was made.

Crooked Dice gave the Doctor Who Miniatures Game away for free, and also produced 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." Getting out of a moving TARDIS exposes you to the Time Vortex, which is like the Warp with only slightly less soul-eating monsters.)

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, but 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.