Post by Jason_WPGL on Nov 25, 2009 12:31:05 GMT
While searching with Google the other day I stumbled upon an interesting site belonging to Berin Kinsman.
On that site he (Berin Kinsman) posted a unique idea for a Doctor Who campaign (which I posted below)
unclebear.com/?p=899
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Even the Doctor could eventually run out of time. He was down to his last regeneration, his last life. Long ago, he’d made a decision on how he’d spend it, when it finally came around. A trip down memory lane can be a literal thing for a Time Lord. The Doctor would revisit places that held personal significance to him, drop in on old friends, spend his final days remenciscing, in peace.
With a new Doctor Who RPG being released by Cubicle 7 Entertainment, I’ve been thinking of campaign ideas and what I’d like out of a Doctor Who game. Some of it comes down to fanwank; I’d like to run semi-sequels to some classic adventures, explore “what happens next”. I’d like some cameos by past companions and supporting characters (and allow players to take them as PC’s); “whatever happened to”. I’d want a different Doctor, to eliminate debate over which Doctor to use, and nip any criticism about whether this-or-that action would be “in character” for this-or-that regeneration. To address all of this, I came up with the idea of The Last Doctor.
The Fanwank
To make some of the story ideas I have in mind work requires a little speculation. These ideas necessarily aren’t supported by canon, but they’re not in serious contradiction with it, either. There are three assumptions going in, which I’d have the Last Doctor explain along the way:
1. Why the Doctor doesn’t meet a lot of other Time Lords
The simple answer is, he’s avoiding them. Prior to the Time War and the destruction of Gallifrey, he was officially disapproved of if not an outright outlaw. He didn’t want to deal with other Time Lords either looking down their noses at him or trying to stop him. After the loss of Gallifrey, there are presumably still Time Lords out and about, traveling from Gallifrey’s past into the universe’s future. Knowing that any Time Lord he encounters is destined to die, possibly by his own hand, the Doctor avoids them because it’s too painful to face them.
2. Time Lords can’t see or remember the future of their personal timeline
When the Doctor teams up with his past and future selves, he never seems to remember it clearly. There are a number of deus ex machinas to explain this, and it doesn’t matter which one you use. Time Lords out in the universe post-Time War won’t go to future Gallifrey to discover it’s not there, and they’ll all either somehow avoid hearing about it or forget it when they arrive back in their own “present”, Gallifrey’s past. This is the rough one to make work.
3. You can’t change the past in your personal timeline, but you can change the future
It’s established that you can change things that have already happened in your life, but if you haven’t lived it yet then events can still be changed.
All of this matters for one important reason:
The Twist
The Last Doctor isn’t the Doctor at all. He’s another Time Lord who, in the future, heard about the Time War and the burning of Gallifrey. He heard it from one of the Doctor’s former companions or acquaintances (I haven’t figured out who yet). Posing as a future incarnation of the Doctor, he’s visiting the “past” of the Doctor’s personal timeline and meeting with people who knew the Doctor, gathering information and piecing together what really happened. Because the destruction of the Time Lords is in the future of his personal timeline, he thinks he can stop it.
Along the way, all of the major big bads will be encountered – the Master, Daleks, Cyberman, and so on – from various periods of Doctor Who comtinuity. The player characters will be given clues to who the Last Doctor really is and what he’s up to. And the final Big Bad will be the real Last Doctor, with a Companion Dream Team (I’m thinking Susan, Jo, Sarah Jane, K9, Leela, and Rose — all women and a robot dog, unless players want to play any of those characters), who have to stop the Fake Doctor last he accidentally destroy the universe with his meddling.
On that site he (Berin Kinsman) posted a unique idea for a Doctor Who campaign (which I posted below)
unclebear.com/?p=899
--------------------------------------------------------
Even the Doctor could eventually run out of time. He was down to his last regeneration, his last life. Long ago, he’d made a decision on how he’d spend it, when it finally came around. A trip down memory lane can be a literal thing for a Time Lord. The Doctor would revisit places that held personal significance to him, drop in on old friends, spend his final days remenciscing, in peace.
With a new Doctor Who RPG being released by Cubicle 7 Entertainment, I’ve been thinking of campaign ideas and what I’d like out of a Doctor Who game. Some of it comes down to fanwank; I’d like to run semi-sequels to some classic adventures, explore “what happens next”. I’d like some cameos by past companions and supporting characters (and allow players to take them as PC’s); “whatever happened to”. I’d want a different Doctor, to eliminate debate over which Doctor to use, and nip any criticism about whether this-or-that action would be “in character” for this-or-that regeneration. To address all of this, I came up with the idea of The Last Doctor.
The Fanwank
To make some of the story ideas I have in mind work requires a little speculation. These ideas necessarily aren’t supported by canon, but they’re not in serious contradiction with it, either. There are three assumptions going in, which I’d have the Last Doctor explain along the way:
1. Why the Doctor doesn’t meet a lot of other Time Lords
The simple answer is, he’s avoiding them. Prior to the Time War and the destruction of Gallifrey, he was officially disapproved of if not an outright outlaw. He didn’t want to deal with other Time Lords either looking down their noses at him or trying to stop him. After the loss of Gallifrey, there are presumably still Time Lords out and about, traveling from Gallifrey’s past into the universe’s future. Knowing that any Time Lord he encounters is destined to die, possibly by his own hand, the Doctor avoids them because it’s too painful to face them.
2. Time Lords can’t see or remember the future of their personal timeline
When the Doctor teams up with his past and future selves, he never seems to remember it clearly. There are a number of deus ex machinas to explain this, and it doesn’t matter which one you use. Time Lords out in the universe post-Time War won’t go to future Gallifrey to discover it’s not there, and they’ll all either somehow avoid hearing about it or forget it when they arrive back in their own “present”, Gallifrey’s past. This is the rough one to make work.
3. You can’t change the past in your personal timeline, but you can change the future
It’s established that you can change things that have already happened in your life, but if you haven’t lived it yet then events can still be changed.
All of this matters for one important reason:
The Twist
The Last Doctor isn’t the Doctor at all. He’s another Time Lord who, in the future, heard about the Time War and the burning of Gallifrey. He heard it from one of the Doctor’s former companions or acquaintances (I haven’t figured out who yet). Posing as a future incarnation of the Doctor, he’s visiting the “past” of the Doctor’s personal timeline and meeting with people who knew the Doctor, gathering information and piecing together what really happened. Because the destruction of the Time Lords is in the future of his personal timeline, he thinks he can stop it.
Along the way, all of the major big bads will be encountered – the Master, Daleks, Cyberman, and so on – from various periods of Doctor Who comtinuity. The player characters will be given clues to who the Last Doctor really is and what he’s up to. And the final Big Bad will be the real Last Doctor, with a Companion Dream Team (I’m thinking Susan, Jo, Sarah Jane, K9, Leela, and Rose — all women and a robot dog, unless players want to play any of those characters), who have to stop the Fake Doctor last he accidentally destroy the universe with his meddling.
