Diamond Doctor I

In 2013, Cubicle 7 Entertainment celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the world’s longest running Science Fiction television series, Doctor Who, with the ambitious launch of a series of sourcebooks for its Ennie-award winning Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. Beginning with The First Doctor Sourcebook, each of these would detail the complete era of one individual Doctor, his adventures, his companions, his character and outlook, the monsters he faced, and the themes of his incarnation, all supported with content that the Game Master can bring into her own campaign. The result has been a very well done series of sourcebooks that in turn has enabled the Game Master and her players to explore the different eras—all twelve of them to date, though there are more to come—and run adventures set during this period and encounter monsters and threats from this period. Ten years on and in 2023, the sixtieth anniversary of Doctor Who was celebrated. What would the publisher release to celebrate the world’s longest running Science Fiction television series this time around? The answer is Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure.

Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure is a two volume set which together provides an overview of Doctor Who, his Companions and adventures, themes and adversaries, from the First Doctor to the Thirteenth Doctor—and not only that, but the Fugitive Doctor too! Plus, the two volumes include a complete campaign between them, ‘A Lustre of Starlight’, which encompasses every Doctor and more. The two volumes of Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure are divided into Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One and Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two. Both are, of course, written for use with with Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition, but easily compatible with the first edition. Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. Each book details a different era of the television series. Thus Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One examines the First Doctor all the way up to the Eighth Doctor, essentially ‘Classic Who’, whilst Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two details the period of the Ninth Doctor to the Thirteenth Doctor (and the Fugitive Doctor) before acknowledging at least visually, the Fourteenth Doctor, which of course, is all ‘Nu Who’.

Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One begins with an introduction to Doctor Who, explaining its origins and history from its inception in 1963 to the beginning of its interregnum following the Doctor Who film in 1996. This is an overview of the journey through time, which is to follow, beginning with the First Doctor. The format for each volume in the Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure set is the same for each Doctor. Every Doctor’s era opens with an introduction, asks who each Doctor is and who his Companions are, what the themes of the era are, gives an overview of his adventures, and details both the Doctor and each of his campions, complete with stats for use with Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition. Each of these sections is given a couple of pages each, with the section dedicated to the adventures being double that—even those of the Fourth Doctor, who has more adventures than anyone of ‘Classic Who’. That said, the chapter for the poor old Eighth Doctor is shorter in all regards, but that is not the fault of the authors. After all, there is a dearth of adventures upon which they can draw upon and it is the exact same problem that beset The Eighth Doctor Sourcebook. Rounding out chapter is the next part of ‘A Lustre of Starlight’, the campaign which runs throughout both books.

Thus, for the Second Doctor, he is unlike the irascible and cantankerous First Doctor, more genial and prepared to intervene to thwart evil as a moral crusader. His Companions include the most notably, the Highlander, Jamie McCrimmon, and the brilliant scientist, Zoe Heriot, as well as Ben Jackson and Polly Wright—both holdovers from the First Doctor, and Victoria Waterfield. Themes explored during his incarnation include the need to fight to evil, the revenge of nature, tricky travel through time and space, the growing influence of the computer, the use of mind control, and encountering megalomaniacs. These are neatly detailed in a few paragraphs each, more than enough to get the gist. The run through of the Second Doctor’s adventures is not quite cursory, but as with the descriptions of the adventures of the other seven Doctors in the volume, is all too brief and will likely send the Game Master elsewhere looking for much more detail than is given here. The chapter comes to a close with the next part of the campaign which runs through both volumes of Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure. This format and level of examination is repeated over and over throughout the book. There are some nice touches here too. For example, for the First Doctor, it mentions how he meets the Thirteenth Doctor in ‘Twice Upon a Time’ and has a time to reflect upon who he is and what is to come… It takes advantage, of course, of another ten years of Doctor Who and hindsight. Then there is the inclusion of Henry Gordon Jago and Professor Henry Litefoot as alternate Companions for the Fourth Doctor, in his scenario, which is a delight, and there is at least mention of the more notable Companions for the Eighth Doctor, if not their stats.

Then there is ‘A Lustre of Starlight’. This campaign follows the fate of the Taaron Ka, a mysterious diamond—perfect then for what is a treatment of the sixtieth anniversary of Doctor Who—over the course of thousands of years of history. Each part runs to three pages and three acts and is a complete story in itself, the connective thread being the diamond itself. As written, each part is designed to be played using the Doctor and his Companions of that era. Thus for ‘The Lustre of Starlight’, the first part, it will be for the First Doctor, his granddaughter Susan, and Ian Chesteron and Barbara Wright, then later in the episode for the Fifth Doctor, ‘The Sontaran Stalemate’, he will be joined by Tegan and Turlough. In general and as written, the episodes suggest three Player Characters—the Doctor and two Companions—but this does not strictly have to be adhered to. Each part should take no more than one or two sessions play through. Of course, a group is also free to create their own Timelord and set of Companions to play through the campaign, but if played as written, the players should swap roles from episode to episode based on preferences or bring in different Companions as needed.

‘The Lustre of Starlight’ opens the campaign with a historical adventure and the discovery of the Taaron Ka in a mine in fifth century India before it turns up in the late twenty-first century and a solar power station orbiting Venus and a confrontation with the Cybermen with the Second Doctor in ‘The Cloud of Death’. The Third Doctor’s ‘Invasion of Chronovores’ is the first of several entertaining crossovers, whilst chapters ‘The Sontaran Stalemate’ and ‘The Prize of Peladon’ enable the Doctor to meet enemies encountered elsewhen. Thus in ‘The Sontaran Stalemate’, the Fifth Doctor gets to meet the Rutans, a monster from the Fourth Doctor’s era, whilst the Sixth Doctor travels to Peladon for another diplomatic conference in ‘The Prize of Peladon’ as seen in the adventures of the Third Doctor. These adventures are all entertaining, but they are essentially detailed outlines that the Game Master will adjust as necessary, even more if not run with the actual Doctor in each case.

Physically, Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One is superbly done. The cover is eye-catching and has a lovely tactile feel to it with the combination of lightly embossed text and the contrast between gloss and mat. The book is well written and laid out, but does need a slight edit here and there. There is, though, a nice use of colour and tone throughout, the chapters dedicated to First and Second Doctors done in black and white before blazing into colour with the Third Doctor. The paintings of each Doctor at the start of their respective chapters are excellent.

One thing that each volume does acknowledge is that the amount of information on the various Doctors is limited and that more information—in fact, much more information of each Doctor can be found in his or her respective sourcebook. This is also aided by the compatibility between the two editions of the roleplaying game. It is also a limitation for each volume, since there is going to be information in those sourcebooks which is not included in either of this set. Of course, neither volume of Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure is intended to be the definitive guide to a particular Doctor, but rather an overview of each era. For that, the reader and the Game Master will need access to the thirteen or so sourcebooks. Instead, each volume of Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure is something else.

As we reach the sixtieth anniversary of Doctor Who, both Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One and Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two are a chance for the Game Master and her players to look back as the series moves forward with first the Fourteenth Doctor and second the Fifteenth Doctor. It provides an overview of what has gone before and gives them a chance to visit that past and decide whether they want to explore it in more depth with the other sourcebooks. Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One is a great start to the pair, an entertaining introduction to roleplaying in the era of ‘Classic Who’ with the knowledge that there is more available.