The Eleventh Doctor

As with previous regenerations of ‘Nu-Who’, the Eleventh Doctor arrives with a bang! Building on the foundations laid down by his predecessors, the Eleventh Doctor continues his adventures throughout time and space, but in a great many ways, charts whole directions for the Time Lord. He is young, full of energy, ready to leap into action, especially when there is a mystery or a puzzle to be solved. And there are a great many mysteries and puzzles to be solved during his incarnation—who is River Song? Who is Clara? Who wants to imprison him and why? Who wants him dead and why? Yet his soul is old, at times weary of the things he has seen and done, of the number of times he has saved the universe, though not afraid to wield the reputation he has gained in doing so when confronting evil and bureaucracy. In his darker moments, he may even use force to resolve problems… Like all of the Doctors, he has his companions, but for the Eleventh Doctor, they are not only very special, but they are also family. None more so than Amy Pond, who the Doctor promised would take her with him when she is seven years old. Together with her partner, Rory, they will journey in the TARDIS far and wide, and when they are at home on Earth, the Doctor will make regular visits such that there is always room for Doctor and the TARDIS in their house. Then there is Clara Oswald, her curiosity about the universe as big as the Doctor’s about who she is. Amy, Rory, and Clara are not the only companions to join the Eleventh Doctor in his TARDIS, or indeed have adventures with him, but they are the most consistent and they have the biggest effect upon his incarnation. However, before the final mystery of ‘Doctor who?’ is revealed at Trenzalore, there is a look back with ‘The Day of the Doctor’ to not only the previous incarnation of the Tenth Doctor, but also an incarnation that they had all forgotten existed—and since the Ninth Doctor—whose actions they had all been running from. In the meantime, the ‘Magic Doctor’ has arrived and “The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall.”

The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook is part of Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s celebration of Doctor Who’s fiftieth anniversary—celebrated itself with the special episode, ‘The Day of the Doctor’— for the Ennie-award winning Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. As lengthy as the sourcebook devoted to the Tenth Doctor, it follows the same format of the previous ten entries in the series. Unlike The Tenth Doctor Sourcebook, it is only divided into four chapters rather than five, since it does not have to address the existence and nature of Torchwood. The four chapters are ‘The Eleventh Doctor And Companions’, ‘Playing in the Eleventh Doctor’s Era’, ‘The Eleventh Doctor’s Enemies’, and ‘The Eleventh Doctor’s Adventures’. The first chapter, ‘The Eleventh Doctor And Companions’, first looks at the character of the Doctor and then each of his Companions. Some of those included are whom you would expect—Amy Pond and her partner, Rory Williams, Clara Oswald, and River Song. Others are less expected, such as the members of the Paternoster Gang, Brian Williams—father of Rory. The inclusion of Sexy (or Idris)—from the episode, ‘The Doctor’s Wife’—makes sense, whilst Henry Avery from ‘The Curse Of The Black Spot’ less so. One interesting inclusion here is of the ‘War Doctor’, the incarnation of the Doctor between the Eighth Doctor and the Ninth Doctor. This makes sense in that he appears in the episode, ‘The Day of the Doctor’. Full stats are provided for all of these characters, though the War Doctor might warrant a higher Fighting skill than other generations of Doctors.

In terms of themes, it presents and examines concepts such as ‘Fairy Tales’, ‘Seeing is Powerful’, and ‘Switching Time Zones’ all backed up with suggestions as to how they might be used. The fairy tale quality of the Eleventh Doctor’s stories consist of making them dark and mysterious, adding a dash of magic, and relying upon solutions and outcomes that come from childlike qualities and faith, rather than maturity or science. The senses prove to be a boon and a bane, the infamous Weeping Angels—introduced during the incarnation of the Tenth Doctor—can only be curtailed by staring at them and not blinking, whilst the senses need to be adjusted to see The Silents. ‘Switching Time Zones’ emphasises time travel, often with the Doctor and his companions starting an adventure in one time zone and jumping to another in order to solve a problem or mystery. Numerous characters, including the Doctor and Amy meet alternate versions of themselves and messages pass back and forth across time between the characters, whether that is River Song leaving messages for the Doctor or the Ponds seeing the Doctor turn up in history books. The family feel that runs through this generation sees the Eleventh Doctor visiting the Ponds at home where they have a life away from the TARDIS, as does Clara Oswald, and of course, not only Amy and Rory, but also the Doctor and River Song, get married.

In terms of campaigns, The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook gives good advice on handling secrets in a game. Whether or not to use them, have them open or closed, and whether or not to have the Game Master maintain secrets about a character without his player knowing. The advice, if including them, is to use them to involve the Player Characters in plotlines and to increase the pressure on all involved, whether they are trying to keep a secret or reveal a secret. There is more advice on building arcs, this time character arcs, rather than the story arcs of The Tenth Doctor Sourcebook. It is longer and better developed here than in the previous supplement. How time works and is played with during the Eleventh Doctor’s era is also different, with the Doctor often bending the laws of time and having it rebound on him, in an attempt to solve the conundrums he faced. There are suggestions on how to utilise foresight—for example, River Song’s TARDIS-themed notebook—can be handled, including ignoring or negating its possibility, to gain some insight from the future and benefit from it for the cost of a Story Point, and foreshadowing or asking a question about the future, again at the cost of a Story Point. None of these should be overused, of course. There is similar advice on having multiple versions of the same character in play at the same time, and the section comes to close with character options. This includes using Regeneration Energy, primarily to heal physical trauma, including right up to bringing someone from the brink of death, as River Song did for the Doctor, at the cost of her future Regenerations. New Traits range from ‘Another Lifetime’, ‘Caregiver’, and ‘Death Habit’ to ‘Scion of Gallifrey’, ‘Talk to Everything’, and ‘True Connection’, as well as New Gadget Traits like ‘Zap’ and new gadgets such as ‘Infrared Sunglasses’ and ‘Superphone’. All of these traits are for the first edition of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game, rather than Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition, where such traits are not used.

Monsters for the Eleventh Doctor see the return of old foes, often in new forms, along with the new. One of the most notable returning monsters is the Great Intelligence, not come to the Earth since its encounters with the Second Doctor. Whether it is The Church of the 51st century, and Madame Kovarian and her sect within it, and The Silents, originally genetically engineered to collect confessions, but have so much grown beyond that; the new controlling intelligence for the Cybermen, the Cyberiad; or the resurgence of The New Dalek Paradigm; all of the Eleventh Doctor’s foes are given meaty write ups. These include complete stats and adventure hooks too. Of course, they are not the only threats faced by the Eleventh Doctor, but they are the major ones.

The fourth and final chapter in The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook is, as with the previous entries in the series, its longest. Again, it takes up some four fifths of the book, adding greatly to its length. ‘The Eleventh Doctor’s Adventures’ details all forty-four of the Eleventh Doctor’s stories, from ‘The Eleventh Hour’ to ‘The Time of the Doctor’. The format is simplified with the removal of the ‘Changing The Desktop Theme’ section—a reference to the changed look of the TARDIS interior after some thirty or so years—which suggested ways in which the story might be reskinned with another threat or enemy, and the like. Instead, all open with a synopsis, including notes on continuity—backwards and forwards to stories past and future, followed by advice on ‘Running the Adventure’. Rounding out the writeups are full details of the monsters and NPCs appearing in the episode. Thus, for the episode, ‘Victory of the Daleks, the synopsis describes how the Doctor and Amy arrive late in London at the height of the Blitz in response to a call for help from Winston Churchill, who unveils his new secret weapon, the Ironside Project. These are, of course, Daleks painted khaki and offering cups of tea! The Doctor confronts them and after they confirm his identity, he leaps into the TARDIS and materialises on their saucer ship behind the Moon. The Daleks reveal that they have the means to rebuild their race following their defeat in the Time War and the Doctor’s confirmation of who they are was the means to activate it. Despite the Doctor’s ruse to defeat the new Daleks with just a jammy dodger biscuit—its big gooey centre obviously a bright red button for something!—the New Dalek Paradigm is rolled out and they attempt to blackmail him. London will be destroyed if he does not leave. Using the technology given to the British by the Daleks, Churchill orders an attack on the Dalek saucer ship to stop the threat to London, but the Daleks escalate their threat to one against the whole world and the Doctor calls off the attack. Of course, the Daleks being the Daleks, trigger that threat anyway and by the time it has been neutralised, the New Dalek Paradigm has escaped.

The ‘Continuity’ lists links between the episode and ‘The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End’ episodes for the Tenth Doctor, that the Daleks can again identify the Doctor no matter his regeneration, that the Daleks escape via a time corridor, a technology they have used before, and more. Plus, they will appear again for the episode, ‘Asylum of the Daleks’, the first appearance of Oswin Oswald/Clara Oswin Oswald/Clara Oswald. The ’Running the Adventure’ section highlights how this episode is a trap, beginning with a threat that only the Doctor can see because no-one else has encountered the Daleks before. In calling out the trap, the Daleks get what they want and ultimately, defeat the Doctor here, because as the supplement points out, they get to regenerate—just as the Doctor does—and then escape! In between the springing of the trap and the escape, which sets up more stories for later on, there is plenty of action and bangs and pops. The advice suggests how traps can be used in a campaign, tying them to the Player Characters’ Bad Traits, and how to present impossible situations and difficult choices—being all alone against an army of Daleks and having to choose between eradicating the Daleks or destroying the Earth. Stats are included for Churchill and Professor Edwin Bracewell, the Spitfires modified for space combat, their pilots represented by Danny Boy, and the Progenitor Device containing the pure Dalek DNA.

The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook adheres to this format throughout, for all of its forty-four episodes and specials. The write-ups are lengthy, and in the process the Game Master is given detailed background and advice on running an array of great episodes, including the return of River Song and the Weeping Angels in ‘The Time Of Angels/Flesh And Stone’, the sad, yet joyous ‘Vincent And The Doctor’, the mystery of ‘The Lodger’ with complete stats and write-up for 79B Aickman Road, the revelations of ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ and ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’, the ultimate sadness of ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’, all the way to the great celebration in ‘The Day Of The Doctor’ and the ending that the Doctor never wanted to face in ‘The Time Of The Doctor’. There are certainly too many stories to choose from in terms of good stories when it comes to the Eleventh Doctor and certainly one of the features throughout many of them are the long running threads, whether that is the connection between the Doctor, Amy Pond, and River Song, the plot to kill the Doctor, and the secret of who Clara Oswald is, the groundwork for which is laid before the Ponds have left the TARDIS forever. This adds both sophistication and complexity in terms of storytelling, but also richness, and in providing the episode synopsis, a lot for the book to keep track of in terms of continuity. Thankfully, The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook manages this.

Physically, The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook is well presented in what is very much a tried and tested format. The supplement is richly illustrated with lots of photographs from the series and decently written, all backed up with a good index.

The Eleventh Doctor brought family, big secrets and mysteries, and long running plots like never before to ‘Nu Who’ and The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook enables the Game Master to bring these to her campaign for the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. This also brings complexity and sophistication, and in the process more challenge for the Game Master, but there is good advice and adventure hooks throughout the supplement to help and support the Game Master. The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook is an excellent guide to the era of the Eleventh Doctor and how to bring its energy and mystery to a Game Master’s campaign.