The Twelfth Doctor

Every regeneration ushers in a new era, but the Twelfth Doctor ushers in one of uncertainty and reflection, a last era for the Doctor as he reaches the last of the twelve regenerations that every Time Lord has. Of course, he would be granted more beyond the dozen, but for this incarnation, the Doctor, initially unsure as to who he was, proved himself to be irascible and grumpy, unhappy with the state of the universe, and full of regrets about his failures. If the Eleventh Doctor looked back to the Second Doctor, the Twelfth Doctor looked back to the First Doctor, for he was more prickly grandfather than likeable uncle. This connection would culminate in ‘Twice Upon a Time’, the last episode for the Twelfth Doctor, in which he encounters the First Doctor at the South Pole as both are faced with their regeneration, but refuse to let it happen. The Twelfth Doctor could be funny and joyful, passionate and empathetic, but was always fierce, fearless, and gruff. This would change over time as he softened, but there were still regrets to be addressed and made, perhaps the greatest and most challenging of these being his failure to reform his oldest enemy and best friend, the Master. Sadly, he never would, for his old adversary cannot change his true nature, but in Missy, the most mischievous and malicious of the Master’s incarnations, there was hope. There are regrets of his own as well as the past, often due to his austere demeanour, self-importance, and sometimes dismissive attitude towards those he regarded as beneath him. Too often his companions would suffer for his nature, in turn, Clara Oswald, Danny Pink, and Bill Potts, all either dying or being lost as a result of their adventures with the Twelfth Doctor. Yet the reflections also meant the Doctor would encounter monsters old—Daleks, Cybermen, Zygons, and Ice Warriors—as well as new, whilst his desire to explore would send him and his companions on perhaps his most fantastic adventures yet!

The Twelfth 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. It returns the series to its shorter page count, after the lengthier sourcebooks devoted to the Tenth Doctor and Eleventh Doctor, but actually reduces the number of chapters down to three, consisting of just ‘The Twelfth Doctor And Companions’, ‘Playing in the Twelfth Doctor’s Era’, and ‘The Twelfth Doctor’s Adventures’. What is missing here in comparison to previous sourcebooks is ‘The Twelfth Doctor’s Enemies’ chapter, its absence really pointing to the fact that the Twelfth Doctor’s enemies are not as memorable as those of previous incarnations of the Doctor. In fact, The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook really treats what would be the most notable of the Twelfth Doctor’s enemies—Missy and Ashildar (Me)—as companions rather than enemies and even notes that there is a deceitfulness to Clara Oswald that the Doctor distrusts. Not since Turlough who travelled with the Fifth Doctor has there been companions that the Doctor cannot wholly trust or being himself to trust. Stats are provided for both the Twelfth Doctor and all of his companions, but like those in the rest of the sourcebook, they are written for use with the first edition of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game, rather than the second. (That said, adapting them is relatively easy.)

In terms of themes, it presents and examines concepts such as ‘What’s Old is New Again’, ‘Hard Decisions’, ‘Places to See, People to Annoy’ all backed up with suggestions as to how they might be used. As already mentioned, the Twelfth Doctor would meet many of his old foes, but ‘What’s Old is New Again’ means that when he does, they are often radically different. Most notably, Missy rather than the Master, but also a Dalek who hates other Daleks and Zygons who can be persuaded to integrate into Earth society rather than conquer the planet. Similarly, he visits places that ‘Familiar, but Strange’, such as the Orient Express, but in space with a Mummy! The era of the Twelfth Doctor is one of ‘Hard Decisions’, sometimes having to decide who has to die and who has to live, and for how long, often because it up to the Doctor to make them because no-one else is coming to save the day. ‘Places to See, People to Annoy’ examines some of the motifs of the incarnation such as a love of deserted places and locations, though often these hide dark secrets, and perhaps because the Doctor has seen so much and cannot decide where to go, actually setting the TARDIS controls to random, so that nobody knows where they might end up. However, since the TARDIS has telepathic circuits, it can pick up on subconscious desires, and so The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook suggests that the players and their characters might take it in turns to suggest a destination, adding a collaborative element to play. It also examines the more fantastical nature of the Twelfth Doctor’s stories, typified by ‘Robot of Sherwood’, ‘Kill the Moon’, and ‘In the Forest of the Night’, noting that ultimately a more Science Fictional explanation will prevail.

There is advice for the Game Master too, on different campaign frameworks, such as the companions being left behind when the Doctor runs off an adventure of his own, leaving them to try and cope with a situation where they have to do his job, or more extreme, running a campaign without a Time Lord, with the Player Characters being on equal footing. This is an option that the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game has considered before, but never before has it been brought to fore as in the era of the Twelfth Doctor where he is not always present and his Companions have to emulate him as best that they can. Later, the relationship between the Doctor and Bill Potts lends itself to a campaign where the relationship between Time Lord and companion is that of teacher and student, with each new adventure becoming a learning opportunity, which again is another nod in this era and The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook between the First Doctor and his companions. Penultimately, the supplement examines the relation between the Doctor and UNIT, standoffish at best, as is that of his relationship with Gallifrey which he engineered the return of, but has also left it to its own devices, with no real government or direction, suggesting that perhaps another Time Lord might need to get involved depending upon how its politics or lack of them play out. Lastly, The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook details several of the gadgets and associated traits that appear in the era, most notably the Sonic Sunglasses.

The third and final chapter in The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook is, as with the previous entries in the series, its longest. Again, it takes up some four fifths of the book, detailing all thirty-four of the Twelfth Doctor’s stories, from ‘Deep Breath’ to ‘Twice Upon a Time’. 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’. This includes ‘Further Adventures’ that the Game Master can develop enabling the players and their characters to visit its themes and setting.

Thus, for the episode, ‘Mummy on the Orient Express’, the synopsis describes how the Doctor offers Clara one last trip in the TARDIS, this time somewhere special. Once aboard the Orient Express, they discover that a Mummy is killing the passengers, but is actually a cover, not once, but twice. One for ‘The Foretold’, a deadly mythical creature, and one for the whole of train, which it turns out is a travelling laboratory on the train. ‘Continuity’ notes that premium travel in the future looks like premium travel from the past such as ‘Voyage of the Damned’ for the Tenth Doctor, how the Twelfth Doctor is dispensing Jelly Babies in a silver cigarette case, and how he offers Perkins, the engineer aboard the Orient Express, a job as ‘his engineer’! In terms of ‘Running the Adventure’, it suggests that the Orient Express is background and it can be set anywhere and that given that ‘The Foretold’ is an unstoppable killing machine, so the Game Master needs to be careful to have it kill the Player Characters (unless it really matters), and instead kill the NPCs they form attachments to. ‘Further Adventures’ suggests ways in which its elements can be further explored. For example, they could discover the site where ‘The Foretold’ are created and one of the companions is converted and has to be rescued, or the Player Characters suddenly find themselves aboard the Orient Express and have to work out how. There are no stats for ‘The Foretold’, but there are for Perkins.

The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook adheres to this format throughout, for all of its thirty-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 ‘Dark Water/Death in Heaven’ which sees the return of Missy, and ‘The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion’ in which a new conflict with the Zygons is being fomented.

Physically, The Twelfth 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 Twelfth Doctor brought a fractious relationship between the Doctor and his Companions as well as a sense of the fantastic to ‘Nu Who’ and The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook enables the Game Master to bring these to her campaign for the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. There are some excellent suggestions as to how these and other themes can be used, as well as adventure hooks throughout the supplement to support the Game Master. That said, the nature of the relationship between the Doctor and his Companions is harder to run than the average Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game, since it brings in elements of mistrust and potentially challenging roleplaying into play. Ultimately, The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook is a sound guide to the era of the Twelfth Doctor that captures its prickliness, its regrets, and its empathy in bringing the Doctor Who generation sourcebooks to a close.