I approached the review of this sourcebook with some
trepidation. After all, the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space (DWAITAS)
series of sourcebooks had been solid entries every time – with the Doctor
series churning out astoundingly consistent source material in the tone and
spirit of each of the eras, despite the volume (or paucity thereof) of actual
episodes during that Doctor’s era.
However, this one was the incarnation of the Doctor that revived
the franchise on TV -- and one that had eight sourcebooks preceding it. Was it
going to live up to expectations? Or might it lapse into a boring re-tread of
what had gone before?
A Solid Framework
Dedicated collectors and followers of this particular series
of sourcebooks would, I’m sure, agree that some aspects of repetition are
actually the strength of this series.
I’m very fond of the presence of the initial chapter of each
of these books that give an overview of the peculiarities and strengths of this
particular Doctor’s personality, and the character of the adventures during
this era.
The roll call of protagonists and antagonists (statted out,
with descriptions and explorations of their role during this era, of course) is
also a given. But it’s unarguably essential to a sourcebook like this. It’s
also very well done: character sheets for each with a great selection of iconic
imagery for each. As always, I love that the TARDIS has its own writeup.
Perhaps that’ll be my next
campaign idea: a Doctorless campaign with “companions” recruited by the
TARDISes of various incarntations. Hm, a Storm of TARDISes has a nice ring to
it.
Unique Challenges
This era only saw one Season / Series, meaning a quite a bit
less source material in terms of episodes (we’ll come back to the Eight
Doctor’s sourcebook as soon as I pick it up), but these episodes – in
conjunction with the section tackling handling adventures in this era in
greater detail – really give players a lot of options in running Doctor-y or
Doctorless campaigns with the mix of personal drama, neo-pulpish adventure, and
witty banter.
I really have to say that these synopses are well-written –
and have been over this series of because. Concise, but filled with
easy-to-follow details (useful for the GM who hasn’t quite reviewed every
single episode in the given era, and may not have the time to do so). They also
always raise concerns regarding continuity (that some sharp-minded GMs and
Players will likely tackle in or out of play.
There’s also great notes on running your players through the
episode as an adventure – fantastic I’m sure for the fans who’ve always wanted
a chance to be a real companion of The Doctor.
Furthermore, the smaller pool of adventures does give the
writing team an opportunity to really go in-depth and all-out in mining and
milking these episodes for (a) adventures; (b) spin-off adventures; (c) motifs
and leitmotifs of the Doctor’s adventures to reinforce the feel; (d) ideas on
using location and enemies in different or expanded ways.
For the Fans
There is some added benefit here for me as a fan – some of
my favorite episodes can be found here (“The End of the World, Dalek, Father’s
Day, and The Parting of Ways), along with the first appearances of some
enigmatic continuing characters. Much of the analysis and extrapolation here
helps feed that fan prediliction for speculation, and is a rich source for both
theories, and possible adventuring in the continuum of Time & Space that
the Doctor inhabits.
Highly recommended.
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That's my side of things. Let me know what you think, my friend.