How would you write an adventure for Dr Who?

We recently playtested an adventure that Morgue's writing for the Dr Who role-playing game. After our game, I gave a little bit of thought to how Dr Who stories work. Here are the tropes I've identified - can you think of anything else?

TYPES OF DR WHO ADVENTURES

A Threat (or Threatening Situation): ala 'Midnight', where you're stuck in a frozen train with a monster, or 'Blink'.

A Plot: where you have a bunch of ideas for a cool sequence of events (basically a railroad/tunnel of fun scenario).

A Mystery: where you have to get to the bottom of something weird. 'The Girl in the Fireplace' would be a good example of this.

A Relationship Web: there's a whole bunch of complicated inter-personal stuff going on, that the Doctor et al stumble in to (I'm thinking of 'Vengeance on Varos' or your adventure, Morgue). This is often related to ...

... A Moral Crime: Like 'Vengeance on Varos' again, there is something unconscionable (by our standards) happening, and it will permanently remain this way unless someone intervenes. These moral crimes have 'People in Power', 'Victims', and (possibly) a 'Resistance'. All the people involved will want the Doctor or the companions to do something (much like in Dogs in the Vineyard).


SETTINGS FOR DR WHO ADVENTURES

When I thought about it, Dr Who stories seem to be set in one of these arenas:

- Earth's past (with or without an alien component)

- Earth's present (usually with an alien component)

- Humanity's future (either on Earth or off-world, usually with an alien component)

- An alien environment (it usually doesn't matter *when* this is set)

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Jenni wrote more about our game, here: Playing established characters.

Movies: February

Cover of Marebito

I can tell February was busy because of the small number of movies I watched.

I got through the first third of Marebito, a J-scare from the director of The Grudge and Reincarnation. I actually ended up napping instead of watching, and still haven't gotten to the point where the story actually kicks off ... I'll probably go back to it and give it another 10 minutes, but so far it seems less solid and more pretentious than Reincarnation.

Doctor Who: The End of Time (Part 1) was a nice 'moving the pieces into place' episode with a great scary kick at the end of the episode that absolutely makes me go "What the hell is the Doctor going to do?" *and* may give me some closure on Donna Noble.

Doctor Who: The End of Time (Part 2) made me cry. An effective payoff to the "He will knock four times" set-up, and a series of scenes that provided closure on a number of Russell T Davies plots. This part was less about the plot and more about the emotions, and I choked up as David Tennant finished his run. I think I'll miss his Doctor about as much as I miss Tom Baker's.

Started watching my favourite film, The Insider, but had to go do something else. Even watching the first 20 minutes though has reminded me how good this script is. An expanded review is definitely coming.

A Nightmare on Elm Street played like a sit-com to me. The last half hour of this movie consists of idiot cops and ultra-violent pratfalls as Freddy Kruger falls victim to a series of booby-traps that Nancy has set up in her home. An odd, hilarious movie.

Dr Who: My theory on Season 5

OK, prediction time: Matt Smith is a decoy Doctor.

I'm actually pretty confident that Matt Smith will be good in the role of the new Doctor. Team
Who have excellent taste in casting and he's got a really interesting look about him.

But I remember the rumours about casting the new Dr Who before it was relaunched. James Nesbitt's name was floated a few times and (based off my impressions of his performance in Cold Feet) I felt he would make a great shambling around Doctor in the spirit of Tom Baker. When I couple that rumour with his performance in Steven Moffat's Jekyll, well ...

My prediction is that Matt Smith will be killed off mid-way through Season 5 and replaced by James Nesbitt.