The follow Adventure Seed draws on the basic concept of the FASA adventure ‘Countdown’ with a different spin on the antagonists. The outline was also posted to the Dr Who: Adventures in Time & Space message board.

The time travellers find themselves aboard a medical frigate completing a courier run to the Maia system. The people of that system have been struck by a plague, the cure for which can only be synthesized from materials available outside the system. The medical frigate crew show determination in their task, but significant paranoia about the strangers in their midst, as the medicine they carry holds an intrinsic and significant value on the black market.

Currently only mid-journey, and experiencing some sporadic engine problems that the travellers might well assist with, the crew pick up a distress transmission from a nearby ship. Closer investigation reveals an ancient-looking colony ship dangerously low on power reserves, but showing clear life signatures on bio-scans. Research reveals colony ships of this model carried colonists in suspended animation tended by robotic maintenance crews and a generational commander, and his family, passing the role of captain down during the ships lengthy voyage.

Investigation reveals a lot of tunnels and cavernous bays filled with semi-functional technology. When the characters find the hibernation deck, they find scenes of sickening devastation, with shattered stasis tubes and savaged colonists. It should appear that some alien invader penetrated the ship and attacked the colonists in their sleep (and playing up the ‘Alien’-angle may well increase the tension).

However, in reality the generational command family died out from a genetic disease and the ship gradually floated into a interstitual rift, where it and the medical frigate currently sit – leaking power. The robotic crew, seeking to both maintain the ship and save the colonists, started cannabilising organic parts as their internal systems failed. Experimentation, and dozens of pointless deaths, allowed half-a-dozen robots to stabilize themselves in a cybernetic half-life where brains and re-purposed organs keep them functional and capable of sustaining what few colonists still remain.

The Cybermen seek to claim the medical frigate – equipped with cargo holds and cryogenic systems – to serve as a new colony ship, shifting across the few remain colonists. The existing cargo of the frigate doesn’t matter to them – it’s just consuming valuable space, nor do the crew who fall outside their functional parameters and therefore serve no purpose – except, perhaps, to provide more replacements part for their continually degenerating robotic systems.

As the Cybermen try to secure control of the frigate, the crew and characters need to stop them and release the locking mechanisms holdings the vessels together. However, while systems fail and the Cybermen start to convert the frigate to their purposes, the situation gets yet more dire with the arrival of a small group of Draconian corsairs intent on looting both ships for booty and slaves…

Antagonists and things to tackle: Suspicious crew of the medical frigate. Cold-blooded Draconian pirates. Degenerating Cybermen. Deterioration in all shipboard and handheld devices because of the interstitial rift.

Problems: Once the crew of the medical frigate attempt to aid the colony vessel, the Cybermen lock the vessels together – effectively sealing their mutual doom unless the link can be broken. The pirates intended to take advantage of vessels in distress, but moving into range of the interstitial rift and boarding the frigate rapidly endangers them, too. The time travellers need to find a way to separate one of the ships, repair failing systems and get out of range of the rift before time runs out.

Things that need prepared: A rough sketch of the internal layout of the three ships, as the characters will almost certainly need to venture into all three – at least as far as the airlocks – to allow separation.

Continuing the Adventure: Whether the colony ship remains in the rift or somehow pulls free, these new Cybermen may pose a future threat to the time travellers – and pose a worrying prospect should they prosper and, perhaps, discover the existence of other similar Cyber-lifeforms. Might the time travellers in some way influence the rise of the Cyber-Empire? Refer to Ahistory: An Unauthorised History of the Doctor Who Universe for discussion about the Empire and, perhaps, a few ideas for future encounters.

Like Wilf in the most recent series, I appreciate the prospect of a good companion-that-never-was in the form of Charles Dickens. Dickens combines curiosity with a sharp intellect, perception with a entirely understandable interest in self-preservation.

Throughout ‘The Unquiet Dead’ – verging on a bottle episode once matters have settled on the encounters within the funeral parlour – Dickens fills the role of companion with enthusiasm. Doubting the Doctor’s technobabble, he nevertheless comes to embrace the extraordinary once the evidence stacks up to support it. His world-weariness and desire to debunk charlatans means the alien needs to work hard to break his resolve and single-mindedness. Dickens considers trickery and sleight-of-hand faced with mere apparitions, but in the end he comes around. Even when gripped with fear, his keen mind kicks into gear and brings him back to some measure of sobriety with a solution to the whole problem of the Gelf. Many companions of the past would have kept running, indeed you would have questioned their change in character if they hadn’t.

Dickens could easily function as a perfectly good foil to the Doctor, earthing him when the need requires it, questioning his decisions and reminding the Time Lord that he is no more master of the world around him than any of us. The Doctor may well have a machine that allows him to travel anywhere in time and space, and he may feel the Turn of the Universe beneath his feet – but, that’s not to say he cannot be surprised or taken off guard on occasion, faced with possibilities that passed him by or he was all too ready to ignore. The Gelf play on The Doctor’s good nature and his guilt in relation to the events of The Time War and that is almost his undoing.

For those who play Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space here’s a stab at a character write-up for the great author. I would not go so far as to claim perfection, as this happens to be the first time I’ve tried this; but, I think it more or less conveys Dickens character – at least within the confines of the Whoniverse.

Name: Charles Dickens
Attributes: Awareness – 4, Coordination – 3, Ingenuity – 5, Presence – 4, Resolve – 4, Strength – 2
Skills: Convince – 4 (Charm), Craft – 3 (Writing), Knowledge – 4 (Law, Literature), Medicine – 1, Science – 1, Subterfuge – 2
Traits: Friends (mG, The Ghost Club*), Lucky (mG), Photographic Memory (MG), Run For Your Life (mG), Voice of Authority (mG), Argumentative (mB), Cowardly (mB), Dark Secret (mB, family**), Insatiable Curiosity (mB), Obligation (mB, family), Sceptical (mB***)

* A group, based in London, engaged in the research and investigation of the paranormal, in which Dickens took an increasing interest in his later life.
** In his youth his whole family ended up living in debtors prison for a time and he dallied with certain affairs during his life of which he appears to have been thoroughly ashamed.
*** Dickens urge to doubt and debunk means he suffers a +2 bonus to his roll when subject of any conflict seeking to convince him about the supernatural (i.e. they’re going to have a hard time convincing him of anything). When faced with supernatural occurrences, Dickens will always err on the side of doubt – and will suffer a -2 penalty to any roll to overcome his suspicions.

You can access a perfectly good biography of Dickens on Wikipedia.

If you needed to mine for plot seeds to fuel your Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space scenarios, what better place to start than ‘The End of the World’?

Seems to me the guest list alone makes for an interesting well of possibility. How about learning more about Cheem and how they evolved as a major economic force or perhaps face freedom-threatening litigation at the hands of Jolco and Jolco? What happened at the prototype trials for the hyposlip travel system invented by the Brothers Hop Pyleen? What stellar events did previous platforms managed by the Steward witness and which particular Corporation funds these cataclysmic dinner parties? Who designed the platform and why did they choose to engage in so many retro-flourishes, like the great fans maintaining internal cooling?

And I haven’t even mentioned The Face of Boe, the Ambassadors from the City State of Binding Light, the one and only Cal ‘Spark Plug’ Macnannovich or, indeed, the varied Chosen Scholars of Class Fifty Five! Plot decorations aplenty, even if not a full-scale seed or hook.