Abe's New CCG

[TheAbe]

Set #3: Dalek Assault!


Planet:

Kembel
Necross
Spiridon


Station:

The Crucible


Ship:

Dalek Assault Shuttle
Dalek Battle Cruiser
Dalek Flagship
Dalek Mothership
Chen's Spar



Hostiles:

Gold Dalek
Surpreme Dalek
Dalek Emperor
Special Weapons Dalek
Dalek Caan
Dalek Sec
Dalek Council
Renegade Dalek
New Dalek
The Great Healer - Aspect of Davros
Glass Dalek
Movellan
Ogron
Supreme Dalek




Equipment:

Time Controller
Dalek Battle Computer
Movellan Virus
Reality Bomb - New way to win.
Davros's Controlling Device
Emergency Temporal Shift
Dalekanium Bomb
Armed with Bombs


Actions:

Dalek Hypnosis
Victory of the Movellans
Dalek Civil War
Dalek Control Chip
Dalek Disorientor
Dalek Duplication
Humanize Dalek


TARDIS:

DARDIS

[TheAbe]

A Question of Canonicity


What counts as legit Dr. Who canon? The comics and the novels go way off the beaten path. They may talk about things like how some Dr. Who villains are really Lovecratian baddies or have stories that later directly contradict the show.

The obvious answers are that Dr. Who and all official spinoffs are canon - that includes the Dr. Who TV Movie in 1996, K9 and Company, Torchwood, and Sarah Jane Adventures.

What about other things? In the 1960's there were two feature films starring Peter Cushing as the very Human Doctor. Do those count? I think not, that's just a retelling of Dr. Who, not an attempt to join canon.


However, there are some grey areas. I'll give you some examples:



Case Study #1:

When he wrote The Web Planet and its 6 episodes, Bill Strutton created a really grandiose and over-reaching epic, in the 2nd season of Dr. Who. Bill included an ant-like alien race called the Zarbi.

A few years later, BBC decides to launch a book series with the Novelisations of tv serials. One of the first is The Web Planet, and the writer is...Bill Strutton. He simply is assigned to write, as a quick novel, his stroy for The Web Planet.

During the course of his novelisation, which is an official BBC book, Bill Strutton creates a Zarbi Supremo, a sort of Queen Bee for the Zarbi. No mention of this ever occurred in the actual TV series.

Could I include the Zarbi Surpemo in my game? Is it canonical? It was in an official BBC novelisation of a script written by the same guy who wrote the script. Is that close enough?


Case Study #2:

In the UK, creators of intellectual property retain the rights to that property. That's why Terry Nation actually got rich by writing for Dr Who, he retained the rights to the Daleks he created for the show.

One prolific writer for the show was Terrance Dicks. He was the script editor, on staff, for Dr Who for years, and in additional he wrote a large number of Dr Who scripts as well. One of his serials was The Time Warrior, in which he introduces the Sontarans, locked in a war with the Rutans. A few years later, he writes another script, Horror at Fang Rock, and introduces the Rutans.

Now, in England, again, Dicks retains the rights to the Sontarans and the Rutans, (along with Robert Holmes, who helped in their creation) but the BBC retains some rights to what they look like, since they were the ones who actuallized his creation. Holmes was deceased, but his estate agreed to allow his rights to be used by Reeltime Pictures.

This small company decided to release a direct-to-video movie in Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans. This featured a new interpretation of the Sontaran look in order to avoid using the BBC's rights.

However, not only did Dicks give his permission for the company to use his creation in their film, but he also wrote it himself! Here we have a script about the Sontaran-Rutan war on Earth, written by one of the Rights holders, with the permission of the other, and released to video. Shakedown would even be written as a novel in the Dr. Who line of novels published by Target. Can I use characters from Shakedown?

Similar examples exist for the Autons, Zygons, Sgt. Benton, UNIT, and more.


Case Study #3:


The Sixth Doctor had some issues with fans. A lot of people flat out didn't like him at all, and Dr. Who was losing viewers. As a result, the BBC placed Dr. Who on an 18 month hiatus. The decision to do this was made late, and many of the stories for the aborted season had already been planned, and many scripts has already arrived.

Instead of seeing their work go up in flames, many of the writers instead wrote novelizations of their stories and scripts with the official BBC Novelizations line in order to make money off their stories which could no longer be used.

So, this scripts and stories would have been broadcast and made a permanent part of the canon, but were cancelled by BBC for other reasons, but then published as official Novelizations.

Can I make cards off of these aborted scripts?


Case Study #4

Now this is the real hard one. Shada. At the end of one of Tom Baker's seasons, the final serial was written by no less a wordsmith than Douglas Adams, his third and final Dr. Who serial. Tom Baker, Romana, K9, and a lot of other Time Lords. It was a great script and the BBC really committed to it. Shooting began and about half of it was done when the unthinkable happened.

All BBC workers (not actors, directors, producers, etc) walked off of various sets and went on strike. The result of the strike meant that Shada could not be finished. The story would remain unbroadcasted. However, this was only stopped by a stripe, not because of other reasons.

Part of the footage would be used in the The Five Doctors to show Tom Baker getting kidnapped.

Later, the BBC would authorize an 8th Doctor Flash animated Shada, very long, but in order to complete the serial. They published it for free on their Dr. Who website several years ago.

Can I include cards and ideas from Shada? If so, I can add Professor Chronitis's TARDIS to my small number of TARDIS, plus places, Time Lords, and more.



Those are four case studies about the unusual ins and outs of Dr. Who canon. What to do, what to do, what to do...

[TheAbe]

Three more case studies:

Case Study #5:

BBC Commissioned an online flash called Real Time featuring the Sixth Doctor against the Cybermen and is was published in 2002. It featured a companion from the novels, Evelyn Smythe, and was about 60 minutes long all told. Can I include things from it, such as Evelyn Smythe? It was commissioned by the BBC, published by the BBC, so does it count?


Case Study #6:

This one is really weird. In 2003, the BBC decided to reboot Dr. Who in the novels, spin-off media, and more with an online flash they called Shalka, which was rather long, intricate, and good, starring Richard Grant as the new doctor. He was the 9th Doctor and was introduced as such in the story.

However, a few months later, BBC gave the go-ahead to produce Dr. Who on TV again, with a new 9th Doctor, and it was not the Richard Grant Doctor. What do we do about the so called Shalka Doctor? When it was commisioned, it was believed to be official, canonical, story line. However, with the debut of a cew Dr. Who and a new 9th Doctor, this obviously changed. The Shalka Doctor was no longer supported and you can image it is of questionable canonicity.

Can I use the Shalka Doctor as a new Manifestation?


Case Study #7:

Attack of the Graske was released on TV for children as an interactive game where they could use their remote to help the Doctor. It is still on their website as an interactive game, but remember, it was initially broadcast as a TV game. Can I use planets, creatures and such from it?

[kerbythepurplecow]

Well that's confusing stuff. How 'bout an alternate reality expansion? Parallel worlds and such. That could resolve a lot of conflicts.

[TheAbe]

More sample Cards:

[TheAbe]

As of right now, the set has 180 cards.

Currently 32 cards are Fundamental rarity - 10 Doctors, 7 TARDISs, 15 planets (5 of each resource other than Psy).

[TheAbe]

More Samples

[TheAbe]

List of Keywords for the first set:


Warrior
Doctor
Scholar
Clever
Diplomat
Clone
UNIT
Torchwood
Deity

Key Part
Stolen Planet

[TheAbe]

More cards:

[TheAbe]

New Slate of Expansion Sets:

Expansion #1: Invasion of the Cybermen. Includes numerous Cybermen cards, plus a new Manifestation - Meta-Crisis Doctor. Introduces Mercenary ability and Minion keywords.

Expansion #2: The Time Lords. Includes numerous Time Lord allies, hostiles, equipment, places, etc. Introduces new Manifestations such as Romana, The Master, The Valeyard and The Rani. Type 57 TARDIS.

Expansion #3: Dalek Assault. Tons of Dalek hostiles, equipment, and more are in this set. Introduces DARDIS and Space Security.

Expansion #4: The Dark Times. Older cards that represent the darker times of before, such as the Nestene, Racnoss, demons, etc. Magic and other things. A very heavy Psy set so more psy places introduces like Krop Tor.

Expansion #5: Beasts and 'Bots. Numerous beasts and robots, including the Ice Warriors, Drashig, and robots like later versions of k9, kamelion, white robots, quarks, movellans, etc.

Expansion #6: Alternate Realities. Introduces many things from alternate realities such as E-Space, Arthur's World, Pete's World, etc.

This is the current slate.