December, 1989. Indiana.
Katie walks down the snowy street on her way home from college classes. A man is running down the sidewalk toward her, looking back over his shoulder occasionally as if being pursued. He’s wearing a black t-shirt, black pants, a leather jacket and sunglasses, and slicked-back hair. He plows right into Katie, and both of them slip and fall. As she picks herself up, she sees his sunglasses on the ground but he’s already up and running again before she can see his face.
A second man, dressed in a red Napoleonic War-era uniform jacket, comes running, yelling at Katie to move. She tries to get out of his way. Seeing that she’s holding the other guy’s sunglasses, he slides to a graceful stop on the slick sidewalk and asks “Where is it? WHERE IS IT? Did he drop it?” Katie tells “Sgt Pepper” she has no idea what he’s talking about. He starts to run on, but looks back, points at her, and says “Don’t move!”
Looking down, Katie sees something in the snow. A silverish ring, in the shape of a cat’s head, with red jewels for eyes. She picks it up; it’s big, a man’s ring, but she slips it on her thumb.
July, 2010. Albuquerque.
Katie is in her apartment, getting ready to go to Cinamon and John’s for game night. She grabs her purse, opens her door, and there is Sgt. Pepper leaning in the doorway. He looks at her and says “You moved.”
(At this point, I hit the theme music on the laptop. This got a big laugh and approval from the group. The timing was perfect. Cameron improvised and narrated a title sequence.)
Somewhere in Space and Time
The Doctor awakes, laying on the ground in a raging storm. It’s pounding rain, the thunder is deafening, and only flashes of lightning reveal the terrain in the night sky. At the top of a rock outcropping, jutting into the sky, is the TARDIS control console. On either side of it, about 6 meters on either side of the console, are freestanding doorways. The Doctor slowly struggles up the rain-slick rocks, realizing his body feels strange. He’s regenerated. He finally works his way up to the console, and is rocked by what feels like an earthquake. Checking readouts, he finds he’s hit something in the timestream. Some kind of barrier. Regaining control, he lands. In the pouring rain, he walks to one of the door, the entrance to the TARDIS. He opens the door, and sunshine pours out upon his face.
July 2010. Albion Hospital, London
Sgt. Streebek, United States Army currently assigned to UNIT, is trying to catch someone who’s hacked into UNIT databases. Specifically, someone has been trying to get information on The Doctor. To help track this person, they’ve put watchers on the computer systems of places the Doctor has been. Now someone’s hacking into the Albion Hospital system, and it shows the same sorts of traces and signatures as the hacker they want.
Streebek gets to the hopital, shows his ID and asks for the record department. As a clerk leads him down, he spots a redheaded woman in the cross hall. A woman who resembles the susepct, based on surveillance footage of break-in hacks. He starts calmly walking toward her, but she makes him and she runs. A chase ensues, that leads outside. As she hops into a car, the TARDIS materializes between Streebek and the redhead. The Doctor pops out, sees Streebek in a UNIT uniform, and says Hello! as the redhead peels away.
5,000,000,0024. New Earth Hospital, New Earth
Novice Chen, a catkind of the Sisters of Plenitude, is walking down the hall and sees someone in room of Face of Boe. His hand is on the glass tank, and they appear to be speaking telepathically. The man, in a strange red military jacket, turns when Novice Chen asks if everything is okay. “Sorry, love. Just leaving.”
July 2010, Albion Hospital, London
Donna Noble wakes up in hospital, with no idea how she got here. In the hall her granddad, Wilfred Mott, is speaking to a red-haired woman she doesn’t recognize. It looks like she hands something to Wilf, but Donna’s not sure. The woman leaves as Wilf looks in and sees that Donna’s awake.
“You gave us quite a scare!” says Wilf.
“What’s going on? Who was that woman?” says Donna.
“Oh, um, no one, a visitor looking for patient’s room. I’m so happy you’re okay. Some kind of seizure, they said, but they checked you out and can’t find anything wrong with you.”
Queue the sound of the TARDIS arriving. Wilf gets a panicked look, and peeks out the window.
“When can I get out of here?” says Donna.
“I’ve come to fetch you, you’re being discharged now. You get dressed, I’ll go bring the car ’round.” say Wilf, who takes off as quickly as his old bones will carry him.
5,000,000,0024. New Earth Hospital, New Earth
Rex Runyon, 51st century Time Agent, is after an artifact — a ring shaped like a cat’s head. He doesn’t know what it is, or what it does, he just knows he’s here to recover it. It was stolen by Captain John Hart, a renegade Time Agent, who has been known to visit New Earth Hospital to visit a patient, an ancient alien known as the Face of Boe. Runyon arrives to stake the place out, in time to see a Sister stop as she passes, look quizzical, and enter the room. He casually leans against the wall near the door, trying to not look suspicious to the woman seated nearby in the hall. He hears Hart’s voice, and draws his weapons to ambush Hart when he comes out.
July 2010, Albuquerque
Hart pushes his way into Katie’s apartment. “Where is it?”
“Who the hell are you, and what are you doing in my apartment?” Katie demands. “And of course I moved! You never came back!”
“It’s be 10 minutes for me,” says Hart. “Time traveler. Didn’t you notice I hadn’t aged?”
“First, do you have a name? And who the hell do you think you are?”
“That ring belongs to a very powerful man, who hired me to steal it from the man who knocked you down on the sidewalk. He wants that ring very badly, and he’s coming for it. We’re not safe here…”
KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK
“Oh, shit. He’s here,” say Hart.
Katie moves to answer the door.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
“Who’s here? Seriously, Sgt. Pepper, what’s going on?” She’s about to answer the door when Hart grabs her arm and they teleport.
5,000,000,0024. New Earth Hospital, New Earth
Katie and Hart appear in an empty hall. “Stay here,” says Hart. “I mean it this time”.
Katie takes a seat in the hall. “I think I’m having a stroke”, she says to herself. A nun with the face of a cat walks down the hall, stops, and goes into a room. “I’m definitely having a stroke,” Katie says. A man in a military uniform she doesn’t recognize comes down the hall, and pauses, leaning against the wall as if he’s waiting. Katie’s dad was military; she’s trying to piece together what sort of uniform it is.
Hart steps out of the room, and sees Runyan. Both start to draw weapons. Katie just runs. Novice Chen hits the intercom and calls for security. Hart sees Katie run, and takes off after her. Doors start to close as the wing begins to seal itself. Katie ducks into an empty room, and gets sealed in. Hart doubles back, so as not to get sealed in. Novice Chen steps out, between Hart and Runyan. Hart grabs Novice Chen, one arm around her neck, pistol to her head. Runyan holds fire. Hart hits a button on his wrist Vortex Manipulator and teleports out.
Runyan goes looking for the woman Hart was chasing, and realizes she’s sealed in a room. He overrides the seal and finds her hiding behind a bed. He can chase after Hart, follow his teleport, but he only has seconds. He goes to grab Katie, but she side-steps him and kicks him in the crotch. It’s contact; as he’s getting racked, he hits the button on his Vortex Manipulator and they vanish.
July 2010, Albion Hospital, London
The Doctor is introducing himself to Streebek, who’s torn between being mad that the redhead got away and awe at meeting THE Doctor. At this point, Wilf comes running out of the hospital, waving his arms. “No, no, no! You’re not supposed to be here! Donna’s inside! You have to go!”
“Donna? In hospital? Is she okay?” asks the Doctor.
Donna… Donna… Donna Noble, Sgt. Streebek realizes. He knows she was one of the Doctor’s more recent companions, but nothing more.
“She’s fine!” says Wilf. “Look, we haven’t time to talk about this now! She’ll be out in a minute!
Hart and Novice Chen teleport in, after a rough ride through the Vortex. It felt like they hit something. Hart looks around, sees the blue police box. “Oh hell, this job is NOT worth it” he says, and teleports away.
Katie and Runyan teleport in as Katie finishes connecting her foot with his tender bits. He doubles over a bit.
“Hello, I’m the Doctor!” says the Doctor.
Donna comes out of the hospital, to this motley array of characters. She sees the police box, and starts to get a headache. Her temples throb. She’s hearing a banging in her head. TAP TAP TAP TAP… TAP TAP TAP TAP…
Wilf gestures to the Doctor. “This, uh, this is the plumber.”
“Your plumber wears a kilt?” says Donna. She looks around, sees Novice Chen, and gets dizzy. She visibly reels. “You’re an alien,” she says.
“Come dear, let’s get you home. You’re still fragile.” Sgt. Streebek helps steady Donna. Out of Donna’s site, Wilf hands the Doctor something, wrapped in cloth.
“We really need to talk,” he whispers to the Doctor, and follows Streebek to get Donna settled in the car.
“It appears we all need to talk”, say the Doctor. Everyone starts talking. Katie and Runyan begin to bicker. Novice Chen looks Katie in the eye and purrs, calming Katie down, which makes the Doctor raise an eyebrow. “I’m in charge here!” say the Doctor, as Streebek comes back. “We need to sort all this out.”
The Doctor, glancing as the car carrying Wilf and Donna away, reaches into his pocket and pulls out what Wilf handed him. Inside the cloth are two objects. The first is a silverish cat’s-head ring with red jewels for eyes.
“My ring!” says Katie.
“Your ring? That’s stolen property I was sent to recover from Hart!” says Runyan.
Novice Chen just looks at the ring quizzically, because it’s a cat’s head.
The Doctor unfolds the rest of the cloth, to reveal the second item: a fob watch. He’s seen this design before. Twice.
“Oh no, ” says the Doctor. “This is not good.”
QUEUE MUSIC, END CREDITS!
Notes
Katie is the player who is playing herself. She doesn’t know a lot about Doctor Who, so I’m using her as a viewpoint character. I get to wow her with stuff some of the other players will take for granted, and the other players get to play off of her.
The Doctor is being played by Cameron Goble. He’s a future Doctor, an original character created by Cameron. The raging storm inside the TARDIS is something he and I discussed, and will be explained as the game goes on.
Sgt. Streebek is Dave Marshall’s character. He’s a former Los Angeles cop who somehow ended up in the Army, and working for UNIT. He’s based on Tom Hanks’ character in the 1987 Dragnet movie.
Novice Chen is Cinamon Gentry’s character, and the hardest one to get worked into the story due to, um, extreme temporal proximity. I worked it out. Cin says she had amnesia, and was found as an adult and taken in by the Sisters. This gives me plenty of story fodder. She’s also psychic, with Special Talent-level Hypnosis.
Rex Runyan (of the 51st 1/2 Century), Time Agent is John Gentry’s character. We need to flesh him out a bit, but he’s a very Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon pulp spaceman type action here. We need one of those.
Donna Temple-Noble is played by Linda Hussey, and was the biggest continuity challenge. Isn’t her brain supposed to melt if she remembers the Doctor? How am I going to solve that problem so she can be a player character. Linda, Cameron and I have discussed so things to make it work. This is the Doctor Who universe, after all; anything is possible!
Everyone said they had a great time, which makes me happy. That’s my only goal when I run a game. Plus, I got to play Wilf! I love Wilf. Next game session/episode is in two weeks! And I still have to do character creation and the first session with the OTHER Doctor Who group I’m running!
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