Originally posted here with full reviews of all the Doctor Who Doctor Sourcebooks: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2023/05/review-doctor-who-sourcebooks.html

Not content just to give us a great game and material we can use to make our own adventures, Cubicle 7 took a huge leap and gave us guides and sourcebooks for all Thirteen of the major versions of the Doctor that have aired since 1963.

The covers feature the Doctor with some of his (and her) enemies from their run. The Thirteenth Doctor is not pictured, played by Jodie Whittaker, only because it has not hit the stores yet. I will review the PDF here.

The logo on the cover of the first 11 is from the Jon Pertwee era (1970-1973) and for the 8th Doctor's movie in 1986. Peter Capaldi's 12th Doctor uses the logo from Jodie's 13th Doctor era, and Jodie's 13th Doctor book uses the "new" logo which is the reuse of the old Tom Baker logo.

For this review, I am going to consider all the hardcover books I have, doctors 1 to 12, and the PDFs, Doctors 1 - 13.

All books differ in length but all have similar content. Each book begins with an introduction to that Doctor's era and some of the special things about it. For example, in the 3rd Doctor book we get a lot about his exile on Earth. Each book is filled with photos from that Doctor's time period, so a lot of black and white for the First and Second Doctor and of course ideas for adventures throughout.

If that is all it was, well, you need one book for that, and this is not what makes these books special.

Each book details every adventure that Doctor had on screen. While it is written from the point of view of the RPG (and this RPG in particular), the details are such that each one of these books is fascinating reading all on their own. This is great since so many of the early adventures/episodes are now lost and the old Target novelizations go for a king's ransom.

Also, each book details all the Doctor's companions and provides stats for them, the Doctor in question and most, if not all, the creatures they encounter.

Doctor Who - The Eighth Doctor Sourcebook 192 pages. Color photos. Paul McGann as the Doctor

Paul McGann only got a single movie, and an American made one no less. He did get appear in a short many years later, The Night of the Doctor, which brought him back into the continuity a little bit better. So why is his book larger than Doctors who had years?

Simple. This one also has a full-length campaign featuring the 8th Doctor.

This book is also a great place for ideas on how to fix various "continuity" issues. Is the Doctor half-human? Who are his companions Charley, C’rizz, Lucie, Tamsin, and Molly? There is quite a lot here really and it makes me want to have some adventures featuring the 8th Doctor.

All of these books are absolutely fantastic. Not just in terms of episode guides but also additions to the RPG (both editions). Kudos to Cubicle 7 for these.

The Eighth Doctor was portrayed by Paul McGann, with limited appearances - a movie and a bunch of audio dramas, as well as novels and comic strips. As the original TV show ended in 1989, the movie was made in 1996 in an attempt to rekindle interest... although well-received, it's not until 2005 that the TV show returned to our screens. So you can argue that the Eighth Doctor is the longest serving incarnation.

This regeneration of the Doctor is an effortlessly charming fellow, dashing and romantic. Chapter 1: The Eighth Doctor and Companions provides plenty of detail about him and his role... thinking the Time War is over he revels in scampering around space and time and enjoys introducing new people to it, then when he discovers that it's not over and the Master isn't dead after all, he finds himself unsuited to the situation, becoming somewhat cynical. His companion in the movie was Dr Grace Holloway, a cardiologist committed to her profession and with a strong ethical bent, who was understandibly fascinated by the Doctor's two hearts! An interesting sidebar speculates about whether or not she's become immortal. Two others, Chang Lee and Cass, are also included, all four with full character sheets. There are also notes on the TARDIS, which apparently is a better navigator than it has been.

Next, Chapter 2: Designing Eighth Doctor Adventures provides plenty of resources for those interested in rising to the challenge of running adventures in the era of a Doctor who didn't actually have many adventures that we saw in the show - only his first and a little glimpse of his last were seen! Thinking the Time War was done, he threw himself into exploration, so that can provide a good platform for adventure. Parallels can be drawn with the real world of his time, when the Cold War was over and people worried about things like the Y2K bug that was supposed to bring computers to a juddering halt and predictions that the Second Coming was about to take place. Once the Time War restarted the universe began to unravel, and this could be used creatively to unravel some of the Doctor's past adventures, forcing your party to go and 'refix' things. An interesting thought, and there are plenty more in this chapter.

Chapter 3: The Eighth Doctor's Adventures examines the TV movie, with a thorough synopsis, notes on running it as an adventure, further adventures you could run based on it and notes on NPCs and gadgets. The short adventure The Night of the Doctor, which was the Eighth Doctor's final adventure, is covered in like fashion.

To make up for this paucity of material Chapter 4: Doom of the Daleks is a full-blown campaign you can run, no matter what sort of group you have. The Doctor has fallen victim to a Temporal Exterminator, a rather nasty weapon wielded by the Daleks that unravels your complete timeline. The Doctor asks for help - to save him, the party has to travel through his timeline and stop it unravelling before it comes completely apart and the Doctor dies. A prologue (which sets things in motion) and a full twelve adventures are provided. Most draw on the Doctor's previous adventures - this could prove an interesting way of running games for a group of players well-versed in Doctor Who!

The real gem here is the campaign, and that's well worth getting, even if you think there isn't enough material about the Eighth Doctor to justify a sourcebook, or don't regard the movie as being quite as canonical as the regular TV show. Revel in it, but don't let it all unravel!

First of all, I am VERY fond of Doctor Who. I have all the DVDS. from the series. I also am very critical of books about The Doctor. I have all of the source books on the Doctor. This one is excellent even though there is little material to draw from. Keep up the good work! Are you going to do a source book on the War Doctor?