Mop Doctor Who Episode 8: Have a Great Depression!

 Game can be downloaded here: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/233361/doctor-who-solitaire-story-game-second-edition/files

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Finally a big update, decided to finally get my companions some personality traits (it’s an optional rule, I just spent luck points for all of them), so now Lewis is Curiois, Flora is Protective (specifically of Sera), and Sera is a Quick Thinking one, These have mechanical benefits, anyway onto the show!

I guess the Tardis decided to drop us off here, don’t know why, it’s not different enough to be exciting to any of my companions even if it wasn’t also in the middle of the Great Depression. “Look.” I said. “This isn’t going to be a nice place, but I know a nice-ish place to eat… if that’s something.”

I swear I didn’t intend for them to just become the time & space lunch squad, the last 3 have just incidentally also been places to get food and I randomly said they were on the episode 5 planet to have a picnic because I thought it’d be funny.

So we had a meal, talked about what happened, trying to relax… easier said than done. Honestly, it was rather boring, I couldn’t stand it, but what else was there to do here? Most interesting thing that happened was the police accidentally mistook me for a robber they were looking for and left… good to know I look like a robber, at least it’s not like the time I happened to look like a child murderer.

I was walking when suddenly, I stopped. I didn’t know why! I also had a note in my hand that would seem to have just come out of nowhere. It said “I’m in the Park, Doc!”. Nearby, there was a park, I went over there… standing in it was a man in patchwork clothing and a hat. (Art whipped up in Artbreeder).

He exclaimed “Oh hi Doc! Long time no see, how’s it been? Liking your new body, do you like mine? Oh where are my manners, I haven’t even introduced myself to these strangers following you. I’m the Master, me and Doc go waaaaaaaaay back!”

As he spoke, I felt my blood boil. It’s always lovely to see him ofcourse, sometimes we share a certain fondness of eachother, though he tends to also be up to trouble, and by trouble I mean mass murder and/or general evilness.

He continued: “Who are your friends?”

“Uhhh, Lewis, Sera and Flora.”, I replied, pointing to indicate who’s name I was saying.

“Good, now you get to meet some of my friends! For the sake of your memory Doctor, they’re the Silence, they’re not the prettiest creatures I could be working with but they have a good tailor.”

And I can only assume I met them after that to be honest, next thing I know I was running away with my companions, far and away from the silence and the Master… this was going to be tough. First course of action, nanorecorders, I wanted them in mine and my companion’s necks so that we could have a chance of remembering anything.

Back in the Tardis I got to work, making a nanorecorder, sonic screwdriver providing some amount of help, boom, sonic recorder, not the boom part, it didn’t explode. I then injected them into my companions and I. Sera was nervous about it all (so was Lewis but nothing really happened with him), causing Flora to hold onto her hand while the chip was injected. I think I heard them kiss briefly, I was too busy telling Lewis to stay still to make it out (no pun intended), though it does explain why they became so insistent on sharing a bedroom.

I didn’t know this would happen when adding the Flora upgrade thing btw, they only kissed here because of the romantic interlude event, but I sort of wanted them to fall in love anyway, gay rights bb.

We left the Tardis and went onto the street, The Master was still at the park but this time he was reclined on 6 small drones suspending him mid-air, I recognised them as Drudger units (in the book they’re the Toclafane because it’s the John Simm master but guess what I don’t want to fight that guy, so now you get the drudgers). 

I said “Hello… that last meeting wasn’t very memorable, could you tell us what you told us?”

“What?” he said almost tiredly, he seemed drunk. “Oh right, the meeting… shouldn’t have had the Silence with me, my bad! Anyway, I wanna be the president and they’re helping me, subliminal messages n that, you don’t really forget anything major but you don’t consciously remember it so say I blackmail someone to change some law that’s in my way, full view of a silence, then we both leave and I enter again, they’re still subconsciously blackmailed.”

“That’s…”, I paused, not wanting to let anything on, “Brilliant, well done, I’ll get some wine I have in my Tardis to celebrate!”, and we left. On the walk to our next phase of the plan, I realised that I didn’t manage to get a bottle of wine from that party… darn.

He then sobered up a bit and gave chase but uh we ran away good enough, Drudgers aren’t that fast when they’re carrying a person. I started scanning around with my sonic screwdriver for any temporal anomalies the Master had caused, taking me to a man in a construction site who had been bruised up and left there, clearly one of the men he persuaded to do things in his favour…. I’d have to fix that. Torchwood, dodgy lot those people, they had a drug that could erase a memory completely, I may have… snuck off with a couple of the pills, I’ll tell them I had a headache and thought it was paracetamol. Helpful for this guy, if he thought he didn’t remember that encounter, he really didn’t now.

Then, one of the cranes started to move, it’s giant claw moving towards Flora in an attempt to kill her… so yeah it’s really easy to run away from a crane, nice try Master. I walked into the crane and sat next to him (surprised it had 2 seats but I’m not complaining). I said “Why do you want to do this, like really, why, why do you want to be president?”

“Funny… I don’t know… maybe it’s because of the power, that’s it!” he replied, gaining a grin the length of the long side of a playing card.

I replied exhaustedly “You don’t need power love, you can just relax, you have a Tardis, explore, have a picnic, etcetera.”

“I suppose… I’m sorry Doc, I know you like this planet… for some reason… look… look at the Drudgers! They’ve surrounded you Doc, and your friends! Leave me to do the work I so want to do or perish!”

It was true, they had surrounded us, I joined my companions, our backs together, encircled by these things.

I nervously said “Don’t panic, you’ll be sa-“

“FIRE!” the Master screamed as they did… nothing… ok so the thing about Drudgers is the ones he used were consumer level with the military shell over it so it looked like they had guns but… they didn’t. The Master sort of crawled below the dashboard of the crane in shame and I sat next to him again.

“... so how will you get rid of the silence?” I asked.

“Oh I had them do this as a favour to me for one of these.”, he opened a package and took out it’s contents, a metallic disc the size of a frisbee, I felt like I had seen it before but I don’t know where.

“Well, pay them, make sure they leave, and then we both get going.”

“Alright. Nice to see you again Doc.”

And so he did just that, the Silence took off… I think the master took off in his Tardis and I in mine. It was a rather short and odd encounter that day, guess that’s good given how bad a non-odd encounter from him could be.

Yeah uh that was a weird episode. As I mentioned, the game uses the John Simm master but I kind of wished it’d let you have a more unique version of him (or her since there’s the Missy in it also as a different person). Also I appreciate how potentially chaotic the “Romantic Interlude” event is, there are lots of people you can fall in love with (the rule includes just allies, the master in this adventure could become an ally)! The Finale is near, join me in the penultimate episode where we’ll be entering a cool crime planet!