I can't think of any.  Stunningly difficult to pull off in any visually significant way, I would think.

We have had satellites, both man-made and natural. They've been to the moon a few times.

But yeah, visually - this is a show that has used quarries more than any other show. Ever. Even the ones set in quarries...

Not that I'm really knocking them for poor budget. Until Star Wars, they were considered to have some of the better special effects for their time. I think more is actually said about poor budget, or wonky sets, than is the reality.

Mind, I think Moffat has done OK in terms of interesting space settings.

In terms of setting alone, The Beast Below is endearingly bonkers in concept, The Rings of Akhaten is a poster child for "setting much cooler than your ability to realize it", and World Enough and Time is a neat design even before you get to the two aspects of the scenario that aren't immediately obvious -- it was a nice touch to have the levels oriented along the ship's axis of thrust, for instance.

There's been a few in the novels, like the Vartaq Veil, a dyson sphere that cracked like an egg. It's been mentioned a few times, but only appears off-page and in a dream sequence.
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Vartaq_Veil
Then there's the very important Worldsphere of the People, a setting for one novel, and the People are important through the rest of the NAs.
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Worldsphere

Generally, dyson spheres are literally too big to see. Star Trek: The Next Generation tried it once, and it was just another space blob. Hence they take off more in novels.

It's do-able though. A CGI or model of the dyson sphere from far off, a CGI CSO environment to make the horizon perfectly flat, and more CGI to connect between the two. All outside shooting would have to be done at midday, as shadows can only go straight down. You'd blow the budget on it though. :)

I envision Smoke Alarm hurriedly stuffing her backpack full of finger food on the way out the door.

Waste not, want not is the way of the Kang.

By the by -- I apologize if I am blowing past Kalath in all this.  We're very much in an expository lull and a lot of this, to the character, feels like more crazy culture shock.  Stop me if I'm skipping ahead before you have a chance to make posts that you want to make.

I think she's doing good not trying to wander off to find something more interesting to do!

Well, don't be afraid of going off on a tangent.  I'm blanking a bit on how to engage Kalath right now, at least until things get more action-y at which point it becomes obvious.  But as we've discussed before, "don't split the party" is no big deal in PbP, and wandering off into trouble is practically a Who companion's job description. :D

Do what I do, just stand back and make weird comments about everything. :)

Re: Dyson spheres

It is a pretty common sf trope, so I was a bit puzzled that it hasn't really shown up in the show.
Clever use of CGI, some smoke and mirrors can go a long way, but I think that to justify the cost the adventure should really be about the structure. Not just take place there.

It hasn't shown up because in the classic series the budget wouldn't have been there; and the new series, mostly, doesn't really do SF tropes - outside of ones that have become embedded in Who-folklore.

Well there we go.

The system, as well as PbP in general, is a lot more forgiving of split party-adventures than something more traditional like DnD.

Though if we really want to play up Insatiable Curiosity, we should just go poke the thing. :D

Was sorely tempted to do so when it first turned up.

If this turns into "Fear Her", we should go. :)

Much the same thing happens to most new Companions, especially Smoke when she first arrived.

One thing has just occurred to me -

Because of the post Time War nature of ATTT, one thing we will probably never face is a Dalek Invasion. I understand why, and I am cool with it, but I would love to RP through a Traveller and companions vs the Daleks storyline some day.

Personally, I hate the Daleks. Out of all the aliens they've brought back, I would have been ecstatic if they never returned. It's made worse by the fact that RTD turned them into these all-powerful SOBs that could take on the Timelords, destroy TARDISes and so forth.

If that's the way the game goes, fine, but I personally have absolutely no interest in playing out a story against Daleks.

Don't sweat it.  We did the stories starting with the Mailman and going through to the Silurians, and that's all the Daleks I really want to do.

Although I would disagree on them in the show.  They're overused, but I think the big mistake with them was making so powerful and threatening, and then diluting that threat over and over again.  If they had stuck with the idea that if a Dalek shows up, it could take down your whole civilization, I'd have been much happier.

My vote for Worst Return is the Time Lords, to be honest.  Stories about them are terrible, and Moffat created this bizarre thread of the Doctor pining to get them back when they're basically awful people from top to bottom.

As you all may have detected, I think the coolest question coming out of RTD's initial setup is, what fills the vacuum when Gallifrey and the Daleks are both gone.  But that wasn't the way things worked out on TV.

... I'm of two minds. I think the timelords, as this vague threat that's in the background, as pretty much every mention prior to the Three Doctors, they're cool. They did get pretty overused though; but, like the Daleks, they were always going to be brought back at some point.

What I will definitely not disagree on though is Moffatt's way of bringing them back is crap. To be fair though, the Doctor pining to get them back was set up way back under RTD. Something along the lines of 'why do they keep coming back, and I've lost everything?' Don't remember the exact quote, but the Tennant-Doctor was definitely hinting that he wished they were still alive. Which is why I hate 'Last of the Timelords'. This statement that he actually killed them because they were getting to be as bad as the Daleks, doesn't mesh well with every reference to them we'd had up until that point.

We could go retro, like with the original-style Cybermen recently. Bring back the Daleks, but not Time War era, instead classic-series historical Daleks, not so overpowered or universe-threatening. They still need to be fought, with the question of how far Traveller can go without altering history.

If Trav is happy with that, I'd be a lot happier with that as well - it does allow Trav to have her one big 'anti-dalek' mission, and does avoid debates of whether the daleks have been done well in the new series.

I -would- prefer no daleks at all; but I feel like a jerk for sticking to that when another player really wants to go against them. I mean, the only one of my favourite aliens we haven't dealt with now are Ice Warriors.

The whole return to Gallifrey thing left me so pissed. It was Moffat pissing on the entire Time War. I know some fans who are super happy because "the good guys are back" but then I play the clip of Colin Baker ranting during Time of a Time Lord. But you guys know how I feel about the bullshit that was 50th, aka, LALALA RETCON

Gallifreyan survivors are fine - I'd be delighted if there were one or two other Time Lords out there (they don't even need to be the Doctor!) but the Time Lords need to stay dead, killed by the Traveller and the Doctor in Garyverse.

And yes, a Dalek Invasion would be inappropriate. The Mailman and Last Dalek stories were really excellent. I just want that poster of BlueTrav, Stan, Smoke and Kalath with Dalek Saucers and travel machines behind them struggling to fend off an invasion is all. Also, I *like* Daleks. I think classic Daleks would be a hella threat to us. As long as they were used sparingly, I think a once-every-other-season Dalek story equivalent would be great, with survivors attempting to resurrect the Dalek Empire, no where near as possible as RTD Daleks.

I'd *love* to face 1st or 2nd Doctor era Cybermen. In my headfanon, they were Trav's first real foes she proved greatness against.


This message was last edited by the player at 04:05, Sat 08 July 2017.

They're not good guys. But I'd prefer they existed than didn't.

But then, I'm of the opinion that various statements by RTD was him having no regard for what came before; so the time war isn't this big deal for me.

Bumping to a new chatter thread, this one is about cooked now.