And Now We Wait

Saturday wrapped up the first half of the new season of Doctor Who, the critically-acclaimed cult sci-fi show whose popularity only seems to be snow-balling as of late. As a tribute to all things TARDIS (and in an effort to make the wait until Christmas somewhat shorter, even by a few minutes) I present my favorite five Doctor Who references in RPGs (in no particular order).

"We can't stop here, this is Deathclaw country!"

Fallout

Fallout is a post-apocalyptic RPG set in the future where everything has a 50's retro Americana aesthetic. Players who take a high luck stat in the beginning of the game have a chance to come across a random encounter of "an unusual callbox" which plays the iconic VWORP VWORP noise of the TARDIS as it dematerializes. When it disappears it leaves behind a motion sensor. Hope that wasn't too integral of a part for you, Sexy.

May not work on wood.

World of Warcraft

Wrath of the Lich King, the 2008 expansion to the world's largest time sink saw a quest that featured players obtaining "The Ultrasonic Screwdriver," a not-so-subtle nod to the Doctor's multipurpose day-saving device, the sonic screwdriver. The latest World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria, came out last Tuesday and saw the inclusion of a race of panda people (Jack Black must be spinning in his grave). How times change.

$169?! I'll just hop back in time and pick one up for a nickel.

Rock Band

 Pseudo musicians everywhere rejoiced when developer Harmonix included a purchasable outfit in Rock Band that allowed the players' avatars to be clad in the style of the fan-favorite fourth Doctor, Tom Baker. Okay, so maybe people didn't exactly rejoice. In fact, this reference was probably over most of Rock Band's younger fanbases' collective heads. Still, others such as myself thought it was cool. Cool cool cool. Whoops, wrong show.

Torchlight II

Torchlight 2 is chalk full of Doctor Who references, seemingly one for each doctor, but the Pocketwatch of the Tennant is my favorite. David Tennant played the tenth Doctor on the show from 2006-2010. He grew up watching Doctor Who and always wanted to play the character, finally getting his chance when the show was revived by the BBC in 2005. The pocketwatch is a fitting item to represent Ten, as it plays into a couple of storylines during his reign as the Doctor. Now I'm off to watch "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" again and weep girly man tears. Allons-y!

Fallout, again.

This time the latest entry in the franchise, Fallout: New Vegas. The first two Fallout games featured a number of pop culture references, but in New Vegas all such references are tucked away in an optional mode that is activated by taking the Wild Wasteland trait. Securitrons (robot guards) around the strip will yell Exterminate! the catchphrase made famous by everybody's favorite pepperpot look-a-likes, the Daleks. Another reference features a direct quote from the show, "Hey! Who turned out the lights?" from the episode "Silence in the Library" that first introduced us to the character of River Song and the menacing Vashta Nerada. Here is the Fallout reference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z205KRDEwjs&feature=related