Setting

The idea for TimeLost came from two trains of thought:

  1. Could a Doctor Who campaign be run that followed the style of the TV series but where the characters were all what would be considered in the show to be Companions of the Doctor or another Time Lord, but without the Time Lord?
  2. Given that the TV show is inherently British with so much of the feel of the show dependent on that, could the same or similar sense be invoked if the campaign were centered around Canada instead of the UK?

The answer to both questions was, thankfully, "Yes".

Places of Interest

Centennial High School

Centennial High School closed in 1986 after an incident of some kind. These days no one really remembers the details. Ask around and there will as many explanations as there are people who answer the question. The only thing these stories have in common is that someone, or maybe more than one someone, died. Whatever it was, the authorities moved the students out and never moved them back in.

The school was built in 1967, part of a host of new developments showcasing the best of the country for the Centennial. Centennial High School was to be the most modern education facility in Ottawa, though technically it was in Gloucester not Ottawa proper back then. The school was intended to be large enough to serve what was anticipated to be a large population growth as new developments moved into the area. Except, for one reason or another, the developments never really materialized. Still the school remained and students were bused in from nearby to try and fill its expansive halls and classrooms.

Today, more than thirty years after the school closed, the area around it is a wasteland of industrial parks, long-term storage facilities, and empty warehouses. The school still sits there empty and abandoned, surrounded with chain link fence topped with barbed wire. It should have been demolished years ago but every time the subject is raised there are questions of jurisdiction, about which level of government should foot the bill. The arguments go around in circles until the matter gets pushed to the side and forgotten for a few years.

Mostly people have forgotten about Centennial High School, and those who haven’t tend to ignore it. But there are still stories. Stories about what really happened back in ’86 still persist, repeated in hushed whispers. And there are newer stories, the ones that tend to crop up when no one knows the real story. Some say the site is contaminated by chemicals or radiation and that’s the real reason the site is still abandoned. Some say the place is haunted, that you can sometimes see figures moving in the windows. Others say the figures are just homeless people that have broken through the fence to find shelter, or kids that have snuck into the site on a dare. Sometimes people go missing in the area and the more superstitious blame the school, but when the authorities managed to be convinced to search the old school nothing ever turns up.

With Canada 150 happening this year, Centennial High School is getting a little attention again, mostly renewed speculation and efforts to discover what actually happened in ’86, and maybe get a little traction on doing something with the site. None of it will come to anything, it never does, but a few intrepid souls will undoubtedly make their way out to the old site again and try to sneak in and see if they can be the ones to solve to mystery.

Timeline

65 Million BCE
  • The TARDIS team are sent back to the end of the Cretaceous Era alongside Joseph Burr Tyrell due to one of the Weaver's schemes and encounter the Silurians at the peak of their civilization. (2.06 Living Skies)
    4th Century
    • On their first trip through time the group encounters alien slave traders in the Algonquin territory that will one day become Ottawa. (1.01 Chariot of the Gods?)
      1050
      • The team join a lost Viking settlement in Quebec to fight a monster. (1.03 Wendigo)
        1613
        • The group meet Samuel de Champlain during his exploration of the Ottawa River and encounter Silurian scouts. (1.07 Explorers)
          1634
          • The team encounter Samuel de Champlain a second time at the Habitation of Trois Rivières. (1.12 New France)
            1791
            • The team fight off an invasion by alien slime in a former British Territory. (1.10 The Colony)
              1864
              1868
              • The team investigates a brutal murder in Ottawa at the dawn of Confederation. (2.04 Sparks of Guilt)
                1883
                • The group are sent back from from the year 1980 and have to find help to stop the thing that brought them there and get them back to the TARDIS. (3.06 Ghost Engines)
                  1884
                  • The team meet Joseph Burr Tyrell during his Alberta expedition. (2.06 Living Skies)
                    1899
                    • The group help a mysterious woman thwart a Cyberman incursion during the Yukon Gold Rush. (2.08 Yukon Gold)
                      1929
                      • Team TARDIS encounter an alien presence beneath the streets of Ottawa. (2.07 Ottawa Underground)
                        1936
                        1943
                        • The team try and stop the Cyberqueen from launching an invasion in the heart of wartime Ottawa. (2.13 Gold War)
                          1959
                          • The team battle the Nestene Consciousness and its plastic Auton army in a small Ontario town. (2.10 Storyland)
                            1969
                            • The group meet the agents of FAITH for the first time and face off against the Daleks. (2.12 The Island)
                              1975
                              1977
                              • The travelers help FAITH solve some mysterious disappearances on Vancouver Island. (3.04 Devil May Care)
                                1978
                                • The team arrive in Newfound land and investigate the Bell Island Boom. (3.05 Red Thunder)
                                  1980
                                  • Landing in Montreal, the group encounter a strange phenomenon that sends them back in time to 1883. (3.06 Ghost Engines)
                                    1982
                                    • In Vancouver the team battle against the Great Intelligence. (3.07 Pyramid Scheme)
                                      1984
                                      • The travelers try to stop an alien artifact from taking over a small Nova Scotia town. (3.08 Templar Throne)
                                        1986
                                        • The team help FAITH investigate a derelict spacecraft that is approaching Earth. (3.09 Space Invaders)
                                        • Stuck in Apri 1986 the travelers seek the help of FAITH to fix the malfunctioning TARDIS. (3.10 Tapestry)
                                        • The team are drawn into the events that will lead to them finding the TARDIS in 2017 and must ensure that things play out as they must. (3.14 School's Out Forever)
                                          2007
                                          • The team pursues the Weaver after the renegade Time Lord steals the TARDIS. (3.10 Tapestry)
                                            2017
                                            • The group first meet and find the TARDIS in an abandoned school. (1.00 School's In)
                                              2020
                                              • The team arrive in the year 2020 of an alternate timeline created by the Weaver's manipulations. (3.01 The Road Not Taken)
                                                21st Century
                                                • The group encounters a crippled Judoon spacecraft. (2.05 Judoom!)
                                                  22nd Century
                                                  • The team get pulled into the Sontaran-Rutan conflict while aboard a space station. (2.03 The Space Trap)
                                                    25th Century
                                                    • The TARDIS is trapped in a strange phenomenon with other spacecraft and the crew have to find a way to escape. (2.09 Grip of the Kraken)
                                                      27th Century
                                                      • The team are separated from the TARDIS on board a space cruise liner just as disaster strikes. (1.08 Danger Zone)
                                                        30th Century
                                                        • The group assists the Professor and the Weaver to evacuate the people from Ursa's homeworld before the planet is destroyed. (3.13 The End is Near)
                                                          3175
                                                          • The TARDIS lands on a desert planet where archaeologists are excavating a series of mysterious giant pyramids. (1.11 Pyramid Planet)
                                                            3254
                                                            42nd Century
                                                            • The travelers help a group of alien refugees escape from some Sycorax slavers. (2.11 The Twin Star Bazaar)
                                                              5207
                                                              • The team travel to a point in JD's own past in their hunt for the Weaver and their TARDIS. (3.12 Ice)
                                                                5212
                                                                5867
                                                                • The team visit Ottawa for the Canada Day celebrations 4000 years after Confederation. (1.09 Canada 4000)
                                                                  71st Century