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Since the 2000AD thread was a success i wanted to see if anyone thought dr. who has ha much influence on 40k.

I'm not sure as i haven't seen a lot of the early eps, i think i saw most of the pertwee ones and all the other ones, plus the new series.

Things like planets devastated by endless war like Skaros are sure in 40k but also common in sf. Daleks have always reminded me of space marines but that's likely a coincidence. (Both started out as basically human, were genetically and cybernetically altered to make them superior warriors, conditioned to hate and exterminate all who are not in their group, placed in advanced armor, etc.)

I'd guess britts would know this better than a yank like me would, so i'm asking them.

Yes. One of the original Rogue Trader scenarios was hunting him down after he landed on an Imperial planet...

Necrons are basically Cybermen, aren't they? But that is a pretty straightforward cyborg trope.

I definitely see less of an influence from Dr Who than 2000AD.

beast_gts wrote:
Yes. One of the original Rogue Trader scenarios was hunting him down after he landed on an Imperial planet...

Because if GWs behaviour over the decades I can’t tell if this is serious

 Da Boss wrote:
Necrons are basically Cybermen, aren't they? But that is a pretty straightforward cyborg trope.

Is a monolith bigger on the inside than on the outside..? Probably not related.

As an aside - GW / Citadel actually did official Dr. Who miniatures in the 80s (SOL link) to "to support the FASA Doctor Who game".

mrFickle wrote:

beast_gts wrote:
Yes. One of the original Rogue Trader scenarios was hunting him down after he landed on an Imperial planet...

Because if GWs behaviour over the decades I can’t tell if this is serious

Rogue Trader had D100>D100 tables for scenarios, and there's all sorts of stuff in there...

 Da Boss wrote:
Necrons are basically Cybermen, aren't they? But that is a pretty straightforward cyborg trope.

I definitely see less of an influence from Dr Who than 2000AD.

I'd say that Necrons are the most Doctor Whoish aspect of the 40k universe, at least prior to their 7th edition update.

They combined the Cybermen, being men turned into machines, and especially the Pariahs who are kidnapped humans with their bodies still inside the exoskeletons.

They inherited the Daleks' sole drive to exterminate all other lifeforms in the universe.

And they took from the Time Lords, particularly the Time Lords as depicted before 1976's The Deadly Assassin which kind of neutered them. Before that, Time Lords were all-powerful, known to pop up out of nowhere to interfere in the Doctor's life and disappear just as quickly. They're a myserious ancient race and later on there was background given to them of wars against other ancient races such as the Fendahl and the Great Vampires.

And going in the other direction, when I saw the Time Lord Cybermen in 2020's The Timeless Children, they made me think of Necron Overlords.

I remember the early days of the necrons, in the late 90s, and back then the go-to cultural reference for them wasn't the cybermen*, but the Terminator movies especially the "future war" scene in terminator 2, of squads of almost unkillable metal skeletons stalking the battlefield. Hell, the reanimation rule was actually called the "I'll be back " rule at that time!

As to the Ops question, I'm not sure. Dr who would certainly have been watched by the early designers of the game, but I can't point at any specific element that they lifted from it directly, as opposed to converging onto similar lines by being influenced by earlier works.

*bear in mind this was After it had been cancelled but well before the revival, and thus when dr who was fading into

What do you think Perpetuals are?

 RaptorusRex wrote:
What do you think Perpetuals are?

a manifestation of a classic sci-fi idea, of the immortal person, whos seen it all. One thats been done in quite a few works, before and since dr who, and the perpetuals dont really seem to have the stand-out features of the Time Lords (specifically, their not regenerating and changing body and personality type each time they suffer "fatal" damage)

I'm quite sure Dr Who has been an influence to 40K more or less as its an intrinsinc part of British Pop culture. And yes, GW did the miniatures too - I seem to recall seeing pics with the GW plastic Dalek's battling RTB-01 minis, although no official rules for such a thing existed AFAIK.

And that D100 table entry sounds also like a nod towards the Doctor himself. However, Time and space hopping like portrayed in the serie, as well as Time Lords as a concept, I don't think they exist as such in 40K lore..?

Other than that, I don't really know as tbh I never really started watching Dr Who, so the lore is not known to me. Is wild scifi all right, but its also too "comical" for me in a way that I don't personally find funny. Had Monthy Python written Dr Who, I'd probably find it more to my liking, they do the "silly" humour in a way which resonates with me.

I think Dr. Who's sort of 'everything plus the kitchen sink' type of universe may have had some influence, or it may just be great minds thinking alike. On a slight tangent, while rewatching the reboot series recently I kept a tally in my head on how many episodes could have been resolved in 10 minutes by a Space Marine command squad with extreme prejudice. The answer is most.

xerxeskingofking wrote:
a manifestation of a classic sci-fi idea, of the immortal person, whos seen it all. One thats been done in quite a few works, before and since dr who, and the perpetuals dont really seem to have the stand-out features of the Time Lords (specifically, their not regenerating and changing body and personality type each time they suffer "fatal" damage)

Perpetuals aren't Time Lords, though. They're Captain Jack Harkness.