Doctor Who: The CCG

Doctor Who: The CCG is the pre-revival era card game, released during the long BBC wilderness years between the 1989 cancellation and the 2005 Christopher Eccleston reboot, when Doctor Who was primarily a novel and audio-drama property rather than a weekly show.

The game

Released in 1996 by MMG Limited and designed by Paul Thornton-Wood, Doctor Who: The CCG is a two-player time-travel duel where each player runs either the Doctor (any incarnation) with his companions or a Villain (Daleks, Cybermen, Master, Sontarans). Cards have TARDIS-style timeline interactions where placing a card in the past can rewrite a card already played in the present.

The context

The classic-era Doctor Who fan base of the mid-90s was famously dedicated and small, and this CCG was produced for that audience rather than a mass market. Art was sourced partly from BBC stills and partly from commissioned illustration by classic-era Doctor Who Magazine artists. The publisher was UK-based and distribution was heaviest in the British Isles with limited US presence.

The collector angle

The base set plus the Daleks vs Cybermen expansion and the Time Lords promo pack complete the printed output. MMG's small print runs mean that common cards from the base set can be harder to source today than rares from larger CCGs. The UK Pre-release Promo pack, distributed at a 1996 Whovian convention at Longleat, contains some of the rarest items in all Doctor Who merchandise, not just CCG merchandise. The Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) cards were released alongside the 1996 TV movie and sometimes command a premium from Eighth Doctor collectors.