Obviously I've only got your quote of the text to go on, but it reads to me more like "find some excuse in the fiction to let it happen rather than treating it as magic" than "only let them do it if there's already something established in the fiction to support it".
Right. And I'm saying there's no text that explicitly says that. You could 100% be right. It absolutely could be the right way to go. It absolutely could be what the writers meant. The hangup is that's not what the text actually says.
So here's the big sections of text that cover this.
Quips are defined as "special abilities that represent the power of knowledge and the strength of words in Doctors and Daleks."
Some other relevant sections of text on Quips are:
Quips are at the core of combat in Doctors and Daleks and are sort of like spells in the 5th-edition rules. Quips represent your character's special abilities and the strength of words, allowing you to do incredible things and hopefully dissuade your enemies from hurting anyone.
Are these Spells? If you’re familiar with the 5th-edition rules, you may recognise that Quips are very similar to spells. Quips are used to represent the power of conversation in Doctor Who and the Doctor’s persistent attempts to stop conflict with words alone (and sometimes a few sparks of technical ingenuity). Words are powerful in Doctors and Daleks, and Quips are the ultimate example of that. Below is some guidance for describing the effects of your Quips.
When a Charmer uses the Heart-wrenching Argument Quip, they are actually making an argument (that you don’t have to roleplay if you don’t want to), and that is dealing emotional damage to the target. The argument has affected the target so profoundly that they hesitate before taking action, meaning they can only take an action or a bonus action on their turn.
When an Empath uses the Beacon of Hope, they’re not bathing the battlefield in holy light, they’re just using their comforting presence to aid their allies. When a Thinker uses the Grease Quip, they’re not summoning the material from the aether, they’re quickly finding something slick and slimy nearby and throwing it at the target.
Many spells from the 5th-edition basic rules are suitable for use in Doctors and Daleks. Guidance on which spells work well can be found on page 124. Whenever an SRD spell is mentioned it will appear in italics, like this: charm person.
Spells as Quips: The following table presents a list of spells from the 5th-edition rules that can be used as Quips by the Charmer, Empath, and Thinker in Doctors and Daleks. When using these Quips, keep in mind that these are not spells, and are a representation of characters using the power of their words, experiences, or ingenuity to accomplish otherwise improbable things.
Contrast that with the 10-pages of discussion about the meta-currency of Story Points in the Doctor Who RPG where they go into detail about using SP to alter rolls, avoid damage, not die, dramatically alter the narrative, etc...along with earning and losing SP.
Quite simply, "Story Points are used to change events in a player’s favour." Meta-currency, pure and simple. No "mask" of in-character abilities covering for explicitly player meta-shenanigans.
Here are two illustrative examples of what you can spend Story Points on. Note the numbers are how many SP you spend to achieve the described effect:
5–6 | Medium: This is a pretty hefty amount, but this could be a lifesaving plot twist — a squad of UNIT soldiers turn up to investigate the strange happenings, just as you are finding yourselves outgunned.
11+ | Climactic: There are few events so massively important that they would need this many Story Points, and it’s rare that a character has so many points to spare. This is up there with trapping villains for eternity in the heart of a star or rebooting the universe, and your character would have to do something serious to earn that many points, like removing your memories to go undercover, or getting trapped in a time-loop until you can figure out the solution to the mystery.
Editorial: As someone who's played the Doctor Who RPG...it's not that hard to get 11+ Story Points.
In the Doctors & Daleks RPG the writers repeatedly say that Quips represent in-character abilities, to keep Quips grounded, and that Quips are not magic, while in Doctor Who RPG the writers flat out tell you the players can simply decide that a squad of UNIT soldiers just happens to come bursting through the door...for 5 Story Points, or can trap a villain for eternity in the heart of a star or reboot the universe...for 11 Story Points.
So, while yes, it's certainly possible the writers meant Quips as both in-character abilities and meta-currency for the player to use to take control of the narrative...they have gone out of their way to describe Quips only in terms of in-character abilities and never as meta-currency that allows the player to alter the narrative.
Obviously I've only got your quote of the text to go on, but it reads to me more like "find some excuse in the fiction to let it happen rather than treating it as magic" than "only let them do it if there's already something established in the fiction to support it".
Not how I read it. "I pick up a bottle of oil from the table and throw it" does not require it to be already established in the fiction that there is a bottle of oil on the table. Generally speaking, there is a lot of stuff in an RPG that is not explicitly established, from the contents of the table to the design of the wallpaper.
