Doctor Who: The Adventure Games was an episodic adventure video game based on the BBC television series Doctor Who and developed by Sumo Digital.
Each episode was made available for free download to residents of the UK via the BBC's official Doctor Who website; a UK internet address was required to both download and install them, though the games subsequently were made available for international sale. The first one was released on 5 June 2010, the second one on 26 June 2010, the third on 27 August 2010, the fourth on 22 December 2010, and the fifth on 31 October 2011. In February 2012, the BBC announced they had shelved the games in favour of worldwide console games such as Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock. At the end of May 2017, the game was made no longer available to purchase on the Steam platform.
Production The games were commissioned by Simon Nelson and Rosie Allimonos of BBC Vision. Phil Ford was selected to write because of his experience in writing for Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures, including writing the Dreamland animated Doctor Who serial.
Phil Ford and James Moran wrote the scripts. The games were created by Sumo Digital with Will Tarratt as lead designer. Composer of the revived series of Doctor Who, Murray Gold, provided music for The Adventure Games. Executive producers of the 2010 series of the show Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger, and Beth Willis, along with BBC Wales Interactive's Anwen Aspden and video game designer Charles Cecil, all served as executive producers of the interactive episodes.BBC announces four free Dr Who adventure games for PC – preview in our new issueDoctor Who: The Adventure Games Producer and voice director was Gary Russell who had previously directed the animated serials The Infinite Quest and Dreamland.
As of January 2012, The Adventure Games have been shelved, with the BBC instead focusing on projects such as The Eternity Clock.
On 17 May 2014, the series with its five games was released on Steam, published by Legacy Games.
In October 2015, the games became unavailable from the BBC website.
At the end of May 2017, the series was removed from Steam, due to an expiration of Legacy Games' licence with the BBC.
Episodes
All 5 adventure games are released in a 5 Pack PC DVD set and sold on Amazon.
Series 1 No Episode Writer Release date(s) Link 1 "City of the Daleks" Phil Ford 5 June 2010 (Outside UK) / 15 June 2010 (UK) linkIn an alternate 1963, the Daleks have control of time and the TARDIS arrives in the ruins of London. Before time runs out for Amy Pond, a trip must be made to the planet of Skaro. 2 "Blood of the Cybermen" Phil Ford 26 June 2010 (Outside UK) / 1 July 2010 (UK) linkIn the Arctic a survey team are turning into metal. An army of Cybermen have been under the ice for thousands of years. 3 "TARDIS" James Moran 27 August 2010 link Amid an accident in the TARDIS Amy's attempts to rescue the Doctor unwittingly unleash the creature known only as the Entity. 4 "Shadows of the Vashta Nerada" Phil Ford 22 December 2010 link A temporal rift means that the Doctor and Amy have to deal with an alien shark, alien radiation and worst of all, the Vashta Nerada on Poseidon 8, an underwater base on Christmas Eve in the 23rd Century.
Series 2 No Episode Writer Release date(s) Link 5 "The Gunpowder Plot" Phil Ford 31 October 2011 linkThe Doctor, Amy and Rory travel from the end of the Liao dynasty, forward to Jacobian London in 1605. There they unearth a conflict between two opposing alien races, the Sontarans and the Rutans, and meet Guy Fawkes during the time of the Gunpowder Plot.
Cast and characters
Playable characters Rotoscope technique was used to capture the actors' movements.
Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor (series 1–2) Karen Gillan as Amy Pond (series 1–2) Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams (series 2 only)
Others
Series 1 Nicholas Briggs as Dalek Voices ("City of the Daleks") / Cyber Voices ("Blood of the Cybermen") / Oswald Fox ("Shadows of the Vashta Nerada"). He has voiced the Daleks and Cybermen since the revival of Doctor Who in 2005. He has also voiced the Judoon and appeared as Rick Yates in "Day Four" of Torchwood: Children of Earth. Sara Carver as Sylvia ("City of the Daleks"). She previously starred as Khellian Queen in the Fifth Doctor audio adventure "Three's a Crowd" and as Kim Kronotska in the Eighth Doctor audio adventure "Memory Lane". She has also voiced other characters in numerous Doctor Who-related audio dramas produced by Big Finish. Sarah Douglas as Professor Meadows ("Blood of the Cybermen") / Entity ("TARDIS") / Jones ("Shadows of the Vashta Nerada"). She had previously played Gillen in the Doctor Who Unbound audio drama "Masters of War", Mary in the Iris Wildthyme audio drama "The Claws of Santa", and later appeared in the fourth series of Gallifrey. Barnaby Edwards as Chisholm ("Blood of the Cybermen") / Martin Flanagan ("Shadows of the Vashta Nerada"). He has directed, written, and provided voices for various Big Finish Doctor Who audios, and is also a principal Dalek operator in the television series. Eleanor Matsuura as Dana Tanaka ("Shadows of the Vashta Nerada"). She previously played Jo Nakashima in "The Sontaran Stratagem".
"The Gunpowder Plot" Emilia Fox as Lady Winters. She previously played Berenice in the Eighth Doctor audio drama "Nevermore". Ralf Little as Guy Fawkes Phil Daniels as Geoffrey Plum Alexander Vlahos as Robert Catesby Dan Starkey as Field Major Kaarsh / Sontarans Miles Richardson as Black Rod David Ames as Thomas Percy Lizzie Hopley as Alice Flowers. She previously appeared in the Seventh Doctor audio drama "Night Thoughts" as Sue, the Eighth Doctor audio drama "Terror Firma" as Gemma Griffin, and in I, Davros as Yarvell. Jamie Oram as Charlie Chris Johnson as Barnaby. He previously appeared in the fourth series of Gallifrey and in Bernice Summerfield: Epoch as Darion. Amelda Brown as Margaret Barnaby Edwards as The Silence
Plots
City of the Daleks
The Doctor and Amy arrive in Trafalgar Square, London in 1963 to find the city in ruins and under the control of the Daleks. Following a woman, Sylvia, into the London Underground they learn that she is the only human survivor after the Daleks invaded – appearing through a 'split' in the sky. Amy, Sylvia, and the Doctor are pursued by the Daleks. Sylvia is killed but the Doctor and Amy escape. The Doctor deduces that the Daleks have gained the power to alter history and, returning to the TARDIS with Amy, traces the source of the invasion to Skaro, the Daleks' home planet.
The TARDIS lands in Kaalann, the Dalek capital city, which has been rebuilt since the Doctor last saw it. Amy begins to fade, since the destruction of humanity in 1963 means that she was never born. The Doctor uses several Dalek components to create a "Chronon Blocker", which slows the process. The Doctor and Amy observe the Dalek Council Chamber. They see the Dalek Emperor, as well as a device which the Doctor believes to be the technology that allows the Daleks to manipulate history. The Doctor and Amy are captured by Daleks and taken before the Emperor. The Emperor explains that the Daleks will become the new Time Lords with control over the Time Vortex, through the use of the "Eye of Time", a powerful tool previously kept on Gallifrey. The Doctor escapes with Amy by leaping into the Eye which transports them back in time to an earlier ruined Kaalann which is infested with Varga plants just prior to the arrival of the Daleks with the Eye.
The Doctor sends Amy to find components that he can use to create a device that will blind the Daleks. Despite beginning to fade once more, Amy finds the parts and the Doctor constructs the device. In the Council Chamber, the Daleks, led by the white Supreme Dalek, are preparing to use the Eye to launch an attack on Earth in 1963. Amy, still fading, activates the blinding device affecting the Daleks. This allows the Doctor to free the Eye from its restraints and to flee the room with Amy. The Eye crashes down and explodes and the Doctor and Amy find themselves back at the TARDIS, but with Kaalann still in ruins. Amy is no longer fading out of existence. Using the TARDIS scanner, they see that the original 1963 timeline has been restored and that Sylvia is alive.
Blood of the Cybermen
A number of flashbacks show an excavation of an arctic base. A worker at the base called Chisholm flees from the base on a Snowmobile where he finds a Cyberman arm. Chisholm falls off a cliff and gets badly hurt. The Doctor receives an SOS call to which he responds, landing where Chisholm fell. The Doctor and Amy rescue Chisholm and use the TARDIS to go back to Chisholm's base.
Upon arrival Chisholm is attacked by a Cybermat, causing him to flee and hide. The Doctor goes to the base entrance where he encounters a Cyberslave. After Amy kills the Cyberslave they enter the base. The head of the operation, Professor Meadows (voiced by Sarah Douglas), tells them that all of her crew have been turned into Cyberslaves. The Doctor starts on a serum to reverse the effects of the Cyberman conversion. To reach the communications room they have to get past Cybermats and then a Cyberslave which tries to kill Amy. The Doctor and Amy hear over the radio that a team is coming to the base, however they cannot be warned until the radio is repaired. The Doctor develops a cure which they give to the part-changed Chisholm. Chisholm shows them a lift which they use to go underground.
Trying to get to the control room the Doctor and Amy have to get around Cyberslaves. However, Amy is kidnapped by two Cyberslaves. The Doctor reaches the control room where he finds Professor Meadows is now a Cyberslave. She forces the Doctor to revive the Cybermen from stasis to save Amy. The Doctor saves Amy but he needs to stop the Cybermen. The intervention of Chisholm allows him to do this and they escape from underground before an explosion destroys everything. The Doctor and Amy leave Chisholm behind so he can answer any questions that UNIT might have. After that the Cybermen are seen frozen on ice.
TARDIS
The Doctor and Amy are inside the TARDIS, discussing where they should go next for a more peaceful outing, and the Doctor mentions that his holidays in Brighton and Paris did not turn out well (alluding to The Leisure Hive and City of Death respectively). However, the TARDIS suddenly enters a 'space riptide', and the Doctor is launched through the doors and out into space.
After the TARDIS steadies itself, Amy looks outside and sees the Doctor hovering, still conscious and surrounded by a number of strange blue worms, a short distance away. Through sign language, he manages to tell Amy that he is slowly suffocating, and she can save him by operating the TARDIS. Amy follows his directions and recovers the Doctor by using a makeshift tractor beam to draw him back into the TARDIS. The blue worms, known as 'Chronomites', are somewhat harmless parasites, although they can make you 'very itchy'.
Just as they begin to celebrate their victory, the TARDIS enters another riptide, and Amy disappears. Amy is now in the Doctor's future with a strange glowing sphere that she had accidentally released from its prison in the TARDIS. The Doctor brings himself and Amy back into the same time and deals with the creature, the "Entity", by releasing it into the vortex so that it can feed on the Chronomites while the Chronomites feed on it, the two keeping each other contained.
The Doctor plans to take Amy to 23rd century London just after a 'Great Flood', but finds that the underwater city is being prowled by a gigantic shark-like creature.
Shadows of the Vashta Nerada