Game publishers seem to be going on a major nostagia trip these days. They are even digging up Ghostbusters for a new game. I loved the movies but didn't care for the Gameboy Advance Ghostbusters game much. With Doctor Who being one of the longest running sci fi TV series of all time and a huge fan base that rivals other classic TV series like Star Trek and with the revival of the series on the Sci Fi Channel, the time seems to be right for a good Doctor Who game. There were a few games made back in the early 80's that were ok for their time. They are so dated now that they are almost unplayable by modern standards. Then, there are the flash games on BBC's website. Some of them like the dalek game and the K9 game are fun, but they are flash games and are very limited in their graphics and gameplay.

What I'd like to see is a first person adventure/puzzler style game where you play The Doctor and you match wits with all the different villians from the show. With a series that was on the air with new episodes from the early 60's through the early 80's and revived again a few years ago, their are plenty of bad guys, companions and etc. to choose from for including in the game. Of course, you'd have to have the daleks and the cybermen as they are the most popular, but you could also include lesser known villians like Dr. Cheng and the Captian from Pirate Planet.

Really clever game designers and programmers could come up with the ultimate non-linear game by making it so you can get in the TARDIS and go to any planet in the Doctor Who universe you wanted to and at any time period you wanted (they could narrow it down to certain decades or eras to make the game a bit less massive of course). On top of that, things you did, choices you made etc. in one time period would have effects on the future you then went to on the same planet. If you mess things up in one time period, you'd have to go back in time to fix them to prevent things from getting worse in the future. There could be quests and plot points of course, but you'd be free to do what you wanted. Sort of like Oblivion but on a galactic and timeline scale. If you got killed, you'd regenerate just like the Doctor in the show, but the penalty would be that you'd lose whatever abilites you'd leveled up in your previous incarnation and kind of have to start over in the character development department. You'd also seem different to the npcs around you and you'd have to convince them that you are still the Doctor just like in the show.

Gameplay would be a bit like a detective game (since that's kind of what the Doctor Who show is: a sort of precursor to X-Files where you come into a situation and try to figure out whats going on and how to fix some problem. Oh, and yes, get spooked by some weird monster) and focused on character interaction with multiple choices for what to say in conversations. If they were really clever, they'd try perfecting the "type your own response and see what happens" bit that Douglas Adams tried in the game Starship Titanic with mixed success. It would also have puzzle solving but they would be logical puzzles that fit into the setting and story like the ones in games like Halflife not some random rubix cube like thing that some games throw in for no real good reason.

Of course, you'd also have your trusty sonic screwdriver and other gadgets to help you out. They could be stored in the TARDIS and/or you could have to make them by finding the right parts, crystals etc. It'd also be neat to have K-9 along to help you out. The Doctor rarely resorts to violence in the show, so it wouldn't be a shooter. You could however, have companions like K-9 or Harry along to help protect you with weapons when your wits and tricks don't pan out. There could also be consequences for the violence though where killing one guy in one part of the game makes some other characters in another part of the game your enemies instead of them being helpful for example. It could be a strictly single player game or they could figure out how to make it multiplayer maybe with having it so several players can play as Time Lords since there were several of them in the classic series.

With all the games based on movies and TV shows these days, it seems like Doctor Who is an obvious choice.

Ack, if they could do it well it'd rock. But the chances'd be slim. I'd rather they leave it alone and pure.

As long as they put in those creepy statue things (weeping angels?) I'll be happy.

Because Frogware is currently doing Sherlock Holmes games and is currently unavailable to tackle Doctor Who, nobody else can be trusted!

If there were going to do it (which I'd rather they didn't) there is only one formula in my eyes that would work. What they would need to do would be to release it as a series, starting with the First Doctor, using pivotal points and stories throughout each of the Doctors eras.

I'd much rather they wait to the series reaches it's conclusion (i.e. no more regenerations) before tackling something like this.

Then again, Top Trumps are making a Doctor Who version of their TCG-Games, apparently, so that really dents my hopes.

You know, I can actually see this working. It would probably work best as a sort of point and clicker (see: spaceship warlock) and I like the idea of episodic gameplay. Maybe Telltale would be receptive to the idea? i mean with Sam and Max, Bone and now Strongbad under their belts they seem like the kind of people who would be most receptive to this

I don't think BBC thinks it would be a good idea. I'll make a bot for you to send them lots of requests.

Anarchemitis:
I don't think BBC thinks it would be a good idea. I'll make a bot for you to send them lots of requests.

You are an evil person. Spamming a huge businesses mail box how very dare you.

freetogoodhome:
As long as they put in those creepy statue things (weeping angels?) I'll be happy.

Good call. They're like the Boos from the Mario games, but more awesome.

I'm wondering about how well a Doctor Who RTS would work. For the differnt factions you could have Cybermen, Daleks, Sontarans and possibly Time Lords and Humans, if the Time Lords wouldn't be too overpowered and humans too underpowered.

You could perhaps have multiple battlefronts on one map, but at different points in time, with each faction having some form of time travel unit or building to transfer units between times. But that might be overcomplicating it.

I personally imagine it to be a lovechild of Mass Effect and a Double Fine production; strange dialogue with a mixture of races crossed with fast-paced puzzle-solving and dynamic characters.

Well, I wish it would be like that.

There is a Dr Who game coming out
read in agmesmaster or soemthing a while back.
But heres the dissapointing part
its a top trumps game
was really dissapointed when i heard about it i expected so much more from it.

But a decent dr who game would be pretty awesome.

The_root_of_all_evil:

Voodoo Child:

Then again, Top Trumps are making a Doctor Who version of their TCG-Games, apparently, so that really dents my hopes.

Made. The cards are available on Amazon.

No, I meant as in a video game version, like they've done with their other card sets.

What we need is Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Dr. Who, Martha Jones and a few people from Firefly to make a very awesome tag-team adventure game. It's be like the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen! And Martha.

It wouldn't sell. Most gamers like either stealing cars or shooting things. I could only see Dr Who as an adventure game (that aren't selling well at the moment) considering the almost pacifistic nature of the guy (from what I've seen anyway, although admittedly I've not seen much Dr Who).

Anyway, suppose a game did pop up, it'd likely be under-budget and have poor quality graphics (unless it used *cough cough superior* pre-rendered graphics) and wouldn't bring out the magic and nostalgia of the show.

I wouldn't mind one, as it would probably have a story that beats that of the average US plot-driven games, but Dr Who has been 'cult' show and that word doesn't usually go well with 'big wad of cash'.

EDIT: Come to think of it, one on the DS with pre-rendered graphics could work. Considering Professor Layton, CSI and Inserticide are all on there. So what's the BBC's mail address again?

I would never buy it, for fearthat it would suck. Well... maybe if everyone was like "Dr Who game is really good". But still...

I think that in order to work and stay true to the ideas of the series, (i.e. brains over brawn) it would really need to be a point and click adventure game, with maybe the occasional big third-person chase scene. how you would blend those I really don't know.

The Doctors Brilliance is in reversing a situation completely through the use of minor, overlookable details in defeating unstoppable superpowers (crippling a super-soldier with a tennis ball). There's really no way they could transcribe this to a game.

But if you want a good Doctor Who game, BBC has a flash based Dalek game thats quite good.

I dunno about a Doctor Who Game, but some innovation would immerse me.

For example: TARDIS RACING!

Racing people in time tunnels, shooting and crashing into innocent Daleks (heh) and racing the Master in a bid for the Key to Time!

I dunno, sounds like a good idea to me.

The_root_of_all_evil:

The Ten Doctors

Loved it. Can't wait for Page 91!

Who else thinks that he should write an episode.

MindBullets:
You could perhaps have multiple battlefronts on one map, but at different points in time, with each faction having some form of time travel unit or building to transfer units between times. But that might be overcomplicating it.

I think you should forget the Dr. Who aspect of this, and just approach it as an RTS in general, with a time-travel mechanism. The mind, it boggles, at the possibilities.

I work for the BBC, and at the moment there's a massive discussion on its internal forums about why it isn't doing more about games in general. Not that this actually means anything, but it just highlights the fact that the Beeb just doesn't seem to have a plan as far as games go at the moment. But there are those of us who want to see that change.

I believe Eidos is planning and making a game for PS2, DS and PC.

Pity they're wasting time with inferior PS2 specs, though. This game would be awesome if it had PS3 power and a good plot and gameplay.

Nerdfury:
Pity they're wasting time with inferior PS2 specs, though. This game would be awesome if it had PS3 power and a good plot and gameplay.

Man, I know... I wish Team ICO hadn't wasted all that energy on making Shadow of the Colossus late in the PS2's life cycle. If only they'd waited, it would've been so much more awesome on the PS3. Because processing power = good games. And I'm never sarcastic. Or a liar.

I am really dreading the time they bring out a doctor who game. I can see it being like a movie game (except for a tv series) in the way that you can unlock different "costumes" or doctors in this case. Also, what much else can you do, instead of playing the game you might as well just watch the tv series, its better quality, cheaper and alot less effort.