Rock, Paper, Shotgun

By Kieron Gillen on August 20th, 2010 at 10:30 am.

Crikey. How novel. News not from Gamescom. The third of the four Doctor Who Adventure games had the first detailed leaked. It’s called Tardis and – clearly not wanting to lead people astray with its title – features the Tardis prominently, allowing you to totally fly the now-anachronistic police-call-box through the time-stream. It also will allow you to step into the Doctor’s Drawing room, which the developers talked about extensively when I covered the game on release, and basically promises to be a Batman-style collection of objects, but done in the Sherlock Holmes style. Basically. Full press release below, because it’s all that’s been released so far and including it with the story really annoys someone who’s quite fun to bait.

Fly the TARDIS in episode three of The Doctor Who: The Adventure Games

TARDIS brings the Doctor’s time machine to life like never before

Friday August 20th 2010: The BBC has today unveiled official details of the third episode from its pioneering series of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games.

Executive produced by Steven Moffat, and written by James Moran (Torchwood, Doctor Who), this third installment of the four-part series is called TARDIS – and will, for the first time, offer fans the opportunity to fly the blue box which is bigger on the inside.

“TARDIS is a brilliant, brilliant adventure” says Steven Moffat. “It’s funny, touching, terrifying, amazing – everything a Doctor Who episode should be. Since 1963, kids have wondered what it would be like to control the TARDIS. Now we’re handing complete control of the most powerful ship in all of space and time to a generation of children. Everybody duck!”

Ever wondered where those steps within the TARDIS go? Doctor Who fans will soon find out, as the game allows players to explore the Doctor’s wondrous drawing room, featuring treasures and artifacts from his many adventures – a location specially created for the game, which will go on to form part of the Doctor Who canon.

The first two episodes of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games have been downloaded over 1.3 million times in the UK – and with episode three offering the opportunity to explore and pilot the world’s most famous police box, it’s sure to prove an equally massive draw.

With the TARDIS stuck in a riptide, and the Doctor sucked into space, Amy Pond must explore the secrets of the time machine in order to restore normality. The adventure will uncover the secrets of the TARDIS, unveil two brand new monsters – and allow players to pilot the TARDIS themselves.

James Moran’s madcap script takes players on a frantic, funny and altogether surprising adventure which could only be told by a Doctor Who story. With full virtual likenesses of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, and music from Murray Gold, this adventure is as much a part of the Doctor Who legend as the TV series.

Doctor Who: The Adventure Games have been produced by a team drawing on the very best talent from TV and gaming. The interactive episodes are executive produced by Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger, Beth Willis and with Anwen Aspden (BBC Wales Interactive), alongside Charles Cecil, one of videogaming’s most revered creators. The games are being developed by Sumo Digital, one of the UK’s best game designers. Stories and scripts are from Phil Ford (co-writer Doctor Who ‘Waters of Mars’) and James Moran (Doctor Who, Torchwood Children of Earth). The project has been commissioned for BBC Online by the Vision Multiplatform team, headed up by Simon Nelson and is being driven by BBC Wales Interactive.

That is certainly a press-release.