The Van Statten Code (game)

The Van Statten Code
Main character(s):	UNIT
Main enemy:	Slitheen
Main setting:	UNIT Headquarters, Geneva
Key crew
Publisher:	Panini UK
Writers:	Justin Richards, Gareth Roberts
Artist:	Ben Morris
Release details
Genre:	Science fiction
Printed in:	Doctor Who Annual 2006
Release date:	September 2005
Format:	Puzzle
Doctor Who Annual 2006
← Previous	Mr Nobody
Next →	U.N.I.T. Initiation Test

The Van Statten Code was the third game and eighth release exclusively published in the Doctor Who Annual 2006 in September 2005 by Panini UK and the BBC. The puzzle game featured an original illustration by Ben Morris, while the writing of the annual's puzzles was collectively attributed to Justin Richards and Gareth Roberts.

The game heavily ties back into the continuity of the series, such as with Henry van Statten's alien collection colliding with the plot of Aliens of London and the wider lore of UNIT.

Plot

Named for Henry van Statten, the so-called Van Statten Code was broken using the Slitheen Tablet, an artefact from the Slitheen family's attempt to destroy the Earth and commercialise the result as spacecraft fuel. Now, UNIT receives a message in the same code which must be translated using the Tablet. This yields the eerie translation "Beware the Bad Wolf"...

Characters

• Slitheen family
• UNIT

Worldbuilding

• UNIT Headquarters in Geneva received a message from the Slitheen.
• Henry van Statten is remembered as "a billionaire philanthropist" following his "mysterious disappearance" in 2012.
• The Slitheen Tablet suggests that the Slitheen family intended to make "spacedrive fission material" out of the remains of the Earth once they had blown it up.

Notes

to be added

Continuity

• This story mentions the concept of spacedrive, a word earlier mentioned in TARDIS Teaser, another game in the 2006 Doctor Who Annual.