City of the Daleks (video game)

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City of the Daleks is the first of The Adventure Games, a series of five games where the player can play as the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond. According to Executive Producer Piers Wenger, the story can be considered an additional episode of series 5.

At the time of its release, it was marketed as "the first episode of series 1" of The Adventure Games. However, a full series 2 never materialised due to early cancellation, and the official website, as of December 2013, no longer markets the games with a series number.

Synopsis

The Doctor's TARDIS materialises in 1963 — and London is in ruins. The Daleks have seized control of time and the only chance of saving Earth lies in a desperate quest to Kaalann, the capital city of Skaro, the Daleks' home planet — before time catches up with Amy, the last survivor of the human race!

Plot

Act one

In the TARDIS, The Doctor and Amy discuss their plans to visit 1963 London and specifically to meet The Beatles. Amy wants to meet John Lennon instead of Ringo Starr, because she says "There's no such thing as a sexy drummer". The Doctor begins to describe London 1963 as "the coolest place in the the galaxy": the Kinks, Sean Connery as James Bond, The Beatles' first two albums, Mary Quant... Landing near Nelson's Column, they find a devastated city. Someone or something has changed time.

The pair see a woman, Sylvia, running from a Dalek, who proclaims her to be the last surviving human being. She detonates some dynamite, temporarily incapacitating the Dalek, and before fleeing into the Underground below through a manhole. The Doctor and Amy decide to follow her and sneak past the remaining Dalek drones to push a wrecked taxi into a barricade barring an Underground entrance.

Now in Charing Cross Station, the Doctor and Amy find Sylvia, who reveals that the Daleks invaded the planet by opening a "rift in the sky" which unleashed thousands of Daleks, who flew down and exterminated the planet below. The army was annihilated and, soon after, resistance groups were also killed, until only she remains.

The Doctor explains that the Daleks have never had the power to alter time so dramatically, but before he can continue she says that to survive they will have to keep moving, as Daleks will soon be on the way. Sure enough, a Dalek appears and they sneak down a tunnel in the Underground after rewiring its fuse box so the tracks are not dangerous anymore. Before they can escape and leave a trap for the Dalek, it catches up with them and exterminates Sylvia. The Doctor and Amy escape, and the Dalek sets off the trap, presumably destroying itself.

Act two

The Doctor and Amy return to the TARDIS. The Doctor traces the point of interference to the Dalek capital city, Kaalann on the Dalek homeworld of Skaro. Last time he saw it, it was in ruins and the Daleks had fled, but they seem to have rebuilt their city.

After materialising in Kaalann, Amy begins to fade out of existence. The Doctor says now the human race has been exterminated, she is a living paradox, and the TARDIS can only protect her for so long. The Doctor goes into the Dalek facility to find the components of a chronon blocker to stabilize Amy's condition. After sneaking past Daleks to get a Dalekanium coil and a Kontron crystal, the Doctor returns to Amy and constructs the chronon blocker, which stops Amy from fading. The Doctor says that to find out how the Daleks have gained so much power, they will need to find the Supreme Council Chamber - but first they'll have to check who's there from the Visualiser room guarded externally by a Scientist Dalek and internally by the "Librarian Dalek" monitoring the visualisers. After entering the visualiser room and using the three security consoles to deactivate the Visualiser Eye, the Doctor and Amy see that the Dalek Emperor is in the Supreme Council Chamber with a device, which the Doctor says is probably the cause of the time interference. Looking at the Emperor, Amy comments on his size; the Doctor points out that sitting on the throne all the time, he's "bound to put on a few pounds". He also notices some unusual temporal coordinates.

After taking the lift to the top of the facility, they are captured by drones and taken to the Emperor. When the Doctor warns the Emperor that his change to the timeline will result in huge damage to the continuum, the Emperor shows him the Eye of Time, once controlled by the Time Lords, but now in the hands of the Daleks. The Emperor boasts that with the Eye of Time, the Daleks will be the new Time Lords. After explaining what the Eye is to Amy, the Doctor damages the Emperor's casing to cause a distraction and they flee through the Eye.

Act three

The Doctor and Amy appear in the ruined Supreme Council Chamber. They have traveled back in time to a point in which the city is shattered by the Last Great Time War and not yet rebuilt. The Doctor says that this is where the temporal coordinates he saw earlier led to. They set a trap for the Daleks who have been sent by the Emperor to pursue them and then go to the visualiser room.

In the visualiser room, the Doctor removes the device in the visualiser eye that is connected to all Dalek vision. He sends Amy to find a Dalek gun and a Dalek eyestalk in the old facility so that he can use the pieces to construct a device which will limit Dalek vision. Amy is beginning to fade in and out of existence again, but this temporary invisibility proves to be an advantage. She evades patrols and Varga plants to get the pieces and returns to the Doctor, who assembles the device. He says if they can connect it to the old Emperor's pedestal, they can boost the range and blind all the attacking Daleks.

In the Supreme Council Chamber, the Daleks are preparing the Eye of Time for their impending attack on London and Earth. Amy runs ahead with the device because of her fading in and out of existence, and puts the device in place. The Daleks are blinded and begin firing chaotically around the room. Avoiding the blasts, the Doctor disables the generator to free the Eye, gets to Amy and jumps into the Eye before it disappears.

They appear back in the ruined facility next to the TARDIS, now empty because the timeline has been set back in place - as the Doctor says it should be. Amy is now out of danger of being deleted from time. To prove that everything is really back to normal, he uses a scanner to show Sylvia in 1963 London, alive and well. The Doctor confirms that they're still going to meet Ringo; Amy rolls her eyes at that.

Cast

Crew

  • With thanks to the BBC National Orchestra Wales

References

An older fashion Dalek.

Story notes

Background

Originally announced for initial release on 5 June 2010, it became available for release on 2 June from the BBC's official Doctor Who website. A Macintosh version of the game was also released on 15 June. It was later revealed that the early release of the game was part of a system test as they geared up for the official release date. A trailer for the game was shown straight after Vincent and the Doctor on Saturday to mark its official launch.[1]. Both download options are free for UK residents. The first two episodes are available elsewhere as a pack from Direct2Drive for five US dollars.[2] However, Direct2Drive has chosen not to release the Mac OS version internationally.[3]

  • This video game was incorrectly entitled Might of the Daleks.
  • This episode's tagline was "Fight the Daleks".
  • Phil Ford has stated that 1963 was chosen as a setting because that was when Doctor Who started broadcasting. In a televised interview on the Playr gaming programme, Ford stated that the original draft of the script made reference to the First Doctor and his granddaughter Susan being in London during the events of the game. This was trimmed for reasons of length. [4]
  • A new Dalek Emperor is featured in the story. This version has blue livery.
  • The yellow Eternal Dalek does not appear in the game. However, it is seen in the artwork for this game.
  • A "production line" of Dalek casings is seen.
  • The Doctor seems unsurprised that the Daleks have already built a thousands-strong army and a new Emperor this soon after their restoration (although twenty-two years of "real time" have passed between 1941 and 1963, and because both the Doctor and the Daleks are time travellers any amount of time could have passed for the Daleks, so this may not be too surprising).
  • The Doctor and Amy visit an alien planet while Rory is not with them, placing this story some time after TV: Cold Blood; in TV: Vincent and the Doctor Amy remarks that the Doctor has been taking her to nice places since Cold Blood but does not mention 1963 London among them, which would likely place City of the Daleks after that story.
  • In this adventure, the Doctor dons the same type of tweed jacket which he lost in Flesh and Stone.
  • This game uses music from TV: Blink, Partners in Crime, The Stolen Earth, Journey's End and Flesh and Stone.

Promotion

On 21 April 2010, a number of schoolkids in Sheffield were given the chance to test the game. As a wider promotion, three Daleks were sent to Sheffield, announcing the download date of the game and interacting with passers-by.[5]

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • The direction in which the TARDIS doors are facing when the Doctor and Amy leave for Skaro is different to the direction they were facing when the TARDIS first landed.
  • If the player is caught by the Security Scan of the Visualiser Eye in Act 2, a Drone Dalek is summoned who then exterminates the Doctor and Amy. However, it is always facing the same direction when doing so, even if they are on the opposite side of the room. However, given that the Doctor and Amy are not supposed to be detected and killed - only being done so if the player makes an error - the event of the Dalek entering the room cannot be canon.
  • In the place before the Doctor reaches the TARDIS, Amy and the Doctor have their arms upraised. But when you start moving they return to normal.

Continuity

Footnotes

  1. ↑ BBC explains early Doctor Who release, MCV; accessed 3 June 2010
  2. ↑ City of the Daleks now available, Doctor Who News Page, 2 June 2010; accessed 3rd June 2010
  3. ↑ Forgive the TARDIS-ness, Doctor Who Games Arrive Today in the US, Joystiq, 22 July 2010; accessed 26 November 2011
  4. ↑ Playr interview with Phil Ford, PlayrBitz, YouTube, 6 May 2010; accessed 26 November 2011
  5. ↑ New Footage and First Reactions, BBC Doctor Who, 24 April 2010; accessed 26 November 2011

External links

v • e
Doctor Who video games
PC
Console/Mobile
The Adventure Games
Series 1
Series 2
DWMI website
Doctor Who website
Pre-2005
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Post-2010
Other websites
Games listed here are only those that have been officially licensed by the BBC.
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