City of the Daleks (video game)
City of the Daleks is the first of the Adventure Games, a series of four games where the player will have the ability to play as the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond. This is the first true Doctor Who video game (depending on how you describe the Top Trumps game) since 1996's Destiny of the Doctors. According to Executive Producer Piers Wenger, the story is canonical, and is just an additional episode of Series 5.
Originally announced for initial release on 5th June 2010, it became available for release on 2nd June from the BBC's official Doctor Who website. A Macintosh version of the game is to be released on 15th June. It was later revealed that the early release of the game was part of a system test as they gear up for the official release date. A trailer for the game will reportedly be shown straight after Vincent and the Doctor on Saturday to mark its official launch.[1]. Both download options are free for UK residents. At present the game/mini-episode is not available outside the UK, but the BBC has indicated a potential commercial release for the game in July 2010.[2]
Gameplay
City of the Daleks is a puzzle-based game: the player has to navigate obstacles with a specific pattern to them, crack codes, use objects to bypass obstacles, and navigate mazes. There is little margin for error: most hazards kill automatically, and (as the Doctor) it is extremely hard to escape the Daleks once they've spotted you. Fitting with the series itself, there is no way of directly engaging the Daleks and the Doctor has to evade or trick them instead.
The game follows a linear path: tasks have to be handled a certain way and in a certain sequence.
The game is split into three "Acts": the alternate London, the Dalek's city in the present, and the Dalek city in the past.
Plot
The story begins with the Doctor and Amy in the TARDIS talking about visiting 1963, and specifically which Beatle they'd like to meet. As the Doctor begins to describe London 1963 as "the coolest place in the galaxy" they step out of the TARDIS by the remains of Nelson's column to find London has been almost destroyed.
The pair suddenly see a woman, Sylvia, fleeing from a Dalek, who proclaims her to be the last surviving human being. She detonates some kind of explosive, temporarily incapacitating the Dalek, and flees into the Underground below through a manhole. The Doctor and Amy decide to follow her and sneak past the remaining Dalek drones and push a damaged taxi into a barricade barring an Underground entrance. After finding Sylvia, she reveals that the Daleks invaded the planet by opening a rift in the sky, and thousands of Daleks then proceeded to fly down and exterminate the planet below. The army was annihilated and, soon after, resistance groups were also killed, until only she remained. The Doctor comments 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. But 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.
The Doctor and Amy quickly return to the TARDIS next to Nelson's Column and the Doctor traces the point of interference to the Dalek capital city on Skaro, Kaalann. Last time he saw it, it was in ruins and the Daleks had fled, but they seem to have rebuilt their city...
After materializing in Kaalann, Amy begins to fade. The Doctor says that, now the human race has been exterminated, she is a 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 aquire 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 visualizer room. They narrowly escape an Eternal Dalek who's guarding the visualizer room. After entering the visualizer room and using the three security consoles to deactivate the visualizer 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. 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 tells the Emperor that continued meddling will result in huge damage to the continuum the Emperor shows him the "Eye of Time" — an entity once controlled by the Time Lords, but now in the hands of the Daleks. The Emperor declares that 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.
Appearing in the Supreme Council Chamber, but before the city was rebuilt, the Doctor comments that this is where the temporal coordinates from earlier led to. They set a trap for the Daleks who have been sent to pursue them by the Emperor and then go to the visualizer room.
In the visualizer room, the Doctor removes the device in the visualizer eye that is connected to all Dalek vision. He then 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 evades patrols and Varga plants to get the pieces and returns to the Doctor, who assembles the device, and says that 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 planet Earth. Amy runs ahead — able to evade the Daleks because she is fading away — 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.
Appearing back in the ruined facility — now empty because the timeline has been set back in place, as the Doctor says it should be — the TARDIS is waiting for the Doctor and Amy, and they leave to go and meet Ringo Starr...
Cast (Voices)
Credits
to be added
Story notes
- 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.
- Each episode has collectible cards, marked with a "DW", which provide extra information on the Doctor Who universe. These cards are divided into Doctors, Companions, Friends, Enemies, and Jelly Babies.
- A new Dalek Emperor is featured in the story. This Dalek Emperor is blue, meaning he could be the Strategist Dalek that was created in DW: Victory of the Daleks.
- The yellow Eternal Dalek appears in the loading screens and only once in the game, patroling in the room gaurding the visualising room.
- 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 22 years of "real time" have passed between 1941 and 1963, and because both the Doctor and the Daleks are time travelers 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 sometime after Template:DW; in DW: 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 after that story.
Promotion
On the 21st 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.[3]
Continuity
- The Doctor says he last saw Kallaan devastated and the Daleks fleeing, and finds the dead shell of a Dalek Emperor: this may be a reference to DW: Evil of the Daleks rather than an event in the Last Great Time War. However, the Emperor's form resembles the 2000s Emperors rather than the 60s Emperors.
- While searching for the last survivor the Doctor mentions Yetis, Dinosaurs and rats in the Underground. (DW: The Web of Fear, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
- As a result of the Daleks altering the timeline and destroying humanity, Amy feels unwell and starts to fade away. This happened to the Fifth Doctor when his previous incarnations were taken out of their timezones. The Tenth Doctor explained that this would happen to Martha Jones if the Carrionites had succeeded in their plans in 1599. (Template:DW)
- The rift in time resembles the cracks in the universe.
- The Kontron crystals make a reappearance. (DW: Timelash)
- Varga plants as a main hazard during the third act.
- The Daleks have invaded Earth in 1963 once before. (Template:DW)
Timeline
- City of the Daleks occurs at some point after DW: Cold Blood
- City of the Daleks occurs before DW: The Pandorica Opens
References
- ↑ BBC explains early Doctor Who release, MCV; accessed 3rd June 2010
- ↑ City of the Daleks now available, Doctor Who News Page, 2nd June 2010; accessed 3rd June 2010
- ↑ New Footage and First Reactions
External links
- The Adventure Games at the BBC Doctor Who site.
