The Doctor and the Dalek (video game)

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The Doctor and the Dalek was a puzzle video game developed by Somethin' Else and published by BBC Wales Online.[1] It was written by Phil Ford. It features the Twelfth Doctor allying with a Dalek, dealing with the Cybermen and Sontarans.

Since 4 April 2019, the game is no longer available to play.[2]

Summary

It's time to save the universe! Help the Doctor and his unlikely companion in a quest that spans the galaxy. Find the Orb of Fates before the Sontarans, Cybermen and Daleks can in this thrilling adventure.

Plot

Prologue

A Dalek saucer and a Cyber-ship engage in battle. The Doctor's TARDIS materialises in the midst of the crossfire after receiving a distress signal from within the Cyber Ship. Inside, two Cybermen interrogate a Dalek prisoner, demanding to know where it has hidden an artefact, but the Dalek refuses to answer. Before the Cybermen can continue, the TARDIS appears and flattens the two Cybermen.

The Doctor asks the Dalek what was going on. The Dalek opens its casing where the Kaled mutant has hidden the artefact - a piece of the Orb of Fates. The Doctor recognises the Orb as a key to an immensely powerful Time Lord weapon called the Starbane. Whoever controls the Starbane could conquer the universe, which the Doctor deduces that both the Daleks and Cybermen intend to do. However, the Dalek tells him the Cybermen have altered its Dalek nature and it decrees that neither the Daleks nor the Cybermen must be allowed to control the Starbane. Both must be stopped.

Telos: Home of the Cybermen (1)

The Doctor and the Dalek, which the Doctor names "Lumpy", join forces and head for Telos to locate the second piece of the Orb. The Doctor sends a damaged Lumpy out to find it, while the Doctor himself stays in the TARDIS to study the Orb in hopes of finding a way to destroy it. Telos's surface is being patrolled by countless Cybermen and Cybermats. The search is made easier by the Artron energy emitted by the Orb "like breadcrums". The Doctor sends Lumpy to collects the Artron energy in several areas of Telos so that the Dalek can return the energy to the TARDIS and the Doctor can follow it to its source.

Along the way, the Doctor repairs Lumpy as its systems restoring but, not trusting a Dalek, he only does so gradually and never restores any systems fully. He only allows Lumpy's gunstick to fire sonic pulses to stun the Cybermen, not exterminate them, and he only restores Lumpy's anti-gravity systems to 25% - enough to soften landings in the event of a fall but not much more. As Lumpy descends into the depths of Telos, the Doctor discovers that the Orb is powered by temporal energy just like the Starbane. The only way to destroy it is to create a temporal implosion, which the Doctor tells Lumpy is something to worry about later.

The Artron energy leads Lumpy straight into the tombs of the Cybermen and the Orb element is found frozen in ice. After Lumpy collects it, the Cyber hibernation systems are interrupted and the Cybermen begin to wake up. Lumpy battles his way back to the TARDIS before being overwhelmed. Three Cybermen fall over a cliff trying to catch the Dalek. Safely back in the TARDIS with the second Orb element retrieved, they leave Telos.

Sontar: Planet of the Sontarans (2)

The two Orb elements fit together and try to reach out to find the last one. The TARDIS is taken to Sontar where a troop of Sontarans led by Major Skar threaten to kill the occupants. But the Doctor reveals who he is and reasons that Sontar High Command would be interested in seeing him. In response, the Sontarans trap the TARDIS is a stasis field, which the Doctor is able to open from the inside of the TARDIS. He lets Lumpy out undetected but stays inside once again, reasoning that he has to stay inside the TARDIS to reopen the stasis field later.

The Doctor warns Lumpy to evade Sontaran detected. He knows of Major Skar and fears that if he discovered a Dalek on Sontar, he would summon the entire Sontaran army. Skar already hopes to be rewarded with the Sontaran Star of Valour for his capture of the Doctor. Lumpy's anti-gravity systems are restored from 25% to 50% and he also acquires a shield to resist Sontaran blaster shots. Before long, he collects the last Orb element. It is now a matter of escape.

Lumpy upgrades his weaponry to help penetrate Sontaran shields but the weapon still only stuns its victims. Meanwhile, Skar has the TARDIS taken to a secure location. From within the compound, Lumpy finds the switch to deactivate the stasis field and the Doctor arrived to pick the Dalek up. The Doctor decides to stay clear of Sontar for a while.

Starbane: Gallifreyan Warship (3)

The three elements of the Orb merge back together and the TARDIS lands right in the middle of the Starbane, wrecked walkways and Gallifreyan décor strewn everywhere. The ship being a huge temporal energy reactor, the Doctor explains that if they introduce the Orb into the core of the Starbane, both the Orb and the Starbane will be destroyed and the plans of the Daleks and Cybermen thwarted. But Lumpy points out a problem: the Starbane is already occupied by Dalek forces.

Lumpy sets off with the Orb to locate the heart of the Starbane while avoiding Dalek patrols, who try to attack him on site despite his attempts to blend in. With further upgrades to his weapons and mobility system, he soon nears his objective, but he then stops following the Doctor's instructions and exclaims, "You lose, Doctor!" A Red Dalek explains that Lumpy's capture by the Cybermen while he had the Orb in his possession was engineered from the very beginning. Lumpy's nature was never truly modified and now the Doctor has practically handed the Orb and the Starbane over to the Daleks.

After learning of the Dalek deception, the Doctor initiated his back-up plan. Never prepared to trust a Dalek from the very beginning, he reveals that when upgrading Lumpy, he made some additions that will allow him to take control of Lumpy. Lumpy is to be the Dalek that saves the universe whether he wants to or not. The other Daleks immediately turn against a furious Lumpy and chase him down as the Doctor leads him ever closer to the heart of the Starbane.

The Doctor successfully drives Lumpy to the ship's core, the other Daleks failing to catch up. In an attempt to deter the Doctor from finishing the job, Lumpy states that the Doctor will also be killed if he destroys the Starbane. The Doctor, however, is already piloting the TARDIS away as he has Lumpy throw the Orb of Fates into the core. Before the Starbane is destroyed, he spots Lumpy moving around near one of the windows. The Starbane explodes, killing all the Daleks within. A critically damaged Lumpy flies of into space with the rest of the wreckage, screaming the Doctor's name. From the safety of the TARDIS, the Doctor, despite expecting some kind of trick from the Daleks to begin with, frowns and says goodbye to his unlikely companion.

Cast

Story notes

The Doctor and the Dalek opening screen.
  • The Daleks are designed with three rows of globes instead of four. All Sontarans are also shown without their helmets.
  • The Cybermen have voices which sound more like those of the 2006-2013 Cybus/Cyber Legions variants, despite appearing as the next design introduced in Nightmare in Silver.
  • Red Daleks and Black Daleks, with the 2005 design, are seen inside the Starbane, along with Green Daleks (which look similar to the Ironsides) and at least one White Dalek. During simulations, the player also had the option to turn Lumpy's casing blue but it reverts to bronze upon returning to the main level.
  • Initially, only the Cybermen and Sontaran levels were made available, with a note explaining that the Dalek levels would become available at the end of 2014. However, these levels were delayed and instead became available on 2 February 2015.
  • All levels (save for the last one) are completed by having Lumpy enter the TARDIS. Sometimes this contradicts what is happening in the story, such as on Sontar when the TARDIS is locked in a stasis field and the Doctor can't actually pilot his ship until Lumpy frees him.
  • The Doctor and the Dalek was advertised through especially voiced material. First, one featuring Skar and then one promoting the app version.

References

to be added

Continuity

External links