Doctor Who and the Warlord (video game)

Doctor Who and the Warlord
Doctor:	The Doctor
Companion(s):	Human
Featuring:	Kilroy
Main enemy:	The Warlord
Main setting:	Quantain, 2743 Paris, 1814
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC Software
Developer:	Graham Williams
Release details
Platform:	BBC Micro
Genre:	Text-based
Release date:	1985

Doctor Who and the Warlord was a 1985 text-based video game. It was released for the BBC Micro. A ZX Spectrum version of the game was planned but not released. The story featured the Doctor and his companion (the player) attempting to thwart the plans of a renegade Time Lord known as the Warlord.

In 1988, the game was expanded and rereleased as The Warlord but was "de-branded," stripping away all references to BBC-owned concepts such as the Doctor (replaced by Tim Trevy1) and the TARDIS (replaced by the Cubix). This wiki chooses to only cover the original 1985 release, as it alone was intended to be set inside the Doctor Who universe.

Publisher's summary

In the first part, you go across a strange planet in the distant future. In your efforts to track down the ever-elusive Doctor, you will encounter interstellar gypsies, lurking androids and, worst of all, King Varangar's mood body guards.

Using your intelligence, fluency and good looks you will need to think, talk and charm your way out of scores of mind-wrenching situations and collect the objects essential to completing the game.

In the second part, the TARDIS spirits you back in time to the Battle of Waterloo, where you will need all your wits to defeat both Napoleon and the malignant Warlord. Finally, pray for a quiet end to your Adventure...

Plot

Side A

Opening text

The year is 2743. You arrive with the Doctor on the planet Quantain, where a century-long war is just coming to a close. You emerge from the Tardis to find deep mist all around.

Travelling north, you stumble into one of the last battles of the long war. The Doctor, however, seems convinced that King Varangar, (an old friend of his) is in some deadly danger, and presses on. In the confusion of the battle you are separated from the Doctor, and caught up in a skirmish.

Something hits you on the back of the head. The last thing you remember as you sink to the ground is cries of "Varangar! Varangar!" answered by "The Warlord! The Warlord!"

Campaign

to be added

Side B

Opening text

"Long ago," the Doctor tells you, "the Warlord was a Time Lord studying warfare in the search for a means to stop it. But his motives were subverted, and he became hooked on war. For some centuries now he has been bending his considerable effort to wandering round in history and committing the greatest Time Crime - changing events to keep various conflicts going.

"On Sirius V he did it by giving the cave people fire. On Fomalhaut VII it was the internal combustion engine. I suspect he may have been behind the destruction of the Notrethan race..."

The Doctor busies himself with the Tardis controls. "And now Napoleon Bonaparte," he murmurs.

Campaign

to be added

Characters

Part A

• The Doctor
• Human
• King Varangar

Part B

• The Doctor
• Human
• The Warlord
• Napoléon Bonaparte
• Kilroy

Credits

• Designed by Graham Williams
• Implemented by Chessfield Microgames
• BBC Software

Notes

• This video game was the second title to be released by the BBC. The first was Doctor Who: The First Adventure.
• There were several puzzles to complete with two hundred fifty different locations in each part.

External links

• Doctor Who and the Warlord (1985) at the BBC Micro Games Archive
• The Warlord (1988) at the BBC Micro Games Archive
• A guide to the 1985 release at GameSpot.com
• Doctor Who and the Warlord at Speedrun.com