TARDIS Tennis (video game)

TARDIS Tennis
Main character(s):	John Lennon, William Shakespeare, Victoria
Main enemy:	Winston Churchill
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC Sport
Release details
Platform:	Online
Genre:	Sport
Release date:	21 June 2003
Format:	Adobe Flash game

TARDIS Tennis was a video game published on the classic Doctor Who website.

Plot

John Lennon, William Shakespeare and Queen Victoria travel in the TARDIS to a tennis court, where they play tennis against each other. After winning three matches, the winning player gets into the next stage, where they have to play against Winston Churchill.

How to play

The game was a flash-based video game. It could be played with one or two players. The players could choose which character (John Lennon, William Shakespeare or Queen Victoria) they wanted to play. The characters were voiced and made comments about the game.

Instructions by the publisher

Look to see where the ball will land and get in position as fast as you can.

Press space to pull back racket.

Release spacebar to hit the ball manually, or keep spacebar down and the ball will be hit automatically.

Game play

TARDIS Tennis opening screen.

Get your character in position. Hold spacebar down to hit ball direction keys to control the angle of shot.

Different shots

Push towards your opponent to perform a drop shot and away for a lob.

Serving

Hold down the spacebar and move target pointer within the service box. Release the spacebar to serve.

Control keys

(Player 2 in brackets):

• Up = E or cursor up (T)
• Down = D/cursor down (G)
• Left = Y or cursor left (F)
• Right = U or cursor right (H)
• Hit = Press spacebar (Z)
• Shift for Player 1
• Pause = P
• Quit = Q

Characters

• John Lennon
• Shakey (William Shakespeare)
• Queen Victoria
• Winston Churchill

Notes

• Although the game predated the revival of Doctor Who by two years, several of the characters featured in the game would later appear in the TV series: Victoria, (TV: Tooth and Claw) Shakespeare (TV: The Shakespeare Code, who had already appeared briefly in TV: The Chase), Lennon (TV: The Devil's Chord (TV story)) and Churchill. (TV: Victory of the Daleks) All the characters featured in the game had also previously appeared in other medias.
• The game was launched to coincide with the start of the 2003 Wimbledon tennis tournament.

External links

• TARDIS Tennis at the BBC website