Previous Next

"Ultimate risk scenario" it says on the box. Which, if it means anything, means that there's a hell of a lot to this game - so much, in fact, that in the Beeb version it comes in the form of a ROM chip as well as the disc or cassette. It also says a few other silly things like "Full celebral combat status needed at all times", which presumably means you have to keep your wits about you. So what's new?

What *is* new is that this is the first authorised game built around the BBC's time-travelling Doctor (right down to a ropey version of the Radiophonic Workshop's theme tune with the title page), and the scenario is as extensive and as dotty as any TV series. It appears that the Master is planning to dominate the universe again (yawn!), this time by building a Time Instant Replay Unit on an obscure planet, using an odd radioactive organic mineral called heatonite, and possibly incorporating the Doctor's brain in his device. All this, and much more, is spelt out in the extensive documentation that comes with the game.

What it comes down to when you're playing with your Beeb is that you direct a Colin Baker sprite around the heatonite mines and the factory, looking for a memory capsule that contains the plans, picking up the usual handy items like explosives, crystals, packing cases and the inevitable stool, and avoiding the nasties, which in this case are headed by a grumpy green lizard thing.

The game loses points for its animation, which is smooth but tiresomely slow and doesn't encourage much athletic running and leaping. Low marks, too, for the use of sound, which is minimal. But it scores highly in the complexity of the problems the Doctor has to solve, and even more highly in the curious assistant he has to help him. This creature, Splinx by name, spends most of her time looking like a white cat, but can be activated by remote control. This adds a whole new dimension to the game: while the Doc is busy in one part of the mines, the metamorphosing moggie can be active off-screen, tidying up lizard's eggs, or whatever you've instructed her to do. A useful pet to have around.