Previous Next

A lot of money has been spent on the marketing of this game. It comes in a huge box, about four times the size required to hold its contents, those being a cassette, loading instructions for four different computers in six different languages, game instructions, more game instructions, a map, and a piece of coloured card in a plastic holder. Now you know why it's so dear!

After that lot, the game itself turns out to be something of a disappointment. It's basically a straightforward platform game with you cast in the role of The Doctor. The Mines of Terror provide the scenario, for it is here that the Rijans, under control of The Master, are digging for the rare mineral Heatonite. The Master wants the Heatonite so that he can build a TIRU (Time Instant Reply Unit) incorporating The Doctor's brain and take over the universe forever.

You, as The Doctor, must thwart The Master's plans by stealing them. This involves wandering around The Mines collecting things like picks, air masks, dynamite, etc, and avoiding death by numerous unpleasant methods.

To aid you on your mission you have Splinx, who looks like a cat, but isn't. Splinx can be programmed to do thing like follow you, or go to certain tricky locations and retrieve objects. This would have been very useful indeed, but my Splinx steadfastly refused to carry out my instructions.

Doctor Who still leaves a lot to be desired. The graphics are mostly dull and uninteresting for one thing. And when you get killed, the game just freezes for an interminable fifteen seconds or so while you are informed of what caused your demise!

Doctor Who is obviously intended to be a more of a brain-strain challenge than arcade action, but I don't see that as an excuse for poor presentation. You'd have thought with all the mileage Dr. Who has had (how many people owe at least one childhood nightmare to the programme?) it wouldn't be too hard to produce a good game, but clearly inspiration was lacking.