Doctor Who and the Dalek Super-Brain

Adapted from an IFCOMP24 Review

Am I a Dr. Who fan? Kind of. I devoured the modern run through Capaldi, and have been bursty ever since. Am I a fan of classic Dr. Who? What even is that? This is a 60 year old property, what even is the classic Dr.? Ok, am I a fan of Dr. Who runs prior to the modern renaissance? Sure, my introduction to the property was through PBS replays of Tom Baker Dr, which was appointment TV back when we just called that 'tv'. Am I amenable to fan fiction Dr. Who works?

Hey, what’s with all the questions, is there a Dr. Who-based murder I’m implicated in, Lt. Columbo?

Fine, here’s my testimony. This is a fan work paying homage to 80’s Dr. Who. Yes, I knew the work of interest. From the start, something seemed just a little off about the implementation though. The immediate issue was its appearance. 80’s Dr Who had a very limited budget. Lots of indirectly lit sound stages, lots of special effects and set dressings straight from the craft store to screen. It was a transformational art-from-limitations example, the low-fi of its effects a chummy compact with the audience: ignore the pipe cleaners and spray paint, this is the story. More often than not the writing was strong enough, and unique enough on broadcast TV, to make that compact worthwhile. So much so, that the cheesy effects became a warm element of the experience.

In addition to really strong speculative storytelling, Baker set the mold with awkward, idiosyncratic, charismatic performances that conferred power of personality to the Dr. I am not Who scholar enough to know whether he was the FIRST oddball, but he certainly was among the most MEMORABLE, and it is his work that modern Dr’s so frequently riff on.

So if I were to identify the top three qualities of classic Dr it would be: embraceable yet laughable special effects; well constructed stories; and dynamic characters, particularly its central figure. This work fell short in all three dimensions for me.

Visually, it strikes a fairly generic cgi figure. So much sharper, so much brighter, yet with so much less personality than the Dr I knew. I don’t mean to open the ‘procedural art’ box here, because I suspect this is NOT that, but I can’t help but observe that it carries the same cold vibe as generated art. It certainly feels more of a piece to modern Dr., and even then carries more gloss. I will say the decision to smash-zoom into NPC faces when dialoguing with them was a novel, if deeply unsettling graphic choice. Woah Bex, personal space!!

The character of the Dr was probably the biggest miss for me. As a Twinesformer, with the player inhabiting the Dr, we spend our entire time with him, but at no point did I think he was anything other than a faceless IF protagonist, solving puzzles. Now I fully understand that doing a recognizable Baker pastiche is a truly Herculean task, but the ABSENCE of that attempt is no less noticeable against the goals of the work.

Which leaves story. The basic setup of Dalek machinations and time travel is pretty center of the road for classic Who, no notes on central conceit. Its application though, and mapping to very limited parser-style gameplay, felt more like a sketch than a completed narrative. In particular the decision to put the Dr under duress, (Spoiler - click to show)and fold, early in the game belied a lot of the protagonist’s legendary cleverness and really undermined his presence. The subsequent puzzle based developments were by contrast pretty simple, with the game basically ushering you along a path, and end-gaming you if you divert. Its fine, you just undo back, but its limited choice space really drives home how pre-defined the success path is. The MECHANICS of that path are very transactional - find/use/explore. None of it requires the Dr’s patented cleverness to accomplish. It was just too railed and shorthanded to really ring of its inspiration for me, and required too little of me (and the Dr!) to navigate it.

For me, I have enough connection to the work’s inspiration to have some forgiveness here. Even so, those three big things kind of kept me at arms length and never let it breach Mechanical. So you see, Lt Columbo, I couldn’t be the murderer… Was I bitter the work let me down so hard? That’s not what I said, Lieutenant… Where was I when this review was published?

I think this interview has taken a turn, Detective. Please refer future questions to my lawyer.

No! No ‘One More Thing…’! I’m locking the door!

Played: 10/4/24
Playtime: 20m, 3 fails undone, success
Artistic/Technical ratings: Mechanical/Seamless
Would Play Again?: No, experience feels complete

Artistic scale: Bouncy, Mechanical, Sparks of Joy, Engaging, Transcendent
Technical scale: Unplayable, Intrusive, Notable (Bugginess), Mostly Seamless, Seamless