There’s not many Doctor Who based video games out there and even fewer with the First Doctor, but there are a handful of multi-doctor games that he features in. The randomizer chose one such game for the marathon.

Doctor Who: Legacy was a free-to-play mobile game created for the 50th anniversary of the show. I say, ‘was’, because the game has since been discontinued. In order to play it you need an Android emulator and the APK file of the game.

I tried the game out using this method and it seemed to work fine. You can’t use the online features but the story mode and events are playable.

The game is a typical match three style game. Where you try to match three or more colors. You build a team of one doctor and five companions. Each color corresponds to a member of your team and how many combos you get determiners your attack power. It’s a turn based battle system, and during your turn you have the option of using a character’s special abilities if they’ve made enough successful hits.

It’s nothing ground breaking, but the game-play is solid enough, using basic match style features and rpg level ups. The more you play the more characters you collect and the stronger they grow. My problems with the game are mostly the same complaints I have for any free-to-play mobile game; the story is poorly paced out, too much grinding, you have to level up every new character you gained from scratch, ect. and so on. However, I do like the feature of being able to move pieces wherever you want to on the board instead of having to move only one space at a time like you do in other match games.

The story, what little there is of it, involves the Sontarans gaining time travel technology and creating a new time war that threatens all of reality, recruiting various villains from the show and fracturing the Doctor’s timeline.

There are four ‘seasons’ where the stakes are increased as new threats build upon the other. The First Doctor doesn’t appear until season three, where the big bad is the various incarnations of the Master.

Which all sounds very interesting, except it takes so bloody long to get through the thing that the story just limps long dully in the background. And it doesn’t even have a proper conclusion because the BBC dropped the game in favor of an entirely different mobile game later on! Which just reinforces my belief that on-going mobile puzzle games shouldn’t have stories to begin with.

The only other thing I want touch upon is the uneven representation between Classic and New Who. Polly is the only 60s companion to be playable in the entire game and yet the most random-ass, forgettable, one-off characters from the new series completely swamp the story, especially early on.

Like I have no interest in playing as the bitchy boss lady from the Rebel Flesh who’s name I can’t even remember. Give me Ian, dammit!

Anyways, the game is a decent time waster, but I can’t recommend it on a story front, and if you’re a classic fan you’re not going to get much in the way of fanservice either.