This the first of many multi doctor stories that we’ll be looking at for the Second Doctor. This one is a PC adventure game released back in 1997. (but apparently made back in 1995)

As for the plot of the game, the Master, played brilliantly by Anthony Ainley, has kidnapped all seven of the Doctor’s incarnations inside a place called the Determinant. A psychedelic prison that the Master has created with his mind by taking control of the planet Siralos, which is made of "pure psychic energy".

Basically it’s a mindscrew land where the Master can warp reality at his will. You play as Graak, a gelatinous blob like creature that the Doctor created by utilizing the planet’s psychic energy. You have to free each doctor by solving the Master’s riddles, fetch quests, and games before running out of energy; all while dodging famous Doctor Who monsters who have teamed up with the Master to stop you.

The various Doctors only appear as a series of reused audio and video clips, though they hired a couple of VAs to voice the First and Second Doctors who had past on at this point. Also the Brigadier shows up to give the players hints over the radio. Nicholas Courtney I believe did record new lines for this but he never makes an on screen appearance. The only person you actually see on screen is Ainley’s Master, and you can tell he’s having blast.

This was Ainley’s final performance in the role and it’s arguably his best. Ainley himself has gone on record to state that this was his favorite Doctor Who story to work on. It’s also the only reason to seek the game out. The Master sells the the show and the story neatly ties into the tv movie with Paul McGann, which makes that bizarre opening sequence make a little more sense.

Outside of those two things though, there’s really no reason to play the game. The story is good, but the controls are atrocious. You’re wondering around in low-polly maze-like corridors with no direction nor map, using tank like, first-person controls which hamper your visibility even more. Oh and there’s underwater sections!

On top of that there’s some quality of life mechanics that are either missing or should be removed all together. The limited energy countdown/timer mechanic isn’t a fun challenge. The save points are literally hidden within the maze and you have to pick them up, if you miss any you can be shot back to square one. The sound mixing is bad. The weapons don’t do much against the bad guys chasing you. And due to graphic limitations, it’s hard to keep track of where you’re going and where you’ve been as everything looks the same, and you have no markers to indicate whether or not you came this way before, so it’s easy to get stuck walking in circles.

It’s a shame really. You can tell a lot of effort was put into this, and there are good ideas buried in it but it lacks polish. This is one of those games that would actually benefit from a remake/release if someone went in and fixed the controls and tweaked the mechanics a bit, maybe add a mini-map in the corner or something.

I really want to get into this. The FMV's look f*cking hilarious, and the prospect of exploring the TARDIS, invaded by The Doctor's most iconic foes sounds so damn intriguing. But, guys, for the love of The Timeless Child, please tell me there's some kind of fix or mod floating around out there for the absolutely atrocious, nauseating camera swerve when moving to the side. It's actually horrific, and the utterly crippling levels of motion sickness i get completely stops me from getting past even the first couple of seconds.

its so weird definitely not my thing