#cybermats

“After you've been bitten, Kellman, you'll have just ten seconds to remember where that pentalium drive is, if you want to live.” 

Synopsis: The Master has made his way to Siralos, a planet of pure psychic energy. Using this energy, he has managed to displace all seven incarnations of the Doctor from their respective timelines and lock them all away in his own realm, called the Determinant. He then plans to use this psychic energy to rule the entire universe, now without the Doctor to stop him.

However, as a last ditch effort, the Doctors use their combined energy to create the Graak, an amorphous being resembling a jellyfish that is tasked with rescuing them all. The Graak initially gains consciousness in the fourth Doctor's TARDIS, where a message from the fourth Doctor instructs him of what to do.

Thanks to the Master's interference, the seven TARDISes of the seven Doctors are all connected and the Graak can travel to each of them. He ventures to them one by one, though the Master has littered each of them with tons of foes from the Doctor's past. There are Daleks, Cybermen, Zygons, Quarks, Yeti and even more.

Each Doctor's TARDIS has a hidden connection to The Great Divide, which the Graak uses to travel over to the Determinant. There, he must face a challenge imposed by the Master to rescue one of the seven Doctors. To rescue the first, he must escape the Celestial Toymaker's toybox. To rescue the second, he must escape the London Underground while avoiding Yeti and subway trains.

To rescue the third, he must chase down the Master as he escapes in a spaceship. To rescue the fourth, he must find his way telepathically through the Doctor's brain. To rescue the fifth, he must duel a Sontaran warrior. To rescue the sixth, he must escape the icy mazes of Mars. Finally, to rescue the seventh, he must use Bessie to chase down the Master as he escapes in an automobile.

After managing to rescue all seven, though, the Master has tricked him and all of the Doctors are still trapped by him. The cloister bell starts to ring, and the Graak finds himself deep inside the TARDIS. That is where the Doctors are truly being held, and the Graak used up the entirety of his life force to set them all free. Finally, the Doctor(s) are able to capture the Master and lock him away.

Thoughts: Another video game from the Doctor Who universe. This one was released for Windows 95, and is the first 3D Doctor Who video game.

The game itself is somewhat similar to Wolfenstein, save for the combat. The entire play area is a set of 3D hallways and occasional open areas, where the player plays as the Graak and faces off against sporadically placed enemies. Usually, the Graak only has one of the Doctor's many tools to disable the foes, rather than defeat them.

The seven Doctors can be rescued in any order, which is a neat idea. Video games that let you choose the level order are a great idea. Each level has three segments. The Graak must find the Great Divide, the Graak must find the specific Doctor's hidden item somewhere in his TARDIS, and then the unique challenge set up by the Master. These challenges usually have their own control scheme and rules.

As a game from 1997, it is fairly good. It certainly didn't age well, but I'm sure that at the time it was fantastic and revolutionary. I really have no desire to play it now, but it was neat to watch. The four surviving Doctors' actors recorded new dialogue for the game, as well as Ainley recording for the Master and Courtney recording for the Brigadier, who provides hints via a radio. A soundalike actor portrayed Hartnell and Troughton's Doctors, while Petrwee's Doctor simply used audio clips from the TV show. (This was a request by his widow)