Doctor Who in VR – The Edge of Time on the Quest 3

Ever since computer games were invented, Doctor Who fans like myself have wanted to see our favourite show to be part of that world. From Doctor Who – The First Adventure on the venerable BBC B Micro, through Dalek Attack on the PC and Spectrum, to more recent attempts such as Lego Dimensions. Then in 2019 a fully fledged VR game arrived The Edge of Time, courtesy of Maze Theory, but never seemed to make the impact such major project should had. After all, this game lets the player travel in the TARDIS and confront Daleks and Weeping Angels face to face. It has a complete story that puts the protagonist centre stage. When I bought myself a Meta Quest 3 headset, it was a game I purchased almost immediately to experience myself. After Beat Sabre.

Recently there seems to have a dizzying explosion of Doctor Who titles in many videogame subgenres, from time-killing smartphone game Lost in Time to online card game Worlds Apart to guest appearances in big hitters like Fortnite and Minecraft. Up until now, I would say the titles closest to capturing the spirit of the programme were the Doctor Who Adventures released initially for free by the BBC, featuring the Eleventh Doctor and Amy. Whilst enjoyable to play these felt less polished than the perfect AAA game of my imagination, something combining the mechanics and look of say the Mass Effect Trilogy or Fallout 4.

The appropriately named game The First Adventure (1983)
The opening story in The Adventure Game ‘season’ – City of the Daleks (2010)

The Edge of Time is definitely one of most ambitious and big budget attempts to date. It promises a great deal, to actually join the Thirteenth Doctor in an adventure as her temporary companion, flying the TARDIS, battling the Daleks, the Weeping Angels and some new enemies in virtual reality. Unfortunately the earliest releases of the game came with game crashing bugs, despite extensive play testing by Maze Theory, and I think that did damage the game’s reputation. However the version available to buy now is much more robust and also comes with 2020’s Time Lord Victorious DLC bundled in for free.

The landing screen placed me in a rocky area with the TARDIS standing to my left, humming with energy, whilst ahead was the menu. Choosing New Game took me to what would be called the “cold open” of the episode. a shabby laundrette where I was the only customer. The lights start to flicker and the voice of the Doctor, voiced by Jodie Whittaker herself, comes through the static of the television. She’s asking for help, and warning me that I’m in trouble. The lights flicker again and the washing machines fill with slime, covered with blinking eyes. The voice of the Doctor warns me that these are embryo Hydrocs, vicious predators who grow very quickly. Reality is breaking down and I need to get out of there. Some searching and clue solving puzzles follow, as I eventually get through the locked door at the back and summon the TARDIS, just as a Dalek saucer appears overhead and tries to exterminate me. Cue 360 degree panoramic version of the Thirteenth Doctor’s title sequence.

Inside the Thirteenth Doctor’s console room (a design I became more resigned to than ever really liked) the Doctor appears as a hologram and explains that she is trapped at the other end of Time and needs my help to find three rare zeiton crystals with which she can create a vortex manipulator to escape and fix the reality virus which is threatening the whole universe. This plot accidentally anticipates the Flux that the Doctor will face in 2022. First she needs to guide me through flying the TARDIS, which involves turning knobs and pulling levers in a sequence repeating memory game, a bit like Bop It!

There was definitely a thrill to stepping out of the TARDIS on to an unknown planet. That worked each time arrived in a new location. Most of the game is puzzle solving, moving objects about, slotting them into holes. Or combing objects to create an effect. Zapping items with the somic screwdriver was a reliable move. Most of the puzzles were an easy to medium challenge, apart from one aboard a spaceliner involving reflecting a laser beam with rotating mirrors to activate doors, that eventually I had to look up the solution on YouTube. As with many VR games at the moment there is a distinct escape room vibe to the majority of the game, even if the locales allowed for a lot more walking and exploring.

Occasionally there is an action sequence. Escaping the Weeping Angels in an old house, with an unreliable torch and a lift which needs recharging at each floor with a dynamo, was genuinely scary, especially knowing that death meant going back to beginning of the sequence again. By contrast a first person shooter section, driving a Dalek around a temple shooting at other Daleks, became quite frustrating, since unless you managed to time every shot and make it count, death meant starting the whole long section over again, which became pretty wearying. I’m not a fan of the whole timing blows precisely in a sequence kind of combat which Dark Souls has popularised.

Along the way, the villain is revealed as The First, a godlike mother of all life in universe, wishing to punish intelligent life for making so many mistakes. To be honest this section was a bit ponderous, especially since she is so powerful, all the player can do at this point is really stand and watch the Doctor sort things out, again solely as a voice. Despite a last minute race to retrieve three more magic items by revisiting some previous destinations, the climax is underwhelming.

Yet the journey there is pretty entertaining. The whole Weeping Angels section uses those antagonists particularly well, with some moments that are more than worthy of the television series. Sneaking past full-scale Daleks is fun and again feels very reminiscent of the series. Dialogue writer and co-storyliner Gavin Collinson gets the feel of modern day Doctor Who. You get your own companion of a kind, Emer, winningly voiced by Jennifer Saayeng, who has also appeared in a few Big Finish stories. Wielding the sonic screwdriver to scan and manipulate item is satisfying too.

Graphically the style is fairly cartoonish, an acceptable compromise between accurate detail and the speed and size of the game. The two TARDIS console rooms of the Thirteenth and the Tenth’s (for the Time Lord Victorious add-on) are pleasingly recreated, whilst the new locations are colourful and well lit.

Away from the main story, there’s the Time Lord Victorious collectible game, which tries to extend gameplay by adding hidden collectible items in all the locations of the story. These are related to the stories in the BBC’s 2020 multi-platform campaign. Discover all eight and you can play a quiz game. There’s also an Arcade section where the player can replay the title sequence, flying the TARDIS, escaping the Weeping Angels, or battling the Daleks.

In 2021 Maze Theory released a reimagined version of the game for flat screen consoles. Doctor Who – The Edge of Reality replaced the god-like First with the Cybermen as the principle villain and also featured a cameo from the Tenth Doctor. I have not played it but I believe it too was plagued with bugs and seems to have had even less impact than the VR original.

I’ve enjoyed playing this game and think it deserves to be better known. It’s a sincere attempt to put the player inside a Doctor Who adventure and translates a fair amount of the feel of the Thirteenth Doctor’s era. It’s an accessible game for both experience VR players and first timers. Hopefully it will remain in the Steam, MetaQuest and Playstation libraries for the foreseeable future.

Another of my early experiments with my new Meta Quest 3 headset was to watch the 360 degree Doctor Who short animated film which the BBC released in January 2019, featuring the voice of Jodie Whittaker. The Runaway begins with the viewer being accidentally teleported aboard the TARDIS by the Thirteenth Doctor. Apologising, the Doctor explains she is trying to help a young energy being from another dimension return home. The being is a glowing sphere with eyes and the Timelord explains that if it becomes too agitated it will blow up, taking the TARDIS with it. As a story its typical of the kind of mini-episodes which were usually made for Comic Relief, based entirely on the standing set of the console room. The animation is similar to Edge of Time although this cartoon was made by the BBC VR Hub.

It works excellently in the Quest 3, I can see it would function equally well in any 360 viewer, including Google’s Cardboard VR. It’s a sweet little disposable tale, although I missed having any interactivity. If you have a chance to watch it as its meant to be seen, its worth your time though.

Exploring A for Andromeda and The Andromeda Breakthrough | Very British Futures Podcast

I am delighted to announce a new episode of my podcast Very British Futures. The first hopefully of a revived run of the show, after several months of concentrating my time on Bolton Little Theatre and my job at the university.

A for Andromeda and The Andromeda Breakthrough are fairly obscure today, compared to programmes like Quatermass or Doctor Who, but during 1961-62 they were popular successes for the BBC. It seems appropriate to talk about them now, at a time when Netflix has had a success with 3 Body Problem, another serious SF show about alien contact being conducted through radio communication. Written by noted astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle and TV producer John Elliot, the series begins with radio astronomers detected a message from an alien intelligence. That would be profound enough, but the message turns out to be a blueprint for a new kind of computer, more powerful than anything on Earth. Building the computer in turn creates new life, first an octopus like being, then a beautiful woman they christen Andromeda, based on the body of a murdered female technician. As politics, the military, and a ruthless tech company called Intel (no relation) become involved, maverick scientist John Fleming fights against the alien AI, whilst falling in love with Andromeda. The sequel takes the surviving characters to the Middle East, where a new computer has been built and Intel intend to dominate the world with its technology. But Earth’s weather is running out of control, thanks to Fleming’s interference and only the computer can save us, if it wants to.

Joined by Nigel Anderson and Brian Clark, friends I had worked with on the very first episode covering Pathfinders in Space, this has been a very interesting production to research and produce. After recently covering several high-profile shows, it was good to tackle something a bit more off the beaten track. You can listen to the results on all the major platforms, including YouTube, and find out more about the series, plus the BBC4 remake and the 70’s Italian version by visiting the podcast’s website at: https://westlakefilms.uk/verybritishfutures/

Rik Hoskin has been in touch to tell me about his involvement in a new PC computer game. He is the script editor and consultant on a live-action comedy dating game Forgetting Emily. To quote the blurb on its Steam store page: “When is it time to move on? Before your ex gets married to someone else… right? You play as Alex, a struggling musician invited to his ex-girlfriend Emily’s wedding. It’s in Turkey. It’s in one month. You said you’d bring a plus-one… so the countdown’s on, because you don’t have one.
Filmed in live action, you see through Alex’s eyes as he makes decisions that can land him just about anywhere as he tries to find his ideal date for the wedding. The trouble is, Alex doesn’t have much money, and it seems like everyone who offers to help is also conspiring against him … which is to say, YOU!”

Congratulations to Rik as he adds even more strings to his creative bow. If you would like to find out more, check out the game’s website https://www.forgettingemily.com/

Space: 1999 – Very British Futures

When I was growing up, Space: 1999 was one of the big SF shows. Although I never watched it religiously in the way I followed Doctor Who, nevertheless I had a Dinky die-cast Eagle toy, several annuals and I thought the uniforms looked really cool, especially the colourful jackets they wore in the second season. As a show it was always present in the background, in Look-In magazine, old issues of Starburst and Starlog, and in many of the other SF publications which filled the shops in the wake of Star Wars. Then for a while it seemed to lose its lustre with the fan community, at least in Britain. It became regarded as dull, or camp in the wrong way, an example of how television didn’t ‘get’ SF. But quality will out and in the wake of two serious-minded serial shows of the 90’s both set in one location: Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine, ITC’s space opera was rediscovered and reappraised. Older fans even detected a story arc to Year One, a suggestion that the Moon’s journey was being controlled by some kind of cosmic higher power, that the Alphans were being prepared for a new destiny on another Earth.

I actually felt that Space: 1999 would already be well covered by podcasts so I avoided it at first. However I am glad I changed my mind because this twentieth episode of the podcast is proving to be one of the most popular episodes so far. Having good contributors helps, and I was delighted to have my friends and talented writers Kara Dennison and Ian Taylor along for the ride. Their contributions are fascinating and amusing.

You can listen to the episode now on Spotify and the other major podcast platforms, including Youtube. Hope you enjoy it and I intend to pick up the frequency of episodes for the remainder of the year. Coming next will be The Comic Strip Presents.

Vampire Invasion and other news

Hello there! It’s another quick round up of news from myself and friends this time.

After Hangmen was an enormous success for Bolton Little Theatre and myself personally getting some of the best notices I’ve ever had for playing Syd Ambleside, I have gone back into the control box for the next play of the season – Player’s Angels by Amanda Whittington.

In 1950’s Nottingham, John Player’s girls have the best jobs, the best wage and the best hairdos in town. And now, there’s a new face on the Navy Cut machine as 15-year-old Mae comes fresh from the country for her first job at the tobacco factory. Mae lodges with her Aunt Glad who sits alongside her on the production line but keeps her assignations with the young factory foreman to herself. Led by workmates Cyn and Vee, Mae takes her first steps into the world of the Player’s Angels: where a young girl can lose her halo and find her wings.

Running 22nd – 27th April, it’s a warm-hearted play about a group of friends supporting each other and facing a changing Britain, as the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II ushers in a new age. You can book tickets now from Ticketsource.

Rik Hoskin and Chatri Art have been busy with a project of their own, a graphic novel called The Vampire Invasion. Set in 1969, their wild story imagines an alternative history where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s landing on the Moon triggers a retaliation from a colony of Nosferatu-like vampires who have been living on the dark side for centuries. It’s a very entertaining romp that recalls the best of Warren’s 70’s Creepy and Eerie horror comics. Renaissance man Chatri Art composed the theme for my podcast and his dazzling artwork has been featured in games and album art. He came up with the initial concept for this book when he was a teenager.

Available from Viking Press in both hardback and paperback.

Rik also has a short story out this month in HyphenPunk magazine. The President’s Been Shot is a satirical cyber-punk with his trademark ingenuity. You can order it from Amazon Kindle or a PDF version from Ko-Fi.

Finally, my cousin Terrance McAdams has the second volume of his YA science fiction series out now. Biocode: Resolution finds Ciara and her friends discovering new twists to the mystery of a race of telepathic aliens who want to take over the Earth. Ciara has been seeing visions of her ancestor William on Captain Cook’s second voyage, but now she must travel into the past to save him and the future. Available now from all good bookshops.

Hangmen

In 1965 the death penalty, and hanging in particular, effectively ended in the United Kingdom. So what is Harry Wade, Britain’s last hangman to do? Especially when he is widely regarded as the country’s second-best executioner, after Albert Pierpoint? So begins, Martin McDonagh’s celebrated black comedy Hangmen, which is being staged by Bolton Little Theatre on 4th to 9th March 2024. Set in Harry’s grim pub in Oldham, where he holds court over a group of tatty regulars and his long-suffering wife and teenage daughter, the play opens with a young reporter seeking an interview with the hangman. Harry’s equilibrium is disturbed by the arrival of Mooney, a peculiar young cockney man. His unease increases when his despised old assistant Syd comes calling the next day, warning him about a strange visit he has recently had by a young man who knows a lot about their controversial execution of Hennessey a couple of years ago.

Poster for Hangmen, showing dangling feet

I am playing the part of Syd, Harry old assistant, and part-time pornographer. It’s a brilliantly written part and enjoying rehearsals a lot, not having played a major role on stage for a while. It is fun finding his accent, that variety of camp Northern nasal sound usually used by comedians like Alan Carr, but with more unhappiness and desperation.

Hangmen premiered in 2015 and went on to become a West End and Broadway hit. It has won several major awards and the original production has been broadcast by National Theatre. Its writer Martin McDonagh is probably best known for his black comedy films In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Epping, Missouri. Hangmen is a superbly written play, funny and frightening in equal measure. I hope we get a healthy audience for it.

You can buy tickets online at ticketsource.co.uk/boltonlittletheatre.

Biocode: Endeavour

Ciara, a teenage girl, discovers she has a remarkable inheritance in her DNA, one that propels her into a globe-trotting adventure which involves biotechnology, an enigmatic Maori legend, and the famous voyages of eighteenth century explorer Captain James Cook. Before this entertaining novel is finished, the future of the human race will be in the hands of her and her small group of friends.

This is the debut novel of Terrance McAdams, and I should say upfront that he’s also my cousin. He has written this exciting Young Adult novel, the first in a series, Biocode: Endeavour and he has done an impressive job of mixing real history, recent scientific developments in human physiology, and his own foreign travel experiences into this science fiction adventure.

True, at first I was a little concerned that the book was following the weary trope of the ‘chosen one’ protagonist, for whom all obstacles are solved by their destined specialness, which make others bend rules and give her advantages. Ciara is boarding at the private Sanjung Academy in South Korea, set up by tech billionaire Dr Sanjung Kim next to the government’s Global Education City. It is a kind of super-science Hogwarts. Naturally this means she is surrounded by the best and brightest, whose talents in martial arts, computer hacking, science, and international contacts will come useful later. She’s being troubled by intense dreams, mostly ones where she is Midshipman William Hartley, aboard First Lieutenant James Cook’s ship HMS Endeavour as it discovers New Zealand. She also learns that the real reason she was invited to the academy is that there is alien DNA in her genes. Her dreams and an invitation to an archaeological dig organised by Dr Kim leads Ciara to learn about a race of beautiful blonde people called the Patupaiarehe who had supernatural powers. The truth turns out to be stranger.

Frustratingly for this review I cannot talk much about my favourite element of this story without spoiling it for other readers. Suffice to say that the initial ‘hero with a destiny’ plotline which takes up the first half of the narrative becomes subverted and a very different and a better story emerges.

The author is a teacher who currently lives in South Korea and that local knowledge certainly comes through in the way he conjures up both that country’s culture and describes the environs of New Zealand. He also has a good ear for teenage dialogue and the scenes and relationships between this set of smart, pro-active young heroes rings true without going into tiresome quip-heavy sub-Buffy material. He has a particular interest in encouraging more girls into science, so its not surprise that most of the group are female and generally are the drivers of the story, but they still feel realistic rather than superheroes.

When the true nature of the antagonists does emerge they are excellently depicted and for a while I was wondering how such a powerful enemy could realistically be defeated. There’s plenty of incidents along the way, including a shark attack, kidnappings, battles with Maoris and a even James Bond style mountain base to be infiltrated.

Biocode Endeavour book sitting on a shelf.

I think Terrance McAdams’ writing will only become richer in future instalments. He’s created an engaging set of leading young characters and brought something fresh to the YA scene with this combination of cutting edge science and traditional adventuring. Although the start of a series, this is perfectly self-contained novel and I can recommend to readers of all ages.

You can buy Biocode: Endeavour from Bookshop.org here

You can buy the sequel Biocode: Resolution from Bookshop.org here

Stingray – Very British Futures

Just in time for Christmas, I’ve released a brand new episode of the Very British Futures podcast, with a seasonal flavour. There aren’t many British TV science fiction programmes that actually feature Christmas, apart from 21st century Doctor Who, but one welcome exception is the works of Gerry Anderson. Most of his puppet shows feature the Christmas holiday and for this special we took a look at Stingray and “A Christmas to Remember”.

Stingray is an odd fish. Although clearly a children’s show, it nevertheless features a largely adult cast of characters who have foibles, who socialise with alcoholic drinks and cigars, and have mature concerns beyond simply defeating the bad guy of the week. Most famously there is the romantic triangle between Troy Tempest, underwater-breathing glamourpuss Marina, and attractive Atlanta Shore, who works at Marineville most of the time. The stories were straightforward, but there was space for humour, and even a touch of satire. Meanwhile the excellent craftsmanship of the AIP team, created one of the glossiest junior shows on television, with memorable images like Stingray erupting from its undersea silo, or Marineville descending underground.

I was keen to get a younger viewer’s opinion for this episode, so invited John and his thirteen year old daughter Amber to be my guests for this mini-episode. It’s a slightly unusual episode as a result, but I hope listener’s enjoy the seasonal flavour and if it’s a success I’ll do another one next year.

YouTube version of the podcast

You can listen to Very British Futures on your favourite podcast app or at the official website

The Day After Tomorrow – Very British Futures

Plenty going on this month but the biggest news for this blog is that there is finally a new episode of my podcast Very British Futures out there – The Day After Tomorrow.

Nothing to do with the dreadful 2004 Roland Emmreich film but everything to do with Gerry Anderson’s continuing efforts to conquer America. UFO had come close but after a strong start in the ratings it had faltered. Space 1999 was doing reasonably well in syndication but the question of a second season was still up in the air. Then Gerry Anderson was approached by George Heinemann, producer of NBC’s new youth orientated anthology strand Special Treat. Special Treat was a series of documentaries and educational family dramas, and Heinemann was looking for a way to dramatise Albert Einstein’s famous theories for children. The result was the 50 minute special The Day After Tomorrow. Hoping it might act as a backdoor pilot for a TV series, Anderson and writer Johnny Byrne (Space 1999, Doctor Who) added the subtitle Into Infinity.

It’s an entertaining family SF adventure and something of an unintended callback to the pioneering Pathfinders in Space series with its young protagonists and parents and the emphasis on science and engineering. The short running time means it moves at a fair clip, and it enjoys the same high-quality production values as Space 1999. For this podcast I tried to reach out beyond my usual circle and recruited Felicia Baxter from the podcast guest site matchmaker.fm Felicia turned out to be a wonderful guest and her fresh perspective and presence make this an excellent episode. It’s also the first of what I intend to be an extra format for the podcast. As well as the traditional discussions with a group of guests, I’d like to more conversational two handers like this, looking at more targeted subjects and shorter form TV plays.

You can hear this episode on your favourite podcast app and also on the web here.

My friend Rik Hoskin has had a good month too. His comic strip adaptation of the second book in The Wheel of Time saga is out now and there’s a new trailer online.

Dynamite Comic’s The Great Hunt, written by Rik Hoskin

In addition he has published a marvellous creepy short story by a scuba diving holiday that takes a strange twist in The Dive, published by Cornice. You can enjoy for free and I recommend you give it a read.

In Memory of Sandra Leatherbarrow

Sandra talking on the set of "Heroes"

I was shocked, along with the whole North West amateur theatre scene, by the sudden death of Sandra Leatherbarrow on Friday 13th October 2023. Not only because she was a good friend of many years, but because I am currently working in her last production, Blue Stockings at Bolton Little Theatre. I had only been speaking to her on Thursday night, little knowing that under two hours later I would be watching paramedics hurrying in, after she suffered a stroke. I still have emails in my inbox from her, about the play and providing technical help to the Little Theatre Guild conference she was simultaneously organising.

Sandra in a shawl, working a spinning wheel in a wood panelled room.

Sandra was always filled with energy from the first time I met her at the theatre. She loved directing and acting, and was always prepared to assist with the less glamorous side of the theatre too, regularly serving as house manager for other productions, and being a long time member of the committee. She cast me in a dual role of medical officer and private in My Boy Jack, one of the plays I am proudest of from my career. She kindly took on the role of Samuel Crompton’s mother in a short play I directed at Hall’ith Wood called A Fine Spinner. I provided sound cues for many of her productions.

I wish I had a hilarious anecdote to share but right now my memories are of a bundle of energy, occasionally exasperating, certainly eccentric but in a productive way that raised up everyone around her. Not just at Bolton Little Theatre, over her life she was involved in several companies, not to mention being a keen golfer. I’m sure I’m going to find out even more over the next few weeks about all her achievements. She supported so many people. In my case I know that each year she lobbied for one of my pantomime scripts to be produced, which I appreciated even though it has not happened yet.

Sad as it is that Blue Stockings will now be a tribute to her, rather than simply her latest production, it is an excellent choice by fate. It’s cast includes old friends and young actors who had only just met her, everyone grateful for the opportunity to work with her and who have been inspired. It’s a play about remarkable women who helped leave the world a better place. Exactly what Sandra did.

Blue Stockings and The Wheel of Time

I’ve been improv acting as a simulated patient over the last few years, and the odd voiceover, but between October 21st and 28th I’m heading back to the stage as an actor in Blue Stockings, by Jessica Swale. The play is on at Bolton Little Theatre. This one of several productions of Jessica Swale’s popular debut play being staged nationwide that week.

1896. At Girton Colllege, female students are welcomed to study at the University of Cambridge for the first time. The Girton girls study ferociously and many match their male peers grade for grade. Yet, whilst the men graduate, the women leave with nothing but the stigma of being a ‘blue stocking’ – an unnatural, educated woman. The play follows them over one tumultuous academic year, in their fight to change the future of education. There is laughter, thwarted romance and bravery from both the women and their few male supporters. Whilst in the background is the suffragette movement, which ironically might do as much to damage their cause as support it.

I play Radleigh, one of Cambridge dons who is against encouraging women to study degrees, viewing it as youthful indiscretion which will destroy their future prospects of marriage and respectability. It is a fairly small part, appearing in two scenes but I must admit I was struggling to memorise my lines after leaving that part of my brain unexercised for years. But they are in there now and I hope my performance gets richer now with each rehearsal. This is all useful practice for a much larger role I’ll be taking on next year in Hangmen by Mike Bartlett.

Blue Stockings runs from 21st to 28th October 2023, including a Sunday matinee. For more information and to book tickets visit https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/boltonlittletheatre or the theatre’s website boltonlittletheatre.co.uk

I posted recently that Rik Hoskin had recently written the comic strip adaptation of Book Two of The Wheel of Time – The Great Hunt. He has recently had a couple more interviews published, where he talks about Robert Jordan’s writing and the experience of adapting such a famous, influential fantasy world.

Epic Fantasy — Discussing ‘Robert Jordan’s The Wheel Of Time: The Great Hunt’ With Writer Rik Hoskin

The Beat – Comics Culture