As the rebooted show shoots for international success, now is the time for a big-budget Doctor Who game

doctor who it is regenerating. When I say that, I’m not just talking about the in-universe concept of the main character’s cells growing back to cheat death, the canon justification for a change of actor. I’m talking about the show as a whole: it is transforming, changing. It’s about to be something very different and very new, with a dash of the familiar anyway.

This is not so unusual with Doctor Who. More so than with its long-running American rival Star Trek, the ‘blue box show’ can be fairly neatly divided into eras based on the creative teams in charge and the actors playing the Doctor. However, this is a bigger change than most, in part because it marks the return of legendary TV writer Russell T Davies to the top job as showrunner, but also and more importantly because he sees the series receiving American money and influence.

Davies’ return is important because he’s the man who revived the show in 2005 after more than a decade off the air, and went on to generate some of the series’ increased popularity. He’s also a canny writer, deftly weaving scathing real-world commentary into family-friendly sci-fi games. But money, of course, is even more important, and this time Doctor Who is backed by Disney.

Famous for its wobbly sets and dodgy CGI, the concept is pretty simple: the BBC retains overall creative control and will broadcast the show in the UK, but it gets a cash injection and it will be broadcast worldwide via Disney+. Disney’s clout offers a huge cash injection, with UK streaming industry magazines reporting that indeed triple the show’s budget, making it a £100 million series.

This is all a big deal for Doctor Who on TV, but I think it makes for an interesting conversation in the games as well. That’s for a simple reason: mechanically and tonally, the world of Doctor Who is fertile ground for video games, and it’s barely been explored.

There have been games since the 2005 reboot, of course, and there are also old games from the 1980s. But all of them have had one major drawback: they have been made on a shoestring budget and are mainly aimed at the show’s limited audience, mainly in the UK. One game, for the Wii, was big enough to justify paying actors for voice work and for throwing in a Wii Remote in the shape of the Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver tool, but at the same time not big enough to to launch it anywhere other than the UK and Australia.

The most recent major change was The Edge of Time, a VR game that also got a rushed non-VR port as The Edge of Reality. This release had interesting ideas and some lovely voice acting from two different TV Doctors, but again felt quite held back by the fact that it had big ambitions and probably a pretty low budget. It also didn’t help that it was released alongside an era of the show that had near-catastrophic levels of popularity. But with this new deal, all that could change.

The reason I feel like Doctor Who is perfect for video games is not just because I’m a fan of the show, because of my sins, but because of how the show is structured. Its ability to go anywhere and do anything, across genres, is a perfect place for a creative development team to flex their imaginative muscles. The Doctor’s nature as a hero is also unlike most: willing to blow things up from time to time, but equally focused on intellect and non-violence, but in a rudimentary way, rather than in a monotonous, preachy way of life. Star Fleet. The character is painfully British in style and execution, which is always what sets them apart in the genre.

Despite being so unique and important, the good thing is that the Doctor doesn’t need to be the protagonist! This is what The Edge of Time got right: to understand that the aspirational dream of the audience in Doctor Who is not necessarily to be the Doctor, it is to be with the Doctor. This is different from Star Trek, where people want to be the captain, not a redshirt. In Doctor Who, the accompanying characters are always the audience’s point of entry, and that provides room for a perfect player insert character for any video game. It also detaches the game’s protagonist from any weird canonical red lines that the Doctor wouldn’t cross, in terms of actions available to the player. This has been explored, but always with a limited budget, a high degree of blocking, and very little success.

There are many ways you could view this manifestation. A Telltale-style adventure game would fit nicely into the series. So would an action-adventure romp packed with puzzles and a bit of combat. Perhaps most interesting would be a game that uses the TARDIS’s ability to travel anywhere to deliver a genre-hopping experience that transforms mechanically and maybe even visually as you travel to different locations and face different threats. This is my point, really: the budget has never really been there to fully utilize and take advantage of this property. I apologize for continuing to dwell on the comparison, but Doctor Who is much more fertile ground for video game concepts than Star Trek, which really just works like choose your own adventure or something like Bridge Crew. Just like on TV, the series’ greatest strength is its sheer, unstoppable breadth.

My hope is that this Disney+ deal can unlock all of that. If the show’s new and old creative team have their way, and if Disney’s money is used well, Doctor Who could quickly become one of, if not one of, the biggest family-watching shows on TV. great overall. If that happens, a video game is practically required. Surely it is when, not if, now. I just hope he can live up to his potential.