Doctor Who
Latest
BBC wants back into the game biz
The BBC has a ton of great IPs under its publicly-funded belt, but hasn't had a lot of luck transitioning those into quality interactive entertainment. According to MCV, the Brits are looking to change that, currently seeking out developers and publishers to turn Doctor Who, Top Gear, In The Night Garden and other properties into games for the Wii, DS, iPhone and (hooray!) Facebook. OK, so it's not quite the Doctor Who adventure game that we (and Telltale!) were hoping for. But we guess you've got to start somewhere, even if you're a Time Lord.
UK man builds life-sized Dalek, furthers intergalactic evil
Sci-fi fandom and the DIY ethic go hand in hand -- and for evidence, you need only look at the large number of Star Trek and Star Wars-themed projects we've seen in this space over the years. Still, few of them have achieved the scope of the full-sized Dalek that Rob Bosher built for about £700 (roughly $1,140). Powered by an electric wheelchair and constructed mostly from wood, this guy can be piloted via remote control and even features working lights, a moving eye (a reconstituted magic eight ball) and a voice modulator for the creepy, alien order to "exterminate." When not trying to slowly (very slowly) populate the earth with a robot army bent on universal conquest and destruction, Bosher hopes to use his project to make money for regional charities.
Are you listening, BBC? Telltale wants to make Doctor Who games
During an interview with UK Develop magazine, Telltale's CEO Dan Connor's discussed the licenses that he'd love the company to work on in the future. Getting hold of the Monkey Island license was a pretty major coup, but he's also got his eye on The Young Ones -- a classic UK comedy show -- The Big Lebowski and Spinal Tap. Another name that gets passed around the office quite often, which may be more plausible, is Doctor Who."We do get emails from people asking us to make a Doctor Who series," Connors says. "Maybe if we can get a channel into the UK with Wallace & Gromit we could talk business with the BBC, that would be really good for us." We have a feeling it would be really good for us, too. The Doctor Who universe fits Telltale's point-and-click episodic style perfectly and, with some direct input from the producers of the show, could tie in very nicely to fill in some between-episode gaps. Worse things have been done with the franchise, after all.
Infringers of Dune: Dune role-players shut down by Herbert Estate. Spice keeps flowing
Among the various business, educational and social uses to which Second Life is put, Role-Playing gamers have quite a number of thriving communities. If you want to role-play in the world of Joss Whedon's Firefly, or Straczynski's Babylon 5, Lucas' Star Wars universe(s), Tolkien's Middle Earth, John Norman's Gor, Frank Herbert's Dune, Roddenberry's Star Trek, or the settings of Doctor Who, Torchwood, Battlestar Galactica, Harry Potter, Final Fantasy VII or CCP/White Wolf's World of Darkness, Second Life is home to all of these and more. Well, until this week anyway. According to Wagner James Au, Trident Media Group, a literary agent "designed for the twenty first century",which maintains the Herbert Estate sent cease-and-desist notices via Linden Lab requiring one non-profit role-playing community to remove Dune-related names and objects from the virtual environment within two days.
The Queue: Archdruids? Nahh. Okay, maybe.
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Apparently I missed a Doctor Who reference in one of the questions I answered yesterday. Maybe? Heck if I know. If you're looking for our resident Doctor Who nerd, direct your references to Elizabeth Harper. They go way over my head.Zoidberg asked...A while ago, we heard some rumors about a new hero class called archdruid. (Or something like that.) What do we know about these guys? Is this a possibility for the 4.0 hero class?
Doctor Who wants to time warp, play retro games
Most of us have probably dabbled around with a Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator before, but have you ever crammed one into a TARDIS? Those things are supposed to be bigger on the inside than the outside. Anyhow, one man decided that having a dedicated stand-up gaming cabinet wasn't enough, so he built this pillar of geek awesomeness.Check out the two different sections, one on the building of the iconic blue Police Box, and the other on the console. He even had the 7th doctor, Sylvester McCoy, autograph the thing. Is it still a sin to covet thy neighbor's sci-fi gaming cabinet? If so, mark us down in the "sinner" category.[Thanks, Douglas!]
Doctor Who stars in an appropriately British game
If Doctor Who were an American TV show, the associated game would be a 3D platforming shooter called Doctor Who: The Official Video Game and featuring monotone voice acting from the show's stars over awkward 3D models. But the very British Doctor is instead coming to the DS (and PS2 and PC) in Top Trumps: Doctor Who, a themed video game version of the popular Top Trumps card game, which involves comparing various statistics printed on cards. It seems a bit more ... restrained than a shooty action game.Top Trumps: Doctor Who will feature, in addition to the main Trumps game, a story mode in which players can control the Doctor, Martha, Captain Jack or even one of the monsters from the show.[Via press release]
"Employee only" bronze Orc and wolf statue finds its way onto eBay
Here's an eBay auction that might be worth watching: A rather spiffy looking bronze statue of an Orcish Wolf Rider. While the statue looks pretty awesome on its own, what's intriguing is the source: the seller claims that this is the statue created exclusively for Blizzard by WETA employed sculptors Eden Small and Daniel Cockersell. You may recall this article in the OC Register (Alex Ziebart reported on it for WoW Insider here), which mentions the commission of a 12 foot high version of this statue for the courtyard of their new headquarters, to be installed this summer. Certainly, the statue looks pretty good, and it has an impressive pedigree. Daniel Cockersell himself has also created some pretty good looking Warhammer sculptures, and Small and Cockersell have also worked together on official merchandise for the upcoming Prince Caspian Movie and Doctor Who, among other things. I'm not sure I'll have the money to get in on this auction, since I imagine it'll get pretty high, but I do sort of want to head down to Irvine this summer just to drool over the larger version. I'm sure it'll look pretty sweet if this smaller statue is any indication.I have to admit to being curious as to which Blizzard employee decided they'd rather have a bit of extra pocket money instead of the statue, though, or if there's another reason that this statue has appeared on eBay, and from a seller in Ireland, at that. [Thanks for the tip, Lim!]
Streaming BBC video comes to the Wii
Now that the Wii has brought TV web browsing to millions of homes, web services are tripping all over themselves to make sure they're fully compatible with the Wii's Opera browser. The latest organization to trip is the BBC, which announced today that its iPlayer catch-up service will allow UK Wii owners to stream programs through the system directly onto their TVs.The program, which goes into beta today, is simply a Wii-optimized version of the BBC's existing iPlayer catch-up service, which last month served 17.2 million episodes of programs such as Torchwood, Doctor Who and Top Gear, among dozens of others. The service will only be available to UK citizens and does require the 500 Wii Point purchase of the Internet channel, but a BBC info. page says the organization is hoping "to be able to get iPlayer on Wii without this purchase being needed."[Thanks to everybody who sent this in]
Connect08 to have exclusive in-game LotRO titles
Planning on heading to Connect08 this year? If you're going be there, you could claim the title of Worldly Traveler. If that title isn't your particular thing, you could also choose Pillar of the Community or Greeter of Kin. However, there is a one per person limit these babies -- so choose wisely. Turbine and Codemasters are to thank for this one, Also, we should mention that as far as we know these titles are only available at Connect08. Hopefully, we'll get to see something similar from Turbine at other events this year -- we're hoping for PAX08.Whether or not we actually see more of these at another show in the future, it's a very cool -- and free -- extra for those of you heading to the event this year.
Grimwell gives one reason fantasy pwns sci-fi, we go "Huh?"
Watch your head, you don't want it hit by return fire in the ever-present MMO blogosphere discussion of fantasy vs sci-fi. The most recent discussion started up with Massively's own Michael Zenke and his "Five Reasons Sci-Fi Pwns Fantasy" which prompted the return fire in question from Grimwell. Both of the posts are certainly worth reading, especially if you have any kind of lingering interest in the subject matter. As far as we can see, there's truth to be had on both sides of the fence. However, we do have one point of contention to make with Grimwelll's argument. He states that the reason fantasy "pwns" sci-fi is that it's accessible, which is a constant argument on the matter. While we think he may have a point in that less people are inherently familiar with sci-fi, we very much disagree with his assessment that you need to be a math nerd to enjoy good sci-fi -- his example in this case being Star Trek and its now-infamous technobabble.
Dalek Webcam
Yesterday, I posted about the Tardis USB Hub. Today, I bring you another essential Mac peripheral, the Dalek Webcam. Like the Tardis hub, the webcam is made by Wesco Products, which seems to have a Doctor Who license from the BBC. They also manufacturer a Dalek USB Flash Memory Stick. As many of you found out yesterday, Amazon.co.uk does not ship electronics to the US. What a shame. If you do not live in the UK, and you cannot live without Who accessorizing, it looks like eBay UK may be your best bet for purchase. Make sure to contact the seller before placing your bid to ensure that the item can ship to the US.
My Mac needs a Tardis
The boys at BoingBoing stumble across so many wonderful things--and today they've topped themselves again. A Tardis-shaped USB hub. I want one. No, I need one. Not just for me, but for my Mac. Because I'm unselfish like that. Call me a geek, call me a nerd, whatever. The Tardis-hub has 4 ports and it goes vwooorp-vwooorp when you plug in a device. Can technology get any better than that? I think not. It's theoretically for sale over at Firebox, but the page says it's currently unavailable. Nothing, of course, that a little space-time manipulation can't solve. If US purchasers don't mind ordering overseas, it's available at Amazon UK (for £14.99), Forbidden Planet, Play.com, and so forth.
