Destiny of the Doctors is a 1997 action video game published by BBC multimedia and developed by Studio Fish.
The game is based on the science-fiction TV series Doctor Who, which centres on the humanoid alien known as The Doctor, a benevolent time traveller. The Doctor travels in the TARDIS, a time machine that's much bigger on the inside, facing foes such as his evil rival The Master and the genocidal alien Daleks. One key feature of the show is that the Doctor regenerates into a new form (played by a different actor) each time he's facing death. When Destiny of the Doctors was released, there had been seven different incarnatiosn of the Doctor.
Gameplay consists of traversing the TARDIS's many rooms whilst completing tasks set by the Master (Anthony Ainley), in order to save the first seven incarnations of the Doctor. You are playing as Graak (a psychic being made up of the Doctor's willpower) and are aided by all seven Doctors (William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker And Sylvester McCoy, telepathically) and his ally the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney, via a radio).
It features voice acting by Anthony Ainley, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Nicholas Courtney, as well as audio clips taken directly from the show and impressionist David Coker (who supplies extra voice lines for the First and Second Doctors). Anthony Ainley also provided live action cutscenes for the game which would prove to be his last performance in the role. Jon Pertwee was due to record dialogue for the project but died before this could be completed. As a result, his incarnation speaks entirely through dialogue taken from his on screen performances and the game is dedicated to his and Terry Nation's (who created the Daleks) memories.
The gameplay is as follows, you select and incarnation of the Doctor to save and then complete a task for the Master (Collect an object and bring it to him, answer a riddle, complete an odd one out puzzle and many other things) and then face off in a boss battle against the Master).
Destiny of the Doctors contains examples of the following tropes:
- The '80s: The sound effects and location design are very reminiscent of this era of the show in particular.
- Acceptable Breaks from Reality: The Doctor and the Master's TARDISes now connect seamlessly via a corridor maze because... reasons?
- Anachronism Stew: For example, the Quarks appear as the main villain during the First Doctor's level, despite their first (and only) TV appearance being during a Second Doctor story.
- Rule of Cool: Most of this game makes no sense in the greater Doctor Who canon but it is fun enough to get away with it, especially for the time it was released.
- Warp Zone: The TARDIS console room acts as this, since it enables you to level select the Doctor you next wish to save.
- Weaponized Offspring: From a certain point of view as Graak is a psychic being made of the Doctor's willpower who is capable of independent thought but is used as a pawn to fight the Master.
