No more Christmas special. Russell T. Davies has walked away from the showrunner role for good. Bad Wolf Productions has been dropped, and the BBC has opened the programme’s future to a competitive tender process in search of new independent production partners.
That’s an awful lot of moving parts for a show whose usual job is moving through time.
In practical terms for viewers: fresh episodes are not arriving any time soon. The BBC has concluded that a major reshuffle is what the series needs to keep succeeding in the years ahead, and reshuffles don’t happen quickly.
So a gap opens up. And something exists to fill it.
Filling the gap: an idle game with a handful of Doctors in it
Over on the Eastside Games website sits a page for Doctor Who: Lost In Time, a new idle title built around roaming space and time to gather enough energy to rescue the universe. Fitting work for a Time Lord.
Here’s how the developer described the contents: “As the Doctor you will visit different classic locations in the franchise, encounter companions and oppose dastardly plans of the Daleks, the Cybermen and more. Get new characters to help you by collecting cards and level them up using Vortex Energy, Kyfred Gems and Henoch Matter.”
Holding the whole thing together is the resource economy. “All these resources are key to overcoming all the obstacles in your way,” the developer said. “Get Kerblam Boxes shipped to you when you complete a task and obtain your rewards. Be ready to jump into the TARDIS at any given moment and tap your screen to fix it so you can travel to your next Adventure as quickly as possible.”
A story of its own, not a replay of the episodes
What’s on offer isn’t a plot recap wearing a game’s clothing. “Uncover a conspiracy across time and space trying to destroy the Doctor,” the developer said. “Embark in an original story involving several Doctors and Companions through classic locations of the franchise, facing infamous enemies with new plots.”
Several Doctors. Several companions. Well-known villains up to unfamiliar mischief.
On Android and Apple devices it costs nothing, which knocks out the one genuine reason not to give it a go. Should it fail to click with you, the download is the only thing you’re out.
Everything else is a waiting game
Past that, there’s nothing to do but sit tight until the BBC shares more about what comes next. The series follows the Doctor and their companion travelling across time and space, encountering remarkable friends and foes and expanding the universe of the long-running British sci-fi show, and it really would be a shame if it didn’t come back in earnest before too long.
For the moment, the TARDIS lives on your phone and it’s in need of repair. Tap the screen.