The what, we hear you ask? The Doctor Who Bot on Skype, of course…
Calling itself ‘an innovative digital experience’ – The Doctor Who Bot will allow Skype users to interact with the Time Lord as they are recruited to assist in a six part multimedia adventure called ‘The Saviour of Time’.
“Do you have what it takes to help the Doctor save the Universe? The Doctor needs your help! A mysterious artefact known as the Key To Time is scattered throughout Time and Space. To save the entire Universe, the six segments must be located and the Key must be restored.”
Written by Joseph Lidster, who has penned episodes of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, as well as a host of Doctor Who audio stories, ‘The Saviour of Time’ is fashioned after the quest storyline which spanned the whole of Season 16 and saw the Fourth Doctor and Romana on a lengthy mission to restore the stability of the universe.
Well the Doctor needs to assemble it again and this time he is asking for your help. If you sign up, he will give you tasks and puzzles to solve in order to help locate the missing pieces. The Bot launches today, 3rd May, and you can expect to be contacted each Sunday at 6PM (BST) and invited to play the subsequent chapters.
CultBox were lucky enough to be invited to have a go at the first chapter, and it really is quite fun – and thankfully not too taxing. With the help of Peter Capaldi’s vocal talents, and plenty of text-based Doctor-ish banter, we worked our way through some simple quizzing on the solar system and helped set the coordinates on the TARDIS (it called for a little general knowledge and some simple maths – nothing too taxing!).
For those with a good enough memory, the style is reminiscent of a “Make You Own Adventure With…” book or those text-based adventures you would play on your ZX Spectrum in the 1980s (you know, when Peter Davison was the Doctor and digital watches were still a pretty neat idea!). Of course, this is a little more sophisticated, and we are sure that it will catch the attentions of younger fans of the show. After all, who doesn’t want to be called a “pudding brain” by the Doctor?
To add the Doctor Who Bot manually, users need to search for “Doctor Who Bot” in the Skype Bot Directory, read the bot’s profile and terms, and then click “Add to Contacts”. To see new updates as they begin to roll out, users need to be on the latest Skype app for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, or Web.
The Doctor Who Bot will be available from the Skype Bot directory in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Italy, Spain, France, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Czech Republic, Estonia, Portugal, Russia, Mexico, and Brazil.
Click here to add the Doctor Who bot to Skype and start saving the universe! Visit the Skype blog for more information on the bot and click here for a step-to-step guide on how to use the bot.
What do you think of the Bot? Let us know below…