The Saviour Of Time (2017) Review

I know he's a busy man, but a few seconds of this and I would've given this a 10/10.

The Saviour Of Time is a Skype-based roleplaying game where you influence the adventures of the TARDIS crew via a technological link created by the Doctor.

WRITTEN BY

Joseph Lidster. From what I understand, he does a lot of peripheral Doctor Who writing for the BBC(websites, a few SJA and Torchwood episodes), but he's also quite prolific in Big Finish and most notably, wrote the excellent Seventh Doctor audio Master.

PLOT

Once again, evil has begun to take a hold over the universe and the Key To Time is needed to restore the natural order of things. But this time, the Doctor requires a distant helping hand... from you!

Serving at his beck and call, you will solve logic puzzles... and that's pretty much it. Sometimes you push a button to keep the ball rolling and say "yes" or "no" too. Saving the universe, of course.

ANALYSIS

The AI is incredibly simplistic, so you'll have to be really precise(and speak as little as possible) to make the Doctor's dialogue sound realistic. But when it does work, it works wonders and I was really drawn in. Lidster does a really good job of nailing the Twelfth Doctor's dialogue and his repartee is often hilarious.

The puzzles themselves are quite complicated, ranging from obscure historical facts to mathematical conundrums to remembering who the Doctor's favourite composer is. You'll definitely go away learning something.

As a story in its own right, The Saviour Of Time has its ups and downs. You have some really tense sequences, like having to guide the Doctor through an ancient temple with a ticking clock, but a lot of it is also mundane stuff like answering a lot of trivia questions that basically serve as the Doctor's password to access a shopping centre.
I wish they had focused more on the former, as they were really the only times that the story became tangible, creating a sort of Indiana Jones atmosphere.

NOTES

*Oh crap, did he just- he saw my internet-...!! HE KNOWS I WRITE FANFICTION!! 'cries a bucketful' I mean, I also got pornhub on my internet speed dial, but whatever.

*The second segment was disguised as a certain character(spoilers!), which is kind of weird. I mean, all the original segments seemed to be unique, not duplicates or something. Did the fake person die or is she just wandering around now, looking for the Doctor?

*It's very annoying that we never find out the disguises of some of the segments. The Doctor just basically says "oh yeah, that Key To Time segment? Found that while you were doing this."

*Why does the Doctor assume that Nardole has been captured in the past because the words "NARDOLE WOZ ERE" was sketched on some rocks? Couldn't he be on any random TARDIS trip? Although I suppose then they should've worked in a bootstrap paradox thing where Nardole tells them how to save him.

*Is the planet "Shar-Tek" a reference to Star Trek? Nothing else about the planet seems to relate.

*Of course, the number required to stop the bomb is 42. Hey, it's the answer to everything.

*I'm willing to buy that the Doctor would require a random nerd from Earth at a stretch, but someone thinking out loud via text messaging... okay, MAYBE if they're speaking to Siri or something on their end. Which I doubt, because the character in question is supposed to be doing talking to me in extreme secrecy.

*Okay, so I have to pick between three Sontaran names... first of all, there's Lynx. Which would be a rip-off if I didn't know they were clones. Then there's Kaarsh, which sounds a little silly. And then there's Katsy. Now you're just screwing with me.

*The part where your text is translated to Sontaran-esque dialogue is hilarious.

*Apparently, despite his dislike of vortex manipulators in the television series, the Doctor just happens to be carrying one in his pocket. A run-in with Jack?

*The Doctor does not disappoint if you mention that you watch Netflix.

*Warning: the game might glitch up. I had a character repeat the same line three or four times. Also, I think it could be a problem with Skype itself, but on several occasions the game randomly scrolled up, which was a big problem when the bot is constantly posting and you're missing stuff or clicking on the wrong things.

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

1) The Twelfth Doctor quotes his previous incarnations on several occasions.

2) When discussing the Agent, the Doctor mentions that he was followed on his journey from Earth, to Balhoon(The End Of The World, to Terra Alpha(The Happiness Patrol), to Earth, to Metebelis III(Planet Of The Spiders).

3) The Twelfth Doctor shares one of his predecessors' love for "places with little shops", which was first mentioned in the story New Earth.

4) One of the puzzles used in the Temple of Shar-Tek is ripped from Pyramids Of Mars. It's a great one, don't get me wrong, but still.

5) The Doctor suspects that either Missy, the Celestial Toymaker or the Trickster(from The Sarah Jane Adventures) could be the Agent.

6) When your link with a Sontaran clone becomes garbled with txtspk, he mentions Bad Wolf at one point. The words appeared regularly throughout Series 1, signifying Rose Tyler's brief control over the Time Vortex.

7) The Doctor tells you that Nardole is reminding him he's required on Earth, a veiled reference to his period of guarding the Vault.

All of these are entirely unnecessary(but cute), save for the last one since it's contemporary.

BONUS REWARD

If you excel at 4 chapters out of 6, you receive a final voice message(the only other one being from Peter Capaldi at the beginning) from the main villain, complimenting you for your victory and promising to defeat you the next time you meet.

It's a great send-off, but I was a bit let down that we didn't get some kind of sneak peek to the TARDIS and maybe even a little clip of Peter Capaldi in person.

CONCLUSION

Frivolous fun. Could've been better even with this limited format, but it does function fairly well as a roleplaying game. I think you'll have a nice experience with it.