Doctor Who - Blood of the Cybermen

"Do you even know what a plan is?"

So asks Amy at the end of Blood of the Cybermen. And it is a good question, since the adventure that precedes the comment shows that the Doctor has no plan whatsoever. And the overall feeling of the adventure is even better because of it.

Make no mistake about it, Blood of the Cybermen represents a massive step forward from the lumpen, often tedious City of the Daleks. It has a plot and everything. Sure, there are still the irritating little games (the maze format in particular becomes very boring very quickly) and the story is far more RTD than Moffat, particularly in the way in which it is resolved. But there is a certain confidence and sense of direction in Blood of the Cybermen that was missing from City of the Daleks. It even has some striking images that could rival some of the more terrifying ones from the TV series - particularly the idea of cyber-conversion as plague. In this respect, it nicely mirrors The Pandorica Opens - it does something interesting with the Cybermen.

Sure, on the TV screen, this would be a slight episode - one watched, and then promptly forgotten about. But it feels far more like the real episode that it so desperately wants to be than its predecessor, and that alone needs to be celebrated. This time, the script did some justice to the others who desperately try to create a gaming equivalent of the TV version of Doctor Who. So if you want to play the Doctor (and Amy), then skip City of the Daleks and instead go straight to Blood of the Cyberman.

The Doctor doesn't seem to have a plan, but judging by this, those making these games may yet show themselves to be capable of effectively planning a decent Doctor Who game.