Sontaran Disturbance: England

Squeeee!

Previous Episode: Dalek Paradox 

Next Episode: The Snowmen: Backstreets of London

Game version played: 2.4

You’ve won the 10th Doctor, so the first thing you should do is add him to your team right? Well, probably not.

The obvious thing to do is put him in that remaining space in your team roster. Unfortunately the game won’t let you do it. Go on, try. Only one space is capable of holding the Time Lord, tap on the first space and you see the list of available Doctors. Select #10 and he swaps with #11. Tap one of the other spaces and you just see the Companions. There’s no way to get 2 or more Doctors in your team. Wah!

Well get over it. That’s the way the game works. You have to decide if you want the perfect 10, or to turn it up to 11. Now if David Tennant is the love of your life, if the 10th Doctor is your Doctor, then nothing I say will convince you to do anything but boot that bow-tied buffoon out and replace him with the real deal. However game-play wise it’s hard to argue for that option.

The first strike against the 10th Doctor is his game colour. He’s Red and you already have Red Jenny Flint. The 11th Doctor is Blue and you have no Blue Companion. Choose the Red Doctor and you become unable to deliver Blue damage. Yes it is true that at LVL.1 Jenny can ‘Smoulder’ Blue gems to Red every 7 turns but this doesn’t make up the difference.

The second strike is the special ability. Rank 1 Doctor #10 Heals allies for 200HP after 15 Combos and 500HP after another 15. Unfortunately you have recently recruited Rory who is also a Healer, though not in the same league. The game is still playing easy and you could manage without any Healer for a while yet, you don’t need two. Take the Healing Doctor and you lose the Damaging Doctor.

The Sontaran production of
'The Full Monty' was not a success

The last and most important thing to remember is that this is a game. You are here to have fun and if you want to play every single adventure with the 10th Doctor alone then good for you. Have at it and send me a screen grab.

The 10th Doctor was played by David Tennant. It’s easy to underestimate how important he has been to the show. With hind sight there was a good chance that the 2005 reboot of Doctor Who was going to be at least a moderate success. However I doubt anyone expected it to be such a smash. Then Christopher Eccleston pulled the rug out by leaving after one series. Would this be another false dawn like the TV Movie, destined to break our hearts? Never fear, the skinny Scot was here.

Tennant loved the show and was determined to wring every last ounce of joy from his time in the TARDIS. Watching him you just knew he was having the time of his life. He knew exactly who the Doctor was and he totally ‘got’ it. Like all of the Doctors in New Who he is a talented actor so there was no problem there, but his super power was his charisma. He was a hit with the ladies, and his geek-chic coolness worked for us boys.

The success of series 1 was surpassed by the 10th Doctor juggernaut, driving the show to become one of the BBC’s flagship shows. Poor old Doctor #9 is now almost overlooked.

At times the 10th Doctor was too cocky, and it became possible to dislike the popular and cool man who was great at everything. David Tennant occasionally seemed bigger than the show, and may have stayed 1 season too long. This is just nit-picking though. He was the most successful Doctor since Tom Baker.

It’s hard to pick a favourite 10th Doctor episode. Blink was a masterpiece but he’s barely in it. I loved Tooth and Claw, but Human Nature and The Family of Blood were better stories and Tennant acted his socks off. If forced I’d have to plump for Midnight, delightfully creepy and a tense ‘base under siege’ story.

In the game, from here on there is at least a choice of Doctors. The team I play with may not be the same one that you used. Not an issue, seeing how someone else got through a game is part of the fun. My team for this level is 11th Doctor, Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, Porridge and Rory Williams. 

Sontaran Disturbance: England is not a TV episode and it is likely to drop Yellow Time Fragments. There is another 100% drop, but this time it’s a costume for the 11th Doctor, the Stetson outfit from The Impossible Astronaut. Our first costume change.

The level takes place in Bexhill,England, with a serene view of green fields and blue sky. Not the place you’d expect to find a squad of heavily armed alien clones from a high gravity planet, but just such a group stands before you. The Doctor identifies them as one of the Sontaran teams going back and changing time. You’d better stop them before they can create more paradoxes.

Wave 1 is a solo Yellow Sontaran. I must have got him right in the probic vent because he went down like a sack of spuds. That kill got me a Time Crystal. Wave 2 is made up of two of the same Sontarans. It took just 2 turns to kill them but no reward was forthcoming.

Then before you know it you’re at the final wave, a Green Sontaran Commander. He can heal himself a little which did keep him in the fight for two rounds but that was all. He died, presumably for the glory of the Sontaran Empire, and a grey portrait fell. The costume.

Putting on an outfit is simple. Go to the character in question’s profile tab and you’ll see a ‘New’ flash. Click on ‘Change Outfit’ and you’ll see that one of the previously greyed out options is now available. Select it and the character portrait is changed. There is no game bonus for the different costumes and no stars for collecting them, but I do enjoy the collect-ability. You can change them at will so feel free to dress your team for each occasion.

There was enough experience awarded to get Jenny up to LVL. 5 and I again boosted her ATK. I had the Time Crystal and the costume but no Time Fragments from the match.

And we’re done, rather quickly. Still you need some calm time so that you can recognise ‘exciting’ when you meet it. No complaints, let’s move on and see what’s next.