The player: High hopes for the Doctor Who videogame

Last week's episode of Doctor Who ended with a trailer not just for the next show, but also the upcoming Doctor Who game . It's an exciting moment for fans such as me. We were last able to play a computer game as our hero in the 1992 Spectrum and Windows 3.1 title Dalek Attack – a fun, if fairly generic, action platformer . But I am worried that it may be difficult to translate the magic of Doctor Who to a game format. Sean Millard of franchise Sumo Digital has said: "The Doctor himself . . . saves humanity, with the power of negotiation and clever quips, which . . . doesn't make for great gameplay." Some games have proved him wrong about the quips – notably the Monkey Island series – but most strip out these qualities. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer games , for instance, lost much of the show's trademark humour. And games, famously, do not make great movies . They are often essentially exciting learning experiences: practice the same skill in different environments, get rewarded for doing it better until you are ready to take on the big boss. Translated into a movie, this makes for a repetitive, over-structured story with little emphasis on characterisation or relationship development. The best of the bunch was probably Tomb Raider starring Angelina Jolie, with Chris Barrie as Lara Croft's butler – and all I can really say of it is that it passed the time on a transatlantic flight. The fact that Doctor Who has at last been recognised as a national treasure is worth celebrating. Any writer or games designer would love to have a crack at it, and the fact that the game will be free for licence-fee payers is exciting. But I can't help thinking this could be one time when TV trumps games.