{"id":5740,"date":"2021-10-14T15:00:03","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1389511"},"modified":"2021-10-14T15:11:09","modified_gmt":"2021-10-14T13:11:09","slug":"doctor-who-game-developers-on-the-weirdness-of-david-tennants-return","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/doctor-who-game-developers-on-the-weirdness-of-david-tennants-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who game developers on the \u201cweirdness\u201d of David Tennant\u2019s return"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Rob Leane\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 14 October 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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David Tennant returns to the world of Doctor Who<\/a> today with a special voice appearance in Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality<\/a>, a video game that sees Tennant\u2019s Time Lord sharing a screen with Jodie Whittaker\u2019s incumbent version of the famous TV hero. But this return did come with a bit of \u201cweirdness\u201d thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Launching today on PC, Nintendo Switch<\/a>, PS4, PS5<\/a>, Xbox One and Xbox Series X<\/a>\/S, Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality actually began life as a 2019 VR game called Doctor Who: The Edge of Time. But with the new beefed-up version, you don\u2019t need a headset to play, and all of David Tennant\u2019s material is brand new \u2013 Whittaker was the only Doctor in the original VR version of the game.<\/p>\n

In an exclusive interview over Zoom prior to Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality\u2019s launch, producer Russ Harding told RadioTimes.com<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s packed with Easter eggs, obviously, for Doctor Who fans, and like lots of nods to previous episodes.\u201d He also told us that new levels and altered gameplay mechanics have been weaved into the experience to expand the game and make it better suited to consoles and controllers (as opposed to its original home in VR).<\/p>\n

Harding added: \u201cBut I suppose the big opportunity, being able to expand out on those worlds, was when we started to look at the narrative.\u201d The Reality Virus that formed the central threat in the Edge of Time VR game is still present in The Edge of Reality, but the scope of the chaos it causes has expanded.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that gave us the opportunity to start looking at, exploring, bringing in some more favoured foes,\u201d Harding explained, \u201cand really starting to mix things up a bit.\u201d This time, the Reality Virus has also roped in the Cybermen \u2013 like Tennant, these metal menaces were not in the VR game, but they\u2019re present and correct in The Edge of Reality.<\/p>\n

Expanding the scope of the game from its humble origins in VR also allowed Harding, in his own words, \u201cto look at some new environments that we could take you to. And of course, the Reality Virus and time itself gave us the opportunity to maybe introduce a second Doctor. So that was something that was quite fun to get to play with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Developer Stewart Gilray chimed in: \u201cThe backstory to that is fun, because the original conversation we had was, \u2018How do we expand this? How do we introduce more to this? Do we do bring in a known companion or do we bring in a Doctor? Ooh! Let\u2019s bring a Doctor in!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we all sat around and we voted on who we wanted to get in the game. And the weird thing was that the one that came out number one in everyone\u2019s list was the 10th. So obviously, David Tennant is rather popular with the old Doctor Who fans, at both [development companies] JAW and Maze Theory. And, thankfully, we got to work with him, which is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""David\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
David Tennant returns in Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Working with David Tennant would be surreal for any Doctor Who fan, but doing it in the middle of the pandemic makes it even stranger. As Gilray puts it, \u201cThere was weirdness because we were, when we recorded the audio last summer sometime, I think was July or August last year when we recorded David \u2013 because obviously, COVID was still a very big thing. It still is now, but then it was even bigger.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo David was working from home with a blanket over his head with a microphone and a laptop. We\u2019re all sat like this, four of us on a Zoom call. There\u2019s David, there\u2019s Gavin [Collinson, writer], there\u2019s me and the producer from Maze Theory. And we\u2019re all going, \u2018Hmm!\u2019 And we\u2019re all sticking our fingers in and saying, \u2018Can you just try this a different way?\u2019 And at the end of the call, we went, \u2018Huh. We were directing David Tennant!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little bit weird, but fun as well at the same time. So that was interesting. And what got me was, he\u2019s just so down to Earth about it all as well. And he even came to us and said, \u2018Actually, can I try these two lines in a different way, please?\u2019 And we\u2019re like, \u2018Okay!\u2019 And some of the things he was putting forward, we hadn\u2019t thought about, and conversely they\u2019ve kind of gone back into parts of the game as well. Not just the line, but the way that he wanted to deliver it, we\u2019ve actually reworked some of the scenes to work with that.\u201d<\/p>

Harding is quick to praise each of the game\u2019s two Doctors, saying, \u201cBoth Jodie Whitaker and David Tennant are just like, they are just so good at the Doctors they play. It\u2019s just such a great session \u2013 always really quick.\u201d Speaking of speediness sparks off another memory for Gilroy, who adds, \u201cTo that, we actually booked David for a couple of hours or a whole morning I think, and we had it done in 45 minutes!\u201d<\/p>\n

When Doctor Who fans pictured David Tennant\u2019s return, they may not have envisioned it being 45 minutes under a duvet, but we\u2019ll take what we can get! Neither developer wanted to spill secrets regarding what Tennant gets up to in the story, so we\u2019ll just have to jump into the game now and find out for ourselves. Allons-y!<\/p>\n

Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality is out now on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. You can check out the brand-new launch trailer below.<\/strong><\/p>\n