Shadows of the Vashta Nerada (video game)

Shadows of the Vashta Nerada is the final episode of the first series of the Adventure Games

Synopsis
London, the 23rd Century: devastated by a plague of biblical proportions, the city has been consumed by Davy Jones' Locker. Now the Doctor and his latest companion, Amy Pond, find themselves in a deep sea base. It is a research station designed to study the ruins and salvage some shrapnel of hope from the wreckage. A swarm of monstrous Vashta Nerada have invaded the facility with plans to feast on the crew. Can the Doctor and Amy survive? Only you can decide...

Act One: The Giant Shark
The Doctor and Amy arrive on Poseidon after their encounter with the Entity to find a giant shark attacking the tunnel they are in. They are forced to escape and are left with no option but to move on, as their way back to the TARDIS has been destroyed by the massive jaws of the shark. As they traverse the tunnels, the are stalked by the giant shark desperately trying to break through the glass and eat them.

Arriving at the main building, Amy and the Doctor find one of the base's personnel, Martin Flenigan. He explains there is a disease affecting the base and the computer, Jones, would not let him in due to the quarantine. The Doctor manages to convince Jones to let them pass through a compromise after giving it recognition for its hard work.

Act Two: Poseidon 8
Inside Poseidon, they meet Oswald and Dana, who begin to explain the situation. The lights go out, and when Oswald and Dana begin to panic, the Doctor realises there is something else attacking Poseiden: the Vashta Nerada. When the lights come back on, Martin is found to be dead, nothing left but his diving suit and bones in true Vashta Nerada fashion much to the horror of his co-workers.

The Doctor and Amy decide to go fix the generators so that they may keep the Vashta Nerada at bay, all the while avoiding the Alien Shark that continues to stalk them. They arrive to the generator and are faced with two dead divers reanimated by the Vashta Nerada. They avoid them and the generator is turned back on, expelling the Vashta Nerada from the two bodies when light is restored. The Doctor takes an environment status chip from one of the divers' suits to have Jones analyse it.

Jones detects radiation is recorded in the status chip, but is unable to identify what kind it is as it has not records of such radiation. The Doctor deduces is because it is Vortron Radiation, a type of radiation caused by rifts in time and space and not ordinarily found on Earth. Deciding to focus on curing the disease caused by the radiation, the Doctor asks Oswald to give them the access codes to allow them to find the ingredients he needs to create a cure.

Cracking under the stress of the situation, Oswald forbids the Doctor and Amy from doing so due to the danger posed by the Vashta Nerada. He plans to send the crew up to the surface in escape pods. However, this is actualy a very bad idea. If they're not destroyed by the alien shark, they'll be fish in barrels for the Vashta Nerada.

The Doctor and Amy convince Dana to give them the codes, letting them out into the corridors to find ingredients. Finding a series of vegitables recently haversted in the corridoers, the Doctor concocts an antidote and gives one of the serums to Dana. Dana reveals another piece of information: all these strange occurrences started with a mysterious flash of light.

This leads the Doctor to scan the area around the base for the source of these events. The base's scanners reveal a nearby shipwreck, but it's no ordinary shipwreck. It is the wreck of famed US supply ship, the USS Eldridge, which was part of a project to make it invisible (a project the Time Lords attempted to stop, but failed due to the ship falling through a dimensional wormhole). However, this project caused the ship to bend the laws of physics and travel through time, the elecromagnetic generator now acting as a gateway through time and space that brought both the Shark and the Vashta Nerada to Poseidon 8.

The Doctor also finds that there is an underground tunnel back to the TARDIS and prepares to leave with Amy and Dana to Eldridge. However, Oswald enters, threatening the Doctor and Amy with a harpoon gun. He ties them up and leaves to launch the escapes pods with Dana. Using an escape trick, the Doctor gets untied and unties Amy. They use the secret passage and get back to the TARDIS.

Act Three: Vashta Nerada
The Doctor pilots the TARDIS to the USS Eldridge and tells Amy the have to find the controls for the gateway and deactivate them as it is the only way to remove the Vashta Nerada and alien shark from Poseidon 8 and return them to their own places in time. However, it is easier said than done as Vashta Nerada are on the Eldridge as well, animating the suits of the deceased crew to go after. Too make matters worse, the giant shark has found them and is still trying to find a way in and eat them. Making their way through the ship, the Doctor and Amy outsmart most of the Vashta Nerada by luring them into chambers and flushing them away using the water system. Upon reaching the controls for the gateway, the Doctor and Amy find the room is full of half broken machinery due to the ship's rough tirp through time. Navigating their way through the room, they get to the controls as the shark attacks again, repeatedly ramming into the glass to break in. However, Amy and the Doctor throw the switches for the gateway, sending the shark back to wence it came along with the Vashta Nerada, also ending the radiation.

Back on Poseidon 8, Dana and Oswald are thankful for their help, with Oswald appologising for his actions and offering to let the Doctor and Amy join their Christmas feast of sea pumpkins. However, the Doctor and Amy are more than a little unwilling and secretly enter the TARDIS and take off when Dana and Oswald have their backs turned, much to their surprise.

Cast

 * The Doctor
 * Amy Pond
 * Vashta Nerada
 * Martin Flanigan
 * Dana Tanaka
 * Oswald Fox
 * Jones
 * Vashta Nerada Divers

Story notes

 * Characters Oswald Fox and Jones are clearly named after Oswald Jones, the original name for the Torchwood: Miracle Day character Oswald Danes, whose actor was announced shortly before the game's release.
 * This was released around the same time as A Christmas Carol. Coincidentally, both Christmas specials feature the prominent appearance of an alien shark.
 * The main menu uses the alternate title Shadows of the Deep.
 * This is the first of the Adventure Games in which the interior of the TARDIS does not appear.
 * The Vashta Neradain this story seem much weaker than the ones that are faced in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead hiding in the shadows rather than being shadows.

Promotion
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Rumours
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Production errors

 * One of the textual responses displayed when examining a jug of brine oil calls it "a excellent lubricant." [sic]
 * If you talk to Jones after giving her the ESC chip but before talking to the other humans, her response lacks the computer-generated voice effect of all her other dialogue.
 * The dedication plaque aboard the USS Eldridge is dated "25 July 1943." An American vessel would have used American date notation; the plaque should read "July 25th, 1943."

Continuity

 * The Vashta Nerada previously appeared in DW: Silence in the Library /Forest of the Dead.
 * The Eleventh Doctor and Amy escape tied rope using the same trick Harry Houdini taught the Doctor that the Tenth Doctor used in DW: Dreamland.
 * The USS Eldridge previously appeared in BFA: The Macros

Timeline

 * Shadows of the Vashta Nerada occurs after VG: TARDIS
 * Shadows of the Vashta Nerada occurs before VG: Doctor Who Evacuation Earth