Doctor Who Pinball: Time Streams



Doctor Who was a pinball machine which was released in September 1992. It had an unusually complex ruleset which made the machine somewhat unpopular amongst casual pinball players, but has since made it more collectible to pinball aficionados.

The machine's video screen refers to the story, outlined in the manual, as Time Streams. Appropriately, each ball is referred to as "Parts" of the story ("Part 1", "Part 2", etc.).

Gameplay
The basic concept is that the Doctor's first six incarnations have become trapped in some way, and it is up to the Seventh Doctor and Ace to rescue them and defeat Davros. The player decides before beginning a round of play which of the seven Doctors s/he wants to rescue, then attempts to make shots to the particular area of the playing field associated with that incarnation. When the player does what is required to rescue that Doctor, they must shoot into a particular area for a "video mode", in which that Doctor must outrun a pursing Dalek by jumping over obstacles (one flipper button for small obstacles, both for long obstacles) and get to his TARDIS. Jumping into the Ship also awards a point bonus.

Following three rounds of the video mode, the player gets a particular performance enhancement, such as extra balls (Third Doctor) or faster point accumulation for certain shots (Sixth Doctor). Because of the ways in which the game play can be affected by which Doctors the player rescues, strategy is far more complex than the average pinball machine.

Key creative talent
The game features the voices of Sylvester McCoy (Seventh Doctor), Anthony Ainley (The Master), and Terry Molloy (Davros and Daleks).

Artwork was by Linda Deal, design by Bill Pfutzenreuter and Barry Oursier, and music by Jon Hey.

Notable gameplay
filmed an interview with Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and Arthur Darvill playing a game on the machine while they were in New York City in 2011.