Doctor Who: Worlds in Time was a Massively Multiplayer Online Game based on Doctor Who. It was created by Three Rings, the developer of Puzzle Pirates, and used a similar gameplay mechanic where various tasks were represented as puzzle minigames. It opened in 2012 and closed in 2014.
The game begins with the Doctor arriving in your — yes, your — bedroom in the middle of the night and recruiting you to help him solve a mystery that's threatening to cause the entire universe to shatter into innumerable pieces. (Again.) Players go on Adventures in which they investigate the mystery, collect up broken bits of the universe, and/or thwart the designs of alien races seeking to exploit the situation for their own ends. Each player character is equipped with a "gadget", similar in design to the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.
Each set of Adventures is associated with a different planet that has been featured in the series, beginning with Earth and culminating (perhaps inevitably) with Skaro, home of the infamous Daleks.
Doctor Who: Worlds in Time provides examples of the following tropes:
- Bee People: The Vespiforms have a Bee People society, with a Queen and a lot of Drones.
- Death Is Cheap: If you die, the game just remarks that it's a good thing we have a time machine, and lets you have another go.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: One subset of Adventures involves a period of time caught in a time loop, represented as a string of around half a dozen adventures which each begin in the same place at the same moment.
- Moby Schtick: In the section set on Starship UK, there's a plot line involving an alien captain learning of the Star Whale and coming to hunt it; an early attempt causes him to lose a leg, which only makes him more determined.
- Persuasion Minigame: One of the minigames is this.
- Reckless Sidekick: Would it be Doctor Who otherwise? One of the final Adventures begins with the Doctor piloting the TARDIS into the Daleks' central control. Before popping out to look around, the Doctor instructs the player in no uncertain terms to stay in the TARDIS where it's safe. After he leaves, the game waits a Beat, then displays the usual "Click here to exit the TARDIS" prompt.
