This review for Time of the Daleks comes with a hefty warning: I am and will always be a Doctor Who fan. I mean, I made them open the Longleat Doctor Who exhibition out of season when I was nine. As a board-gamer, you can understand my excitement when I learnt that Gale Force 9 were going to make a game based on the TV show.

Doctor Who Play | Doctor Who

I never watched much Doctor Who but always loved the Don’t Blink episode and the idea of the Weeping Angels. The fact that the only way to really make it through an encounter with them was to keep your eyes open made them honestly one of the scarier monster concepts ever. So a game where you could try and outwit them was a game I could not pass up! Your old nemesis, the Doctor, endlessly seeks to thwart your plans. Worse still, his other adversaries have their own schemes, and they don’t involve you controlling everything. You must send your minions out to thwart both the Doctor’s and your opponents’ schemes, while bringing your own to fruition! The company’s pedigree is good, with Spartacus, Sons of Anarchy and the mighty Firefly held up of examples of good TV show board games, so what could go wrong… Inside the Box The heart of Don’t Blink’s gameplay lies in outwitting your opponent through card selection. Each turn, the Angel player decides which four of their eight markers are real Angels (the rest are harmless statues). Only these four can take action, and the player only gets four action tokens, so you can send them all racing headlong towards the heroes, but they can’t do anything when they get there. Hand management is another consideration. It’s tempting to hoard your precious Don’t Blink cards for later turns, but as I discovered on the first turn of my first game, that can mean losing one of your heroes early on, along with her special ability, leaving the remaining heroes even more exposed.Travelling through the time vortex, the Tardis is hit by a time spiral, past technology which has been reactivated by the Daleks. The collision has scattered three key components of the Tardis throughout time and space.

BBC International B08235DRYX Dr. Who Doctor Who Board Game

For a start, there’s just one Doctor – Matt Smith’s Eleven, objectively the best modern Doctor (don’t @ me, Tennant fanboys), ably assisted by his companions Amy, Rory, and Clara. And just one foe, the Weeping Angels. They debuted 44 years after the Daleks and are arguably even less mobile than their famously stair-averse counterparts. For this segment, I’ll be sharing my experience from both the Heroes’ perspective and the Angels’ perspective so you can figure out if this game is for you and which role would be the best fit. Some of you may enjoy being the one versus the many, and some of you may prefer to work as a team. This game thankfully has something for both styles! When you move to a location and have an adventure, it feels like an episode of the show and when you get Amy and Rory matched with Matt Smith’s Doctor, there is a little thrill. It’s hard to explain, but it feels like the show and if you are a fan, you’ll love it. I even swapped the Daleks for Cybermen from the Warlord exterminate miniatures game to vary it a bit. I can see the expansions adding to the enjoyment with new companions and locations, prolonging the life of the game. Yes, in possibly the most British game mechanic of all time, you can only keep the Angels at bay with a hard stare. Brilliantly, this weakness extends to Angels looking at each other; presumably, they live their whole lives desperately avoiding each other’s gaze, like passengers on the tube. The Tardis console sheet, which is where the player puts equipment, tokens and companions, is a disappointment to put it mildly. It is thin and easy to tear, and, considering that it is integral to the player experience, should have been of a similar quality to the Time Board at least. I laminated mine before first play to make sure that they weren’t ruined- they are that flimsy!So far, I’ve only tried Don’t Blink as a two-player game, but I can imagine that having the five players will make things interesting as you argue over tactics and the supply of Don’t Blink cards dwindles, especially since once your character is captured by the Angels, you’re out of the game. Travelling through the Time Vortex, the TARDIS is hit by a Time Spiral, outlawed technology which has been reactivated by the Daleks. Don’t Blink is for anyone wanting a new and challenging experience that feels balanced throughout. The gameplay is full of puzzles, almost minigames, on how to navigate the limitations and powers of both roles. However, if you’re not prepared to go to mental or tactical war with your friends, sadly I would not recommend this game to play, even with strangers. I don’t suspect that gameplay will become stale as player count and even difficulty modes can provide a new experience and replayability.