Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Timelord...
Doctor Who?
The Dr. Who program is listed in Guinness World Records as the longest-running science fiction television show in the world and as the "most successful" science fiction series of all time—based on its over-all broadcast ratings, DVD and book sales, and iTunes traffic.
The Google Doodle DW celebration also known as "Whodle" (pronounced hoo-dəl or hoo-dull) has been worked on for 4 months by only 5 people, led by Matthew Cruickshank, a Brit who has been working at the company as a full-time doodler for just over a year. It's the 1st game that Matthew has designed noting that "it's the technicians and programmers that actually make the game..." and that he "just art direct, create the assets, set the visual tone, design the characters, and then do pieces of animation." Sounds like a lot of work to me.
Doodle's aka "Whodle's" Origins
Beginning in the summer, engineers at Google London added the Tardis to Google Street View, but that wasn't enough to satisfy Doctor Who fans. Thousands had signed a petition asking Google to do a doodle for the show's 50th Anniversary.
Google accepted the chance to really celebrate a national institution.and made the doodle. Not only that but an 8-bit platform game in which you can play all 11 versions of the Doctor in the game. It is one of the biggest doodles the company has ever produced or shall it be said that it IS the largest interactive Doodle yet created and just in time for the 50th anniversary special - episode 240 - called "The Day of the Doctor".
About the Game
Fortunately, Cruickshank managed to get the BBC interested, so the Doodle uses real sound effects from the show — including the TARDIS' famous "whoosh."
In the game your mission is to grab all of the letters that spell "Google" and return them to your TARDIS, while staying away from the the Dalek. Playing as the other time-travelling humanoid alien Doctors is when you get hit by the Dalek. However, The "War Doctor", is not included. Try avoiding those Daleks, let us know your high score and #SaveTheDay!
Celebrity Reaction
The alleged decision not to feature any original series Doctors in the special was criticised by Colin Baker, who portrayed the Doctor's sixth incarnation from 1984 to 1986. Baker stated, "I'm not in it. I can say that Peter Davison isn't because I've seen him recently. And I can tell you that Sylvester McCoy isn't, and neither is Paul McGann. None of us have been deemed worthy of inclusion in a programme that celebrates 50 years of a British television programme, of which I was in it for three. We are surplus baggage."
On the contrary to the celebrity response, there have been many unconfirmed rumors of previous Doctors reprising their role all the way down to the 4th Doctor. Will all or any of the surviving Doctors get a cameo appearance? You would have to tune in to find out.
My Way of Celebrating a Milestone in TV History
Epic Rap Battles (ERB aka ERBoh) had done a great music video parody of 2 legendary 'doc' characters back in Oct. 2012 whether it was intentional or not. The 4th Doctor is portrayed by George Watsky, and at about that time, The 10th Doctor is being played by Nice Peter. Back to the Future's Doc Brown is portrayed by Zach Sherwin aka MC Mr. Napkins. You can check them out on YouTube.
Ken Sherman
