Last weekend, I had the pleasure of driving to my uncle’s house for a classic tabletop gaming day. Most of the time we played Star Wars X-Wing from Fantasy Flight Games, but after dinner, my uncle pulled out his copy of Doctor Who Time of the Daleks from his gaming shelf. I didn’t know a Doctor Who-themed board game existed and my uncle knows I’m a fan of the show. My group only got to play it for 10 – 15 minutes, but I was surprised by how difficult it was and how I was looking forward to playing it in the future.

To start the game, each player picks the First Doctor, Fourth Doctor, Eleventh Doctor, or Twelfth Doctor. I automatically called playing the Eleventh Doctor because Matt Smith has a special place in my heart with his fish sticks & custard along with his bow tie. My uncle read the rules to help us understand the game. Our ultimate goal is to prevent the Dalek ship from reaching Gallifrey before we do. In order to gain companions, we can visit earth past, earth present, or earth future marked on the board. As our Doctors visit Earth along different timelines, we have to overcome dilemmas. This is where the game is difficult.

Each dilemma piece lists a series of colors along with symbols. This correlates to the dice associated with your doctor. Your Doctor & your companions each contribute dice to the overall dice pool. These dice are used to overcome dilemmas by rolling the correct color die with the correct symbol. If you pass the roll by getting all the symbols & colors needed, there’s a reward which could be moving the Dalek ship backward. However, if you fail… bad things happen like moving the Dalek ship forward.

As the Daleks move, they can set off time anomalies which can punish all the players. In the ten minutes we played the game, each of us failed a dilemma so the Dalek ship set off two-time anomalies and moved the Dalek ship five spaces beyond our Tardis pieces. The difficulty doesn’t turn me away from the game, it makes me determined to keep playing.

In the ten minutes, I played the game, there was a lot I liked. I enjoyed the characters they picked such as Eleven along with him being connected with Amy Pond. I like the difficulty, but I can see where other gamers might be turned away. I’m waiting for the expansion where they include the Ninth doctor.

Overall, if you consider yourself to be a Doctor Who fan, this is the board game for you. I think it works well with more than two players, but you could play it with your best friend or partner. I’m looking forward to playing this game for a full game on our next game night.