Doctor Who fans who attend this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con will get a chance to enter the TARDIS. No, not some crowded replica built to be “Instagrammable.” If you visit the BBC America booth, you’ll be able to strap on a VR headset and privately enter the box that’s bigger on the inside. The amazing opportunity serves as a prelude to Doctor Who: The Edge of Time, a “feature-length” video game that will put players in the role of a brand-new companion.
The announcement comes courtesy of Oculus and BBC Studios, who also offered a brief trailer teasing how the TARDIS will look in the game’s graphics engine. They also promise that fans who stop by booth #4129 at Comic-Con will be the first in the United States to try the game before its September release.
Doctor Who: The Edge of Time is being developed by a team called Maze Theory, who commented on how much work went into accurately recreating the TARDIS. Members of the team went to the Doctor Who set in Cadriff to see the actual TARDIS. They took “hundreds of photographs” that were used to create a digital reference of the ship.
After that, “The team’s 3D artists, designers, sound and software engineers brought the TARDIS to life in a process taking over 1200 hours. The precise functionality of the controls are true to the show, all behaving exactly as they do on screen. To complete the experience – fans can access the infamous custard cream biscuit dispenser.”
It’s not just for show, either. Players will apparently be able to operate the TARDIS in some fashion as they assist the Jodie Whittaker version of the Doctor (voiced by the actress herself) in a new mission that involves exploring several locations across time and space. The game will also introduce a monster that’s never been seen in the series before, as well as pit players against classic foes like the Daleks. Overall, it seems to be shaping up into an impactful entry into the long-running sci-fi favorite.
