Today’s Google Doodle is a fun game in honor of Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary | Hacker News Reader

Today’s Google Doodle is a fun game in honor of Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary

thenextweb.com

65 pointsiamtechaddict31 comments

Direct link to see it: https://www.google.com.sg

I grew up watching Doctor Who, hiding behind the sofa when there were Daleks. I can't play this game without shivering.

That's awesome. I heard an interview with Neil Gaiman where he describes a similar response to the Daleks. I have heard that DW is technically considered a kids show in the U.K., which surprised me because it seems a bit scary for kids, at times.

Being scared witless by DW at a tender age is practically a national tradition here in the UK.

A cushion was a mandatory tool while watching it as a kid. I can even remember hiding behind the sofa.

For some reason I have an image of some sort of jelly fish monster, a lighthouse, Tom Baker, and myself hiding behind the sofa.

What's quite funny is that my daughter loves it but refuses to watch ANY episode with the Angels in it, well not without me in the room. That's the way it should be :)

(Blink get's to me. Awesome writing.)

Blink was a awesome episode. I have used it to convert at least 4 civvies into Whovians. However, I think Doctor Who is getting less and less scary and more and more dramatic/epic. Oh the other hand, I started watching DW when I was already 20 years old - I don't think Daleks are that scary to 20 year olds as they are to 8 year olds :)

I don't remember being scared by Daleks - but the giant maggots in "The Green Death" scared me silly.

Dito it was the cybermen and the macra terror that really scared me rather than the daleks.

BTW the BBC program on the early days of Dr Who is amazing and the ending is properly tear jerking (Hartnels last recoding and he looks across and sees matt smith)

> some sort of jelly fish monster, a lighthouse, Tom Baker

This must be Horror of Fang Rock, from 1977, written by Terrance Dicks under Robert Holmes as script editor. In 1974, when they held the opposite jobs, Dicks asked Holmes to give The Time Warrior a mediaeval setting, which he resented: so in good-natured revenge, for this script Holmes told Dicks he could write whatever he wanted, as long as it took place in a Victorian lighthouse. Since The Time Warrior has a Sontaran, Dicks decided his script had to have a creature who would be the opposite of a Sontaran, hence the jellyfish monster.

Yes, he says it perfectly (though for me it also worked if I closed my ears): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMveRgNmGa4&t=7m10s

> I have heard that DW is technically considered a kids show in the U.K

I've heard people say that before, but it's incorrect. Doctor Who is categorised as "Drama" and "SciFi & Fantasy". It is pre-watershed (shown before 9pm) so it shouldn't contain anything inappropriate for children, so you could consider it "family viewing".

I don't believe it's shown on CBBC (the children's BBC channel), for example.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the correction!

Well, of all places, an early version of the character of Doctor Who appeared on, The Canadian Howdy Doody Show (whose guest stars included a young Bill Shatner).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_in_Canada_and_the_Un...

Doctor Who was first broadcast in the UK on November the 23rd 1963. To be accurate the Google doodle shouldn't be visible in your country before the 23rd. That said, it is early afternoon of the 22nd in the UK, the doodle wasn't visible on google.co.uk late morning but it is now.

Not to spoil the fun but does anyone know if there is a URL I can use that will display the plain Google search page without the Doodle?

I guess it depends on where you are...here in the U.S., www.google.com doesn't show me any doodle, I had to go to the link in the article to see it. Maybe try [https://encrypted.google.com/]?

It's somewhat reminiscent of the ROM-based BBC Micro game Doctor Who and The Mines of Terror. Minus the programmable robot cat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_and_the_Mines_of_Ter...

And here's the js source: https://www.google.ca/logos/2013/drwho/drwho13-3.js

Having had this for 8 hours at work it was a pain in the arse (Especially since I use chrome)

Google is not a game, if I want to play games I'll do it in my own time. I don't need more distractions shoved down my throat.

[edit] And for those who don't get it, it's a massive image continuously moving on your browser you can't easily get rid of. (Ironically I changed to the uk version of Google to get rid of it)

https://encrypted.google.com doesn't have the doodle, if that helps in the future

Why don't you use your browser's search bar? I hadn't seen this doodle until I saw this post on HN because I never ever load google's homepage anymore.

On chrome, same same. Default blank tab is image.

or you could just go to another...I don't know...less distracting web page.

Oh. My. God. it's almost here. Snuck up on me! Gotta quickly rewatch the last couple episodes.

Except in the US.

There's a link in the article. It's not even a very long article...

I'm not disputing that - just pointing out that I'm surprised they didn't include the US in this one since there's a non-trivial percentage of the population that would have enjoyed it.

Culprit: time zones. Not Google.

Today is also the 50th anniversary of the assignation of JFK. There probably would have been backlash to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dr Who instead, so they decided to just do nothing.

Man, I would hate to see that Google Doodle.

50th anniversary of the death of CS Lewis and Aldous Huxley.

It's (nearly) tomorrow in Singapore. I imagine the U.S. will see it when we get there.

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