New Dr. Who Game Teaches Kids to Code

BBC

The Doctor Who is facing a new challenge: teaching your nine-year-old how to code.

No, it may not be as daunting as a Cybermen invasion. But for you kid, it could be as fun as it is educational.

On Wednesday, the BBC will launch a game called “The Doctor and the Dalek.” Designed by Dr. Who’s creator in tandem with Britain’s Somethin’ Else creative agency, the game aims to help children “pick up core programming principles as they play.” This means using logical reasoning, variables and loops and repetition to help the Doctor save the universe—the kind of stuff that should spell programming fun for six-to-12-year-olds.

“Getting children inspired is the big thing for us around this game. When you say ‘coding and programming’ straight away it feels like a very dry topic, but our aim was to show children you can have fun,” the BBC’s Jo Pierce told the Guardian. The show’s lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat is also involved in the game, the Guardian reports.

The game is another step for what’s called the code literacy movement, which seems to bring programming skills to a much broader range of people. The BBC’s game aims to help kids with the new computer science curriculum laid down by the British government, which is one of the broader efforts to improve code literacy.

In the game, the Doctor joins forces with a refugee Dalek on the home world of the warlike Sontarans. “The Doctor and the Dalek” is voiced over by current Doctor, Peter Capaldi, and comes with additional educational material for parents and instructors.

But before your child will be able to play the new Doctor Who game, there is an initial puzzle to solve. The BBK’s kid’s gaming website is available only to U.K. residents. If you’re in the U.S., you’ll have to find a way around that.