Be Like A Dalek And EXTERMINATE! With Doctor Who: EyeStalk, Plus A Chance To Win!

Doctor Who: EyeStalk ($1.99) by Paul Gee will turn your trusty ol’ iPhone or iPad camera into the lens of the iconic Daleks, the main nemesis of the Doctor himself in the BBC sci-fi television series, Doctor Who. This is also officially licensed by the BBC, so it’s the official app.

I’m not sure if all of you knew this already, but I’m a huge fan of Doctor Who (a.k.a. “Whovian”), so when this landed in my inbox, I was positively ecstatic (while I wear my Doctor Who All Doctors shirt, and have a David Tennant 10th Doctor pendant, and 10 and 11 as decals on my MacBook Pro). I mean, how could I resist an app that lets me see the world through Dalek-tinted glasses, so to speak?

The app launches into landscape mode, a la Hipstamatic style. You’ll find standard controls for toggling the front-facing camera and flash, but everything is laid out in a Dalek-like HUD interface. Along the left side of the screen, you’ll find a button for a help guide and toggle for image processing, and the photo import option (yep, you can apply Dalek lenses on previous images you’ve taken). On the right hand side, you’ll have the capture/record button, and the toggle for switching between photographs or video recording. Yep, you can even record what the Daleks would see — pretty nifty, to say the least!

For video recording, users can choose to record in standard or high definition (640×480 or 1280×720 respectively), and the app provides an accurate estimation for rendering time. Of course, the more footage you capture, and choosing HD, will result in longer rendering times. The rendering time can also be quicker depending on your device, as it makes use of GPU 2.0 Pixel Shaders.

There are seven total Dalek effects that have been taken from the 50 year course of Doctor Who so far. You can switch between them by swiping left and right.

Power/Mk3 is the 60’s black and white style with scan lines. Victory features blue monochrome and a clear center with blurred out hex regions. Doomsday (the first Dalek episode in the 2005 series reboot) has blue monochrome with bump distortion in the center, along with the blurred hex regions. Paradigm is light blue monochrome with bump distortion in the center and overlaid sight. Destiny has red monochrome with gray concentric circles. Remembrance is a green thermal image with 80’s style graticules along the sides of the crosshair. And of course, Asylum (the latest Daleks with Matt Smith as the Doctor) will feature gray monochrome with bump distortion in the middle and blurred hex regions.

You can have EyeStalk either capture the image with the effect applied right away (with live preview), or you can capture raw images and video and choose to apply multiple effects separately (or together — whatever floats your boat). EyeStalk immediately saves whatever image or video to your Camera Roll, so you don’t have to worry about remembering to save, which is nice. Your as-seen-through-the-eyes-of-a-Dalek images can be shared through email, Facebook, copied, or sent to other third-party services and other iOS actions.

If you are using the app on the iPad, there is even a completely full screen capture mode so that nothing gets in the way of your Dalek experience.

I’m loving this app so far, and it’s a great addition to my ever-growing collection of anything Doctor Who-related. I’m definitely going to have fun with this app, and perhaps even make use of it with WonderCon Anaheim 2013 this weekend. It’s also a great way to get (even more) excited about the return of Doctor Who this Saturday.

The only negative about the app that I’ve found so far is the fact that some images appear upside-down when you view them in the app. I hope that the developer gets this fixed soon, because other than that, the app is great.

I recommend this for all Whovians out there, and you can grab it in the App Store as a universal download for $1.99.

GIVEAWAY: I have nine copies of Doctor Who: EyeStalk to giveaway to some Whovian AppAdvice readers! For your chance of winning a copy, leave a comment on this post telling me who your favorite Doctor and companion are, and what episode is your favorite. Make sure to leave a valid email address when you leave your comment so that I can contact you if you win. I’ll be picking the winners randomly on Saturday, Mar. 30 by 11 p.m. PDT. Good luck!