60 Second Tournament Strategy:
- Choose Doctor 2.
- W-H-O loop combos all day.
Multiball and Sonic Boom are for chumps.
Other Resources
• Rulesheet by @bkerins http://pinball.org/rules/drwho.html
Ok, I really just started this topic to ask a pressing question: Am I crazy or is there a setting where you can force the time expander to unlock all the balls between players? The machine would still remember which ones you had locked previously and not require you to relock them. I checked the manual and the closed I found was setting A.2 22 which is the option to leave the balls locked between games, but I couldn’t find anything about players.
You’re not crazy, or at least not for this reason. We use this setting in league. If you’re not expecting it, it can be a little disconcerting when you drain your ball and then a ball(s) get promptly ejected from the top of the game (the ol’ “wait WHAT?!” pound on the flipper buttons, that are inoperative), but it does make multiball more viable if that’s your desired strategy. Before that setting, we often had players choose to go first on Who, and quickly lock up two balls to somewhat block their opponents from playing a multiball strategy. (Center standup being a fair bit harder to hit than the lock saucers.)
And sorry, but when playing for points, I’m still doing Sonic Booms all day, assuming the upper flipper is working reasonably.
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Well yeah you complete Sonic Boom every 11th W-H-O loop. 
Thanks for confirming I’m not crazy. I gotta figure out which setting that is so I can petition all the operators in town to change it.
I have mine set to eject.
Personally I like qualifying VM, max multiplier and then just start waves of VM for easy points. The bonus after wave 4 is usually enough to win our league night.
Funny, I was going to ask the same thing! After lock blocking you, my 2nd loss was on Dr. Who. Player 1 locked up the locks, forcing me to go for loops, which I tanked. He got multiball on ball 2, I tried for multiball all on ball 3 and didn’t make it.
Also, has anyone ever used the term “lock blocking?” If not, I’m claiming it as my own.
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Most players don’t know that if both saucers are full you can “lock” balls by hitting the stand up in the center of the time expander. But this shot is a) very awkward to hit and b) a great way to lose control of the ball stdm.
… will have to find the clip from Pinburgh with Todd and I talking about people getting “lock blocked” 
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This works pretty good too >
14 or 4 billion?
Lately Ive been opening with doc 1 to light video modes before going after loops as a safety net. Ive had plenty of DW games where I blow the H shot and get punished then end up with nothing. I’ve also had games where someone else couldn’t get dialed in to the H or loop shots while I quietly collected my free vid mode points 
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Haven’t watched it yet (about to) but I would assume 14. I know I’ve had 6 or so after 3rd Wave Bonus (but doing other stuff too, mostly WHOs).
Edit: Watched it. Dem Dr bonuses. Never realized how that bit worked I guess. 
Also dat final wave bonus.
I looked at it again. It was 4, not 14.
I stand corrected.
Wow.
I’ve never thought of trying an all or nothing video mode strategy. I suppose some games pretty reliably fall into the subway to the phone booth, unfortunately mine dribbles out to the playfield about 50% of the time.
I’m pretty sure you can set the game to require ESCAPE completion for each video mode wave. The default is to allow a player to march through video modes until they get the Last Wave Bonus, which is 4+ waves … and, those values get out of control.
4x playfield + 4 video mode waves is a serious score… 14 billion is just nutty though. How many waves was that?
AFAIK the number of waves per stage increases by one so wave 39 would be six stage completions for last wave bonus collects. I’ve never made it all the way through stage three. I need to do something about that. There is also a lot of bonus collected (85x?!?) which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, and I’ve played DW far more than any other pinball machine. Where does that come from?
Bonus X comes from any shot to the bumpers. He probably just played bumpers all day for a while, starting from Doctor 1. Shooting the video mode hole spots two letters in ESCAPE when Doctor 1 is active, so it’s only 3 lucky bumper shots to light the Video Mode.
Completing a Video Mode spots a doctor, so you’ll eventually get Doctor 6 for Playfield X. Once you get that you go to town on Video Mode with 4x active, and cream it.
85x means he made 84 shots to the bumpers … still fewer shots than going crazy on WHO loops or sonic booms! I’ve never really played the game much that way … not very exciting! But it’s effective for points, it seems!