The Doctor Who Bot offers a unique interactive digital experience called The Saviour of Time, in which players are given the chance to become the Doctor's companion on an exciting adventure through time.

The interactive experience immerses the new companion in a special six-part Doctor Who adventure that is centred around the hunt for a mysterious artefact known as the Key To Time, which has been scattered into fragments throughout time and space.

The experience enables players to directly communicate with the Doctor, who will set challenges, logic puzzles and quizzes for the companion to try and restore the artefact, and save the Universe in the process.

“It’s hugely exciting to be launching a Doctor Who Bot on Skype - which gives us the opportunity to deliver a new form of digital story-telling with our cutting-edge brand,"said Jaclyn Lee-Joe, Chief Marketing Officer at BBC Worldwide.

"Through this new innovation we get to experience first-hand how bots can help deliver digital first content, and immerse audiences, old and new, in the Doctor Who universe like never before.”

The Doctor Who Bot, which has been creatively developed by writer Joe Lidster (Torchwood), will launch today, 3rd May, followed by a weekly chapter release every Sunday at 6pm.

Steven Abrahams from Skype said, “Our goal is for everyone in the world to experience the best Skype has to offer and the Doctor Who bot with BBC Worldwide brings a range of new features and functionality."

He added, "We’re excited to see the bot bring users and fans one step closer to meeting the iconic Doctor.”

To access the Doctor Who Bot, users need to be on the latest Skype app for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, or Web, where they can add the bot manually here by clicking 'Add to contacts'. 

For more information on how to use the Doctor Who Bot, click here for step-by-step instructions. 

The release of the Doctor Who Bot follows Comic Relief's announcement that Doctor Who fans could have the extraordinary opportunity to join seven of the previous Doctors for breakfast, including the Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi, who will exclusively feature in the Doctor Who bot in a voice-over.