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| The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe find themselves on a World War I battlefield - or so it appears... |
10 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 241 minutes. Written by: Terrance Dicks, Malcolm Hulke. Directed by: David Maloney. Produced by: Derrick Sherwin.
THE PLOT:
The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe materialize in the middle of No Man's Land in 1917 - right on the front lines of the First World War! They are rescued by Lt. Carstairs (David Savile), a British army officer, and Lady Jennifer (Jane Sherwin), a nurse, who escort them back to friendly territory. And that's when strange things start happening...
Two of the three officers they meet seem willing enough to believe that they are harmless. Until their superior, Gen. Smythe (Noel Coleman) puts on his glasses and declares that the Doctor and his friends are spies - at which point the other men agree not in a subservient way, but rather as if the matter had been fully proven. Zoe finds futuristic communications equipment hidden in the general's office. Finally, when they do manage to escape, they pass through a mist... and find themselves confronted by soldiers of the Roman Empire!
They soon realize that they aren't on Earth at all. They are on another world, where the ruling aliens have abducted soldiers from throughout Earth's history for a particularly vicious experiment. The Doctor immediately sets to work, organizing a resistance movement to foil the aliens' plans. But given the scope of the threat, this may be one time he can't fix everything on his own...
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: Patrick Troughton's final story is a showcase for his Doctor. At several points, he uses flattery to ingratiate himself to his enemies, gaining their trust long enough to learn how they are brainwashing ("processing") the human soldiers and gaining control of the tools that will allow him to undo it. He firmly rejects escaping in the TARDIS, because he refuses to leave all these human soldiers stranded on an alien world. It's this last that leads to the Second Doctor's end. By the end of Episode Nine, he's thwarted the villains' plans; but getting the survivors back to their proper times and places is beyond his abilities, leaving him no choice but to call on his people, the Time Lords.
Jamie: He's come a long way since The Highlanders. In that story, he was quick to suspect the Doctor of betrayal; even as late as Evil of the Daleks, he was mistrustful of the Doctor's motives. By this point, he has unshakeable faith in his friend, and he is the one who stands up for him when others doubt him. He is also briefly placed in charge of the resistance group, to which he reacts first with shock and then pride. All of this growth is wonderful to see - though the story's ending lends a certain poignancy to it.
Zoe: When she and the Doctor infiltrate the enemy base, Zoe ends up being captured and interrogated... and in the process is told the names and locations of all the resistance leaders. Her photographic memory results in that information being put to good use. She also shows leadership abilities of her own, first when she leads a group of resistance fighters to rescue the Doctor and Jamie, and later when she guides Jamie in negotiations with misogynistic resistance leader Arturo Villar (Michael Napier Brown).
Lt. Carstairs: The trio's primary ally for this story. Carstairs is the only guest character to appear in all episodes of the serial (though his appearance in Episode Ten is limited to a reprise of the previous installment). Initially skeptical of the Doctor, he ends up helping him after he is shown the communications technology in Gen. Smythe's office. Early episodes see him forming a bond with Lady Jennifer, and early hints about the larger situation are fed to us in a conversation between the two in which they try to remember how they found themselves in their current situation.
Lady Jennifer: She is the first to meet the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe, and also the first to believe them. She pushes Carstairs to help them. While the Doctor convinces Carstairs that something unusual is happening, Lady Jennifer distracts Gen. Smythe's aide, Ransom (Hubert Rees). Her role diminishes as the story progresses, however, and she is unceremoniously written out midway through. Jane Sherwin, wife of producer Derrick Sherwin, is likeable and appealing enough that I was a bit unhappy to see the character dropped, though at least she gets namechecked near the end.
War Lord: The War Lord is frequently mentioned, but he doesn't actually appear until Episode Seven. His entrance is memorable, as he interrupts the squabbling War Chief and Security Chief. He makes his displeasure known not through explosive ranting, but through a far more unnerving quiet calm. When the Security Chief claims that problems are temporary, the War Lord grins and says he assumes that means they have now been resolved; the grin and tone of voice are perfectly calm, and unmistakably threatening. Philip Madoc is pure icy malevolence, and his War Lord stands as easily the best villain of Season Six... and probably one of the greatest one-shot villains the series ever saw.
War Chief: Edward Brayshaw's War Chief is another good villain in a story that has several of them. A member of the Doctor's race gone rogue, he has brought the War Lord the secrets of time travel, making the war game experiment possible. He and the Doctor immediately recognize each other, as well, with the War Chief hoping to persuade the Doctor to join him. As a character, he's all but indistinguishable from The Master, and it's hardly surprising that fan theories have cropped up that he's a pre-Delgado incarnation of that character (though the novel Divided Loyalties says otherwise).
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| The War Lord (Philip Madoc) confers with the War Chief (Edward Brayshaw) - a Time Lord! |
"YOUR TRAVELS ARE OVER":
The War Games was not just the final story for the Second Doctor, but also the finale for 1960s Who. Prior to this story, the Doctor was a traveler, his background a complete enigma. By the end of these ten episodes, we know that he is a Time Lord, we see his home planet, and we know that his travels began with the theft of the TARDIS. In short, the majority of the character's backstory for the remainder of the series is established here.
Many "event episodes" of television series claim that "nothing will ever be the same." This is one time that such a claim is actually true.
"THE WAR GAMES ON THIS PLANET ARE SIMPLY THE MEANS TO AN END..."
The War Games was not originally intended to span ten episodes. Season Six proved to be a particularly chaotic one behind the scenes. Multiple stories fell through, and in the end script editor/co-writer Terrance Dicks was forced to add episodes to this serial.
I can't pretend this doesn't show in the end result. The story is infamous for how much of it is made up of the capture/escape/recapture formula, to the point that even Jamie cries out "Oh, not again!" at one point.
Still, the story holds its extreme length remarkably well. There may be padding, but no full episode is left to just run in place. Each new part brings with it some revelation and advances some thread. Sure, the characters get captured and rescued in some way in practically every episode... but the pace feels surprisingly fast, the story always finding a way to push forward.
I will say that The War Games is better suited to modern viewing, watching clusters of episodes over a few days, than it was to its original 1969 airing. I viewed it over four days, in groups of 2 - 3 episodes, and was consistently engaged. Had I been left to view one episode per week over roughly two months, however, I suspect I would have tired of it.
"I WILL TAKE CHARGE... THIS IS WHAT I PLAN TO DO."
I've noted in past reviews that Douglas Camfield was Doctor Who's first great director. Well, I'd rank David Maloney, director of this story, as the series' second. One thing that stands out to me about this story is how frequently the camera moves. Shots pull back or move in on characters or pan to reveal and reframe them. Character staging is carefully done. In arguments between the War Chief and the Security Chief, for example, the two shift within the frame to take dominant positions depending on who is winning the argument at a given moment.
Maloney also recognizes the power of stillness. The War Lord is instantly more powerful than his feuding chiefs, by virtue of his quiet voice and icy demeanor. The all but emotionless Time Lords are more powerful still, their authority emphasized by their calm and lack of movement within frame. Maloney also emphasizes their power through separation. The War Lord is usually framed with significant space between him and his underlings. The Time Lords are mostly scene in fully different shots from the Doctor or the War Lord; when they are in the same shot, they are at a distance.
All of this seems simple enough when describing it... But The War Games feels instantly more dynamic and impactful than most Doctor Who stories, and these visual techniques have much to do with that.
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| The Time Lords put the Doctor on trial. |
"YOU HAVE BROKEN OUR LAWS. YOU MUST FACE YOUR TRIAL."
The War Games is bookended by scenes in which the Doctor is put on trial. Episode One sees the Doctor undergoing a blatantly biased "court martial" by Gen. Smythe, culminating in a sentence of death. It goes without saying that the Doctor escapes from Smythe's firing squad... but his trials are far from over.
In the last episode just as the first, the Doctor is put on trial. This time it's by his own people, who unlike Smythe at least allow him to defend himself. Still, the result is much the same. He is sentenced to change his appearance - to regenerate, although that term would not be coined until the next change of Doctor. Effectively, it's a death sentence for this particular incarnation of the Doctor, and it is carried out with a brutal lack of emotion.
The final scene is of the Second Doctor's "execution." The scene actually starts out somewhat comical, with the Doctor protesting his treatment and then crying that the Time Lord are "making (him) giddy." Gradually, it becomes disturbing; multiple images of the Doctor's face swirl around a black void as the Doctor moans in pain. Our final sight of him sees him spinning away into the darkness, crying out against his fate.
OVERALL:
Though Season Six is one of the more uneven seasons of Doctor Who's black-and-white era, The War Games proves to be a superb finale: for the season, for Patrick Troughton's Doctor, and for 1960s Who in general. Sure, it's a few episodes longer than it needed to be, but the script takes care to keep the story moving forward, while David Maloney's direction is outstanding.
It all adds up to a story that's a must-see not only for its importance to the franchise, but for its quality as an excellent example of top-tier Classic Who.
Overall Rating: 10/10.
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