Who Review: The War Games

The TARDIS lands in a battlefield, between enemy lines, and our heroes are soon picked up by British soldiers. From the barbed wire, trenches, and uniforms, the Doctor determines they have landed in the midst of the First World War. Something’s not right, however. No-one seems to remember how long they’ve been there. And the General has a video communication device that is quite at odds with 1917 technology. The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe manage to get away in an ambulance, but soon encounter a strange fog, and then a cohort of Roman soldiers. Someone is playing war games, and if our heroes are to escape alive, they’ll need to find out who is responsible, what it is they are trying to do, and put a stop to it. But this might be a problem too big even for the Doctor…

SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen this serial. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!

“The War Games” is one of my all-time favorite Doctor Who stories. And I mean, one of my top five favorites, across both Classic and New Who. And my love of it goes beyond the importance of the story for Doctor Who history (our second encounter with a renegade Time Lord, the first time the Time Lords are mentioned, the third time the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver, the first time we get to see the Doctor’s “home planet,” the first time we actually see the Time Lords, the Doctor’s trial and exile, the end of the Second Doctor’s era, the end of Sixties Who, the last black-and-white Who story… need I go on?). It simply works for me as a story. There’s a cohesiveness to it. I find it a deeply satisfying story, even with the rather uneasy ending. Let me try to explain.

Well, before I explain, we need to remember that “The War Games” was an emergency filler story. If I recall correctly, there was supposed to be a four-part story then a six-part story to finish up the season. Patrick Troughton, Fraser Hines, and Wendy Padbury had handed in their notices, so the concluding story would need to see them off. But those final stories didn’t pan out. Script Editor-in-Training Terrance Dicks was told he needed to come up with a replacement story. It needed to be ten episodes long to fill the gap, and they needed it in two weeks. Faced with mission impossible, Dicks called on his script writing mentor, Malcolm Hulke, to help him out. Together, the pair rattled off “The War Games.” In short, it’s a miracle this story was written, and it’s a bigger miracle that it’s as well-formed as it is.

So, why is it so wonderful? For a start, you have ten episodes of Patrick Troughton at his best. In this story, we see the Second Doctor run the gamut of fear, humor, cleverness, and even some snark. Jamie and Zoe are both capable and vulnerable, as we know they can be. And there are some excellent performances from others, not least David Savile and Jane Sherwin (Carstairs and Lady Jennifer), and the superb Philip Madoc, last seen in The Krotons. This time, Madoc plays the War Lord, the main bad guy who is manipulating these war games. He exudes quiet menace, and a dominating presence in every scene he’s in. A simply brilliant performance–possibly his best in all his Who appearances.

You might think, “Ten episodes–my goodness, that’s about 4 hours! Surely it gets dull, especially in the middle episodes?” Not a bit. With a cliffhanger every 20-25 minutes, and a story that is precisely paced to keep the viewer engaged, I’ve yet to watch it through and lose interest. Terrance Dicks feels it was six episodes too long, but I disagree. I think if you trimmed it down, you would lose too much. I like that we don’t get to see the aliens behind the scenes until Episode 3, and the War Lord himself doesn’t come into the story until Episode 7. We actually have time to get to know the chief scientist, the chief security officer, and see some of the internal politics and intrigues going on, especially between the security officer and the War Chief.

The War Chief is of particular interest. He is a renegade Time Lord, who offered his services to this alien race in their plan for galactic dominance. Using his time travel knowledge, and the machines he has made available to them (he calls them “Sidrats”–SIDRAT… get it?), he can transport soldiers and warriors from different eras of Earth history to fight out their battles on this alien planet. For all the soldiers know, they are still on Earth, fighting in their own time zones. The War Lord’s plan is to use the surviving soldiers to form an army of the strongest fighters Earth has to offer. Why Earth? Because, in his estimation, it is the most war-like of planets–an opinion the Doctor doesn’t share. But the War Chief has an agenda of his own, and his attempt to get the Doctor on side makes for a cool sub-plot.

And just when it seems the Doctor has the situation under control, in Episode 9 he realizes he needs to call in the Time Lords.* And we understand there’s no alternative because Dicks and Hulke have laid the groundwork for this moment. His problem is that there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of people that needs to be transported back to their own times on Earth. But the TARDIS is somewhere in the 1917 zone, the SIDRATs have a limited life (a fact the Doctor discovered in an earlier discussion with the War Chief), and there are only two SIDRATs available. So, the Doctor jumps from the frying pan into the fire, because once he calls in the Time Lords, they’ll know where he is, and they’ll bring him back to stand trial for stealing a TARDIS and using it to “interfere.” Which is, of course, exactly what happens.

The final episode sees the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe try to evade capture, but they realize it’s futile. They end up on the Doctor’s as-yet-unnamed home planet, where the Doctor stands trial. The Time Lords send Jamie and Zoe back to their own times, remembering only their first adventure with the Doctor (which means, after all they’ve been through, Jamie will forget Zoe!). As for the Doctor, they sentence him to regeneration (“you’ve changed your appearance once, so you will do it again”–at this point in the series, the term “regeneration” has yet to be coined for this process), and exile on Earth. The episode closes with the Doctor spinning away into an uncertain future. Not exactly comforting. But what a daring way to end this epic masterpiece of storytelling.

I know this review is getting long, but to be fair, I have to point out a couple of negatives. There’s that moment in Episode 3 when the War Chief first hears about the time travelers. He goes off to the side, looks pensive, and we get a voice over: “Time travelers. I wonder…” This would have been better done with a look, maybe a smirk, a smile, or some indication of this thought on the War Chief’s face. Then, when he talks with the Doctor face-to-face for the first time, he could say something like, “When they told me there were time travelers, I wondered if it might be you.” A voice-over, though? Really? Not only is it hokey in the extreme, it’s just not done on Doctor Who. Also there are some really, REALLY overacted death scenes. Particularly the chief security officer, and the War Chief. But these niggling points are hardly show-stoppers.

Need I say this is MUST viewing for all Whovians? I don’t care who your favorite Doctor is, this story is such a great story, and it is such a landmark in Who history, you simply can’t avoid it.

*I have to point out, this is not the first mention of the Time Lords in this story. In Episode 6, the chief scientist mentions that the War Chief’s people are the Time Lords. By the time we get to Episode 9, we know the War Chief is of the same people as the Doctor, so we are not surprised to hear the Doctor refer to his people as the Time Lords.