Story 50 - The War Games

In which the TARDIS crew think they have materialised in France during the First World War. They come across an ambulance driven by Lady Jennifer Buckingham. After being captured by German troops, they are saved by a patrol led by Lieutenant Carstairs and are taken to the British trenches. When they try to get back to the ship - which is in the direction of the enemy lines - they are assumed to be spies and sent to a chateau which is now the British HQ. General Smythe conducts a court martial and the Doctor is sentenced to death by firing squad. Zoe will be sent to prison in England, and Jamie is assumed to be a deserter from a Highland regiment. The Doctor has noticed that Smythe exerts a strange hypnotic power over his men. Escaping, the Doctor and Zoe discover that the General has a futuristic communications device in his quarters. All is not as it seems here. Jamie meets a Redcoat soldier from 1745 in the military prison. They convince Carstairs and Lady Buckingham that they are being duped and all flee in the ambulance. Passing through a dense fog bank, they find themselves far from the war - but threatened by Roman soldiers.

The Doctor deduces that they have passed through a time barrier. They are not on Earth at all. Returning to the chateau they discover a map which shows that there are many war zones - surrounding a mysterious blank space. They discover that fresh troops arrive in machines similar to a TARDIS. The Doctor and Zoe use one of these to travel to the central region and find themselves in a high-tech domain. Soldiers from different periods of Earth history are mentally processed here and sent to fight in the war zones. The Doctor discovers that this is all the work of a powerful alien race who are being aided by the War Chief - a renegade member of his own race. In command is the War Lord. The War Chief is in a bitter dispute with the alien Security Chief who does not trust him. The War Chief has supplied time travel technology to achieve this plan - the dimensionally transcendental craft known as SIDRATs.

The alien plan is to forge the survivors of these war zones into an invincible army - to conquer the galaxy. The War Chief has a hidden motive for helping - wanting the army for himself. He wants the Doctor to help him - as the SIDRATs have a limited life span. A rebel force is assembled - of other soldiers whose conditioning has broken down. They take over the chateau as a base. In each zone are alien supervisors - people like Smythe and Von Weich, who supervises the WW1 German forces and the Confederate forces in the American Civil War zone. The War Chief kills the Security Chief when he learns of his true ambitions. The rebels undermine the alien plan. The Doctor realises that he cannot return all the soldiers to Earth and put a stop to this atrocity without help. He decides to summon his own people - the Time Lords.

The War Lord kills the War Chief. The Doctor tries to flee before the Time Lords arrive, but he is captured - taken back to his homeworld along with Jamie and Zoe. The soldiers are all returned home, and the War Lord faces trial. He is sentenced to dematerialisation, and his belligerent planet is imprisoned forever. The Doctor must then face his own trial. Time Lords observe the universe, and are not allowed to intervene in the affairs of other races. The Doctor did not want to merely study - he wanted to explore and experience. He stole the TARDIS and went on the run. By interfering he has broken one of the principal Laws of Time. His defence is that he has saved many worlds from alien domination. It is decided that he should be exiled to Earth - at the end of the 20th Century - and forfeit a regeneration. He bids a sad farewell to Jamie and Zoe. They will be returned to their own times and have their memories wiped - apart from their initial encounter with him. After they have gone, the Doctor finds himself spinning into a black void - his features blurring and changing...

This ten part epic was written by Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke, and was broadcast between 19th April and 21st June, 1969.
It is one of the most significant stories in the history of the programme. It is the last story of the Second Doctor's era - meaning a farewell for Patrick Troughton after three years in the role. Leaving with him are Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines. The three regulars had all agreed to step down at the same time. Frazer had held off his departure, and Wendy was actually offered the chance to continue in the role of Zoe to help bridge the transition to the new Doctor.
It is also the last story of the black and white era. And it introduces the Time Lords - finally giving us the Doctor's back-story.
The story came about when two stories fell through late in the day - a 6 parter and a 4 parter. One of these would have been a story called The Impersonators. Script Editor Terrance Dicks was asked by producer Derrick Sherwin to devise a 10 part story to end the sixth season. It was Sherwin who suggested the inclusion of the Time Lords and the Doctor's history. Dicks couldn't tackle the project on his own due to the limited time available - so he approached his friend (and mentor) Malcolm Hulke to co-write with him. Dicks had gotten to know Hulke after renting a room in his house, and they had worked on other writing projects together - such as the wobbly-setted Crossroads soap.

On the DVD commentary for The War Games, Terrance Dicks says "World War One didn't go on half as long" as this story. It is an epic - but a flawed one. The problem is with the padding in the middle four episodes. Basically, The War Games is the greatest six parter we never had. There is a ridiculous amount of capture / escape - in different war zones. New characters like the cartoonish Mexican bandito Arturo Villa are introduced late in the day to try to infuse a bit of freshness into a flabby, flagging storyline. The only new arrival who really makes an impact is Philip Madoc's War Lord - one of the series' finest villains.
There is other villainy on show. Early on, it is the wonderful Smythe and Von Weich - alien manipulators in the war zones. Smythe is played by Noel Coleman, and Von Weich by David Garfield (who will be back in The Face of Evil as Neeva). Both are excellent. Not quite so successful are the sparring War and Security Chiefs, who can sometimes be slightly OTT. The War Chief is Edward Brayshaw, and the Security Chief is James Bree (Decider Nefred in Full Circle, and the Matrix Keeper in the concluding chapters of The Trial of a Time Lord).

Other performances of note - representing the goodies - are Jane Sherwin as Lady Jennifer, David Savile as Carstairs, and Graham Weston as the sturdy Boer War Sgt. Russell. Weston returned to the programme as Morestran crewman De Haan in Planet of Evil, whilst Savile played Winser in The Claws of Axos, and Crichton in The Five Doctors).
Though the Doctor's own people, the Time Lords transcend good and evil. They arrive like the cavalry to save the day, yet the Doctor fears them and is put on trial by them. They are presented as almost god-like beings, who oversee the cosmos from on high. We see some technicians and a three man tribunal who conduct first the War Lord's trial - then the Doctor's. They are played by Bernard Horsfall (of several Doctor Who stories - all by the same director as this, David Maloney), Clyde Pollitt and Trevor Martin. Horsfall played another Time Lord - Chancellor Goth in The Deadly Assassin - and Pollitt played the Time Lord Chancellor in The Three Doctors - so possibly the same Time Lords as seen in this? Trevor Martin also went on to play a Time Lord - the stage Doctor in Seven Keys To Doomsday.

Episode endings are:

1. The Doctor is tied to a post in front of a firing squad. The order is given and shots ring out...
2. After passing through a dense mist, the Doctor and his friends find themselves somewhere else. Roman soldiers charge towards them...
3. The barn in the American Civil War zone comes under attack. Jamie watches helplessly as the SIDRAT dematerialises with the Doctor and Zoe onboard...
4. Carstairs has been reprocessed. He recognises Zoe as a German spy and aims his revolver at her...
5. As the Doctor, Zoe and Carstairs watch, Jamie and Russell - along with other rebels - walk into a trap and are shot down by the aliens...
6. The Doctor, Jamie and Carstairs are trapped in a SIDRAT as the War Chief reduces the dimensions to crush them to death...
7. The Security Chief leads a mission to the chateau - recapturing the stolen processing machine - and the Doctor...
8. The Doctor has delivered the rebel leaders and his own companions into the hands of the enemy...
9. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe race towards the TARDIS but are caught up in a powerful force. The Time Lords have arrived...
10. The Second Doctor finds himself spinning into a dark void, his features gone...

Overall, as I've already said, it is a bit bloated due to the extended episode length. A lot of capture / escape padding. Best enjoyed a few episodes at a time. The initial set up is excellent and intriguing, and the reveal of the alien plan and the Time Lords summoning to put a stop to it are brilliant. Just a bit too much unnecessary to-ing and fro-ing in between. The regulars do get a good send off - with moments of drama and comedy throughout.

Things you might like to know:

• Jane Sherwin (Lady Jennifer) was married to producer Derrick at the time. No big deal, as previous producer Peter Bryant had employed his wife on The Tomb of the Cybermen.
• Bryant should have also produced this - but Sherwin had to step in as he was ill.
• The WW1 location was Brighton rubbish tip. It had just been used by Richard Attenborough for his film of Oh! What a Lovely War - the satirical musical also set in the First World War.
• As the Doctor and his companions try to escape the Time Lords, we see short clips of the TARDIS from The Web of Fear and Fury From The Deep. We also get a glimpse of The Wheel - taken from The Wheel in Space.
• Zoe's photographic memory lets her down again. She got lost in the air ducts of the Moonbase in The Seeds of Death, and in this she forgets some of the memorised rebel leaders and their locations. And she had that problem with candles...
• Part 8 had the lowest viewing figures of any episode until 1989 (with just 3.5 million). Just shows how much the story length was wearing people out.
• Episode 10 is the last time that we get a rolling caption for the end credits - until part four of Earthshock.
• It's also the last time the Doctor is credited as "Dr. Who". He'll be "Doctor Who" from now on - until David Tennant comes along.
• Neil Gaiman references this story with the Time Lord message cubes in The Doctor's Wife.
• The War Chief features in a couple of DW novels - Divided Loyalties and Timewyrm: Revelation.
• Monster cameos in the final trial sequence include a Dalek, Ice Warrior, Yeti, Cyberman and a Quark. 
• There was also supposed to be a Kroton, but both costumes were damaged. 
• The Yeti is played by John Levene, in the last of his monster roles before becoming Sergeant Benton.
• A rubbishy Quark? Why no Sontarans - which the Doctor and Jamie encountered in Seville and on the space station Camera? Why, season 6(b) of course...