Doctor Who: The War Games "It's the Time Lords!"

Right well this is a rare bit of blog robbery as I have transferred most of my review posts from my old tennis blog onto this site, however there are still one or two that still remain, so here is another one.  And the one I have opted for is Patrick Troughton's swansong in Doctor Who, The War Games, which was a massive 10 episode epic finale originally broadcast back in 1969, which saw the Second Doctor go out with several bangs and explosions.  So let's give this one a look....

Right so the plot is pretty convoluted and it starts with the Doctor (Troughton), Jamie (Frazer Hines), and Zoe (Wendy Padbury) arriving in the TARDIS, in what appears to be a quarry somewhere.  The quarry has trenches and barbed wire all over and soon the Doctor and his companions come under fire from explosions.  The Doctor soon finds some artefacts that help him deduce that they are in the middle of the First World War.  Pretty soon after, the Doctor and his companions are lead away by a helpful woman, Lady Jennifer Buckingham (Jane Sherwin), but they are soon captured by soldiers and taken to the callous General Smythe (Noel Coleman) who accuses the Doctor and Zoe of espionage, and Jamie of desertion.  Jamie is ordered to be sent back to his so called regiment, whereas Zoe is to be imprisoned, and the Doctor is sentenced to death.  Before the Doctor's sentence is carried out, they are rescued, however as they try to leave in a jeep with the help one of the soldiers, a strange mist comes over them, and they arrive in what appears to be a different era in time, as the Doctor and the others take cover from a group of Roman soldiers charging toward them in chariots and on horses.  Soon after the Doctor deduces that they are caught in what appears to be a series of different time zones, and different wars in Earth's history such as World War I and the American Civil War.

The Doctor also soon manages to uncover what is happening as he goes back to General Smythe's office and finds a strange contraption, which he enters and it transports him to an alien control centre.  The control centre is the centre of operations for who is behind the creation of the time zones, and the Doctor soon meets the War Chief (Edward Brayshaw), who as it turns out is one of the Doctor's people, a Time Lord.  The War Chief is aiding an alien race lead by the War Lord (Philip Madoc) who plans to use the soldiers from the different eras to brainwash them and fight each other in a series of war games, in order to find out the best soldiers and use them to create a super army to conquer the universe.  The War Chief, who has created the travelling machines, known as SIDRATs (TARDIS spelt backwards) to transport the soldiers, recognises he needs the Doctor's help with his TARDIS to create more machines that can successfully direct the soldiers more in time and space.  The Doctor refuses to help and aids in helping the soldiers to join up together and form a rebellion in order to take down the War Chief and the War Lord's evil plans.

After the Doctor thwarts the War Lord's plans, the War Lord kills the War Chief, who tries to escape, and the Doctor who finds it too difficult to return the soldiers to their proper time zones (due to the fact he has so much trouble steering the TARDIS!) calls on his own race, the Time Lords to help him.  However the Doctor explains to Jamie and Zoe, that while the Time Lords will aid in returning the soldiers, that he wants to escape them, as he may face consequences for his actions in interfering with time.  Soon enough the Time Lords catch up with the Doctor as he tries to escape them in the TARDIS, and they force him to land the TARDIS on the Doctor's home planet.  There the Time Lords capture the War Lord, who must stand trial, but the War Lord attempts to escape using his soldiers, and forces the Doctor to operate the TARDIS to take him back to his planet.  But the Time Lords intervene and place a barrier round the War Lord and banish him to an eternity in the void of time and space.  The Doctor next has to stand trial in front of the Time Lords, who find him guilty of breaking their cardinal rule of non-interference in the affairs of other planets in time and space and from here the Time Lords must decide the Doctor's fate as a result of his actions as the story draws to a close......

The War Games is without doubt a landmark in the history of the show, as it finally introduce the Doctor's own race, the Time Lords.  And while the Doctor had already previously encountered one of his race in the story, The Time Meddler (the Meddling monk played by Peter Butterworth, during the William Hartnell era), this was the first full introduction of them, and goes about in explaining a little more of the Doctor's origins.  It also significantly shows that the Doctor can change his appearance more than once, and while the concept of regeneration was yet to be properly identified (not until Jon Pertwee's last story, The Planet of Spiders) this story showed the longevity of the show would be ensured.  Additionally it gives insight into the Doctor's reasoning as to why he left his planet, as he said he was bored, showing the Time Lord lifestyle was a rather dull and somewhat serene one, and essentially the Doctor is a renegade Time Lord, albeit a good one.

The story is highly ambitious and has many plot strands, not to mention many different characters, starting with Lady Jennifer Buckingham (Jane Sherwin, who was also the wife of the then producer of the show, Derrick Sherwin) and Lt Carstairs (David Saville) who help out the Doctor and his companions in escaping the time zones.  General Smythe is one of the villainous military head figures in the World War I era, but is soon revealed to be one of the aliens, who has been brainwashing the soldiers (by the use of his glasses!).  And then there is the War Chief, played excellently by Edward Brayshaw, who is one of the masterminds behind the war games, who is identified as a renegade Time Lord, who wants to help conquer the universe.  The War Lord is a more measured, cold and logical villain, played by the ever great Philip Madoc, who is both calm and booming in his responses.  In fact you could almost say the plot is at times a bit too ambitious and covers so much ground, that its hard to keep track of what is happening.

The War Games is also notable for the depature of the Doctor's regular companions, Jamie and Zoe, and Frazer Hines, by this time had been virtually in the whole of second doctor's tenure, was always one of the most memorable characters of that era, and Hines had grown really well into the part in that time.  Wendy Padbury by then had also grown really well into her part as Zoe, who's character was usually of a cheery disposition, although Padbury always played Zoe's anxiety under of threat danger well (she also had a rather nice bum! Pervo!! ;-).  The story also marks the first time the Doctor ever kisses one of his companions, as he gives Zoe a plutonic peck on the cheek in an earlier episode, although who would have known years later the Doctor would be getting snogs aplenty!  And their final scene with the Doctor as he says goodbye to them is nicely underplayed, as the Doctor calmly says goodbye to them both, and in that regard the original series was always better at dealing with the depature of the companions.  In the new series the producers and writers of the show, particularly in Russell T.Davies and even the Steven Moffat era, evey time a companion departed they had to heighten the emotion of it, and they always overdid it way too much.  The original series always dealt with the departures in a very understated way and that always made them far more effective, than the big swelling orchestral music and unecessary need to try and tug the heartstrings (or not so much as tug but throttle!). 

The final episode of the story also must rank as one of the finest in the Troughton era, as the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe try to escape in the TARDIS, only to be captured by the omnipotent Time Lords.  The Time Lords themselves are presented as being quite distant, almost aloof, and also very calm in their manner, even when passing their sentence on the War Lord and the Doctor.  The Time Lords are also well played by the three actors Bernard Horsfall, Clyde Pollitt and Trevor Martin in this regard.  And the trial, the attempted escape of the War Lord, and the Doctor's goodbye to Jamie and Zoe, and his own trial are dealt with very well in the story.  The final scene we see with Zoe also has a real ring of poignancy about it too, as she is sent back to her own time, having forgotten her time with the Doctor, and she looks puzzled for one moment when one of her colleagues on the space station asks if she is ok, and she says "I think I had forgotten something important, but its alright now."  She then looks on for a brief moment as if a faint trace of her time with the Doctor is remembered then she walks away, its a deft touch in the story.

The final scene (PLOT SPOILER RIGHT HERE!!!!!) of the Doctor spinning away into space as the Time Lords force him to regenerate, protesting over his sentence is also memorable, and it must rank as one of the darkest moments in the original series run, but its really effective at the same time, and it would pave way to beginning of an new era in the history of the show.  Patrick Toughton himself in the story is terrific, and his doctor his often fondly remembered and regarded as one of the best in the series, and it would hard to disagree, as over his tenure from 1966-1969 he firmly established his character as the Doctor, playing him with an impish sense of humour, yet he was always highly intelligent, and on the surface he looked like he would run away from danger, but he was also quite brave and very resourceful.  And it was great to see that Troughton would later reprise his role in future stories such as the the Three Doctors and the Five Doctors, where again he would provide his wonderfully colourful potrayal of the Time Lord once more. 

As for the direction of the story, David Maloney, who would go on to direct some of the great classics in the original series, such as Genesis of the Daleks and The Talons of Weng Chiang in the Tom Baker era, does a great job here too.  And despite the story's almost inordinate length, he manages to keep the pace going fairly well considering how long it is, although the story's length does remain its main flaw, as it is probably just a bit too long, and does feel a bit repetitive at times, with its endless scenes of the soldiers going in and out of the SIDRATs for example.  I also think the scene where the Time Lords present the Doctor with choices of his new appearance is a bit silly as the choices he is given are crude drawings, and hardly depict realistic choices for his regeneration, so its no wonder he protests saying "I've never seen such a ridiculous bunch!".   

The music by Dudley Simpson is also worthy of note, as his score is really good, although some of the cues are quite reptitive, but once again he shows why he was one of the show's most prolific and finest composers.  Brian Hodgson, who provides the sound effects, and did so since the beginning of the show up until around 1973, also creates some great sounds, particularly the spooky and ethereal passages used on the Time Lord's planet (which actually features on the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who soundtrack CDs).

Sooooooo to sum it all up, The War Games stands as one of Patrick Troughton's finest and most ambitious stories, and it showed that he went out on a high, paving the way for the colourful 1970s and the Jon Pertwee era.

And that's that.