Category: Complete Review
Doctor Who episode 250: The War Games – Episode Seven (31/5/1969)
There’s a definite sense of events spiralling out of control in this episode – for both sides. The Doctor and his friends have essentially taken charge of the resistance, giving the orders, organising the troops and planning a strike at the heart of the warmonger aliens’ power. Meanwhile, the War Chief and Security Chief’s mutual suspicion has prevented them from taking effective action to re-establish control – and in response to worrying reports the big boss has arrived, and intends to oversee matters personally. The back-and-forth between the two sides is beautifully encapsulated in a neat bit of a dialogue:
WAR CHIEF: I suggest we pay particular attention to the 1917 zone.
SECURITY CHIEF: Is that where they are going?JAMIE: Well, where are we going Doctor?
DOCTOR: Anywhere but the 1917 zone, Jamie.
Doctor Who episode 249: The War Games – Episode Six (24/5/1969)
As the second half of the story begins, the revelations begin to accelerate. Most notably, a couple of minutes in there is the first mention of the War Chief’s own people as the Chief Scientist mentions ‘the Time Lords.’ If it wasn’t already, it’s obvious that both the War Chief and the Doctor are fellow Time Lords, and their space/time technology has enabled ‘this whole disgraceful business.’ Zoe asks the Doctor how he is so familiar with the SIDRAT controls, and Jamie points out they they are like the TARDIS, while the Doctor only admits they are ‘a slightly different design’. After 248 episodes of the Doctor being a mysterious traveller in time and space, it seems that some of the mysteries are finally being addressed.
Doctor Who episode 248: The War Games – Episode Five (17/5/1969)
This episode takes place across two distinct settings: the American 1860s Zone and central control. And in both the TARDIS team are fomenting rebellion and organising alliances to take on the sinister aliens behind the war games. Frazer Hines gets the best material he’s had all season, convincing the pith-helmeted Russell, leader of the resistance, to hijack a SIDRAT (which we learn are green) to travel to the enemy HQ. Meanwhile, the Doctor runs rings around the Chief Scientist, deprogramms Carstairs, rescues Zoe and plans to travel back out to the various war zones to unite the various bands of resistance soldiers.
Doctor Who episode 247: The War Games – Episode Four (10/5/1969)
Again, the repetition of some elements of the story are mitigated by the steady escalation of revelations Dicks and Hulke offer up. In this episode, Jamie and Lady Jennifer are trapped in the War Between the States, captured by Union soldiers, then rescued by Confederate soldiers under the (inexplicable) leadership of Von Weich, who immediately orders their recapture. They’re then rescued by another Union soldier, and escape again, before being recaptured by the Confederates, and are finally rescued by a band of rebels from multiple war zones.
Doctor Who episode 246: The War Games – Episode Three (3/5/1969)
The War Games continues to drip feed twists and surprises with each episode. Here, we get our first glimpse of the central zone, where we learn Smythe and his “German” counterpart Von Weich are not human beings, and the serial’s title becomes apparent when the two of them begin to discuss a forthcoming battle as a good test of their respective troops’ morale, like they’re in a 1960s Fringe satire. We also meet the War Chief, a mysterious, saturnine figure whose interest is piqued by the Doctor, and whose thoughts we hear: ‘Time travellers… I wonder…’ And finally, we see the arrival of a time machine that’s bigger on the inside, which whisks the Doctor and Zoe away.
Doctor Who episode 245: The War Games – Episode Two (26/4/1969)
The episode opens as the Doctor is saved from the British by a German sniper – a beautifully subversive touch from Malcolm Hulke and Terramce Dicks. Later, Jamie makes common cause with a Redcoat who’s wandered in from another zone which, given the last time he encountered one in the Land of Fiction he immediately tried to kill him, must count as an improvement. The theme of the serial, that soldiers should unite and stop being used as pawns by the authorities, is one the show will return to 20 years and one world war later in The Curse of Fenric, but its most elegant encapsulation is here, where the Highland rebel joins with the British soldier.
Doctor Who episode 244: The War Games – Episode One (19/4/1969)
Forget The Massacre: this is probably the most upsetting, disturbing episode of Doctor Who to date – perhaps ever. Because while The Massacre was rooted in the details of French religious warfare, this has all the immediacy of a war film, with the Doctor and his friends caught up, for the first time, in events that, in 1969, were in living memory of members of the audience.
Doctor Who episode 243: “The Space Pirates” – Episode Six (12/4/1969)
‘The General doesn’t seem to think that the outcome will be disastrous.’ Not the unmitigated failure of repute, but easily the weakest set of episodes in the season. All the material featuring Troughton, Hines and Padbury was pre-recorded for this episode as they were off doing location filming for The War Games. And that pretty much sums up The Space Pirates: it feels like the one they threw under a bus to make sure Troughton’s finale got the time and attention it needed.
Doctor Who episode 242: “The Space Pirates” – Episode Five (5/4/1969)
The episode feels a bit like they just recorded the first draft. Lots of stuff happens, some of it quite good, but the coherence and central idea of a Western in space is falling by the wayside, and this becomes a more generic runaround.
Doctor Who episode 241: “The Space Pirates” – Episode Four (29/3/1969)
After last week this is a bit of a let down. There are some funny moments, like the Doctor landing on drawing pins, but a lot of it is fairly transactional plotting designed to move the story along, and some of the amusing dialogue and character work suffers as a consequence.
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