“The War Games” is a ten-part, 243-minute
epic Doctor
Who serial that was broadcast from April through June of 1969. It was written by Malcolm Hulke and Terrance
Dicks, and directed by David Maloney.
This story finds our good Doctor (Patrick
Troughton) and his companions Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Zoe (Wendy Padbury) landing
the TARDIS in what seems to be a World War I battlefield.
However, the group soon learns it has
landed on alien planet filled with war zones from various Earth time periods, including
the American Civil War, World War I, and the Crimean War.
In fact, fifty-thousand abducted humans are being made to fight in these wars at the pleasure of a deadly alien being known as the War Lord, a tyrant hoping to construct the ultimate army for his strategy of galactic conquest.
After much running around, the Doctor
defeats the alien War Lord with the aid of human resistors, but comes to
realize he cannot send all 50,000 humans home using the TARDIS It is an act simply
beyond his capabilities.
The Doctor needs help, and so must summon
the Time Lords -- the very people he ran
away from -- for help.
In doing so, the Doctor exposes himself to
his most fearsome enemies.
The Doctor is captured by the Time Lords,
put on trial for interference, and before the tenth episode (a season
finale...) ends, the Time Lords mete out a terrible justice not just to the War
Lord, but to the Doctor himself
They force the Doctor to regenerate, and
then exile him on Earth of the late 20th century…
Although at ten segments it is undeniably over-long, "The War Games" is a
beautifully-shot addition to the Doctor
Who canon.
The original Doctor Who creative aesthetic -- highlighted during the black-and-white days of Hartnell and Troughton -- is here
in spades. To wit, the series
compensated for its low-budget with some exquisite visuals and beautiful camerawork. This serial, perhaps, takes the cake in that
regard.
The first episode of "The War
Games" opens with a long shot view of what seems a barren World War I
battlefield. A slow tilt down by Maloney's camera reveals a pool of muddy water
and flotsam, and then -- in the pool's reflective surface -- we see the TARDIS
materialize.
Taken by itself, this is an artistic
alternative to the "standard" opening of many a serial, a simple
landscape shot with the TARDIS merely appearing suddenly.
But much more than
that, the pan across this battlefield and the appearance of the TARDIS in a
kind of swamp uniquely expresses the isolation and desolation of this war zone.
It's an artistic and beautiful way to commence a show, and it's appropriate we see
a reflection of the TARDIS first, because in some senses, this serial is about
a "reflection" of Earth; a simulation of Earth Wars, but not the real
thing.
The War Games" also features a break-neck staccato pace, often to the cacophony of blaring German machine guns. When the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are assaulted by unknown enemies, there are fast cuts in the show, and every episode in the serial is like that, moving at cliff-hanger speed.
But then arrives the final turnaround in
the ninth half-hour, and the reason this serial should be considered a classic.
After episodes and episodes of rapid-fire
battles, hair-raising escapes, last-minute rescues and the like, we have hardly
had time to catch our breaths. But then -- after the Doctor has summoned his
people and is trying to escape so as to continue his adventures -- slow-motion photography is suddenly employed to
denote the inescapable fact that the Doctor can no longer continue to run.
Now, his very enemy is time itself: the
enigmatic Time Lords.
No matter how fast the Doctor runs, he
cannot escape. The dramatic utilization of slow-motion photography in the
closing portion of episode nine is made doubly effective by all the staccato
editing in the previous portions of the serial. By this point, the audience has
been through one fast-paced scrape with the Doctor after another, and so we are
not prepared for the impact of the slow-motion interlude, or the fact that the
Time Lords can and do intervene, and actually slow time to a crawl, hindering
our hero's escape.
The slow-motion photography, in direct contrast to all the fast-cutting of earlier segments, hints at the inescapable fact that this is a battle the Doctor can't win.
Dynamic visuals alone are not the only
reason to remember the season closer for Doctor
Who's sixth year. More
importantly, "The War Games" tells a remarkable story (and one
repeated on Star Trek
Voyager many years
later, featuring the Hirogen and holodeck simulations of World War II and other
battle scenarios...). And it isn't just about endless war, either.
"The War Games" is one of the best examples of the Doctor's personal heroism. Here, his life and
very future are at stake, but he puts that existential threat aside to help the
human fighters. He contacts the Time Lords, even though he knows that for him that
contact will spell certain doom.
And let us not forget that this serial
came at a time in the series history when the Time Lords were a mysterious and
frightening people. Over the years, they
were modified to become but another alien race, like Mr. Spock’s Vulcans. But at first -- in “The War Games” -- the mysterious,
draconian Time Lords were more menacing than the Daleks or the Cybermen.
In fact, as depicted in "The War
Games,” the Time Lords are the most frightening villains the series has ever
dramatized. They are invincible and powerful, able to control time. And they
have a cold, harsh sense of law and justice. They punish the War Lord (after
torturing him...) by wiping his existence from the record of time, a horrendous
and heartless fate.
Then -- in an act of vengeance almost totally unjustified -- these Lords of
Time trap the War Lord's entire planet in a kind of stasis or force field.
Cleverly, the final episode of "The War Games" shows us this evil,
merciless "Time Lord" justice first, and then proceeds to the trial
of the Doctor second.
Once more, the feeling that the Doctor has finally run out of luck, is inescapable.
As the Doctor's trial begins, audiences understand that
there will be no mercy, and no last minute reprieve. In the end, the Time Lords kill this incarnation of the
Doctor, make his companions (Jamie and Zoe) forget their time with him and
exile the new incarnation of the Doctor to 20th century Earth. They do it all without remorse, or humanity, thus marking them as dangerous and as sinister as Dalek, Cyberman, Ice Warrior, or any other "alien" race.
At the end of "The War Games" it is quite sad
and touching to see the forced separation of the Doctor from his companions,
but still the Doctor knew that in saving the humans from the War Lord, he would
face drastic consequences. This serial is not just an anti-war story (presented during the Vietnam War), it is a statement about doing good even when there is a personal cost.
“The War Games” sends the Doctor into exile
on Earth, and thus sparks one of the (many) major turning points in the mythos that Steven
Moffatt sometimes discusses in regards to the upcoming “Day of the Doctor.” After this serial, everything changed. The Doctor was no longer fleeing his own people, and, in a sense, he was no longer free, either.
Visually dynamic, extremely frightening and serving as a crucial turning point in the legend, “The
War Games" is the last gasp of the Patrick Troughton era. See it if you
can….of for no other reason than Patrick Troughton's unforgettable goodbye to his companion
Jamie, and his admonition to remember that "time is relative.”
Hey John!
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to pop in and let ya know how much I love reading your blog. I always learn something new and fascinating from your posts, and it's nice to see someone covering such an awesome array of films and TV shows, I love it. I also wanted to let you know that you've won The Sunshine Award, I think your blog is great, and wanted to pass along some love. Dig it here:
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Keep it spooky!
Rg Lovecraft
Rg,
DeleteThank you so much for your kind words about my blog and my writing. I appreciate the words, and the award! I am now following your blog, and I look forward to getting to know you better...
Warmest regards,
John
Given the episode's length, it is amazing that all of the episodes survived the infamous tape wipings. In light of the pandemic and the resulting necessity of online communication, I find the scene in which the Doctor sees images of Jamie and Zoe in their original locations--in other words, screens are his only connection to his former friends--to be particularly poignent
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