Doctor Who: Inferno

Serial Title: Inferno
Series: 7
Episodes: 7
Doctor: Jon Pertwee
Companions: Liz Shaw (Caroline John), Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney)


Synopsis:
Crazy Professor Stahlman has this nutty dream to drill down to the core of the Earth to mine pockets of gas he suspects there to create a new energy source. He also has government funding, a bevy of experts he ignores, a UNIT presence he resents, and an abrasive personality and tendency to ignore all reason in the pursuit of his dreams. Lovely.

Still, the Doctor is onboard as one of those ignored advisers in order to get him access to the base’s nuclear generator, which he is using to experiment with re-activating the TARDIS console which he has removed from the ship. Liz is there to assist him. The Brigadier is there in an official liaison capacity. Sir Keith Gold, Executive Director, is there to provide oversight that Stahlman ignores. Petra Williams is there as Stahlman’s personal assistant. And newcomer Greg Sutton, an oil drilling expert, is there to provide practical experience in case of emergency… which Stahlman ignores. Suffice it to say, of the above list, only Petra is happy to be there… though, once he lays eyes on her, Sutton doesn’t seem to mind sticking around too much.

Problems (beyond the personal ones) arise when a toxic green slime begins spewing from the drilling pipe- one of the workers touches it and begins to mutate into a feral creature, radiating incredible heat, and going entirely and murderously berserk. While the Brigadier and returning character Sergeant Benton investigate (he was in Ambassadors of Death as the nitwit who let Lennox die on his watch…), the Doctor is testing the TARDIS console- and an unexpected surge of power due to a struggle between the mutated man and a technician in the reactor control room sends the Doctor and the console hurtling through a strange dimensional void, which he barely escapes from thanks to Liz. The Doctor is certain that he had almost reached somewhere, possibly somewhere important…

The mutated creature is killed by a UNIT soldier in self-defense when the group goes to investigate the reactor room, and the Doctor recognizes its eerie sound from something he heard once… in 1883 at the explosion of Krakatoa. Outside, the Doctor encounters another mutated creature (the technician attacked by the first man) which falls to its death from a catwalk- but doesn’t see a third creature, lurking in the shadows.

In the shadow of multiple murders and the strange green goo, Stahlman… refuses to listen or halt the drilling. (The nuclear station must be restored! The Wheel must run smoothly! The gas-flow will NOT be shut down!!!) Instead, he manhandles a canister of the stuff and almost-bravely gets it inside a containment box as the container begins to fracture from the heat- his hand is briefly exposed, and he begins to mutate very slowly, hiding his condition. He also sabotages the project computer, which was reading unsafe conditions and recommending a shutdown. He also throws the Doctor out of the project, cutting off the power, and then orders the drilling ACCELERATED. Then, a baby seal shows up with a warning to slow down the project, and he axe-murders it, followed by a message from God written in the clouds that says “STIOP YOUR DRILLING,” which he responds to by ordering a dome be built over the drill-site so that no one can see the sky.

Okay, maybe those last two didn’t happen, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they did, just off screen.

The Doctor surreptitiously restores power when no one is looking and flees to his lab; Liz arrives just in time to see him and the TARDIS console vanish from reality. The Doctor, obsessed with finding out where his trip was leading, has ditched this dead-end world for… the same place? No, as he explores the area with Bessie (pulled along for the ride with him for some reason), he comes under fire, battles one of the mutated creatures atop a water tower, and finally finds Liz- a brunette Liz who pulls a gun on him- the Doctor comes to realize that he’s side-slipped onto a parallel Earth. Here, the Brigadier is the cruel and thuggish Brigade Leader, clean-shaven and wearing an eyepatch (and a large scar to prove that it’s not just for show- see, this guy I could believe committing the Silurian Genocide- okay, okay, I’ll let it go…), Liz is a fascist officer under his command, Sutton is a rebel against the totalitarian government given one last chance to be useful by aiding the slave-labor-manned drill project, Petra is a doctor with a severe dress sense, Sir Keith Gold is dead (killed in a staged car accident to prevent his attempts to shut down the project), and Stahlman… really isn’t any different. (No, that’s not just dry wit condemning his character- he really isn’t different!)

The same shenanigans have been going on in this alternate universe, but now the danger readings, mysterious murders, strange creatures, and broken computer are blamed on a saboteur- the Doctor. He is repeatedly interrogated, and even though he saves the day during a crisis with pipeline pressure, he is still thrown in a cell. His cellmate is a green, feral, beast-like creature; a Primord (so named only in the credits- like the Ewoks of Star Wars, the name is official and canonical but never spoken or known by anyone onscreen), the full result of the green slime mutation- an animalistic savage radiating incredible heat. When it kills one of the guards, the Doctor is able to escape- too late, as penetration of the crust is achieved. The Earth rocks and the bore-hole screams in howling fury; tremors and eruptions wrack the globe. In short, the Earth retaliates with a fiery fury unrivaled in all of human history. Stahlman (already infected as in our universe) enters the heated, boiling drill chamber and is sealed in… he, and the others trapped within, soon emerge as Primords and begin to attack the survivors, as the Doctor calculates that this world is doomed, and will soon tear itself apart from the crust-breaching. However, the survivors latch on to the Doctor’s plan to restore power to the TARDIS console and return him, at least warning the other Earth to prevent its following in their footsteps.

Fighting off Primords with fire extinguishers (cold is more effective against them due to their heightened heat), Petra and Greg- blossoming in a doomed romance- manage to get the power restored- but the Brigade Leader pulls a gun on the Doctor, demanding safe evacuation for the group back to his universe. The Doctor dearly wishes to save them, but can’t, as bridging the dimensional barrier with them could prove catastrophic (even though it wasn’t when he crossed over…)- when his arguments fall on the deaf ears of the desperate thug, Parallel Liz, whom he has reached, shoots him down and gives the Doctor the time he needs to escape. The Doctor begins the crossover as flowing magma roars through the complex and the end of the world accelerates…

But it may be too late- in our universe, a few hours behind its counterpart (and thus drilling has not yet reached the critical point), Sir Keith Gold has also gone to his superiors to lobby for shutting the drilling down, and after his driver’s bribe and orders from Stahlman to delay him are discovered, the car gets into a crash- perhaps the events the Doctor has seen ahead in the other universe are inevitable! And even if it isn’t, the Doctor arrives in our universe, comatose from the traumatic crossing… with only three hours left to go on the drilling, the time is ticking down.

Murmurings in his sleep get the attending Liz thinking about concerns to the drilling project, especially as things he half-coherently warns of begin to happen. When the Doctor awakens in a half-manic state, he spurs into action, and begins smashing equipment in the drilling control room. Judged to be still delirious, he is restrained by UNIT soldiers and removed from the buildings- but Liz finds evidence to confirm his ravings, an realizes that the Doctor is right on the money. Repairing the computer, she is able to confirm the Doctor’s dire warnings- as outside, the Doctor uses his Vensuian Karate to escape his escort and return to the drill shaft, as Sir Keith shows up- alive, but with a broken arm, showing the Doctor that events CAN be changed.

One thing is destined to happen, though- Stahlman reaches a critical point in his mutation, and instinct takes over- smearing himself with more of the goo, he completely hulks out into a full Primord. He emerges to attack as the drill reaches critical and warnings sound all over the complex…

The Earth is then destroyed.

Not buying it? Okay, no, actually Stahlman is subdued with a fire extinguisher and Greg Sutton manages an emergency shutdown of the generator. The Doctor announces that, with the console functional again, he is leaving. He and the Brig exchange harsh words when the latter objects to his departure, and the Doctor vanishes… only to reappear, bedraggled, moments later, having made a jump directly into the nearby garbage dump and breaking down. Chagrined, he mends fences and grovels a bit to get the Brigadier’s help in retrieving the console, as an amused Liz looks on.


Review:
The season-ending Inferno is quite an interesting story which at first seems to be shaping up as something quite different than what it turns out to be. We dip into the Star Trek Mirror Universe conceptual spring for this parallel-Earth tale about a brunette Liz and a clean-shaven, eye-patched Brigadier on an alternate, totalitarian and oppressive Earth, the manically obsessed professor drilling through the Earth’s crust to reach the mantle in both worlds, and to a lesser extent, a mysterious green possibly-sentient goo that mutates humans into green-skinned versions of Lon Chaney’s Wolfman makeup. Yikes! Let’s get into it…

The story does a good job of bait-and-switch, setting up what seems to be a standard-beyond-standard by-the-numbers alien invasion/zombie plot- and then throwing things in a totally different direction, doing enough establishing work to get you good and familiar with the scenario so as to recognize it in the parallel world, and then cutting loose with, essentially, a cautionary tale- not only a disaster story in the alternate world, but a picture of what the Doctor must return in time to PREVENT in our own world. They even throw in another twist, as the story in the parallel world lasts long past the drilling and into an Armageddon-survivor post-apocalyptic scenario, trying to get the Doctor home while under siege by monsters overrunning the base.

The Brigadier has another unfortunate serial in which he is sometimes on the Doctor’s side but sometimes not, though certainly far more positive than the Silurian madness. He is firm and authoritative (as much as his position allows) in dealing with the mad professor, but he’s still in Ms. Marple Mode (MMM), doubting or mistrusting the Doctor who has yet to be wrong (unless you count the Silurian incident, which the Brig might- but since the Doctor doesn’t show any evidence of acting or being motivated based on those events, why should we assume the Brig is?)- which the Doctor calls him on at the end, and rightly so. Does their reconciliation mean a change in the Brig’s character for next series? We shall see. Meanwhile, Nicholas Courtney gets a chance to stretch his acting legs with a turn as the nasty, cruel, thuggish, and selfish Brigade Leader, who becomes the piece’s secondary villain by the end- a nice evil mirror universe character to have fun with.

Liz – in her swan song, after a very brief 4-serial run- gets a bit more to do as the sinister-but-smart evil counterpart of herself, who, just like the real article, is the first to give the Doctor a chance and believe in the possibilities. In the end, she’s the one that takes charge and acts as the voice of reason (shooting the Brigade Leader), allowing the Doctor to escape and warn our Earth. (In fact, the actress said she had more fun playing her evil doppelganger than she did her regular role!)

In the real world, she only has the first and last episodes and a few cutaways, but manages to be both supportive and stern in warning the Doctor off of another ‘test run,’ and has a great scene in which she realizes what he’s up to. So… still fairly background in her this-universe incarnation, but in her alternate persona, the actress finally gets a chance to break out of the background. I think Liz may end up going down as one of the meekest and mildest companions in Doctor Who history (save for her initial appearance). She hasn’t given me a strong character impression to counteract her initial noxiousness, but while I still don’t have a strong positive impression of her character, her gently supporting and sympathizing nature, and tendency not to call much attention to behavior negative or positive, has managed to soothe away the initial feelings. To put it more simply, she hasn’t done anything to make me ‘love’ her the way Jamie, Zoe, Steven, Ian, Barbara, etc. have… but I don’t dislike her, either. She’s on my good side in general, but more towards the middle neutral ‘I don’t mind them one way or another’ median than towards any extreme of like or dislike.

The Doctor has a number of moments, from his Karate bits to several good action and chase scenes in both worlds to his taking charge and smashing the controls at the end to his TARDIS trip and surreptitious theft of power to complete the TARDS-console trip midway through, a very clever gambit. He has an excellent farewell/exit scene at the end that we, as the audience, know won’t pan out, and indeed his situation gets reset seconds later, denying him time/space travel once again- and he has yet another great scene to end with. He also has a wonderful moment describing himself as feeling like a ‘shipwrecked man’ without the TARDIS and his ability to travel in time and space- a lovely and moving picture of the Doctor’s torment in exile. He is take-charge in this serial in a way not seen since Troughton in Seeds of Death, active and in-charge, even as a prisoner. He has great moments in his interrogation and escape, as well. He also has a number of great quotes- about computers “I don’t care for them myself, but they are tools, and if you have a tool, it’s stupid not to use it,” about the console’s humble appearance “You were expecting a rocket ship with Batman in it?”, and about the professor himself… when he announces to the professor that “You, sir, are a nitwit!” you want to cheer and give him a high-five, because you’ve been wanting to say the same thing to him for the last hour! (In addition, the radio announcement scene near the end in the mirror universe is clearly Pertwee’s voice- and was indeed cut from the original British broadcast for being too recognizable).

Yes, Professor Stahlman is a pain in the neck, another stock RPGP character in the Robson/Lawrence/Carrington mode, driven by Hollywobsession, the kind of obsession that presumably occurs only in TV shows and movies, and involves a completely unreasonable degree of insane, unyielding, driving obsession which not only cannot stop, but cannot slow down long enough to take measures that will ensure its own success in the long run until you begin to suspect that the character is not so interested in their end goal (drilling through to penetration) as they are to the action that they seem to be contributing more to (running the drill as fast as they can without stopping EVER) since their choice to repeatedly endorse the latter action is actually endangering the success of the former goal! And he does so to a dangerous degree, actually smashing safety equipment and the like! Strangely, in the parallel universe of evil counterparts and fascist, totalitarian doppelgangers… he doesn’t really seem any different.

Stahlman is among the more annoying of the specimens of this already-annoying archetype, as he is in active denial whereas others like Lawrence and Robson seem to simply gloss over the valid points that others make instead of acknowledging them and then refuting them based on total illogic. His insistence on doing so, however, is his downfall- when he picks up the canister the Doctor warned him to avoid (a very cool scene with the fracturing container, by the way) for apparently no other reason than to SPITE THE DOCTOR who was telling him not to touch it for his own safety. It’s the only explanation for his not grabbing a glove, some cloth, simply turning the box upside-down on top of it, etc.- the infection that turns him into a monster and kills him (I think? Or paralyzes him? The monsters of this serial, their nature, and their fate, are really not well elaborated-upon) comes from his own insistence on doing a completely illogical thing contrary to his long-term goals simply for the express purpose of NOT doing the smart thing that someone else just told him to do, very much like a pouting, petulant child.

The monster concept was pretty cool, as is the notion of intense heat radiating from them, which I don’t think was always consistently portrayed, but was very neat whenever it was. Funnily enough, the Primords were an addition to the script to help pad out the 7-episode length.

As for his staff, though, I have to ask, just as I did for Robson, Charles, and Carrington (and many others)- just how loyal are his staff? At point do you just say “This guy is nuts and clearly very ill, staring off into space and groaning, doubled-over, while racked with pain- I am going to have to say that this guy is not in his right mind and I am not going to listen to him anymore, I’m going to follow established safety procedures.”? Loyalty is great and all, but- what have these RPGPs, these ranting, obsessed, insulting, belittling, decidedly-non-people-person, non-confidence-inspiring, selfish, introverted, demanding, impatient, short-tempered cruel bosses done to inspire their workers to follow them into the very gates of Hell? I mean, leaders like Washington, Patton, and Macarthur likely had trouble inspiring such loyalty in their troops; what the heck would these people- hired employees in all cases but General Carrington- have POSSIBLY done to inspire such loyalty and unwavering, unquestioning obedience in the men whose lives are being actively endangered by their ignoring every safety protocol and scrap of prudence?

Then there’s Greg Sutton, the oil rig driller. (Whose actor is a Who veteran, having first appeared as Za in An Unearthly Child) Not exactly Mr. Congeniality (at least to the prof. he’s nice to everyone else, and it’s only after he’s snubbed that he gets caustic), he says things like they are, and seems intent on the roughest, most drag-her-out-of-the-cave-by-the-hair, least tender, most-aggression-based romance ever seen on the face of the Earth (or as we Trek fans call it, a Kahn/McGuyvers romance) with the prof’s assistant, who he lumps into his aggressions for being a meek sheep to the crazy boss.

In the alternate universe, he is quite right in pointing out everyone’s futility in continuing on with their actions in the face of Armageddon, and at first seemed like the bloke to root for, bucking the tiresome totalitarian authority, beyond caring about the consequences… but he became quite obsessed in his own way with a completely and equally illogical need to escape. Considering that everywhere was equally doomed, is there any reason that his last days couldn’t be more fulfilling NOT risking his life in escape attempts to nowhere? Perhaps pursuing the potential romance he had right where he was? So, he became a bit annoying in his hypocrisy, challenging the illogical adherence to orders in the face of death to advocate his own illogical need to escape the compound in the face of death.

Sir Keith Gold was a nice and likable fellow who didn’t get much focus- save for the bizarre driving/chauffeur scene, but he was polite, considerate, concerned for others, safety-conscious, and acted as the voice of reason- not quite an everyman, but one that the everyman can easily identify with emotionally, if not in terms of position. It’s little surprise that such a reasonable fellow was killed off in the alternate universe, but it was nice when they threw us a curve in our world and spared his life. I liked him.

And lastly, the professor’s assistant, a passive-aggressive woman with a strangely vulnerable side in the alternate universe. Too much of a minor character in our own world to really review, she was a heroic and brave character- like alternate-Liz, a far more open and reasonable (for some reason, all of the parallel-males are just thick and obstinate- I suppose some might say that it’s a trait not reserved solely for the parallel Earth…) character who saw what needed to be done and risked her life to do it.

As far as production values, there were some great clearly-a-real-person fall stunts (in fact, the shot of a Primord falling off of a tank/catwalk near the end was, at the time, the highest fall ever performed by a British stuntman- not exactly the traditional perception of Doctor Who as a show made on-the-cheap), some nice combat, and a great chase sequence with the Doctor and Bessie. The introduction of Venusian Karate, giving the Doctor a chance to finally have something other than fast-talking to aid him in various confrontations, was a welcome change, a cool concept, and made for several fun moments- “Have you ever seen anything like THIS?” Sets and locations were good.

Music was minimalist, but good when used. Sound effects were pretty good- especially compared to the recent ear-piercing Silurian hogwash. I had hoped that we were seeing the Third Doctor Sonic Screwdriver with the ‘door handle device,’ but since there were two, I’m guessing it was a separate device.

Effects were generally positive- though the first travel sequence made use of some fairly stock camera/mirror tricks, it used them to generally good effect- reminiscent of the travel sequence from The Daleks’ Master Plan, actually. The curtain-of-bubbles transition was a simple but effective way of identify transitions between universes, and the parallel narrative, while it surprised me, was good at building the suspense. The volcano footage was put to good effect, and the lava-flow-through-the-doorway was rather impressive- technically simple but visually striking, a very iconic and effective image. Even the camera shake for the earthquake long shots was far more natural than such shots normally look, a very smooth execution for an often slipshod camera technique. And the man responsible for it all, VFX supervisor Jack Kine, is forever immortalized… as the face of the totalitarian regime leader on the posters.

The cliffhangers on this one felt a little sloppier, not quite as effective as the Ambassadors of Death, and the makeup- though it looked pretty good in patches or partial-mutants, was pretty hokey in its final form. Still, that lava/doorway shot… man, was that cool!!! And of course, we’re left with a deep-Earth menace never explored or explained, a menace bubbling deep beneath the surface that may return some day…

And speaking of returning someday, as per the novels, the Doctor’s estimates of mirror Earth’s destruction were a bit exaggerated… and though it was rendered nearly uninhabitable, a group of survivors managed to steal the TARDIS of the alternate-Master (a good guy in that universe) and bridge the gap to our universe- where they were (understandably) enraged that their crossing over did no harm, thus meaning that the Doctor could have saved them, and went on a campaign to destroy the Doctor, eventually being thwarted by UNIT, in conjunction with a 20-years more aged Ian and Barbara. Of course, as with all novels, this is not canon. Still, an interesting notion (that makes the ending here a bit bitter).


Great moments:
Venusian karate, the Doctor calling Stahlman a nitwit, and the lava through the doorway.


Rating:
This story ends the series on a high point, garnering 4 out of 5 “Shoes!”, marred only by slightly slow pacing at first and a patently obnoxious stock villain. Still, this is a very good showing for the Third Doctor’s era, and a recommendation to watch. Most significantly, this is the final appearance of the original TARDIS console, which has been in use since An Unearthly Child all the way back in the pilot- it is fitting, then, that the console become a centerpiece of this particular story. Farewell, TARDIS v1.0- it shall be a long time until we see your like again. Or even the TARDIS again. Rats.

Dating:
Nothing in particular implies a date. Slightly futuristic drilling technology and computer capabilities are offset by the fact that the computer technology is decidedly contemporary. Sure, there’s nuclear power, a drill that can reach the Earth’s core, etc., but nothing to suggest these aren’t meant to be contemporary. Still... the Doctor does end it by referencing the years he’s known the Brigadier, so I’m going to have to give this one the future-1980s nod.

Patrick Troughton

Patrick Troughton

Ah, Patrick Troughton. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again- it will take something pretty spectacular to unseat him as my favorite Doctor. He is funny, with an elastic face and a slightly manic manner, great comic timing and a talent for impersonations. He introduces the sonic screwdriver. He always has a plan, and half the time it fails completely. He is parental and caring, willing to self-sacrifice, for his companions. He isn’t afraid to get into the action himself. And he quickly unseated Hartnell as my new favorite. A fair-weather fan, I, falling for the charms of whichever Doctor is on my screen? I think not- this fellow will be hard to top. (Note from Andrew, 2012: Indeed, in viewing all the way up through the 22nd year and the 6th Doctor, Troughton has not been topped by the Old Series or the New.)

William Hartnell said that there was only one man he’d trust to take over the role, and I heartily agree with him. Patrick Troughton  is practically the template for everything the Doctor’s become, and definitely the inspiration for the current showrunner, Matt Smith… as well as for Fifth Doctor Peter Davison and Sixth Doctor Colin Baker. He may not have any particular super-powers like Hartnell did- he doesn’t master hypnosis, do vocal impressions, or possess a signet ring… he only shows us a hint of the depth of powers he may possess at the end, assembling his hypercube, and his only ability may well be playing the recorder.

But he is friendly and disarming, yet clever and wily. He left generously, not under a grudging and denying note (despite the character’s protestations), but on a generously accepting note, paving the way for audience acceptance of his successor. He left as he arrived- with humor. My heart is buoyed knowing we shall see him again thrice in specials- to quote David Tennat, the 10th Doctor, “You know what, Doctor? You were my Doctor.” And so, I suspect, you will remain, even after I’ve seen all 11. Or 12. Or ever.

Patrick Troughton, you are the best.

“You can’t kill me- I’m a genius!”

My Top 10 Favorite Second Doctor Moments

10. Naming and playing with ‘Alpha,’ ‘Beeta,’ and ‘Omeega’/Confronting the Dalek Emperor/Declaring the Daleks’ "Final End" (Evil of the Daleks):
All fantastic moments, but all too brief. The Doctor being delighted with Daleks, for once? Having a showdown with an imensly powerful enemy on the Dalek homeworld? Pronouncing final sentence on his greatest foes- their epitaph? How does one choose? I think, if pressed, I would have to go with Alpha, Beeta, and Omeega- and not just from the endless source of bafflement and bemusement that his odd pronunciations elicits.  Whereas the First Doctor’s favored moments for me came from the times when he won the day, had the upper hand, took charge, became the hero the Doctor would eventually be… the Second Doctor is always at his best in my book when he is funny, happy, whimsical, warm, friendly, loving… humanized- (though not human, heaven forbid- don’t string me up, Enemy Within-haters! He isn’t half human! I know!) a different aspect of the Doctor brought to the fore. And in this case, a simple moment of child-like playtime with three members of his greatest race of foes, in turn humanizing them, and seeing the potential for a race of monsters to be truly reformed, the Doctor ceases to be the day-saver, plotter, and schemer for a moment, and simply enjoys his life for a change- something haunted 9th would seldom do (except when “Everybody lives!”) and gloomy, depressed 10th started off doing, but quickly forgot how to do as a mopey, dark, brooding character. And something that every Doctor needs to be able to do, I think, lest the audience get lost in the darkness of the void through which his eternal quest reaches…

9. “Lesterson, listen…” (Power of the Daleks):
While post-regenerative madness wouldn’t hit in full comedic force until the Third Doctor in Spearhead From Space, the Second Doctor still spends much of his first serial in an off-kilter precursor that seems to be practically the inspiration for Matt Smith’s ongoing performance of the 11th Doctor. For much of the time, he simply seems out-of-it, but this moment of slightly-giddy, self-amused repetition- trying to get Lesterson’s attention and then repeating the phrase over and over to himself, to his great amusement, really started to sell the character for me, and was the first glimpse of the ‘funny’ Doctor we were soon to receive.

8. Playing dumb (The Dominators):
It’s a simple bit- believing all inhabitants of the planet they’re conquering to be foolish, idiotic sheep (and rightly so, as it turns out), the haughty Dominators capture Jamie and the Doctor as specimens for testing, to determine their true intelligence level. In order to get them to underestimate him, the Doctor plays along- taking the torments like a confused child, helplessly throwing up his hands and expressing panicked bewilderment at the slightest challenge, even willingly submitting himself to electric shocks to accomplish the ruse, with quite enjoyable results. (Honorable almost-mention – The scene of the Doctor breaking through the tunnel wall into the shaft leading to the planet’s core and catching the bomb as it’s dropped down the shaft at the last minute would definitely make this list… if the cheap so-and-sos that ran the show hadn’t had the whole thing occur off-screen!!!)

7. Treating the symptoms (Highlanders):
The Highlanders, Troughton’s second serial, was a sterling showcase for his comedic talents, offering the Doctor the chance for multiple impersonations, impressions, and comedic bits. Perhaps the best was his German physician, who played on the hypochondria of his captors to convince them they were sick and then crafted all manner of outlandish treatments to incapacitate and disable them, much in the manner of Bugs Bunny. From his insistence that his patient had eye problems, and the sound of a superior (locked in the closet) shouting for help was “All in your head… in your eyes!” to his convincing a lackey that the proper treatment consisted of slamming the man’s head against a desk until he passed out, this was a brilliant comedy sequence that transcended even the reconstruction stills that contained it.

6. Putting Jamie’s face on wrong – (The Mind Robbers):
In the surreal Mind Robbers, surrounded by dozens of great Second Doctor moments, mostly revolving around belief and disbelief (see my review for a full accounting, or, better yet, go watch the serial!), Troughton faces one of the strangest actor-absence plot-points ever devised- Jamie is shot in the forehead by a redcoat and turns into a cardboard cutout, and then his face disappears, replaced by a blank white space- while a pasteboard with a series of mouths, noses, and eyes appears beside it. Responding to this apparent cruel-sense-of-humor-whim on the part of the Master of the Land of Fiction, the Doctor obligingly picks out Jamie’s facial elements and re-applies them… only he gets it wrong, much to his outspoken dismay… and Jamie is played by another actor for an episode (with an uncanny and dead-on impersonation!). Finally, Jamie is shot in the head again (one fears for his long-term odds of survival after his return into history in The War Games), and the scenario repeats itself, this time with Zoe there to guide the Doctor through. After several corrections to his initial choices, Zoe indignantly realizes that the Doctor had done this before, and gotten it wrong. His embarrassed, chagrined shushing is worth the price of admission by itself in what’s already a fantastic serial.

5. Trial (The War Games):
Caught and tried by his people for breaking their noninterference laws, the Doctor gives a passionate defense of his actions, giving a speech about how evil exists in the galaxy, showing and summarizing some of his most notable foes (plus the non-starter Quarks) and pleading for his fate- and then, once sentenced, facing alternating panic at being stuck on Earth and being forcibly regenerated, relief over being able to choose his appearance, annoyance and disgust with the presented choices, and indignant denial as he is finally sent to Series 6B… errrrr… his regeneration… a very strong set of scenes to close out Troughton’s run on the Doctor.

4. “No Victoria, don’t hit me!” (Enemy of the World):
The title practically speaks for itself. In this doubles episode in which Troughton plays the dual roles of hero and villain (The Doctor and the treacherous Salamander), numerous cases of mistaken identity abound. Towards the end, the Doctor impersonates Salamander interrogating Victoria, apparently for a bit of fun- but his sinister façade breaks into the titular cry and a cowardly cringe when Victoria’s ire is raised and she moves towards him threateningly, revealing the true Doctor within. (Honorable mention to the excellent final sequence in which Salamander gets aboard the TARDIS while impersonating the Doctor, the two confront each other, and the climactic final battle- all excellent sequences!)

3. “I was bored.” (The War Games):
In Troughton’s final serial, we received many revelations- the name and nature of his people, the fact that he had stolen the TARDIS, and his motivation for traveling around time and space: boredom. It’s such an off-handed and Doctorish comment that you almost miss the character implications in the humor of the moment. Here, we get an insight into the man we’ve been watching for the last six years- he is a restless wanderer, an explorer at heart, traveling to see the wonders of the galaxy; and also a man of conscience- reading between the lines, it was his people’s policy of non-interference that chafed on him, not a prohibition against travel; the Doctor says it himself later in the serial- There is evil to be opposed in the universe, and someone has to do it. The Doctor could not just sit idly still, watching from a position of great power while tragedy befell those whom his people considered “lesser races” (reminiscent of the Ancients from Stargate SG1)- instead, he had to steal a ship, become a fugitive, give up his home and the incredible powers the Time Lords are shown to exercise, all for the sake of being able to interfere, to help people. And yet he doesn’t seek acknowledgement or recognition- he tries to mask over his noble self-sacrifice with an indifferent “I was bored,” leaving the true implications of his statement to remain unstated.

2. Run to the rescue (Seeds of Death):
A good old fashioned Doctor-to-the-rescue moment, the Doctor realizes, in conversation with the program director, that Jamie and Zoe are missing- and likely headed to the last location that an Ice Warrior was spotted. He takes off running through toxic foam and various obstacles to reach them. While far more a visual moment and difficult to describe here, it’s a real action hero moment for the Doctor- followed by a near-death desperate encounter in the foam, a slapstick chase, and a total Schwarzenegger action sequence with his solar hand-cannons. It’s really a great ‘action’ sequence for the Doctor, and it involves the now legendary element of the Doctor Who mythos so integral to everything: running. “When I say run… run!”

1. Taking the test (The Krotons):
When brilliant-but-naïve Zoe dons a teaching headset on a whim to test her intelligence, and scores highly (qualifying her for a quick death at the hands of the Krotons, to be called into the dark portal of their sinister spaceship as a sort of sacrifice), the Doctor doesn’t even hesitate, immediately donning a headset himself to score highly and follow her in. While the following scene- in which he overthinks things, gets stressed out, and makes mistakes that flunk him the first time around before successfully testing the second time- is funny, the core of this scene is Troughton’s caring, almost parental willingness to sacrifice himself so that Zoe will not have to face her trials alone. He doesn’t blink, doesn’t hesitate, doesn’t have to take a moment to decide- he just acts, immediately, with no question in his mind. This was the moment that made me ‘fall in love’ with this Doctor, a man who cared for his companions like they were his children.

Also, here are a few honorable mentions that didn’t quite make my top 10 list, but I feel are worthy of notation for their distinctiveness:
Passing the test (at the last minute!) from the Ice warriors. The old woman impersonation and various hilarious others in The Highlanders. The alley run from The Invasion. The exercise machine from the Macra Terror (During the ‘Merry old Land of Oz’ makeover sequence, when the Doctor is displeased with how clean and pressed his clothes appear, and leaps into the exercise machine under its owner’s protests to rumple them up). And the whimsical slapstick ‘heist’ abduction and marketplace antics from The Underwater Menace.



So, this is it. The end of an era. Before we go on, I’m going to take a look back at the Black & White series, the era that we’re leaving behind.

It was evenly split between two Doctors- one stern and gruff, the other friendly and goofy- the patriarch and the comedian. We started with suspicions and mistrust, then forged a family- all whilst meeting most of the classic monsters that we know and love today, and struggling to find it’s footing, niche, length, and pacing. Then, the cast changed; the Doctor was rehabilitating a hurting man, helping his two companions to grow to maturity in a grandfatherly mentor role. But soon, both left, and the Doctor tried to get hip with Ben and Polly. Sadly, due to the failing health of William Hartnell, the next change was to the Doctor, not the companions. In a unique and relatively unheard-of maneuver, the main character changed roles whilst remaining the same character, with an in-story explanation. And soon, he gained his own companions- a group of impetuous youngsters in need of a more fatherly guidance, as the Doctor bumbled and stumbled his way through dozens of menacing situations, but always came out on top.

Things tended to look cheaper, simpler, more studio-bound (and often they were), yet this lent a more stylized, more easily accepted fantasy aspect to the show. Effects either looked really hokey, or ultra-slick (like the void sequences in The Mind Robbers). We had only one take available during filming, so performances were rougher, editing was simpler, there were less cuts, less stunts, and less practical effects. Actors often got clumsily written-out for a serial (occasionally a blessing) when they went on vacation (errrr… ‘holiday’) or were sick. 'Future' costumes were often laughable. Companions tended to be 2-3, a male-female mixture, whereas later series trended towards a single female companion. The dynamic was more like a family, and the Doctor was often mysterious and uncommunicative. Aliens were more commonly monsters (with a few exceptions) to be destroyed instead of antagonists to be negotiated with while possessing their own unique point of view. This was the only period with historical, pure educational adventures. It has a charm to it- occasionally a chuckle-able “How quaint!” laugh at the naiveté, but more often a genuine charm and style all of its own.

Even through the course of 6 years (for perspective, almost as long as each of the three long-running Star Trek series ran), you can see major changes in production quality- not only from An Unearthly Child to The War Games, but even from Series 1 to Series 2, and at intervals between. Though the show changed concepts (abandoning the alternating sci-fi/historical and educational concepts, for one thing) and character/theme focuses several times, it always remained true to its concept- something which is about to undergo radical changes in the series to come- and even though far, FAR too much of this era is lost to the ravages of missing episodes and reconstructions, it was an entertaining and rewarding ride. Sometimes it was a slog, but more often, it was a unique insight into the show’s history and a set of stories to be enjoyed on their own merit and qualities, and not as some artifacts of a bygone age. Make no mistake, this was truly a period of classics. In fact, to close out, let me share with you my favorites of this black and white era…

Top 10 BWW Serials
10. Enemy of the World – A brilliant dual performance with a stunning climax, despite being a reconstruction, this is a highlight of the Second Doctor era.
9. The Aztecs – Barbara’s breakout serial, it has a strong story and a great little subplot for the Doctor.
8. The Space Museum – A dull latter half puts this one so low on the list, but a brilliant and spellbinding first episode puts this one on the map as fantastic. Very eerie and cool.
7. The Myth Makers – This is, perhaps, the funniest Doctor Who serial ever written, even in bare-minimum-pictures reconstruction mode.
6. The Rescue – A nice short-and-sweet story that introduces the sweet and innocent Vicki and features a brilliantly cinematographed and well-written climax that is nothing short of epic!
5. Celestial Toymaker – Surreal and unusual, not just a battle of wits, but a series of them- this unique story with a strong villain deserves better than the reconstruction that it has.
4. Keys of Marinus – A brilliant anthology of short-stories with a framing device, this video-game-esque set of quest stories are fast-paced, full of variety, entertaining, sometimes unintentionally funny, and in the case of the jungle, spine-tingling and scary. The first truly stellar serial of Doctor Who.
3. Faceless Ones – What makes this relatively sedate airport-based mystery so memorable, especially when most of it is reconstructed? The great villain effects? The mystery? The characters who make real growth and react reasonably instead of like two-dimensional stock characters? The fact that the story doesn’t spin it’s wheels and re-hash the same developments over and over until the final episode, but keeps moving forward, allowing the Doctor to get proof, gain allies, make discoveries, etc., keeping up a steady sense of momentum? It’s the kind of run-around and try to figure things out move-and-counter-move story I usually detest, but it’s so well-written and well-paced that it never loses energy or interest, and all of the characters feel real, not like video game characters programmed in with 2 or 3 stock responses to any and all actions you might take. No one’s unreasonable, no one’s unyielding in the face of evidence, and everything flows. It’s fantastic!
2. Daleks Master Plan – A true epic in every sense of the word, this one has it all- Daleks, aliens, the Monk (yay!), a volcanic planet, a prison world, the first companion deaths, ancient Egyptians vs. Daleks, invisible monsters, ship thefts, the Doctor in disguise, personal force fields, Varga plants, Doctor/Dalek standoffs, a 4th-wall-breaking Christmas special, and more! It’s more reconstruction than video, sadly, but still eminently watchable, and as a 12-part epic, it doesn’t flag, drag, or snag- it keeps moving and packs every episode brilliantly!
1. The Mind Robber – Surreal and scary, funny and clever, a masterpiece of mood (seriously, if you made me write this blog without using the words “Moody,” “Atmospheric,” “Fantastic,” or “Brilliant,” it’d probably fall apart overnight), filled with excellent concepts, exciting set-pieces, great showdowns, wonderful humor, fake-Jamie, and just all-around weirdness and awesomeness… plus that first episode’s psychotically scary and bizarre moments in the white and black voids, and that volcano opening- this is one NOT to miss!



This list was almost impossible to narrow down to 10. Here are some very close honorable mentions- unfortunately, most seem to be the Second Doctor’s, suggesting that while I prefer him as a Doctor, Hartnell had the superior scripts:
Fury from the Deep – If it wasn’t a reconstruction, it might bump something else off!
The Invasion – Great villain, just a little bit slow to make the top 10.
Seeds of Death – This was closest to staying on the list; it’s really fantastic, but the middle drags just a tad. Still, that ending…!
Highlanders – A decent story with some fantastic performances and a comedic showcase for the Doctor... rendered snooze-worthy by being a reconstruction. If Troughton’s hilarious impressions were in video, this might just top the list!
Tomb of the Cybermen – It was really solid. Great serial. The others just had an extra zing to put them over the top that this didn’t, for me.
Evil of the Daleks - The first half drags a bit for me, but this one is truly epic, filled with fantastic concepts, characters, and confrontations!
The Web Planet – In a so-bad-it’s-good way, it’s hilarious to watch in its awfulness. Top 10 most entertaining list? Yes. Top 10 best list? Not a chance.
The Time Meddler – A great ending, and a great foil- if he and the Doctor had more screen time together, this would be a top 10. As it is, that’s one of the reasons that Dalek Master Plan is, instead.
The Chase – The Chase has its moments (see that blog) and a greatly fun concept, but it lags and is sort of unfocused. Still highly recommended!

...As is the entire 60s monochrome era... do yourself a favor and go check it out!

Doctor Who: The War Games

Apologies for the length of both sections, in advance.

Serial Title: The War Games
Series: 6
Episodes: 10
Doctor: Patrick Troughton 
Companions: Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines), Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury)


Synopsis:
The beginning of the end is World War I, into which the TARDIS materializes- or does it? Picked up by Nurse Jennifer Buckingham and Lt. Jeremy Carstairs, the Doctor and Co. soon find themselves fallen afoul of the mysterious General Smythe, a sinister figure who brainwashes people with his monocle into believing what he wants them to- in this case, that the entire TARDIS crew are spies, and to be executed immediately.

Lady Jennifer, in an attack of conscience, helps Zoe to get away, and a sniper attack’s timely distraction allows them to free the Doctor. They take off for the military prison where Jamie is being held- where he has been incarcerated with a redcoat taken from 1745, about a year earlier than Jamie's departure from Scotland... which is many years prior to World War I! The two put aside old enmities and escape, but are caught (the redcoat being killed). The Doctor bluffs the commandant with a bold performance as a prison inspector, but all of this has been an exercise in futility, as they are recaptured by Smythe’s men and taken back to his chateau. (Get used to such exercises…)

Smythe isn’t there, however- he’s just departed in a cupboard, which dematerializes in a strikingly familiar manner… Carstairs and Lady Jennifer again suspect something is up, and free the TARDIS trio, and upon entering Smythe’s office, they find a communications unit which Carstairs and Lady Jennifer cannot see. (New Series fans will recognize a perception filter when they see one- or don’t see one, as the case may be). After breaking through the mental fog, the group absconds with the ambulance- barreling through a strange fog that transports them to a grassy countryside… in which a Roman legion charges them, primed for battle! They reverse out in time, and come under fire from the British as Smythe uses his mental powers to have artillery trained on the ambulance! Escaping, they conclude that the mist acts as a barrier between time zones, and the whole area must be riddled with them.

They return to the Chateau in  hopes of finding a map, which they are able to locate, demonstrating a number of time zones in the area, each labeled with historical Earth wars. The group strike out to search for answers, but are captured by the Germans. They are able to convince the officer guarding them of their claims of alien origin by use of a sonic screwdriver demonstration, but all of this has been an exercise in futility as the commander, Captain von Wiech, dons a monocle and convinces the officer that they are indeed spies. Gasp! The British and German commanders are secretly on the same side! If this were made in modern times, I would suspect it as an anti-Bush satire, but as it is- it’s just further running in circles for the group.

The Doctor manages to re-convince the officer after Von Weich leaves, making the exercise in futility an exercise in futility, and they get back aboard the ambulance, heading for a mysterious unlabeled black triangle at the center of the map. Within that black triangle, Smythe and Von Weich intermingle with jumpsuited technicians, and the War Chief, their superior. They run these war games, using abducted humans conditioned to believe that they are still in their own time- in reality, this isn’t even Earth, and the War Lords (led by THE War Lord- are you getting all of this? There will be a test…) are using the games to narrow down the ablest warriors for their usage. However, the War Chief is not of their race, just an outside consultant…

The ambulance enters the American Civil War zone and an attack separates the group. Carstairs is captured, and the rest take shelter in a barn- where they witness a device like the one used by Smythe materialize and disgorge troops- it’s bigger on the inside! This is a SIDRAT (Space and Inter-Dimensional Robot All-purpose Transporter), and when the Doctor and Zoe sneak inside to get a better look, it takes off with them inside, stranding a helpless Jamie and Lady Jennifer… just in time for a major battle to break out! And who should be the leader of the Confederate soldiers that capture them? Von Weich, in a different uniform and accent! Jamie and Lady Jennifer are freed by a man named Harper, part of a resistance movement on whom the brainwashing doesn’t work, who recognize that all of these wars are set-ups, and cross between time zones striking back at the War Lords. Von Weich is captured.

The Doctor and Zoe end up in the administration center, and take some War Lord headgear to blend in. There, they bear witness to a demonstration where the captured Carstairs is re-brainwashed with an unbreakable programming- wherein he promptly points them out in the crowd. Fortunately, this only convinces the Chief Scientists (Look, these are the only names they gives these guys, okay? I’m doing my best!) that the process is flawed… until the War Chief arrives, recognizing the two from the communications device in Smythe’s office, and the two are forced to flee- Zoe being soon captured. She is interrogated by the Security Chief, a rival of the War Chief. Both the War Chief and the Security Chief are rivals for the favor of the War Lord, leader of the War Lords. (I know… trust me, it isn’t any easier when watching it. For future reference, I will be labeling these men by the names I gave them during our viewing to keep them straight. The War Chief (the outside contractor who provided the SIDRATs to the War Lords) will henceforth be known as Ghengis for his swarthy goatee. His rival, the bland Security Chief, will be known hereafter as Goggles, for the goofy eyeware that he uses for interrogation. And their boss, leader of the War Lords, will now be dubbed “Eric from Accounting,” on account of his looking absolutely not intimidating and completely mild mannered when he finally appears. The Chief scientist will be known henceforth as 'Dr. Gullible,' because he is.)

The Doctor bluffs Dr. Gullible (claiming that Ghengis was only pointing to Zoe as an intruder, not himself (who was standing right next to her), and that he ran too because he was chasing her like a loyal War Lord soldier ought to) and steals the brainwashing device, which he recognizes can also be turned into an anti-brainwashing device. The Doctor uses it to free Carstairs from his mental programming, and the two rescue Zoe. She is able to scan and memorize various War Lord computer files on the known members of the brainwashing-resistant freedom fighters, with the goal of returning to them, uniting them under one banner, and attacking the War Lords in force.

Back in the Civil War zone, reinforcements kill Harper, but are repelled- the rebels plan to send a force of soldiers inside the SIDRAT that the reinforcements arrived in to attack central control- Jamie accompanies them (in hopes of finding the Doctor) while Lady Jennifer is needed to tend to the wounded (bowing out of the story at this point- you have enough characters to keep track of already, dear reader! As a primer: The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are now allied with Carstairs. There is also a resistance, none of whom are properly named yet. The villains are the War Lords, led by Eric from Accounting (the War Lord). His two lieutenants are Goggles (the Security Chief), and Ghengis (The War Chief, who is NOT a War Lord, he’s an outsider brought in to help). Their minions are numerous, overseeing all of the wars, but we only know two well enough to categorize them: Smythe and Von Weich, the latter of whom is captured. Got it all? Good, let’s continue.)

The invading party of rebels are almost immediately shot down, and taken to Dr. Gullible. The big dope is again bluffed by the Doctor, who frees Jamie and the rebels and sends them back to the barn, making this whole bit an exercise in futility (on the part of the bad guys, for once, but still a total circular path plot-filler). They arrive just in time to thwart Von Weich’s escape attempt, and he is shot dead. (1 down, 4 to go…)

The Doctor, meanwhile, has taken a second group with Jamie and Catstairs, and their escape attempt is thwarted when Ghengis manipulates their SIDRAT into dimensionally shrinking the internal space to its actual size (much as the Doctor did to the Monk, once upon a time). The group is forced out, the Doctor emerging under a flag of truce… and grabs the control crystals, not only restoring the SIDRAT, but enabling manual control. They fly to the Roman zone and ditch the ship, heading back to the 1917 WWI zone… but they are taken prisoner by Smythe’s men. OH, NO- please don’t tell me that everything since their escape in Episode 1 has been an exercise in futility, too!!! Yes, minus a little progress made, they’re taken back to the chateau and ordered to be executed!!! Curse you, circular story! Do you have an end, or simply an endless loop of captures and escapes?!?!? In fact, it seems to me that I could have more easily written this synopsis as a list:
Capture: WWI Brits.
Escape: Lady Jennifer, a Sniper, and a redcoat.
Capture: WWI Brits.
Escape: Lady Jennifer and Carstairs
Capture: Romans
Escape: Throw the car in reverse
Capture: Germans
Escape: Convince the Germans
Capture: Same Germans
Escape: Convince the Germans again
Capture: Civil War (Jamie and Jennifer)
Escape: Rebel forces (as in, rebels against the War Lords, not ‘The Rebs’)
Capture: Civil War (Carstairs)
Escape: The Doctor’s Bluff
Capture: War Lords (Zoe)
Escape: The Doctor and Carstairs
Capture: War Lords (Jamie)
Escape: The Doctor, Carstairs, and Zoe
Capture: The War Chief (The Doctor, Jamie, and Carstairs)
Escape: Violating white flag truce and theft
Capture: WWI Brits again
Escape: Resistance invasion.
Yes, after Smythe (ordered to take them alive, but claiming they died in capture just so he can have the pleasure of execution) brings them in, he is shot dead (2 down, 3 to go…) as the resistance invades the Chateau, freeing the prisoners and taking it as their base of operations. The Doctors restructures the time zone mists, creating a safe barrier around the chateau, preventing any WWI-local forces from retaking it. He then begins de-processing brainwashed men.

Meanwhile, back at War Lord central, Eric from Accounting- I mean, the Emperor- I mean, the War Lord, has arrived to take charge of the situation, and he is not as forgiving as I am. Here’s here to put them back on schedule. An entire LEEEEEEGION of his best troops… etc. Goggles tries to blame it on Ghengis, accusing him of working with the Doctor, but Eric is having none of it.

A SIDRAT attacks, and despite the entire invasion coming from a single doorway, an insufficient defense is mounted, and War Lord soldiers storm the place, taking the Doctor and the brainwashing equipment. Making the capture of the brainwashing device and subsequent deprogramming an exercise in futility- it is now back in War Lord hands to begin ultra-brainwashing.


Capture: War Lord soldiers (The Doctor)
Escape: None…?!?
No, no escape- instead, the Doctor receives the proposal of alliance from Ghengis- the War Chief is not a War Lord, but a Time Lord! A rogue from his people, like the Doctor, he recognizes his old school chum and offers him a ruling place by his side, if he will help to perfect the brainwashing equipment (which the duped Dr. Gullible still doesn’t think works correctly). The War Lord plan is revealed to be an ultimate army- the best fighters from human history equipped with War Lord technology, which Ghengis intends to co-opt as a galactic peacekeeping force. (The old “Once we conquer and rule the entire galaxy, we can bring peace to it…” chestnut.) Meanwhile, Goggles only becomes more suspicious of the two…

The rebels have survived another SIDRAT attack (failing to adequately defend invasion coming from a single doorway again, with the benefit of HAVING A MACHINE GUN SET UP AND TRAINED ON IT FROM BEFORE IT EVEN OPENS), and now have pulled together their forces, including Mexican bandit Arturo Villar, leader of the largest organized resistance group, whom Jamie must bluff as the supposed leader of the rebel army in full Tartan regalia. The group plans to seize a SIDRAT as before, only this time with a much bigger army (it worked so well the first time…?) inside- and begin a daring series of hit-and-raid runs to harry War Lord command posts to force them to respond. However, the War Lords figure out this plan, and the Doctor ‘sends’ them a SIDRAT and leads to their capture, betraying them to captivity rather than seeing them slaughtered as the War Lords planned. (This gambit has worked so well in the past- see “The Two Towers” under ‘Smeagol’).

Capture: The Doctor (Everybody else)
Escape: The Doctor?
Yes, of course, the Doctor is still on the side of good- despite Villar’s disbelief and attempt to strangle him when Goggles, looking to get rid of him, throws him in unarmed with what he rightly believes are angry and vengeful prisoners who feel betrayed. However, before the group can be fully Gollumed, Ghengis arrives with the brainwashing device for the Doctor to begin experimenting on. Even Jamie is wary that the Doctor has sold them out as the Doctor puts him under the device- but when he comes out the other side with his free will intact and is forced to improvise a false brainwashing persona, the Doctor’s loyalty is proved. While oafish Villar spoils the ruse by refusing to play along (opting instead to try and strangle the Doctor again), it is enough time for the ‘processed’ rebels to sidle up to the guards and overpower them.

Meanwhile, Goggles uses security camera footage to reveal Ghengis’ offer and plans of takeover to Eric from Accounting, and Ghengis is arrested. He is freed during a rebel attack, and shoots Goggles dead. (3 down, 2 to go) and then reveals that the SIDRATs are breaking down- he needed the Doctor to help him takeover because his usefulness to the War Lords would soon have been over anyhow. The price of fine locational control and remote control away from Time Lord maintenance is a very short life span for the devices, which no longer have the range to return all of the human captives back to their own times. (In the New Series, the Doctor would tell them to establish some sort of colony on this planet eschewing violence forever or some such, I’m sure…). The Doctor realizes that there is only one way to get everyone home and away from these endless war games… he must contact the Time Lords.

The panicked Ghengis flees rather than facing the justice of the Time Lords, but runs into Eric from Accounting, who shoots him dead. (4 down, 1 to go… I think I’ll go back to calling him the War Lord, now). Villar and his men capture the War Lord, and bring him back to the Doctor… who produces a series of cards which he mentally shapes into a cube, containing all of the pertinent data about their current situation and a call for help. He then says hasty goodbyes and flees in the last SIDRAT, bound for the 1917 zone where the TARDIS is, as a loud oncoming roar can be heard, and the War Lord fearfully intones “They’re coming…”

The Doctor and company run pel-mel across the rocky landscape towards the TARDIS… a seemingly impossible goal as the power of the Time Lords descends upon them, slowing time and increasing gravity, making every inch another mile… time gets slower and slower the closer and closer they get… as it slows down to a crawl.
Capture: The Time Lords
Escape: Run!!!

The Doctor barely manages to get the TARDIS door open, and the three stumble inside, out of the time distortion effect, and the Doctor throws the TARDIS into a mad escape flight- under the sea, in space, all throughout the galaxy- but the Time Lords have located him now, and can track his flight- the voice of the Time Lords rings through the console room, and eventually, the TARDIS is brought to land on Gallifrey, the Doctor’s home planet. The Doctor emerges to face trial, explaining to Jamie and Zoe that the Time Lords are incredibly advanced, having perfected the secret of time travel, and have strict laws of noninterference which he has broken- he’s been on the run since the start of the show, and now his people have caught him. But, preceding that is the trial of the War Lord. He defiantly Saddam Husseins his way through it (“I don’t recognize the authority of this court!”) until his men arrive in a SIDRAT to break him free. They take the Doctor and his companions hostage, intent on using the TARDIS to escape.
Capture: The War Lord
Escape: Eh, they’re not that bright; distract ‘em and run

As soon as they’ve escaped, the Time Lords lock the War Lord and his men behind a forcefield. The Time Lords then shoot him dead. Oh, no, wait. Sorry- just so used to all of our bad guys being dispatched that way. Instead, they vaporize him and his guards alive in a total molecular dissolution, dispersing them as if they never were. (That’s everyone… right? Or are the true villains yet to be revealed…?) The Doctor and companions are taken to separate quarters to await the trial.


Capture: The Time Lords
Escape: Jamie and Zoe

But, even though the three make a run for it, the Doctor’s sad smile when they are captured shows that he knew this was inevitable, and only wanted to give the two one last adventure together. The Time Lords announce that they are to be returned home with their memories erased- they will be allowed remember their first adventure with the Doctor each, but will then remember him departing in the TARDIS, not going with him. They say a tearful goodbye, and…

The Wheel, late 21st century. Zoe reports to Tanya Lernov, one of the Wheel survivors, that she’s seen the Doctor and Jamie off- then goes to resume her librarian duties with the odd feeling that she’s missed something important.

Scotland, April of 1746. Jamie wakes up in a field with no memory of how he got there after having seen the Doctor, Ben, and Polly off. Alone now, his laird and people fled to France, he is alone- he will find a new village, a new clan, and continue the fight. And, as a redcoat quickly learns when he takes a shot at the young Scotsmen, foes of Jamie McCimmon beware the lad’s wrath, no mere piper he!

Gallifrey. Now.
Capture: The Time Lords
Escape: *SIGH*… there is no escape, is there?

The Doctor’s trial proceeds apace, with his defense that he is merely combating evil that needs to be combated, lest it overwhelm the universe. The Time Lords take this into consideration against the violation of their laws, and pronounce sentence: The Doctor will be allowed to continue combating that evil on the planet he seems fondest of, Earth- there, to be denied the ability to travel through space and time, exiled from his people. Bound to one planet and one time, for all time. And to facilitate this new change and protect him from enemies gained as the 2nd Doctor, he will be forcibly regenerated. Over his protests, the transformation begins… and an era ends.


Review:

The War Games were, frankly, a bit of a disappointment. As Troughton's, Jamie's, Zoe's, and the Black and White era's swan song, it should have been fantastic. And parts of it were. But it was just too long.

Looking at the history of Black and White Who (BWW), it seems that more stories were influenced by other stories falling through than they were by their own writers. The bizarre two-episode Edge of Destruction was written as a low-budget bottle show to fill a two episode gap in the production schedule. Second series opener Planet of the Giants got an energy and pacing boost by combining the last two episodes into one. The Daleks Master Plan was doubled in length- with padding like the Christmas episode- which, though it didn't drag down the epic, result in a number of odd rabbit-trail plots, because an entire 6-part serial fell through. The Wheel In Space gained the repetitive, dull, Moonbase-retreading portions that weighed it down because of its hasty creation to fill in for a failed script (The cancelled Dalek/Cyberman war). Seeds of Death was padded out by several episodes to cover a missing story, slowing the pace of the still-phenomenal serial. If any story in BWW was poorly paced, padded, repetitive, or derivative, it was a direct result of expansion to fill the gap left by a failed story. One wonders what the Old Who stories of the first two Doctors' eras might have been without these scheduling re-writes and fluff-injection sessions. And no series has been more affected than Series 6, the Second Doctor and BWW’s final series, culminating here. Dick Sharples’ “The Prison in Space”, Paul Wheeler’s “The Dream Spinners,” and Malcom Hulke’s “The Impersonators” [Plus an unnamed Derrick Sherwin story] all fell through- leading The Krotons, The Space Pirates, and The War Games to all be drafted or expanded hastily to fill their places. While a few stories came to be from this phenomenon, or were compressed to their benefit because of the scheduling, by far and large this quota-meeting rewrite practice seems to have been to Doctor Who's detriment. Sadly, the same can be said for this 6-part story... expanded into 10 parts to fill the gap. That's 100 minutes of sheer padding added into the story- almost all in the form of recaptures. This is probably not the first use of the Capture/Escape cycle cliché to pad out running time, but boy, is it EVER the most prominent!

Nearly every episode contains multiple iterations of the following scene:
Characters have been captured by soldiers and are brought to the leaders.
Enemy Leader: "You are spies!"
Character 1: "We are not spies! Let me convince you!"
Enemy Soldier: "I am convinced!"
Enemy Leader: *Puts on glasses* "They are spies! Be hypnotized to think they are spies, ignoring the proof you just received!"
Enemy Soldier: "I am hypnotized! They are spies!"
Enemy Leader: "Take them away, we will execute them soon!"
En route, Character 2 escapes. Character 1 has been captured, believed to be a spy. Soon to be executed, they pace in their cell. Character 2 bluffs their way in and gets the keys from a random lackey. They open the jail cell door and rush in.
Character 2: "Witty banter."
Character 1: "Witty banter response!"
Character 2: "Let's get out of here!"
Character 1 and Character 2 turn to rush out of the cell- and find the doorway filled with the enemy commander and an assortment of soldiers.
Enemy Leader: "So, you have been recaptured!"
Usually, followed by:
Enemy Leader: "You are spies!"
Character 1: "We are not spies! Let me convince you!"
…you get the gist.

This was repeated ad nauseum to the point of disbelief. You literally could not believe that the same scene had just played out AGAIN. This is how 4 extra episodes were added- dozens of 'captured, accused, convince the accuser and gain their trust, then have it all overridden and the effort (and scene's running time) wasted by the villain's hypnosis.' First used in Chapter 1, it's chilling. By Chapter 4, you want to kill small furry animals every time it happens; the repetition will drive you to (justifiable) homicidal rage. Likewise for the get-in-and-free-a-prisoner-only-to-turn-to-leave-and-find-the-soldiers-there-waiting-for-you. Escapes and recaptures are so common as to become laughable; a drinking game involving every escape attempt prematurely ended by the bad guys appearing in the doorway would be fatal due to alcohol poisoning.

These two cliches are repeated over and over and over, to an extent that this description cannot do justice, until the very appearance of the scenario brings disbelieving, nearly-deranged laughter from the nerves-strained audience who literally cannot believe what they are seeing. It's as if the first draft of Microsoft Word was created in 1969 for this serial, just so that the scripts for the middle 4-5 episodes could be created by selecting a 5-minute set of scenes from the end of chapter 1 and copy/pasting it end-to-end and back-to-back over and over again until the next 100 minutes of script are filled up. (And yes, the math suggests that this would mean those same scenes would have to occur 20 times for this to be literally true. Frankly, I think 20 repetitions is an underestimation of this absurdly aggravating chestnut.) This makes the central portion of the serial all but unwatchable, driving potential viewers to madness!

That said, there are moments of brilliance. The first episode is stellar, with a great setting, an intriguing and menacing, seemingly unstoppable villain. The next two are fascinating, rife with interesting concepts, great discoveries, great cliffhangers (especially Jamie left behind as the SIDRAT departs), Roman soldiers attacking a truck, and the like. Even the middle episodes contain a fascinating concept- aberrant, non-affected soldiers from all eras that have broken free of their mind control and formed a resistance, who must be gathered to insight a rebellion. It's a GREAT concept! But it's smothered by the copious tons of padding dumped onto the middle section, and this really kills the serial. Were the War Games composed of the first three episodes, one middle episode containing the rebellion plot, compressing the middle 5 episodes into 1 (which would lose very little if any plot) and then the final two, this serial would be amazing. For the alien planet parts- the brainwashing bits (and the Doctor's great ingratiating lecture students and bluffing bits) are great. And the ending...

Well, the ending is just amazing. The Time Lords have a spectacular introduction- the Doctor fleeing in terror, a roar of eerie wind, and the frightened pronunciation "They're coming." And then a headlong flight for the TARDIS interrupted by a time-distorting forcefield, a desperate mad dash turned into an agonizing, dreamlike crawl (for who hasn't had that dream where your limbs are leaden and your run is in slow motion?) followed by a panicked flight across the cosmos. Truly, the final two episodes are a tour-de-force, showcasing the Time Lords' nearly unstoppable power, as they disintegrate the villain with almost casual ease. The last two are must-sees, and very impressive.

Even throughout, there are diamonds among the rough- cliffhangers are greatly improved from the last serial's awkward transitions, we get another use of the sonic screwdriver (as an actual screwdriver again, in some nice effects), a great compressing-SIDRAT cliffhanger with a very good effect, and some good music- I especially liked the heroic 'American Civil War soldiers' theme that was employed several times. These bits don't make it worthwhile to plow through the horrendous, mind-scarring repetition, but excised from the nonsense of that slog-through padding plotting, they are quite a stellar series of bits and elements- worthy of both recognition, and better episodes in which to be embedded.

Meanwhile, I found the Enemy Politics 'N Strife (EP&S, an acronym I could have saved myself much trouble and typing with if I'd coined it long ago, as it's been around since at least Marco Polo- if not the caveman bickering in An Unearthly Child itself) to be fairly overwhelming. A trope of BWW has been these little cutaways to the villain camp for these spats between leadership of the antagonists- it's from these little sparring sessions that we get our rating convention for this series, the Bickering Dominators. Anyhow... I found all of their drama to be extremely unengaging, especially because their similar names made them hard to keep straight. Regardless, after 6 years it's become a bit stale.

The effects in the serial, at least, were quite good- practical explosions, seamless fade outs, nice forcefield effects, the aforementioned SIDRAT inversion, the sonic screwdriver effect, the slow-motion sequences, even the ending (confusing as it was). Model shots of the Wheel In Space and the TARDIS materializations from Web of Fear and Fury from the Deep, despite being total stock footage reuses (and in the case of Web Of Fear, making no sense… why does the TARDIS have web on it again just because it materializes in space?), are gratefully received because they provide the only remaining sources for those clips (including the cool spiral-from-the-sky-to-land-on-the-water bit from Fury From The Deep) to be used in the reconstructions- without those ‘clip show’ bits, we wouldn’t have been able to see them at all in the first place! The standout, though, would have to be the cube construction- beginning the awesomeness that is the Time Lords sequence and the frantic rush to escape them, which is almost like a whole 1-episode-plus-10-minutes-of-another in and of itself, and clearly the amazing climactic finale highlight of the Troughton era, this effect has the Doctor pull 6 white square-shaped cards from his pocket, place them on the ground, and begin to meditate- as the squares assemble by themselves (in stop-motion) into a cube- the device with which to call the Time Lords. A very cool effect, and a very cool more-than-he-seems moment to inaugurate the beginning of the end for Troughton’s Doctor (incidentally, the message cubes recently returned in Matt Smith's "The Doctor's Wife," which had me utterly geeking out).

We also get some interesting milestones: the first scenes on an (as yet unnamed) Gallifrey, the naming of the Doctor’s race, revelations about the Doctor’s past- that the TARDIS is stolen, that he left- in a brilliant moment and a defining character bit for the Doctor- because ‘I was bored.’ Much of modern Who lore was defined right here, in the excellent final two episodes attached to this padded train wreck.

But, lest I be unclear, it’s not just the effects and a decent plot line that shine in that middle stretch of padded wasteland. There are good bits here as well- they are simply drowned out by the overwhelming majority of copy/paste repetitions of the capture/escape scenario. The different war zones are well-realized, from the Civil War to a Roman legion to World War I. We have an interesting theme with the villains and glasses- both the plus-shaped eye-slit visors they wear at home, and the glasses/monocles that are used as a hypnotism method. An interesting running theme for an unusual people, even if it ends up far too overused due to the repetition of the capture scenario. The presence of another Time Lord who recognized the Doctor, whom he knew in his early days (prefiguring the Master). Some nice evil villains (the field-generals more than the triad of baddies back at HQ).

So, how about the characters?

Lady Jennifer and Lt. Carstairs, two surprisingly sympathetic and well-rounded guest characters who put two and two together and began to break through their mental conditioning, were enjoyable additions to the party for the early episodes. And while Lady Jennifer was written out halfway through (but only after a priceless exchange with Jamie- “You just don’t want me to come because I’m a woman, don’t you?” “No! No... well, yes.”), Carstairs not only gets a great heroic sacrifice, but a surprise re-appearance, brainwashing bit, and eventual release, leading the resistance (and acting as the voice of reason during their capture); he was an upstanding and smart individual, and a fun character to watch- I was glad to see his return.

The Generals- in WWI on both sides, the German of whom is also a Civil War general with a decent- if slightly off-kilter- southern accent, are the ones I consider the real villains of the piece. They are effective and intimidating, seeming almost unstoppable in their hypnotic power- and while their seeming omnipresence to CONSTANTLY foil our heroes becomes irritating after a while, as does their smug superiority and determination to have the TARDIS crew killed, they are effective and menacing, cold-blooded, always in control… and their just rewards are cheer-worthy and well-deserved. Everything after their defeat is pretty much anti-climactic. About the main villains- the War Lord, War Chief, and Other Guy, I should probably have more to say… but I really don’t. The rogue Time Lord, while an interesting notion and noteworthy for his regeneration-regardless recognition of the Doctor, was fairly generic and bland as villains go. His jealous rival was predictable- though frankly, if his Time Lord nemesis was so inept as not to suspect a bugged room, it’s a wonder that it was so difficult for Other Guy to overthrow him. Pretty pathetic. More interesting by far is the easily-fooled inventor of the brainwashing machine- so invested in his craft that he pays little attention to politics… or potential enemies! And hoisted on his own petard at the end. Lastly, there’s the lead villain, Eric from Accounting. I’m sorry, but his appearance is so nondescript and downright plain next to Genghis Kahn the Time Lord and others, he just doesn’t have the villainous look. He just looks like a motorcycle cop. Still, he gets audacity points for raiding Gallifrey, playing Sadam at his trial, and having a great ending. Too bad, though- both he and the rogue Time Lord could’ve been well-expanded in further sequels.

Meanwhile, on the resistance side… we have a gallant Civil War soldier (the tragically-killed African American fighter who gets a very nice fight scene), a dupe (who is easily tricked by the captured Colonel Klink, but gets to deliver a fantastic coup-de-grace), a psychopath (that bloodthirsty nut with whom the gallant soldier fights) and a fun caricature, the leader of the Mexican forces who will not talk to women and tries repeatedly to strangle the Doctor. Since he doesn’t quite manage to screw things up at the end (not for lack of trying!) he’s harmless enough, and a fun comic relief character. The resistance itself gets some fun bits- searching for a hidden tunnel as an explanation for the soldiers pouring out of the bigger-on-the-inside SIDRATs, playing along with the Doctor’s brainwashing ruse, and… defending the chateau very, very badly. One would think that a stationary target with a narrow doorway would be an easy target to aim at and spray with fire before any invading troops could emerge, but these resistance members seem to operate on the courtesy system, waiting for the door to open, for troops to rush out, assume position, take aim, and fire… at which point whatever the resistance was planning to courteously delay until the enemy was ready is rendered moot, since they are all dead. Later, when they have a MACHINE GUN set up and aimed at the doorway, they mow down one invading soldier… then wait for his retreated partner to pop back out and mow them both down in sequence, without trying to fire again. Hardly the Spartan army, these… unable to defend a single 3-foot wide doorway that disgorges enemies in single file, even when they have a machine gun manned by two men pointed directly at it and receive advance warning (by way of the DOOR OPENING) that troops are about to appear. I mean… that was just PATHETIC! (In a non-padded story, they probably would have been competent.) They do at least have a great montage scene of the co-ordinated resistance taking down targets and raising enemy panic all over the interconnected war zones, a well-scored and paced little sequence that makes you want to cheer! …Or at least grumble “About dern time…” begrudgingly under your breath, depending on how much the inept chateau defense irritated you.

Jamie gets a lot to do in this serial- as a canny warrior, he’s really in his element- even coming to terms with a captured redcoat and hatching a clever plan to escape. As well as a great moment where he must impersonate the leader of the rebel forces- in full tartan regalia- because the leader of an allied force won’t accept a woman in the position. Jamie is resourceful, clever, wise, and strong in this serial, and his devastated look as the SIDRAT disappears with Zoe and the Doctor inside speaks volumes about his loyal heart.

Zoe has a slightly lesser, but very significant role, using her wits to free the Doctor, deal with sexist enemy leaders, and defend the chateau (Despite the bungling of its assigned defenders)- unfortunately, save for a few good moments here and there (dressing up Jamie as the rebel leader after being snubbed by a resistance bigwig, smashing a vase over the head of the prison commandant, etc.), her personality doesn’t stand out so much in this one as it has in serials past. Still, every serial can’t showcase every character.

And the Doctor... what a serial this is for him. From clever bluffs and comedic impressions (like his prisoner inspector routine) to his self-sacrificial decision to summon the Time Lords to put things right, The Doctor is scheming, planning, acting, and working overtime to single-handedly turn utter chaos into a victory. He is stout-hearted and brave, even when terrified. Even in the face of his regeneration, he has a fine impassioned speech about the evils of the galaxy (which he gets off to a pathetic start by beginning with the Quarks, clearly still trying to market them as the new Daleks... and which he surprisingly and appropriately concludes with the Daleks, labeling them as the greatest menace of all; I’d’ve thought that they couldn’t have got Terry Nation rights to show or mention them during this period, but they did- kudos!), a funny bit of bickering over regeneration appearances (an interesting notation- that Time Lord technology can apparently shape regeneration outcomes), and even a final bit of humorous ‘mushmouth’ acting as he’s dragged, kicking and screaming, into a kaleidoscope presentation intended to represent the start of his regeneration... or perhaps usher in Series 6B. (Stay tuned next blog for more on this exciting notion!) This scene should be a lot more traumatic- David Tennant’s “I don’t want to go!” x100, a heart-rendering near-murder of a regeneration that has the audience sobbing at their last sight of the Doctor. Yet, unlike the melodrama of the New Series, this regeneration is played coolly and without regrets- wisely ushering in a new, very different era with acceptance and encouragement of the audience to accept what’s to come instead of fear and trepidation. Even the Doctor’s panic at being forcibly regenerated is instantly calmed as soon as he’s told he can choose his new appearance (which is a great comic bit, incidentally).

This was a clever move on the creators' part; they were planning to change the series completely, removing TARDIS travel, setting the show entirely on modern-day (maybe... see future blogs for the UNIT dating controversy in which the Third Doctor was sometimes in the ‘modern day’ 70s and sometimes in the ‘near-future 80s’, depending on whether the writer remembered that week that it was supposed to be the future or not) Earth, changing actors, changing companions, moving to color- it was to be rebranded completely, and treating the transition with humor and grace, making the Doctor accept it so that the audience would accept it, was a canny decision and a courtesy to the production team to come that WASN’T extended by Russel T. Davies at the end of his New Series run (instead choosing to set up a grand tribute to his own work and mourn it’s passing, leaving the audience already biased against the new ‘usurper’ coming in to take its place).

On the other hand, it leaves me unsure of how to feel. The great sadness of Troughton’s passing that’s been building for several serials is abruptly deflated, all the air let out of my sadness (now there’s a mixed metaphor for you!), the moment past almost before I realized it, leaving me empty, confused, not really feeling like mourning his loss, but feeling oddly reluctant to move on. It’s not a great ending for closure, and probably SHOULD have been a tragic ending, story wise- so tonally, it’s strange. For the real world, it was the right way to handle the transition. For the storyline? It’s a hard pill to swallow, abruptly derailing the emotional buildup. It was almost worse for Jamie and Zoe (“Will we ever see you again?” “Zoe, you of all people should know that time is relative.”) Bid a fond goodbye after a failed attempt to liberate the Doctor- one gets the impression from his reaction that he never expected it to work, and merely wanted to give them one last chance to act heroically, some closure of their own- and cruelly, their memories erased of their travels, mentally-ret-conned that each of them turned down an offer to travel with the Doctor, and returned to the time and place of their departure. (It was very cool that they got the actress from Wheel In Space back to reprise her part for this- how far Who has come in terms of ongoing storylines and continuity since those “Faceless Ones happened on the same day as War Machines, just take our word for it even though there’s no evidence” days!) Zoe still remembers the events of Wheel In Space, and Jamie those of The Highlanders, but all of the adventures since reside now only in the Doctor’s memory. Jamie doesn’t remember ever meeting Victoria, or Zoe... Nor Zoe the Land of Fiction and her tangle with Karkus, the Yeti, the Time Lords, the Ice Warriors... all of these adventures are simply gone, and that seems the cruelest of all. All that development, all that change, all that growth... wiped clean by the Time Lords- truly, the Doctor's greatest and cruelest enemy.

If I seem oddly ambivalent and at a loss of words, not my usual descriptive self, regarding this total milestone in Doctor Who history... I am (though clearly not at a loss for words on all of the other elements of this serial!). All of the counting down, the wistfulness, the memorializing, the anticipation... were simply dispelled by the way the regeneration was handled. It gave real-world continuance to the franchise, and for that we should be grateful- but in-universe, it just sort of... petered out. How very different. How very... strange.

Still, the actors themselves have a fitting epilogue. As per the Wiki, Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury and Patrick Troughton “found the workload too hard. The three decided they'd leave and Frazer was the first, but Troughton asked him to stay until he left too, which was only a few months away at the time.” In a documentary about the departed Troughton, Hines said “that they left with smiles on their faces, feeling like their job was done and it was well done at that.” You can’t ask for more than that. And looking at the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe over the stories we’ve seen lately… done well, it was. It was indeed.

In the end, The War Machines is a promising story with a stellar finale that lags like a rotting, bloated whale in the middle because of story-expansion-to-fill-a-gap-in-the-production-schedule padding. This could still have turned out all right, had the padding not LITERALLY BEEN THE SAME SCENE OF ALREADY-AGGRAVATING RECAPTURE AND KANGAROO COURT SENTENCING AS SPIES REPEATED OVER AND OVER AND OVER TO FILL THE TIME. It just fails, but dang, if that finale ain’t incredible! My recommendation: Watch the last two episodes out of context. They’re worth it.


Great Moments:
The escape from the Time Lords episode 9 cliffhanger, and to a lesser extent, the entire summoning/trial sequence! Plus, the Doctor’s duping the German officer with his second ‘demonstration,’ his prison inspector routine (and Jamie’s ruse), Jamie left behind, Jamie vs. Civil War soldiers, Jamie’s impersonation of an officer, the shrinking SIDRAT, etc.


Rating:

For ratings, I think I’d have to give the War Games 2 out of 5 Bickering Dominators. The weight of the finale episodes deserve SO MUCH MORE- but in the end, taking the whole into consideration, all they do is keep the story from being a 1 out of 5. Still, check out the more detailed breakdown:
Episode 1 – 3.5 out of 5
Episode 2-3 – 3 out of 5.
Episodes 4-8 – 0.5 out of 5
Episode 9 and 10 – 5 out of 5.
In other words, the beginning an end- the final two especially, are simply MUST-SEEs. Don’t skip them on the sins of their predecessors- they’re almost their own self-contained storyline anyhow, and can be enjoyed without slogging through the misery of the muddled middle mush. Don’t let the ponderous painful prison padding drive you away from the incredible spectacle and legend-shaping, lore-creating tour-de-force finale!