6x07. The War Games
Writers: Malcolm Hulke & Terrance Dicks
Director: David Maloney
Script Editor: Terrance Dicks
Producer: Derrick Sherwin
Synopsis: The Doctor, Jamie,
and Zoe arrive on a planet where humans from different periods of
history have been gathered into separate zones, all of them believing
they are still fighting wars from their own time period on Earth. The
TARDIS crew manage to convince some of the humans that they are being
deceived, and soon they learn of resistance movements that have sprung
up in the different zones. The scheme is the doing of a group of aliens
-- one of whom, the War Chief, is another renegade Time Lord -- using
the simulations to assemble an army of the most efficient soldiers in
order to launch a mission of galactic conquest. The Doctor manages to
defeat the alien plot, but left without the necessary technology to
return all the humans to their own times, he has no alternative but to
contact the Time Lords.
Review: Sustaining a Doctor Who story for ten episodes
without things getting boring or repetitive cannot be an easy task, and
yet the makers of "The War Games" not only pull it off, but they
produce what may have been the best serial of the 1960s. It's an
intelligent
and almost seamless mix of light adventure, strong character drama, and
some of the biggest revelations since Ian and Barbara first walked into
the TARDIS all the way back in "100,000 B.C."
The first few episodes take place mostly in the various war zones, as
the Doctor and his companions discover that no one can seem to remember
how long they've been at their current posts and that the commanding
officers seem capable of some sort of mind control. The action scenes
in this part of the story are pretty well done, and the background
soundtrack of constant gunfire and explosions in the World War I
setting is actually quite effective: it conveys the sense that the
danger and chaos of war is never far away, and it's easy to see how
most of the soldiers have settled into a routine of following orders
and not asking questions about all the little oddities and
inconsistencies. Another of the strengths of the war zone scenes is
that pretty much all of the soldiers, regardless of nationality or time
period, are portrayed at least somewhat sympathetically, including the
German officer from 1917 and the Confederates from the American Civil
War. There are no obvious brutes or sadists to be found among them:
instead, they all just seem like ordinary people trying to do their
jobs and not get killed, and whose already limited capacity to evaluate
their situations is diminished even further by alien mind control.
This could be read as a commentary on all the problems of
war, where those on the battlefield are so far removed from the "big
picture" that they sometimes lack adequate information to question the
logic or
morality of their orders. All of the abducted humans, after all, had
been fighting in actual wars beforehand, and aside from the occasions
when their alien commanders use mind control, they don't seem to notice
that anything fundamental has changed. The endless fighting and
killing, with no clear picture of anything actually being accomplished,
has simply become routine for them. This was undoubtedly part of the
intention of writers Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke, but I think the
situation in "The War Games" also works as an analogy for
totalitarianism, which is nothing if not the "mobilization" of an
entire society in such a way that everyone follows orders, often
through the sort of confusion or outright deception symbolized by the
aliens' use of mind control. The various resistance cells are composed
of exactly the types of people who are a threat to such a regime --
those whose individuality and independent-mindedness render the alien
brainwashing ineffective. The three masterminds of the whole scheme,
meanwhile, reflect the different kinds of totalitarians we've seen
throughout human history: the War Chief honestly believes he's working
towards a higher end (galactic peace), whereas the War Lord and the
Security Chief seem driven more by the raw exercise of power.
The regulars are all in fine form here. The Second Doctor, Jamie, and
Zoe just might be the best TARDIS crew to date, and all the
reasons we like them so much are on display in "The War Games." Zoe's
intelligence and independence prove invaluable as ever: she memorizes
all the names of the resistance leaders and helps track them down, and
she unhesitatingly stands up to Villar when she thinks his plan isn't
going to work. Jamie, of course, is fiercely loyal to his friends and
perhaps a bit too eager for a fight sometimes, but they do finally lay
off the idea of portraying him as dumb: in fact, he narrowly prevents
Villar from giving the whole game away when the Doctor sabotages the
mind control device but needs everyone to play along and act
brainwashed. As for the Doctor himself, his quirky energy and
cleverness are, as always, thoroughly entertaining, especially as he
utilizes his talent for play-acting to get to the bottom of a
situation. Whether he's blustering his way into the British POW
facilities by posing as an impatient military inspector, appealing to
the ego of one of the alien scientists by playing the part of an eager
student with lots of questions, or even pretending to betray his
friends so as to keep the aliens from dropping a neutron bomb on the
resistance fighters, the Second Doctor is someone consistently able to
improvise his way out of a tough situation and use his brain to stay
one step ahead of his enemies.
"The War Games" is at its best on all fronts, however, when it brings
the Time Lords into the story. Both the Doctor and the War Chief speak
of them with great trepidation and clearly hope to avoid them if at all
possible, and when they are finally summoned, the writing, acting, and
direction all convey the sense that their arrival is something
momentous. In fact, they are in some ways most effective when they
don't actually appear on the screen, whether it's the obvious fear they
inspire in the Doctor and the War Chief, the eerie sound filling the
alien headquarters as they prepare to return the kidnapped humans, or
the unseen force that takes control of the TARDIS. That's not to say
that their eventual appearance is a disappointment, however. The three
Time Lords who conduct the Doctor's trial are effectively portrayed as
antagonistic without being entirely unsympathetic, and in fact the War
Chief's abuse of power could be taken as a pretty decent case in favor
of their isolationism. The War Chief's stated goal, that of galactic
peace, is an admirable one in and of itself, but he has engaged in
murderous and oppressive tactics, and the Time Lords might conceivably
fear that others of their kind might fall prey to similar temptations.
The difference, however, is that the War Chief seeks to impose his own
will on other people and has little regard for individuals: the depth
of his egocentrism is revealed when his scheme fails and he chooses to
abandon all the abducted humans. The Doctor, on the other hand, tries
to help people take control of their own destinies and risks his own
freedom when he needs the Time Lords' help to return all the humans to
their proper times and places. When forced to defend his actions to the
Time Lords, he eschews the War Chief's paternalistic arrogance towards
other civilizations and instead argues simply that there are victims of
oppression who need his help. The two reasons he gives for leaving his
home planet in the final episode -- that he was bored, and that he was
frustrated with the Time Lords' unwillingness to use their power --
nicely reflect the two defining elements of his personality: the
restless scientist-explorer, and the man of strong morals and
compassion who feels obligated to battle injustice wherever he finds
it. Moreover, "The War Games" makes it clearer than ever that the
Doctor certainly does not have to do this. Now that we know his
history, we understand that he does in fact have a home and that he
could have easily led a perfectly safe and peaceful existence there.
The Doctor does win a small concession from the Time Lords: they agree
that he should continue to fight evil, but only on Earth, and only
after changing his appearance and taking away the secret of the TARDIS.
All the same, "The War Games" ends on a rather downbeat note, not so
much because of the regeneration, but because he is forced to part
company with Jamie and Zoe. All throughout the final episode, it seems
as if the two of them think this is just one more of the countless
tough situations they've faced, and that they'll inevitably find their
way out of it. The Doctor, however, knows that he's beaten, and
Troughton conveys this perfectly: I got the sense, for example, that he
agrees to their last-ditch escape plan not because he has any hope of
success, but rather because he knows it would break their hearts to see
him give up. Their eventual departure is even tougher to watch when we
realize that he knew all along that the Time Lords were going to erase
their memories, and that, despite their promises, they will only
remember their initial meetings with him, while he alone will carry the
memories of all their adventures. Still, the Second Doctor's uniquely
whimsical spirit is not broken by this turn of events: he's pleased to
see that Jamie and Zoe are all right when the Time Lords return them to
their places of origin, gets a good chuckle at Jamie scaring the
daylights out of a Redcoat, and finally goes out indignantly protesting
that none of the Time Lords' options for his new appearance meet his
standards.
The "The War Games" is not perfect: I could have done without the
stereotypically brutish chauvinist Mexican character, the Security
Chief's nasal shrillness really starts to grate after a while, and the
chief scientist even has a classic Obvious Exposition moment when he
begins a long spiel with, "As you know...." Overall, however, there are
remarkably few wrong notes given that the serial lasts nearly four
hours, and writers Dicks and Hulke ably handle the weightier material
without forgetting to tell a fun story. Any way you look at it, "The
War Games" is a Doctor Who
classic and a fine finish for the (unfortunately mostly lost) Troughton
era.
Rating: **** (out of four)
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