The War Games Episode Six

The one where the Time Lords are first mentioned...

The battle of wits between the War Chief and the Security Chief continues in this episode, in which we see that the Security Chief - who talks as if he's permanently constipated - colludes with the scientist to help him prove that his arch enemy is up to no good. The Security Chief does not trust the War Chief and believes he has brought the Doctor to the war planet as they are of the same race. This fact has only been heavily implied so far, so when the Time Lords are mentioned for the first time ever (2 mins 26 secs into the episode - see screencap below), it's easy to assume that we now know the name of the Doctor's people.

But not necessarily, because the scientist is naming the War Chief's people, and we do not know for sure that the Doctor and the War Chief are of the same race. It's assumed to be the case by the aliens because they both have knowledge of space/ time travel - and we already know that they recognise each other - but that in itself does not make them both Time Lords. So we continue to wait for the confirmation that the Doctor is a Time Lord...

If you think about it, there are a lot of lords and chiefs in The War Games (War Lord, War Chief, Security Chief), and so I do wonder whether, if the Doctor's people had been first mentioned in another story, they would have had a different name entirely. It seems in keeping with this particular story to name a race Time Lords, when you've already got a War Lord, but would they have been so-called in any other situation?

The intellectual battle between the War Chief and Security Chief is the most compelling part of The War Games for me now, rather than the plot, which has straightened out rather a lot since its early series of twisting revelations. James Bree and Edward Brayshaw are magnetic when bouncing off each other, and it's fascinating to see how, every single time, the War Chief manages to outwit his opponent by covering his back with clever deception and subterfuge. He deflects and challenges the Security Chief, who isn't quite as wily or calculating as the Time Lord, and so is forced to back down every time. Maybe his time will come...?

Although the Doctor's scheme fails to progress very far in this episode, there's plenty of lovely little moments peppered throughout, such as the nice little graphics overlaid on actors' heads to show their brains (Jamie's is a funny shape!), or the fact the Doctor has now developed a little hand signal to Carstairs to clobber someone!

The scenes in the American Civil War zone between Von Weich and Moor (played by the very youthful David "son of Patrick" Troughton) are compelling too, showing a young and naive private struggling to keep his former oppressor's cunning in check. David Garfield has a wonderfully contemptuous expression on his face throughout, although I do wonder how he manages to hypnotise Moor with his magic monocle (and a very clear strip of gauze!) when Moor is supposedly part of the 5% of human specimens unaffected by the conditioning.

Still, it leads to a nice little stand-off with Russell, and a moment where the naive Private 00239 Moor gets his own back on the sneering Von Weich ("I had to shoot him, didn't I?" he questions). David Troughton may only have been 18 years old at this point, but already he was demonstrating the natural thespian skills of his father.

Elsewhere, there's more unconvincing fight choreography when the alien guards attack the Doctor's party in the landing bay, one particularly poor moment being when one guard waddles tentatively up the ramp just so he can tumble onto a convenient cushioned bench below.

The Doctor and co manage to get inside the time capsule to try and return to the time zones and rally the resistance. The Doctor claims the fridge magnet controls are "not very difficult" to use - suggesting he may know the technology well - but inside the capsule he says the controls are of a "slightly different design to the TARDIS". Make your mind up, Doctor! As far as I've seen, there are very few fridge magnets on the TARDIS console!

The cliffhanger sees the dastardly War Chief deactivate the capsule's dimensional control, which slowly reduces its interior architecture. In 30 seconds time, the Doctor, Jamie and Carstairs will be crushed! It's kind of ironic that this is the method used by the First Doctor to scupper the Monk's TARDIS in The Time Meddler. What goes around...!

First broadcast: May 24th, 1969

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: First ever mention of the Time Lords!
The Bad: That fight scene. In fact, all of the alien guard extras are a bit rubbish.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

NEXT TIME: Episode Seven...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Two; Episode Three; Episode Four; Episode Five; Episode Seven; Episode Eight; Episode Nine; Episode Ten

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-war-games.html

The War Games is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-War-Games-DVD/dp/B002ATVD8W.