The War Games Episode Three

The one where we discover there are many time zones...

The Romans are coming! What's the best thing to do? Jump in this ridiculously slow ambulance and reverse (slowly) back into the war-torn 1917 zone, that's what! While it does appear to be the best of a poor bunch of options, it does afford us the glorious sight of seeing a Roman soldier extra stand open-mouthed, his gob well and truly smacked, as the ambulance disappears into nowhere while the episode caption fades up. Whoever that extra was deserves a Roman medal for giving that elusive 110%!

Actually, the gobsmacked Roman soldier kind of sums up how a first-time viewer might feel during, and after, watching this stunning episode, because it's packed full of cleverly placed mini-WTF moments. Remember, this is the programme that has recently churned out pretty standard (and sometimes sub-standard) cod teatime sci-fi like the woeful The Dominators and The Krotons, and the frustratingly dull runaround The Space Pirates. Suddenly, Doctor Who gives us The War Games, which is like a beautifully sculpted Russian doll - every time something is revealed, there's more intrigue just around the corner to reel you in.

We learn early on in this episode that there's more than just one war zone, and in fact there's more than one time zone too. The story began in the 1917 war zone, but after slipping through the mist into the Roman zone, the Doctor begins to piece together the fact that there's much more to this. By the time he gets hold of Smythe's time zone map from the safe, we can see there are at least 11 time war zones, including Crimean, Boer, American Civil War, English Civil War, Russo-Japanese, Peninsula, 30 Years and Greek. This idea alone is mind-blowingly inventive, and a masterstroke on the part of writers Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks. It adds such scope and ambition to the story, suggesting that this ten-parter can actually go anywhere from now on.

But the narrative plays with our expectations almost immediately, as we're transported rather suddenly to a strange, futuristic, perhaps alien control room where men in bizarre eyewear and jumpsuits scamper about, and General Smythe addresses a new villain - the War Chief - who we must assume is behind all this deception.

Edward Brayshaw is brilliant as the War Chief. He looks the part - malevolent, sinister, brooding - and delivers his lines with an inky contempt, while maintaining a fierce intelligence. When he learns that Smythe has ordered the execution of a group of escaped prisoners claiming to be time travellers, you can see the cogs turning in his mind, and the possibility that he might know who they are (we hear his thoughts: "Time travellers. I wonder...").

When the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe were captured by the Germans I began to wonder if this was where the padding would kick in, but I soon realised this capture is what leads to the War Chief's interest in the Doctor, and ultimately to the bounty on their heads being lifted. Still, the scenes with the Doctor trying to convince Lieutenant Lucke that he is from the future are a little taxing, mainly because I find it unconvincing that the Doctor would believe the truth would help in any way. Telling Lucke that he travels through time and space with a girl from the future and a boy from the past is a tall tale for Lucke to swallow, and demonstrating the sonic screwdriver only adds to the chances of them all being locked up for being bonkers.

It's a slightly clunky way of letting the bad guys know the Doctor is worth keeping alive though, so I'll forgive Hulke and Dicks. In all other ways they're plotting has been masterful, peppering the story with enough revelations and teases to keep viewers guessing and intrigued. In episode 1 we were shown that anachronistic technology was present in 1917, and in episode 2 we were introduced to a very TARDIS-like travel capsule. It all comes together beautifully by the end of episode 3 with the arrival of a capsule (its TARDIS-like materialisation sound oddly not commented on by the Doctor and friends) and the dispatch of 10 American Civil War soldiers from within. Whatever this capsule is, it's bigger on the inside! It leaves our heroes almost as gob-smacked as the Roman soldier was at the top of the episode.

It's all pretty mind-blowing stuff on a level rarely attempted before in Doctor Who. The show at this time scarcely referred to itself, with returning monsters like the Daleks and Cybermen pretty much the only reference to earlier stories. But here Dicks and Hulke are using elements of the series' very DNA to build a story, such as the possibility of other time travellers with their own dimensionally transcendental travel capsules. Whereas before the viewer might have been wondering if the Daleks or the Meddling Monk were behind it all, by the end of episode 3, the distinct possibility that we might be meeting the Doctor's own people comes into play.

Fabulous stuff!

First broadcast: May 3rd, 1969

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The idea at the heart of the story - that there's a system of connected time zones, each with a different war in it - is inspired, while the bigger-on-the-inside travel capsules hint at exciting possibilities to come...
The Bad: Gregg Palmer is the most unconvincing of German soldiers!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★★

NEXT TIME: Episode Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Two; Episode Four; Episode Five; Episode Six; 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.