The War Games Episode Five

The one where we meet the Security Chief...

We're halfway through this ten-part epic and only now do I detect a faltering in the pace as this episode feels a bit padded, although we still learn plenty from it. For instance, it's nice to know that the travel capsules are green!

As with the last episode, the most interesting developments take place in the alien control centre, and all of the material in the American Civil War zone is surplus to requirements. There's a particularly unnecessary and overlong sequence where Harper and Spencer have a brawl, and it's choreographed in that very rehearsed way that makes it look more like a piece of performance art than a genuine fight (even some of the supporting actors can't help smirking!). By the end of the episode, Jamie, Russell and the two smirking extras climb aboard the travel capsule to make way for the alien base, leaving poor Lady Jennifer behind to tend to hundreds of injured soldiers! Sadly, this is the last we'll see of Lady Jennifer Buckingham, which is a real shame as it would have been nice for her to make it to the alien base and be reunited with Carstairs, who she obviously has a thing for.

Quite how Jamie knows how to operate the travel capsule is another question entirely, although I suppose we have seen them automatically return to base in previous episodes. He has a good intuition about when the capsule's door is going to close though - several seconds of advance knowledge!

The best thing about episode five is undoubtedly the clash of intellects that is the War Chief and the newly introduced Security Chief, played in a wonderfully mannered performance by James Bree. I love Bree's stilted delivery, as if he's got a broom handle up his backside, and some of his lines are given in a truly unorthodox but effective manner, with an unusual emphasis on some syllables and words.

Despite the awkward physical presence of the Security Chief, Bree manages to imbue him with so much character by doing very little. His movements are extremely limited: he only moves when he is doing something or going somewhere, he doesn't move at all otherwise, with his arms resolutely by his side. His speech pattern is stark and clipped. There is nothing unnecessary about him. His implacable, bottle-bottomed stare hides a brain that is obviously working overtime as he verbally spars with the saturnine War Chief. I find it particularly interesting that the Security Chief chooses not to tell the War Chief that when he was interrogating Zoe, she mentioned the TARDIS. This is information he is holding back for his own ends, as he builds a case against this alien interloper.

There is absolutely no love lost between the War Chief and the Security Chief, and this mutual disrespect leads to some fantastically bitchy and barbed exchanges. We learn that the War Chief is not of the same race as the Security Chief, and that he has been known to betray his people. The War Chief and his people are believed to be the only ones with knowledge of space/ time travel, so already we can start to piece together just why the War Chief and the Doctor might recognise each other.

The Doctor and the deprocessed Carstairs make for a formidable (if violent) pairing, rattling around the control centre putting the kibosh on first the scientist ("Better leave him on simmer"), then a guard. The Doctor then decides that the best way forward would be to unite all of the various rebel factions in the different time zones to form one big army against the aliens, which is a magnificently Doctory thing to do. One of the fundamental tenets of Doctor Who is that this is a loner who visits a place, sides with the oppressed, and empowers them to overturn their oppressors. The Doctor always sides with the underdog, and here he is using the disparate underdogs to form a mightier offensive.

A quick mention for Roger Cheveley's gorgeous sets for the war centre, with their crazy black and white circles riffing on the 1960s psychedelic pop art of the time. If this had been made in colour a couple of years later, I reckon it'd be a real challenge for the eyes! As it is in monochrome though, it works so much better, the concentric rings reflecting the aliens guards' ray gun effect.

The cliffhanger is simply rubbish, one of those endings that you know doesn't mean what it wants you to think, as Jamie and the rebels are mercilessly gunned down by guards as soon as they exit the capsule (and how they don't see the line of armed guards aiming their ray guns right at them as they come out is also pretty silly). Jamie cannot be dead, he's obviously just stunned, so why bother trying to get the viewers to think he's dead? I'm no fan of this kind of cliffhanger, it's lazy.

First broadcast: May 17th, 1969

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The introduction of James Bree's pensive Security Chief to spar with the War Chief is great.
The Bad: Again, the American Civil War zone material is weak, and the loss of both Jennifer and Harper is a real shame. Both could have joined the resistance force in the war centre (it's annoying that the only black and female characters are dumped so early on).
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Episode Six...

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