The War Games Episode Nine

The one where the Doctor calls in the Time Lords...

I love how Patrick Troughton and Edward Brayshaw bounce off one another in their scenes together. The early scene where the Doctor asks how the War Chief has managed to overcome the limited lifespan of the SIDRAT machines is magical, with a twinkle in both actors' eyes as their characters continually try to wrest the upper hand. In fact, director David Maloney cast some of Doctor Who's very best guest players for the bigger character roles here, along with Philip Madoc and James Bree. It's one of Doctor Who's best guest casts ever.

As we rush headlong toward the long-awaited grand finale of not only this story, but also this season and this Doctor, there are plenty of twists left in writers Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke's armoury. The ongoing feud between the War Chief and the Security Chief comes to a juicy head when we discover that the latter has been bugging the former's conversations with the Doctor in order to capture evidence against him.

"I don't trust you," the War Chief spits at his nemesis. "The feeling is mutual," comes the retort. The moment where the Security Chief listens back to the recording and hears the War Chief plotting to be Supreme Galactic Ruler is one of personal triumph and vindication for him. "I knew it!" he exclaims, relieved that at last he has found a way to bring his enemy down.

When the Security Chief plays the recording to the War Chief, and has him arrested, there's no going back, and although he's a nasty piece of work, and mildly incompetent with it, it's kind of rewarding to see the Security Chief get his own back at last. "What a stupid fool you are!"

Of course, his triumph does not last, and when the resistance begins to take over the control centre, it is the War Chief who gets his ultimate revenge on the Security Chief by shooting him down with a ray gun. His aim is precise and sustained, and the Security Chief's protracted demise genuinely looks painful thanks to a wonderfully played death scene by James Bree (the clutching of the face suggests untold agony). "A personal debt I had to settle," smirks the War Chief.

When the Doctor realises he is unable to send everybody back to their respective times, he settles on the ultimate course of action - calling in the Time Lords, his own people. The War Chief's palpable fear of these people is intriguing and ominous (he calls them merciless), and the Doctor's intimation that they may be his people, but certainly not his friends, suggests the Time Lords really are something to be feared. After he parcels up his field report inside a magical white cube it's just a matter of time until these fearsome people turn up to put everything right. Can they really be all that bad?

The War Chief is gunned down on the War Lord's orders, and although Brayshaw doesn't quite manage to make his death scene as memorable as Bree's, it's still a satisfying demise. But why doesn't the War Chief regenerate? Maybe he will...

The imminent arrival of the Time Lords is heralded by an ominous eerie wind, and Philip Madoc really sells the moment when his jaw slackens, he gazes into the mid-distance and whispers: "They're coming...!"

Determined to stick with their friend, Jamie and Zoe join the Doctor on his desperate bid to get to the TARDIS in the 1917 zone and escape before his people arrive. He doesn't want them to find him, presumably because he stole a TARDIS from them and ran away. But the Time Lords, understandably, seem to have power over the passage of time, and the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find it's like running through treacle as they make for the police box.

Directed in slow-motion by Maloney, this breathless final scene gains so much gravitas from the doomy organ music Dudley Simpson plays over the top. There really is a sense that something powerful and frightening is just around the corner.

The war games are finished. The Security Chief and the War Chief are dead. The War Lord is under arrest, awaiting the arrival of the terrible Time Lords. Whatever happens in episode 10, I fear nothing will be the same ever again...

First broadcast: June 14th, 1969

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The War Chief's merciless execution of the Security Chief.
The Bad: I'm not sure there's anything about this episode that isn't wonderful.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★★

NEXT TIME: Episode Ten...

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