Day 127 — May 7th 2021
The War Games Episodes Seven and Eight
The War Games — Episode Seven
The guest cast in this story are brilliant across the board. I’ve not really talked at all yet about Edward Brayshaw as the War Chief or James Bree as the Security Chief, which is perhaps unfair of me because they’ve both been giving it their all since they first appeared.
Their argument today is particularly powerful;
War Chief: ‘It’s a simple enough conclusion. You might even have reached it yourself.’
Security Chief: ‘I have reached a number of conclusions about you and about this man, the Doctor.’
War Chief: ‘Indeed? Then perhaps you’d like to share them with us?’
Security Chief: ‘This Doctor arrived here on this planet we have chosen for the war games. He brought with him companions who have not been subjected to our mental processing.’
War Chief: ‘A fact you tried to conceal.’
Security Chief: ‘They came in a space time machine. The secret of space time travel is known only to you and to your people.’
War Chief: ‘And I brought that secret here.’
Security Chief: ‘You have shown us how to operate these machines, but not how to construct them. These people were summoned by one who is in league with his own kind, plotting to betray us!’
War Chief: ‘You cannot produce one single atom of proof!’
Security Chief: ‘The accumulation of evidence is overwhelming!’
I think what I love even more is the War Lord’s reaction to their quarrel — he says that their ‘Your inability to work together is endangering our whole plan’ which rather suggests that their bickering isn’t only taking place now because of the trouble Doctor Who’s been causing. I like to imagine that they’ve hated each other since Day One, and the HR on this War Games planet spends their entire day dealing with complaints from these two about each other.
As much as I joke, there really is a risk that the interactions between these two, and the War Lord, could end up looking like middle management having a bit of a disagreement about the best way to run a company. I think it’s testament to the performances that they’re giving that it’s lifted to so much more than that.
I’ll also confess that I was sort of dreading the arrival of the War Lord. Everyone goes on about how good Philip Madoc is in the role, but I’ve been so enjoying the two chiefs as the baddies that I worried he’d take away their thunder. I needn’t have been concerned, though, because he swans in early in this episode and elevates everything. I love the disinterested way he watches the fight, and there’s something so sinister about the way he says ‘Then I hope that time is on your side…’.
Madoc was offered the part in this story based on his performance in The Krotons (also directed by Maloney only a few months prior to this), but I have to admit that I wasn’t all that impressed by him there. Indeed, it wasn’t until a friend pointed it out that I even realised he’d been in it! You can see why he was brought back so swiftly, though, because he’s sublime here.
But it’s not all about the ‘new’ guest cast. This episode also sees a welcome return for Noel Coleman as General Smythe, who’s been absent from a couple of episodes after being the main baddie for the first few weeks. I love his confrontation with Doctor Who, and it’s oddly comforting to be back in this kind of territory after all the running around in sci-fi corridors;
Smythe: ‘You’ve caused me a great deal of trouble.’
Doctor Who: ‘Good, I’m very glad to hear it!’
I’ve only one other thing to note here, and that’s that this is the only occasion in the whole story where one of the aliens’ time machines is named on screen. I think most people know that they’re scripted as ‘SIDRAT’ — being the word ‘TARDIS’ reversed — though interestingly Brayshaw pronounces it here as ‘Siderat’. I’m guessing he didn’t get the joke?
7/10
The War Games — Episode Eight
Here we go, then, it’s the lowest-rated episode of Doctor Who until 1989 and it’s also perhaps the most important in terms of the character’s development because we finally find out where he comes from!
War Chief: ‘He is one of my own race. Your truth machine cannot work on us if we choose to resist.’
Security Chief: ‘You admit it then! You do know him!’
I’ll say here that I’m not a huge fan of the Time Lords and Gallifrey and all that jazz. I find fans seem to settle into one of two camps; they either love Time Lord mythology and are keen to work it into everything (hence all the books and audios which delve into Gallifreyan secrets and legends and stuff) or you’ve zero interest in it all. I’m very firmly in the latter camp.
I’m even a bit bored when the series introduces ideas like the war between the Time Lords and the Great Vampires, the suggestion that Doctor Who is anything more than any old Time Lord, or when the expanded media starts digging into Looms and all that bollocks. You start talking about stuff like that and a little switch flicks off in my head, I’m just not bothered.
All that said, there’s something honestly thrilling about seeing him come up against the War Chief here, and to getting little snippets of backstory;
War Chief: ‘You may have changed your appearance, but I know who you are.’
Doctor Who: ‘Oh, do you?’
War Chief: ‘Your machine is a Tardis. You’re too familiar with it’s controls to be a stranger.’
Doctor Who: ‘I had every right to leave.’
War Chief: ‘Stealing a Tardis? Oh, I’m not criticising you. We are two of a kind.’
Doctor Who: ‘We most certainly are not!’
War Chief: ‘We were both Time Lords and we both decided to leave our race.’
Doctor Who: ‘I had reasons of my own.’
War Chief: ‘Just as I had.’
Doctor Who: ‘Your reasons are only too obvious. Power!’
I wonder if it’s simply because all this is brand new, and having been watching the series every day now for four and a bit months it feels like something fairly momentous. I’m not sure there was any need to reveal Doctor Who’s backstory here — I reckon the series is at its best when being exactly what it’s been to this point, just some bloke kicking about the universe in a broken time machine — but it genuinely is exciting to see.
While we’re on the subject of backstory, fan wank and expanded media stuff… There’s been a debate raging for decades now; is the War Chief seen here an earlier incarnation of the Master?
I’ve always been absolute in my opinion that no, they’re not the same character, and the only people who insist that they are are ones who want to try and link every little bit of Doctor Who to every other bit, desperate to tie the whole show up in one big continuity knot.
And yet… I’m watching today and I’m thinking they’re absolutely the same character! There’s a vibe in the chat between the two of them which feels like Doctor Who and the Master, and this is exactly the kind of plan I can imagine him getting caught up in.
Doctor Who: ‘But to help people like that to conquer the galaxy?’
War Chief: ‘Not people like that, people like us. I intend to take over as Supreme Galactic Ruler. You can help me to rule, if you will cooperate.’
I’ll definitely be watching the appearance of the Master proper in a couple of weeks closely, because if nothing there contradicts what we see in this story, I think I might have to change my answer in the debate. I’m staying firm in the stance that the ‘Monk’ isn’t the same character though, and that’s final…!
Something I’ve not really touched on yet in this story is the design of the futuristic settings. I’ve praised the various War Zones to the high heavens (1917 especially), but rather overlooked everywhere else. And that’s because I’m never quite sure what to make of them. The sets here feel very in keeping with the rest of Season Six, but there’s also something entirely unique about them. I’m not sure they entirely work… but I’m not sure that they don’t work either.
If nothing else, there’s some lovely colour photographs of the sets, and you realise just how much they popped in studio. I’m going to miss being in black and white after tomorrow’s pair of episodes, but I can’t deny that looking at these makes me a little bit excited about moving into full colour…
Another 7/10.
