The War Games

You can't just change what I look like without consulting me!

You would think that when faced with a ten-part story, a feeling of dread would come over as you anticipate mounds of filler. But in fact, The War Games is one of the best Second Doctor stories out there.

Plot Summary

The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe land in what appears to be WWI France. They are caught in cross-fire but are rescued by a passing ambulance driver who gives them a lift back to the sector HQ. They are treated well until the commanding general sees them and their out of place look. They are sentenced as spies and prepared to be shot. But the base comes under attack before that can happen and the Doctor and his companions flee with another soldier. The find evidence that the British general is working with a German general. They then stumble through a fog and find themselves being attacked by Roman legions. They flee back through the fog and back in to WWI France.

At this point the Doctor suspects that something is amiss. They investigate further and discover the general has a machine that takes them to a central control room where a series of different battles are taking place. The Doctor disrupts things as best he can while Jamie and Zoe help to unite soldiers who have broken the alien conditioning and been operating as small rebel bands. Together they unify into a large fighting force.

The Doctor also discovers that the aliens are led by a man called the War Lord and have been aided with TARDIS technology supplied by a rogue Time Lord called the War Chief. However, the War Chief's machines are inferior to the Doctor's own TARDIS and begin to break down. Knowing that his usefulness will run out, the War Chief attempts to ally with the Doctor to overthrow the War Lord. He is exposed and seemingly killed by the War Lord. The united rebels soon arrive and take control of the central command but things are at a stalemate so the Doctor summons the Time Lords to aid him.

The Time Lords arrive and return the soldiers to their proper times. They also dispatch the War Lord and his people when they attempt to escape. The Doctor is put on trial for his violation of his people's law of non-interference, he is found guilty but given a mitigated sentence of exile with a forced regeneration. Jamie and Zoe are returned to their respective times with their memories wiped of all but their first adventure with the Doctor. The episode ends with the Doctor beginning to transform into his third iteration.

Analysis

Again, you would think that a long running story with several back and forth trips from war zone to war zone and from the central command to the war zones would get tedious. But at no point is there ever a real feel of padding. There are a couple of moments where I can guess that they lengthened events to push something that might have taken one episode into two, but the quality of both the writing and the acting really carries things.

The escalation of the villains is also interesting. The first villain is the alien posing as the British general. This upgrades to the alien overseeing the German and Confederate armies. We then face off against the War Chief, and then things reach a head with the War Lord, who looks and acts a bit like Steve Jobs. Each villain is more controlled and thus more menacing. The War Lord commands presence despite his diminutive stature, especially relative to the War Chief. It keeps raising the stakes and doesn't give time for the conflict to go stale.

The Doctor is at his best in this story as well. He schemes but also is forced to improvise. He is serious but also gives moments of levity. He cares for his companions but also trusts them enough to get certain tasks done in dangerous environments. Given that this story ends with a regeneration, it is interesting to note that the Second Doctor is the only Doctor to have regeneration forced upon him. Two Doctors (the first and eleventh) regenerated due to old age but all the rest were fatally injured in some fashion. It adds a little prestige in my opinion that despite his appearance as a kindly little bumbler, the Second Doctor was the best survivor of all the Doctors.

The War Games is not without some flaws but they are hard to isolate. As I mentioned earlier, there are a few points where you can guess that the scene was extended or split off to be used later. This gives you the niggling feeling that with a little extra work, the story could have been cut to nine episodes. But it's much better than in some stories where there are whole episodes that are complete filler. Whatever other flaws there were, they did not register with me other than anachronisms of the era (and I would include the War Chief's hair style in that).

I would definitely recommend this one to watch again. Given that it is ten parts, I probably wouldn't recommend trying to get through the whole thing in one go, but that's only because general fatigue might set in over the course of the four hours it would take to watch it rather than for any section that drags. Besides, a good story like this should be savored rather than binged.
Overall personal score: 5 out of 5