6.7 The War Games

 

This was a spectacular ending to Season Six, and a great ending to Patrick Troughton as the 2nd Doctor. I am going to miss him.  I will also miss Jamie too.  They were perfect together.  I suppose all good things must eventually come to an end, and they needed to switch things up a bit, but we saw some good times and some bad ones, with Troughton.  I have dubbed him the 'hobo' Doctor, with his raggedy clothes and mussed hair.  His portrayal of the Doctor compared to Hartnell's was on opposite scales, and that was appreciated.  I'm glad that Jamie and Zoe left at the same time.  It would have been strange if one had stayed behind.  I felt bad for them though, as their memories were wiped so that they didn't remember all their adventures with the Doctor.  That was a bit cruel don't you think?

The plot itself was interesting.  Humans have been kidnapped from Earth, and forced to fight for their lives on a strange planet.  The humans have all been taken from different time periods, so they think that they are still fighting the same battles in history.  The aliens who have created this world wish to produce a powerful army of humans, presumably they will use to conquer real planets.  The War Chief, who is working with the aliens, is actually a Time Lord from Gallifrey, like the Doctor. 

It is here that we learn a bit more about the Doctor's background.  The Doctor stole the TARDIS and ran away from Gallifrey basically because he was bored.  He doesn't want to go back, because he knows that one of the Time Lord rules is that he cannot interfere in history.

For once, the Doctor cannot fix the problems on his own, so he has to summon the help of the Time Lords to return all the soldiers back to their own time and places.  He tries to get away before the Time Lords arrive, but he doesn't make it.  The Time Lords are too powerful.  Troughton was almost like an unhappy child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  It was most entertaining.  As punishment, the Time Lords destroy a portion of the TARDIS, and then exile him on Earth until he proves that he has learned his lesson.  They also force him to regenerate.

I wish the War Chief had survived.  I thought it was unnecessary to kill him off.

The Doctor is most unhappy with this order, and he doesn't want to go.  I love that Doctor Who has dramatically changed.  The Doctor is stuck on Earth for an indefinite period!  I love where they are going with this idea!  I'm so looking forward to Jon Pertwee.   

I did think this ran too long.  I think they could have compressed it to six or eight episodes and not ten.  It contained a decent amount of action, and for the longest time we did not know what was going on as they ran from time period to another time period.  I got a good laugh as they were accused of being spies every time they got caught.  I think the Doctor survived three firing squads, which is a first in Doctor Who history.

On with Jon Pertwee!

Next Up: Spearhead from Space