May 4: The War Games Episodes Three & Four

The Romans at the end of the last episode have confirmed the Doctor's suspicions that something is seriously wrong; there appear to be separate time zones, each fighting a different war and separated from the others by mist.  But the Doctor needs more information, so it's back to General Smythe's office to look for it.  "I wonder if I can pick this lock," the Doctor muses, looking at a safe in Smythe's quarters.  "Aye, with a tuning fork?" Jamie asks drily, referring to the events of The Space Pirates.

After some fun with a Mills bomb (aka a fragmentation grenade), they find a map of all the zones on this planet, and they decide to head to the unlabeled center of the map, which means driving through various different areas on their way.  They're first caught by German soldiers in the 1917 zone (which leads to some messing around with the sonic screwdriver and a pistol grip) before escaping and heading to the American Civil War zone -- although not before their presence is reported to the central headquarters.  So we finally get a look at the aliens controlling the place, and, well, they look like people with crazy shades.  Except for a man with a mustache and impressive sideburns, known as the War Chief.  "Time travellers?  I wonder..." he muses to himself, in what's an intriguing comment -- although, since time travel is clearly needed to stock all the zones, the War Chief's thought might be about something else.

But things get even more curious when the group (minus Lieutenant Carstairs, who stayed behind to fend off some Confederate troops) take refuge in a barn and see one of the black cabinets like we saw in Smythe's room in episode two appear and disgorge a large number of soldiers.  The Doctor and Zoe head inside to look around, but the cabinet disappears from the barn.

The War Chief. (The War Games Episode Four) ©BBC

Episode four tells us two main things.  The first involves Jamie and Lady Jennifer, who are captured first by Union and then by Confederate soldiers.  We learn that some of the "officers" (in other words, the aliens who are controlling the humans for some reason) operate in multiple zones: thus, the Confederate general and the World War I German general are the same person.  But more importantly, we learn that there is a group of resistance fighters at work on this strange planet, made up of soldiers from all the different zones who've broken their conditioning and are fighting against the aliens.  So we see Redcoats, Napoleonic War soldiers, Confederates, and a host of other soldiers from various wars banded together, and we see them rescue Jamie and Lady Jennifer and capture General von Weich.

The other main thing involves the Doctor and Zoe exploring the aliens' base after having established that the travel capsule is, like the TARDIS, bigger inside than out.  Interestingly, the base seems more scientific than military.  There they learn about the conditioning that the human soldiers are undergoing, and they meet up with Carstairs, who's been recaptured by the aliens.  The Doctor and Zoe disguise themselves as aliens and see what's going on, but they're soon rumbled when the War Chief enters and spots the Doctor as an intruder.  Zoe runs into Carstairs, but he's been reconditioned to think Zoe is a German spy...

So far these four episodes of The War Games have been entertaining and intriguing.  There's enough mystery to sustain interest, and the direction is nicely contributing to this tale.  Let's see if they can keep it up.