May 6: The War Games Episodes Seven & Eight

He's been mentioned earlier, but it's in episode seven that we actually meet the War Lord, the leader of this operation, and from his first moment Philip Madoc captivates in the role.  He underplays everything, and delivers some lines with a smile, which therefore makes him incredibly menacing -- especially in contrast with Edward Brayshaw's War Chief, who's been playing everything a little large and is therefore just as entertaining to watch in a different way.  Watching the two interact is marvelous.

The War Chief, the War Lord, and the Security Chief discuss the
problematic Doctor. (The War Games Episode Seven) ©BBC

So the Doctor manages to escape, along with his friends, via a smoke bomb which distracts the alien guards.  Then it's off to help set up the resistance as a single, cohesive force.  And what better place than the chateau in the 1917 zone?  So once they're back there, it's only a matter of time before the resistance attacks the place and take it over, killing General Smythe in the process.  And then the Doctor does something clever and puts a time zone mist barrier around the chateau, thus stopping the aliens from sending human troops to attack the resistance base.  This obviously upsets the plans of the aliens, so we get even more entertaining War Chief/Security Chief fighting, which necessitates that the War Lord step in: "The Security Chief is right. You have failed," the War Lord tells the War Chief, before turning to the Security Chief.  "And your leadership of the security forces has hardly been spectacularly successful.  I will take charge of the whole situation."  Maybe it's this action that leads to alien guards invading the chateau, grabbing the Doctor and the processing machine before disappearing back to their base.

Episode seven may have been an exciting installment, but episode eight is just as good.  The Doctor has been captured, but the Security Chief's interrogations are getting nowhere.  So the War Chief tries a different tack, trying to persuade the Doctor to join their side.  "We are two of a kind...  We were both Time Lords and we both decided to leave our race," the War Chief says, confirming that the Doctor is in fact from a race known as Time Lords.  And we finally learn why the aliens have humans fighting each other in time zones across this planet: the strongest, those who survive, will be used to help create a huge army which will allow the aliens to conquer the galaxy.  "We can bring peace to the galaxy, and you can help," the War Chief tells the Doctor.  "You see, I'm not the cold-hearted villain you suppose me to be.  My motives are purely peaceful."

The leaders of the resistance prepare to enter one of the
travel capsules. (The War Games Episode Eight) ©BBC

And in the resistance camp, they decide that the best way to help the Doctor is by carrying out his plan to unite all the various resistance factions.  So once the message goes out to them all to head to the chateau, they start arriving.  One in particular is named Arturo Villar, from the Mexican War of Independence, who insists on speaking to Russell, the leader of the resistance.  "I tried [to explain the situation to Villar], but he wouldn't listen," Zoe tells Jamie.  "He's got rather primitive ideas about women knowing their place." To which Jamie responds jovially:  "Has he now?  Oh, sounds a nice chap."  But Villar still needs to talk to a leader, which leads to Jamie swaggering out, wearing an officer's cap and two bandoliers with grenades hanging off them, trying to convince Villar and his men to stay.  I don't know if Jamie's tripping out the door was intentional or not, but either way it helps sell the idea of Jamie being uncomfortable in this assumed role.

Once all the resistance factions are on board, they start smashing the communication units in all the time zones -- in effect, taking the fight to the aliens.  The plan is to force the aliens to send guards out to all the time zones, leaving the central control area unguarded.  And then the Doctor pops up on one of the communications units, telling them to send the resistance leaders to the central control so he can discuss things with them.  But, in one of the best cliffhangers yet, it turns out to be a trap: the Doctor has sold the resistance out to the aliens.  "Thank you, Doctor," the War Chief says.  "A nice, neat little package for us to dispose of."

May 5: The War Games Episodes Five & Six

Episode five is focused much less on the regulars and much more on the supporting characters.  There's infighting going on in the Resistance camp while the Doctor is evading capture in the aliens' control center.  Zoe is less successful and is taken to the Security Chief's office -- though at least she's not shot by Carstairs.  And the Security Chief''s office...it's a triumph of design with its simple yet striking concentric circles (and the door has an interesting way of opening too, which is also nice) that carry on not just along the walls but the floor itself.

But the most interesting thing about episode five is how it takes the interaction between the War Chief and the Security Chief and makes it the focus of the episode.  The Doctor and Zoe are catalysts for this interaction even though they don't contribute to it directly.  The distrust the Security Chief has for the War Chief is palpable (particularly in the capable hands of James Bree's acting), with a touch of xenophobia present as well: "He is a traitor to his own people.  How can we be sure he is not a traitor to us?" he asks the scientist played by Vernon Dobtcheff (who is seemingly the only scientist in this entire place).  Of course, he's suspicious because the War Chief appeared to recognize the Doctor in episode four.  The War Chief, meanwhile, seems to be driven more by simple dislike of the Security Chief.  "The security of this entire venture is being threatened by your incompetence...  When I came to your people I was promised efficiency and cooperation.  Without the knowledge I have, this complete venture would be impossible," he says, brandishing the medallion around his neck.  There's definitely some tension brewing.

In the meantime, Jamie has convinced some of the resistance to enter one of the "green boxes" and be taken to the aliens' control center.  But when they emerge in the landing bay, they're shot down by the alien guards...

Zoe and the Doctor observe Jamie being readied for examination.
(The War Games Episode Six) ©BBC

Episode six continues the breakdown in relations between the War Chief and the Security Chief, with each becoming increasingly suspicious of the other.  The Security Chief in particular thinks that the Doctor might have been brought in by the War Chief as one of his own people.  "Are you suggesting he's bringing in his own people, the Time Lords⁴⁹?" the scientist asks him.  "He came to us because he wanted power.  Perhaps there are others of his people who feel the same," the Security Chief replies.

The scenes in the American Civil War zone, meanwhile, get a little more interesting.  Enter David Troughton, Patrick Troughton's son, as a resistance soldier entrusted with guarding General von Weich.  This sure looks like it's been designed as a showcase piece for David Troughton, but fortunately it's done well enough that this isn't a problem; in fact, by showing that Private Moor can still be hypnotized by von Weich, despite having broken his conditioning, it makes the threat of the alien generals much more potent.  Before, that threat had been reduced once von Weich was tied up, but here we see that even then they're still dangerous.

The scenes with the Doctor are also good, as he works out a plan to gather all the resistance groups together (Zoe, you see, has memorized all the resistance leaders in the various zones, thanks to the Security Chief showing their images to her).  He also seems remarkably proficient in using the aliens' controls.  "Doctor, how did you do it so easily?" Zoe asks, wondering at how he managed to set up a force field and preset the controls of the transport box so quickly.  "It's not very difficult, Zoe," the Doctor says, brushing her concerns aside.  And so they make their escape into the transport machine -- but before they can get away, the War Chief prevents the craft from leaving and then manipulates the internal dimensions, making the entire inside close in on our heroes...







⁴⁹ This marks the first use of the term "Time Lords" on the series, though here it's strictly in reference to the War Chief and his people.

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.

May 3: The War Games Episodes One & Two

The good news is that now we have video for every remaining episode: with The Space Pirates we leave behind not just the series' brief flirtation with putting titles in quotation marks (or inverted commas, if you prefer) but also the missing episodes.  Video from here on out (even if there are occasionally problems with the colors, but we'll discuss that when we get there).

Random observation: the picture of Troughton on this DVD
is almost but not quite the exact same photo as on the cover
of the CD of The Space Pirates.

The bad news is that The War Games is Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, and Wendy Padbury's final story.  It had been announced that Troughton was leaving during transmission of The Krotons, but now we've reached the end.  Well, sort of; the fact remains that this is the either the second- or third-longest serial (depending on how you count The Trial of a Time Lord) in Doctor Who's history.  So we're not quite at the end yet.

Episode one is actually a pretty bleak affair.  The TARDIS arrives in 1917 in No Man's Land, where they're almost immediately fired upon -- though not specifically aimed at them, it would seem.  They've arrived in the middle of World War I, and the episode is designed to make it clear just how horrible that war was.  The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are treated as spies by the British soldiers and court-martialled with only a thin veneer of a fair trial.  The Doctor, it seems, can defeat anything except the closed military mind.

Except things aren't exactly as they seem; a number of the people we see have difficulty remembering where they've come from or how long they've been near the front, and there's the curiousness of General Smythe, who not only has the power to hypnotize people by putting on a pair of glasses but also has a video screen in his room in 1917 France.  But despite these slight oddities, this is treated as a straight historical story, full of brutality and irrationality, and as the Doctor is tied to a post before a firing squad, you get the sense that the real issue is everyone's blind obedience of orders.

Episode two starts to highlight the oddities.  It begins when the Doctor is rescued by someone who appears to be dressed in an American Civil War uniform, sniping at the British soldiers.  We also get a strange machine that fades into view and carries General Smythe off somewhere -- it sort of sounds like a TARDIS when it appears, but then the door makes the "Dalek door" sound when it opens, so maybe we shouldn't read too much into these things.  And Jamie, convicted of being a deserter, is in the military prison when he's joined by a Redcoat from 1745...

But Lieutenant Carstairs and Lady Jennifer, both of whom met the TARDIS crew in No Man's Land, start to have doubts about how the court-martial was carried out.  This means that, while the regulars are still fighting the bureaucracy and dominance of the General's orders, they have some allies on the inside.  The anachronism of the video screen is highlighted, and we see General Smythe somewhere with a man wearing strange glasses looking through the viewscreen at the Doctor and company.  It's enough to convince Carstairs and Lady Jennifer to help them out, and so they drive away from the chateau and into a strange mist, on the other side of which is a Roman legion...

May 2: "The Space Pirates" Episodes Five & Six

Episode five sees things coming to a head: the Space Corps finally start to work out that Clancy has nothing to do with the space pirates and that the beacon sections found floating around Lobos were originally headed toward Ta, while our heroes are locked up in a disused office that used to belong to Dom Issigri, Madeline's father.  And Caven's getting ready to take some proactive action to frame Clancy for the piracy (in case the beacon pieces floating around Lobos aren't sufficient).  And Madeline Issigri starts to seriously doubt her alliance with Caven once the subject of murder comes up.

Cover of the 1990 Target novelization.
(From On Target - The Space Pirates)

And it turns out that Dom Issigri is alive and, well, not exactly well, as he's been Caven's prisoner for the last few years, but reasonably healthy.  So they all hatch a plan to escape (with a lovely interchange between Jamie and the Doctor: "It's not an audio lock, is it?" Jamie asks, referring to the lock on their door in episode four.  Once the Doctor tells him it isn't, Jamie replies, "Och, that's a relief," to which the Doctor responds rather drily, "Jamie, I don't think you appreciate all I do for you") and warn the Space Corps about the pirates (I think?  The motivation's a bit hazy here).  Only Caven has sabotaged LIZ 79...

Episode six, somewhat worryingly, may actually be as dull as this story's reputation claims the whole thing is.  "Worryingly" because this is the final episode and you'd think this would be where all the action is.  But what we get is some shenanigans with Milo and Dom in LIZ 79 while Caven tries to escape the clutches of the Space Corps.  (Spoiler: he dies in the attempt.)  And there's some stuff with Caven rigging up the atomic power plant to explode and destroy basically everything on Ta, which seems like it should be tense but just ends up being the Doctor working at a bunch of wiring for what feels like far too long.  And the whole thing weirdly⁴⁷ ends like an episode of Star Trek, with a lame joke and a bunch of laughter.

The Space Pirates has a reputation for being a deathly dull story, and that doesn't seem fair.  The primary issue is that's awfully dull to listen to -- but it was probably quite entertaining to actually watch.  There are a number of action sequences: we can't judge how they looked since the surviving episode doesn't have any (and Michael Hart never directed any other episodes of Doctor Who for us to make a comparison with -- he did do some other things, like Z-Cars⁴⁸, but I've never seen them), but there's no reason to believe they weren't at least competently done.  Certainly the model sequences we can see look pretty good.  The only worry is that some of the performances might let things down; I've already mentioned Donald Gee's uncomfortably self-conscious portrayal of Major Warne, but Gordon Gostelow's Milo Clancy is so broad that it might have come across as parody.  It's hard to tell.  This, much like The Celestial Toymaker or The Savages, is a story we really need to see in order to properly evaluate it; what we have simply isn't sufficient to get a good grasp on.







⁴⁷ It's weird because a) it's very much out of keeping with how Doctor Who typically ends -- especially with the somewhat forced laughter; and b) despite how much it resembles an ending to a Star Trek episode, no one in Britain will actually see that show for another three months, as Star Trek first aired as the summer replacement show for Doctor Who while it was between seasons 6 and 7.
⁴⁸ Remember, it's a British show, so it's pronounced "Zed-Cars".

May 1: "The Space Pirates" Episodes Three & Four

You get the impression, listening to these episodes, that they would have been reasonably exciting to watch.  There are space battles (well, a space chase, but there are copper needles involved) and laser shootouts in what were likely semi-gloomy tunnels.  But these come across as less exciting when all you can do is listen, sadly.  Still, there are some nice moments, such as Clancy getting the better of Major Warne via the aforementioned cloud of copper needles, which is oddly satisfying.  Although that might be because I've apparently taken an irrational dislike to Major Warne and thus overly enjoy hearing him receive his comeuppance (it might be the accent).

The Space Corps in general is rather thick, though.  Maybe it's because it's been fairly clearly signposted that Clancy is not in league with the pirates, but their continual efforts to catch him out and arrest him based on basically no evidence whatsoever is somewhat tedious, albeit occasionally laughably so.  Of course, when the Doctor briefly suspects Clancy as also being a pirate in episode four, you start to wonder if maybe Gordon Gostelow is doing such a good job of playing Milo as a harmless old coot that he's inadvertently sabotaging the script's intentions.

But we do get some actual pirate action in these two episodes, as Caven and his deputy Dervish scheme to implicate Clancy in the piracy by redirecting some of the stolen beacon pieces to Clancy's base on Lobos.  The pirates are actually based on Ta, the same planet as the Issigri Mining Corporation, and have been using the old mining tunnels to break down the station pieces.  And Clancy has also decided to lay low on Ta, reasoning that the Space Corps will never look for him on his rival's world.  Which means, conveniently, that the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe can become embroiled in the pirates' dealings.

So as I mentioned before, these seem like pretty visual episodes -- they're not completely devoid of interesting dialogue (in particular, Clancy's riff on Zoe's "Here's what I don't understand" comment is quite welcome), but one suspects they would have been better to see than to hear.

April 30: "The Space Pirates" Episodes One & Two

It's been a while, but we've now reached another missing story.  Still, at least this is the last one; everything after The Space Pirates exists in one form or another.  But on the downside, all we have of The Space Pirates is one episode, a handful of clips from episode one, and the soundtracks; no telesnaps were ever taken of this story.

This is particularly unfortunate because, on the basis of the first episode at least, a lot of the appeal of this story was visual.  It seems there was a lot of effects work going on, and those clips mentioned earlier are pretty impressive indeed.  But on the audio it's just a bunch of sound effects while Frazer Hines explains what's going on.  And when we do get dialogue, most of it is basically exposition, telling us what's going on and why.  This may be Robert Holmes's second script, but his flair for dialogue hasn't shown up yet.  Of course, as this story was written in a hurry to replace another script⁴⁵, it may not be too fair to criticize.

Still, there's a lot of set-up going on with exciting model shots that we can't really see.  And this episode held, until 2011, the dubious distinction of running the longest amount of time before the Doctor appears (with the exception of "Mission to the Unknown", in which he doesn't show up at all).⁴⁶  And when he does show up, he, Jamie, and Zoe get shot at and sealed inside a small room on one of the beacons being blown to pieces.  So it's not the most exciting time.  But everything else was probably all right, as the space pirates break up some beacons to salvage the precious argonite that they're made of, so maybe we shouldn't be too hard on it.

Madeline Issigri offers General Hermack any help she can give.
(The Space Pirates Episode Two) ©BBC

Episode two is the existing episode, so we can actually see what's going on.  Although almost nothing can prepare you for the sight of Technician Penn's haircut and moustache on what appears to be a military vessel (and then combine it with the hairstyles of General Hermack and Major Warne, none of which appear to belong with each other -- and we haven't even mentioned Madeline Issigri's metal beehive yet).  Still, at least we can see things, so we can see how clearly awkward Donald Gee feels in the role of Major Warne (maybe having to give a cod-American accent is throwing him off).  And we get our first look at Milo Clancy, space pioneer, who adds a bit of color (you know what I mean) to a rather stiff ensemble on Hermack's V41-LO.  Clancy's apparently also been having problems with people stealing argonite, which naturally leads Hermack to suspect Clancy as the ringleader of the pirates.  Er, yes...

Meanwhile, the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are still locked inside a tiny room, and the air is running out.  And that's their entire storyline so far.  Honestly, you'd think this was a sixth Doctor plot, the way the regulars are being kept from the action.  Though at the very end Milo Clancy bursts in and guns down Jamie, so there's that.  Which, come to think of it, also feels like an incident in a Colin Baker story.







⁴⁵ According to Howe-Stammers-Walker in The Handbook: The Second Doctor, this was The Dream Spinner by Paul Wheeler -- although the website Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel) says that The Dreamspinner [sic] was supposed to be the fourth story of season 6, and when it fell through The Invasion was extended to eight episodes.  In any event, given the problems with The Dream Spinner, The Prison in Space, and The Laird of McCrimmon all falling through, you can see why this story had to be written in a hurry.  And we're not done yet; we'll pick this up again when we get to The War Games.
⁴⁶ The new record-holder at the time of writing is 2011's "A Good Man Goes to War".