Production Code: ZZ
First Transmitted
1 - 19/04/1969 17:15
2 - 26/04/1969 17:15
3 - 03/05/1969 17:15
4 - 10/05/1969 17:15
5 - 17/05/1969 17:15
6 - 24/05/1969 17:15
7 - 31/05/1969 17:15
8 - 07/06/1969 17:15
9 - 14/06/1969 17:15
10 - 21/06/1969 17:15
Plot
The TARDIS arrives on a planet where a race known only as the Aliens have gathered soldiers from a number of different wars in Earth's history, brainwashed them and put them to battle. Their aim is to form an invincible army from the survivors and use this to take over the galaxy.
The War Lord is assisted by a Security Chief and a War Chief, the latter of whom the Doctor quickly recognises as a member of his own race, the Time Lords. The War Chief has provided the Aliens with the time vessels, SIDRATs, that are essential to their scheme; but he secretly plans to double-cross them and seize power for himself.
When the War Lord learns of the War Chief's duplicity he has him shot down by guards. By this time, however, the Doctor, aided by a band of human resistance fighters who have shaken off the Aliens' control, has already managed to put a stop to the war games. Unfortunately he has no way of returning all the human soldiers to their proper times and places and so has to call on the Time Lords for help.
Having thus revealed his position to them, he is taken prisoner, placed on trial for the crime of interfering in the affairs of other races and subsequently sentenced to a period of exile on Earth. Jamie and Zoe, meanwhile, are sent back to their own respective points of origin. Before being dispatched to begin his exile, the Doctor is told that he must again take on a new appearance...
Episode Endings
In the First World War zone the Doctor has been found guilty of spying against the English forces and is tied up before a firing squad. Captain Ransom brings his men to order, tells them to present arms and opens his mouth to give the order to fire. A shot rings out and the Doctor grimaces.
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe, together with their new friends Lieutenant Carstairs and Lady Jennifer Buckingham, have left the First World War zone in the latter's military ambulance. They encounter fresh danger, however, as soldiers from ancient Rome charge down a hill towards them. The others clamber back into the ambulance as Carstairs tries desperately to restart the engine using a crank handle. The Roman soldiers are almost upon them...
The time travellers and Lady Jennifer see one of the Aliens' time machines arrive in a barn in the American Civil War zone and a number of Confederate soldiers emerge. When the soldiers have left, the Doctor enters the machine to investigate. Suddenly shooting is heard from outside the barn. Zoe goes to fetch the Doctor but when she too is inside the machine, the door closes and it dematerialises - much to Jamie's consternation.
Zoe encounters Carstairs in the Aliens' landing bay. Her initial relief quickly fades when he pulls his revolver on her and, unmoved by her attempts to remind him who he is, insists that she is a German spy and that it is his duty to shoot her. His finger tightens on the trigger...
The Doctor, Zoe and Carstairs watch from hiding as one of the Aliens' time machines returns to the landing bay. Jamie and three of the human resistance fighters, including their leader Russell, emerge. Zoe realises that they have walked into an ambush. Alien guards open fire on the newcomers, who writhe in agony and fall to the floor, apparently dead.
The Doctor, Jamie and Carstairs are trapped inside one of the Aliens' time machines as the internal dimensions are gradually reduced. The War Chief informs them that they have thirty seconds to decide whether to surrender or be crushed to death...
The Aliens mount a successful raid on the First World War chateau that the resistance fighters have adopted as their base. They capture the Doctor and reclaim the mental processing machine that he earlier stole from them. Jamie, Zoe, Russell and Carstairs are powerless to stop them as they leave in their time machine.
The Doctor has delivered the leaders of all the different groups of human resistance fighters into the clutches of the Security Chief and the War Chief. Jamie and Zoe react in horror to this apparent act of treachery.
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe try desperately to regain the safety of the TARDIS as the Time Lords cause them to move as if in slow motion. They slump down beside the ship's police box exterior and the Doctor strains to turn the key in the lock...
A still protesting Doctor spins away through a dark void to begin his sentence of exile on Earth with a new appearance. His face is shrouded in shadow...
Roots
All Quiet on the Western Front.
Oh What a Lovely War!
The War Game.
Paths of Glory.
The Star Trek episode The Gamesters of Triskelion.
The Saint's The Death Game.
Dialogue Triumphs
Arturo Villar : [To Zoe] "For such a little woman, your mouth is too big."
The Doctor : "It is a fact, Jamie, that I do tend to get involved with things."
The Doctor : [To the Time Lords] "All these evils I have fought, while you have done nothing but observe! True, I am guilty of interference. Just as you are guilty of failing to use your great powers to help those in need!"
Zoe : "Will we ever meet again?"
The Doctor : "Now, Zoe, you and I know that time is relative, isn't it?"
Dialogue Disasters
Security Chief : [Witty riposte] "No, what a stupid fool YOU are!"
Continuity
The Doctor kisses Zoe in episode one. He adopts the alias of Dr. John Smith again (see The Wheel in Space), uses the sonic screwdriver to prove to Lucke that he is from another time, and also to 'reverse the negative field' of a plastic wall and weaken it.
The War Chief is a Time Lord who left [Gallifrey] after the Doctor. He recognises the Doctor. The Doctor states that he had 'every right' to leave the Time Lords' planet. The Doctor's TARDIS was stolen. The Doctor notes that the machine's 'directional mechanism' is faulty, hence he has been unable to pilot it correctly.
The Doctor tells Jamie and Zoe that he was bored with the Time Lords' lifestyle, that they 'hardly ever use their great powers', being content to instead to observe, and that 'barring accidents' Time Lords can 'live forever'. [In the light of later statements, presumably an over-simplification].
When the Doctor is forced to ask for the Time Lords' help, he builds a cube from six white cards. He says this contains all of the information on the events he has witnessed [The box travels by mental projection. If intended for the Matrix the cards are some form of data storage system, or a miniature TARDIS.]
The Time Lords sentence the Doctor to exile on Earth during the 20th century. The Doctor notes that the planet seems particularly vulnerable to alien attack. They also appear to give him a choice on his next regenerative form, though in the end they make the decision for him (see Destiny of the Daleks). [One of the options looks like the fifth Doctor.]
The aliens won't use post-1918 humans as they are too advanced. The space/time machines that the War Chief provides for the games are only named SIDRAT once (in episode seven, when it's pronounced 'side rat'). Like the TARDIS, they are dimensionally transcendental.
The Doctor refers to them on several occasions as 'TARDIS travel machines'. Their outer shells are green. The Doctor says in his day remote control and dimensional flexibility in time machines could only be achieved by reducing the machine's life span [see The Mark of the Rani: he's astonished she's solved that problem]. It seems that the SIDRATs have only a limited working capacity. The War Chief doesn't seem to possess a TARDIS [perhaps it was cannibalised to make the SIDRATs]. He shrinks the interior of a SIDRAT (cf The Time Meddler).
The Time Lords 'dematerialize' the War Lord and his guards ('It will be as though you had never existed') and place their planet in a 'force field' (see Image of the Fendahl). They don't mention Susan. The War Lord's home planet must be close to 'Galactic sector 973'.
QV
Location
An unnamed planet, occupied by the War Lord's race. The various time zones present include the First World War (near Ypres 1917), a Roman occupied country and America during the Civil War (1862 according to the map). Other zones either mentioned or seen on the map include Scotland during the 1745 rebellion, the Crimean War, the Boer War, the Mexican Civil War, the 1905 Russo Japanese Peninsular war, the Thirty Years War, the English Civil War, the 'Greek Zone' [Athens/Sparta war of the 5th century BC], and, by implication, the French Revolution (one of the Resistance is a sans culotte).
Links
During his spirited defence of his activities, the Doctor mentions the Quarks, the Yeti, the Ice Warriors, the Cybermen and the Daleks. Jamie and Zoe are returned to the points in time at which their first meeting with the Doctor ended. Jamie refers to the Doctor's tuning fork (The Space Pirates).
Trivia
The story title, episode number and writers' credits for each episode are shown over a stock footage montage of explosions and gunfire.
Producer Derrick Sherwin's then wife Jane appears in the role of Lady Jennifer Buckingham.
A real First World War ambulance is used in the location scenes.
Patrick Troughton's son David (who had previously been an extra in The Enemy of the World) appears in the minor speaking role of Private Moor.
There is the first mention by name, and ultimately the first appearance, of the Doctor's own race, the Time Lords.
Short clips in Episode Ten were taken from the opening episodes of The Web of Fear, Fury from the Deep and The Wheel in Space.
There is a tear-jerking departure scene for popular companions Jamie and Zoe.
Myth
Derrick Sherwin was credited as producer on this story because Peter Bryant had been assigned to troubleshoot an ailing BBC detective series called Paul Temple. (Sherwin was deputising as producer because Bryant was ill.)
Doctor Who was under serious threat of being cancelled at the end of this season. (Although this is Terrance Dicks's recollection, it has been denied by both Peter Bryant and Derrick Sherwin and is not borne out by contemporary evidence. The series would, however, face the threat of cancellation at the end of the following season.)
Goofs
Despite being asked to memorise all the locations and war zone commanders, Zoe's photographic memory lets her down: her first words to the Mexican leader are 'Who are you?'
The geographical layout of the map doesn't tally with the one assumed by the narrative.
In episode seven the Doctor says that he is sending Zoe and Russell back to the 1917 zone, but they arrive in the American Civil War zone.
At the end of this episode, with all the Resistance at his mercy, the Security Chief merely kidnaps the Doctor.
Fashion Victim
Jamie and Zoe in German spiked helmets.
The cardboard 'glasses' worn by the scientists.
The kinky leather costumes of the security guards.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
Jamie - Frazer Hines
Zoe - Wendy Padbury
Alien Guard - John Atterbury
Alien Technician - Charles Pemberton
Arturo Villar - Michael Napier-Brown
Captain Ransom - Hubert Rees
Commandant Gorton - Richard Steele
Corporal Riley - Terry Adams
Du Pont - Peter Craze
First Time Lord - Bernard Horsfall
General Smythe - Noel Coleman
German soldier - John Livesey
German soldier - Bernard Davies
Harper - Rudolph Walker
Lady Jennifer Buckingham/Lady Jennifer/Jennifer - Jane Sherwin
Leroy - Leslie Schofield
Lieut. Crane - David Valla
Lieut. Lucke - Gregg Palmer
Lieutenant Carstairs - David Savile
Major Barrington - Terence Bayler
Military Chauffeur - Peter Stanton
Military Policeman - Pat Gorman
Moor - David Troughton
Petrov - Stephen Hubay
Redcoat - Tony McEwan
Russell - Graham Weston
Scientist - Vernon Dobtcheff
Second Time Lord - Trevor Martin
Security Chief - James Bree
Sergeant Willis - Brian Forster
Sgt. Major Burns - Esmond Webb
Sgt. Thompson - Bill Hutchinson
Spencer - Michael Lynch
Tanya - Clare Jenkins
Third Time Lord - Clyde Pollitt
von Weich - David Garfield
War Chief - Edward Brayshaw
War Lord - Philip Madoc
Crew
Director - David Maloney
The War Games