 "The War Games" is the 50th story of the show and is really two stories in one. The first part (covering the first nine episodes) is an odyssey of war and time travel. The second, however, is one of the most important episodes of Doctor Who in the show's long history. The final episode brings The Doctor to his (as-yet-unnamed) homeworld, where he is put on trial and is then forced to regenerate. This story also features the debut of the alien War Lords.
For the first time, this story names The Doctor's race as the ‘Time Lords’. Although his home planet (Gallifrey) is seen, it would not be referenced by name until the 1973 story "The Time Warrior". His reasons for leaving Gallifrey, and the fact that he stole the TARDIS, are also revealed.
Aside from The Doctor and Susan, The War Chief is the second person of The Doctor's race (after The Meddling Monk) to appear in the television show. The character of the War Chief returns in the Virgin Books' The New Adventures novel "Timewyrm: Exodus" by Terrance Dicks, having it seemed escaped the events in this story.
The opening credits of each episode are superimposed over a stock footage montage of explosions and gunfire.
This was the final story filmed exclusively in Black and White, and was the last story that contained more than seven episodes until the 1986 The Trial of a Time Lord season.
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. He later returns in several roles including as King Peladon in "The Curse of Peladon" and as Professor Hobbes in "Midnight".
Several other cast members returned in later roles, including Bernard Horsfall (Time Lord) as Chancellor Goth in "The Deadly Assassin"; Philip Madoc (the War Lord) as Solon in "The Brain of Morbius" - Philip Madoc had previously appeared in "The Krotons"; James Bree (the Security Chief) as the Keeper of The Matrix in the 1986 The Trial of a Time Lord season of stories; David Savile (Carstairs) as Brigadier Crichton in the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary Special "The Five Doctors"; and Trevor Martin as The Doctor in the stage play "Doctor Who and the Seven Keys to Doomsday".
Producer Derrick Sherwin's wife Jane appears in the role of Lady Jennifer Buckingham. Derrick Sherwin produced this story in the absence of Peter Bryant who was ill at the time.
Another Doctor Who family connection is Peter Craze playing the part of Du Pont. Peter Craze was the brother of Michael Craze, who had played The Doctor's companion Ben Jackson during Season Three and Season Four. Peter Craze had also appeared in "The Space Museum".
The time machines designed by the War Chief and used by the War Lords are called SIDRATs, an inversion of the name TARDIS. Though this name is used only once, and then merely in passing, on-screen during the story (in episode seven, when it's pronounced 'side rat'). Like the TARDIS, they are dimensionally transcendental.
In the 1979 Target novelisation, by Malcolm Hulke, the acronym ‘SIDRAT’ is revealed to stand for ‘Space and Inter-Dimensional Robot All-purpose Transporter’.
The Doctor again faces trial in The Trial of a Time Lord season, the beginning of which refers to this previous trial.
Again the concept of regeneration is presented but not actually named as such. The process was eventually named in "Planet of the Spiders". While the Second Doctor is sentenced to a forced regeneration at the end of this story, we do not actually see him regenerate into the Third Doctor (who first appears - briefly wearing the Patrick Troughton’s costume in the next story "Spearhead From Space"). The only other Doctor not to receive an on-screen regeneration is the Eighth Doctor, who has already regenerated into the Ninth Doctor at the start of the show when it was revived in 2005.
In the first episode, the Second Doctor kisses Zoe Heriot. This display of platonic affection is the first time that The Doctor kisses one of his companions, though as the show went on it would be far from the last.
This marks the last appearance of the TARDIS Console Room until the 1971 Third Doctor story "The Claws of Axos" - though the removed TARDIS console would be seen in The Doctor's UNIT headquarters laboratory in "The Ambassadors of Death" and in a hut in "Inferno".
The TARDIS arrives on an unnamed planet, occupied by the War Lord's race. The various time zones 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).
A real First World War ambulance is used in the location scenes.
The Doctor adopts the alias of ‘Dr. John Smith’ again and is seen to use the sonic screwdriver – first to prove that he is from another time, and then to 'reverse the negative field' of a plastic wall so as to weaken it.
In an attempt to explain the Time Lords, The Doctor tells Jamie McCrimmon 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'.
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.
On the trial screen, The Doctor shows a Dalek, Cyberman, Yeti, Ice Warrior and a Quark.
Clips were used in episode ten from "The Web of Fear" (the TARDIS in space), "Fury From the Deep" (the sea landing) and "The Wheel in Space" (an exterior of The Wheel).
The Time Lords sentence The Doctor to exile on Earth during the twentieth 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.
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'.
Because of the length of this story, two weeks of filming were necessary rather than the standard one. However, with the studio sessions for each episode scheduled to take place just over a week prior to broadcast, this meant that the extra filming would have to occur during the week in which the final instalment of the previous story, "The Space Pirates", was being recorded.
The completion of this story brought both Season Six and the sixth production block to an end. For the first time, no stories would be recorded at the end of the recording block and then held over to start the next season. Episode ten was broadcast just nine days after it was recorded.
Patrick Troughton, Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines all elected to leave the show at the end of this story. Jamie and Zoe are written out with the characters' returning to their own times and with all memory of their adventures with The Doctor except for their first encounter wiped.
In the case of Zoe she is returned to The Wheel, where she encounters Tanya Lernov, a character from "The Wheel in Space". A set from this earlier story was rebuilt and actress was Clare Jenkins rehired to play Tanya for this one scene. The Big Finish Productions audio story "Fear of the Daleks" shows an older Zoe having detailed dreams of her adventures with The Doctor, suspecting that something is blocking her memory, and seeing a psychiatric counsellor in an effort to understand the ‘dreams’.
Not long after leaving the show, Frazer Hines was cast as Joe Sugden in the soap opera Emmerdale Farm. He returned to the role of Jamie twice more - in the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary Special "The Five Doctors" (albeit a phantom version of Jamie) and "The Two Doctors". Frazer Hines has also recorded linking narration for a number of BBC Audiobooks releases of incomplete Doctor Who stories.
Wendy Padbury's acting career continued with numerous roles on stage and radio, in addition television appearances included Freewheelers and, alongside Frazer Hines, in Emmerdale Farm. She also appeared in the horror film Satan's Skin (also called Blood on Satan's Claw). Her theatrical appearances included the 1974 play Doctor Who and The Daleks in Seven Keys to Doomsday, in which she played companion Jenny. She returned to Doctor Who as a phantom version of Zoe in the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary Special "The Five Doctors". Like Frazer Hines she has also recorded linking narration for a number of BBC Audiobooks releases of incomplete Doctor Who stories.
After his departure from Doctor Who, Patrick Troughton made no less than three return appearances to the show, in "The Three Doctors", "The Five Doctors" and "The Two Doctors". Sadly Patrick Troughton died on the 28th March 1987 of a heart attack in his hotel room while attending a science-fiction convention in Columbus, Georgia. It was one of many such events Patrick Troughton attended during the Eighties, during which he demonstrated that - despite his private and retiring personality - he harboured an abiding love for both Doctor Who and its fans.
A novelisation of this story, written by Malcolm Hulke, was published by Target Books in September 1979. Despite the length of this story, Malcolm Hulke was allotted only 143 pages in which to adapt the 10-episode script, the third longest Doctor Who story. By comparison, the later novelisation of the second longest serial, the 12-episode "The Daleks' Master Plan" along with the single episode prequel "Mission to the Unknown", was published in two volumes, each of which were much longer than Malcolm Hulke's single book, while four books were used to novelise the longest serial, the 14-episode The Trial of a Time Lord season.
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The Firsts:
The first time The Doctor's race are named as ‘Time Lords’.
The first time we see The Doctor's (as-yet-unnamed) homeworld.
The debut of the alien War Lords.
The first Doctor Who story to contain a display of platonic affection between The Doctor and a companion.
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Malcolm Hulke.
Derrick Sherwin's first involvement in the show as Producer.
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(Position = 31 out of 159)
(Position = 29 out of 200)
