The First 'New' Doctor Who.

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The War Games

Although one of the longest stories the series has ever done, it rarely comes over as padded, despite there obviously being some along the way. I think this is partly because the complex nature of the scenario created for it allows for an extended and unusually involved narrative structure.

So we can have the false expectations created by the first episode, where the initial impression seems to be that another historical (a type of adventure which this era has rarely attempted) is underway. Then a few seeds of uncertainty can start to emerge when tantalising little clues that all is not as it should be begin to appear (the use of hypnotism, especially in the kangaroo court Smythe presides over, and glimpses of out-of-place technology, people vanishing from rooms with only one entrance).

This brings about a double imperative, with both a need to escape the immediate danger and another to investigate the mystery. More layers can be unpeeled from the outward appearance of the situation by revealing the various other time zones surrounding the First World War region and getting Carstairs and Lady Jennifer moved out of their usual context by allying them with the regulars. Hence the story them becomes an an adventure about a small group of fugitives lost in controlled simulations of different wars, with an immediate enigmatic objective to head for, specifically the enigmatic blank space in the centre of the map of the zones, which denotes the control HQ.

Now the focus can shift toward that central control area, with attempts to penetrate it and go undercover, discovering all about the nature of the place, the people working there, their plans, methods, hopes, and indeed their personal inter-rivalries. Split your small group of heroes in two, so that one can contend with what's going on in the former setting, and another can tangle with various controlled soldiers or enemies back in the zones, and then introduce another new element, namely a semi-organised resistance force.

From here on, the story can concentrate on the power struggles between the (newly enlarged) group of rebels and the scheming leaders of the control base, each side effectively engaging in a war of attrition and double-bluff, gaining and losing advantages, until the balance can be further tipped by revelations concerning the background of the War Chief and the Doctor...

Ultimately therefore, the story is mostly able to sustain itself by constantly developing and adding to the situation and characters depicted, pushing events forward and unwrapping more depth to the narrative in the process. And the fact that this happens to be the end of the road for this era means that, whether by accident or design, the sheer scale of what's going on in the story adds to the epic feel of it. The material which does feel most like padding tends to be the various captures, escapes and rescues that Jamie and Lady Jennifer have to contend with in the American barn, or being captured by von Weich (and later recaptured by Smythe), and perhaps the shrinking SIDRAT cliffhanger.

It helps that the period settings (the 1917 one at least) are well staged, with the eerie and ominous atmosphere of the First World War battlefield coming over particularly well. The army characters are possibly a bit stereotyped although they carry the action well (parts of the first episode tend to remind me of Blackadder Goes Forth - Major Barrington even looks a bit like him...). Smythe is effectively nasty and vindictive, Carstairs doggedly loyal, Russell has something of a bluff non-nonsense determination about him, although Arturo Villar is extremely irritating. The ease with which the Doctor and company manage to escape custody is rather startling, and a little unlikely though, and Carstairs and Jennifer are astinishingly open-minded and ready to abandon everything in support of the Doctor's party. Granted their suspicions have been aroused by the viewscreen and one or two other things, but still...

The control base sequences are very distinct in style from the above though. Full of way-out 1960s pop-art designs, with a particular use of swirls and circles, with PVC-clad guards who carry big toy guns, there's a slight feel of overblown parodies of elaborate HQs inhabiited by Bond villains. The three principal baddies all have a very strong screen presence. James Bree has a peculiar tendency to deliver his lines in a staccato monotone - it sticks out in particular because noone else is talking like that - although this doesn't quite prevent him from projecting a suspicious malevolent sort of personality. Philip Madoc, in black Nehru suit and close cropped hair and beard, almost seems to be auditioning for the Master. He plays the War Lord with a quietly spoken calmness that only occasionally erupts into anger, and a coolly supercilious sense of humour (when the Doctor is assuring him that he's gone over to their side, and that his former friends our now "our enemies", you can tell that the War Lord doesn't really believe him).

Edward Brayshaw makes a particular impression as the War Chief though. A leonine Medallion Man, with a booming resonant voice, his speech patterns, facial expressions and body language all combine to suggest a man with a severe superiority complex Who Will Not Be Crossed. Endlessly bickering with the petrualant Security Chief, who he evidently regards with utter contempt, his downfall results from his own overconfidence. He obviously relishes the hold he thinks he has over the Doctor and seriously misjudges the latter's character when he is taken in by his appearing to co-operate. His belief that his plan is for a good purpose ultimately sounds a distinct Hulkeian touch (Malcolm Hulke always preferred villains who acted as they did for what they believed were good ends, rather than evil for its own sake).

The nature of the set-up also implies a political subtext about warfare usually being a matter which the participants have little or no control over, with all the fighting and armies directed for their own ends from on high by rulers who are relatively safe and isolated. The Resistance comprises soldiers from various different wars, including those who had been fighting each other, all joining in common cause. This is also implied when Jamie and the Redcoat, who would normally consider themselves mutual enemies, collaborate in escaping from the military prison. An optimistic hope that people at war with each other can still overcome their differences when met by a worse danger.

The final coda to the story, and indeed 1960s Dr Who overall, sees everything swept clean in readiness for a new age in the series' life. The Time Lords effectively manage to rewrite the format in relatively simple fashion, and the momentous-sounding nature of the music and sound effects heralding them, and the Doctor's sheer crushed resignation, giving up in the face of re-encountering them, help to lend what would otherwise appear to be three men in science fiction robes an appreciable stature. As the various elements of the era are tidied away (Is Zoe destined to be forced into the human computer role again? Is Jamie going to escape being killed during Butcher Cumberland's widespread reprisals against the Highlanders?), the Troughton Doctor ends his era by raging against the dying of the light while spinning away into darkness until all is silence. In some ways that's a much more emotive and powerful ending than a regeneration would have been. No comforting new Doctor, no clue as to the future...just a blank mystery.