OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 244
STORY NUMBER: 050
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 19 April 1969
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke & Terrance Dicks
DIRECTOR: David Maloney
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Derrick Sherwin
RATINGS: 5.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The War Games
"We're back in history, Jamie. One of the most terrible times on the planet Earth!"
Not to be confused with The 1983 Film or the Space 1999 episode or even the banned banned BBC film The War Game. And many others.......
The Tardis materialises in a World War 1 No Man's Land. Sheltering from shelling the Doctor, Jamie & Zoe are picked up by an ambulance driven by Lady Jennifer Buckingham. They are quickly captured by German Soldiers but liberated by Lt Carstairs and his men who escort them back to a command post on the front line. Major Barrington send the Tardis crew to General Smythe. Lady Jennifer and Carstairs confess to each other that they're having problems with remembering things. Smythe uses a hidden communicator device with a screen to request reinforcements. While searching for him Major Ransom discovers that Smythe is not in his room but when Smythe walks in from his quarters he puts his glasses on and convinces Ransom that he was there. Later in a break in the tribunal he uses the same technique to convince Ransom & Barrington that the Doctor & friends are guilty of spying. Suspecting Jamie of desertion he is sent to a military barracks, while Jamie is remanded into Lady Jennifer's custody before transport to prison. The Doctor is sentenced to death by firing squad. When taken to prison he questions the Sergeant Major and discovers gaps in his memory. Zoe discovers Smythe's communication device while stealing the keys to the Doctor's cell but when she frees him they are both intermediately recaptured. The Doctor is taken to the firing squad, tied up and shots ring out....
Welcome to the fiftieth Doctor Who story which is also the last and longest second Doctor story.
JAMIE: The thing is, where are we?World War One is an easy location to do and as with most things involving a setting prior to the present day the BBC does it very well. Unfortunately anything World War One now makes you think Blackadder Goes Forth as Liz, who saw the start of this story with me, pointed out as they reached the trenches. That view was confirmed the moment that Major Barrington appeared on the screen because he looks not dissimilar to Rowan Atkinson!
ZOE: Early twentieth century isn't it, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes. I'm afraid that we've landed up in the middle of one of the worst wars in human history.
JAMIE: What are they dug into the ground like this for?
DOCTOR: Well, it's trench warfare, you see, Jamie. These trenches stretch right the way across the continent of Europe.
JAMIE: Well, what are they fighting for?
DOCTOR: Well, I well I believe that they call it The War to End Wars.
It's not helped by the Doctor being arrested, thrown into prison and facing a firing squad bearing a distinct resemblance to the Blackadder episode Corporal Punishment!
BARRINGTON: Right, sir. We'll go over the top at oh four hundred hours. Sir. As you say, sir. Well, that was General Smythe. Big push tomorrow. How long have you been out here?It's the holes in the World War One scenario that are the really interesting parts to the episode and the main one is several people seem to be having problems with their memory.
CARSTAIRS: Well, sir, it's odd, but I can't quite remember.
BARRINGTON: I know. It seems like forever, doesn't it?
CARSTAIRS: Where is your hospital?
BUCKINGHAM: Oh, it's not far.
CARSTAIRS: Whereabouts?
BUCKINGHAM: Well, you're going to think me awfully silly, but I can't quite remember.
CARSTAIRS: Don't worry, it'll come back to you. Memory's a funny thing out here. Can't always remember things myself.
BUCKINGHAM: What kinds of things?
CARSTAIRS: Oh, silly things. Names, dates, how long I've been here. Sometimes wonder if I've got a touch of the old shell shock. Have you talked to anybody else about it?
BUCKINGHAM: Haven't liked to. One feels so stupid.
CARSTAIRS: Yes. Still, it is rather worrying not being able to remember things.
BURNS: I'll see that they bring you something to eat.Then there's the distinctly non WWI communication device in Smythe's room. Who's he talking to?
DOCTOR: Oh, thank you. Sergeant Major? Have you been at the front long?
BURNS: Oh, quite a while. I've been out here since
DOCTOR: What's the matter?
BURNS: Can't remember. Here, what are you asking me all these questions for?
How's he persuading people that what he says is right? He seems to put his glasses on to do it.
The closest to this episode I can think of is The Time Meddler, which similarly has a historical setting with a few out of place elements, where we're asking what's the Monk doing with a wrist watch & binoculars.
Wipes the floor with any episode of the Space Pirates this does! You know the Space Pirates finished off the Lost In Time DVD set, Doctor Who's first 3 disc DVD? The War Games is the second 3 disc set.
Right, one last round of musical chairs for this season! Peter Bryant has been taken ill so former script editor Derrick Sherwin, who'd been shadowing him, steps up into the breach. As we'll see later, two stories had fallen through at the end of the season so script editor Terrance Dicks and his mentor Malcolm Hulke, one of the writers on The Faceless Ones, drew the short straw of having to craft a ten part serial to replace a four parter and a six parter. Since the later of those stories was scheduled to be Troughton's last appearance, that had to be worked in as well. As Dicks was co-writing this serial no script editor is credited for it even though he held that post. Back for the third time this season comes director David Maloney following The Mind Robber and The Krotons. Having directed no episodes before this season he would, by the end of the story be in fifth place with 19 behind Christopher Barry, with 20, Richard Martin & Derek Martinus with 22 and Douglas Camfield with 35. All bar Martin will add to their totals.
The film recordings of the episodes that make up this story was originally sourced from two locations: Episodes 2, 5, 8 & 9 were present in the BBC Film & Video Library in 1978 when Ian Levine first visited. All ten episodes were found as negatives at the BFI, who returned them to the BBC. It was believed that the BFI returned their original negatives but when the BBC's copies were later damaged, leading to the odd patterns seen on certain episodes during the video release, and enquiries made of the BFI it was discovered that the BFI had returned copies of their negatives. New superior prints were then struck from the BFI's negatives giving a superb quality of picture used for the basis of the DVD release.
All the location filing for this story was conducted in Sussex around the Eastbourne area. Sheepcoat Rubbish tip, recently home to the film production Oh What A Lovely War, forms the majority of the First World War locations.
Doctor Who: The War Games DVD has a Now & Then film showing the locations as they appear in the story and as they do now. There's also some excellent contemporary photos of the location in the DVD's photo gallery.
We need to look at the cast for the earlier episodes of this story, and due to the length of this story we'll need to keep coming back as more cast members show up. Lt Carstairs is played by David Savile who'll be back as Winser in The Claws of Axos, and Colonel Charles Crichton in The Five Doctors. Of all the guest cast he's in the most episodes of this story appearing in the first nine. Before Doctor Who he's had some experience with science fiction appearing in the first season Out of the Unknown episode The Counterfeit Man as Gerry. This episode survives and can be seen as part of the Out of the Unknown DVD Set. He also appeared in the film version of Quatermass and the Pit as an Army Officer and plays a hospital doctor in the UFO episode The Man Who Came Back.
Lady Jennifer Buckingham is the one Doctor Who appearance for Jane Sherwin, the wife of producer Derrick Sherwin. She later appears in the Blake's 7 episode Pressure Point as Kasabi.
Hubert Rees, who we've already seen as the Chief Engineer in Fury from the Deep, plays Captain Ransom here, and returns as John Stevenson in Douglas Camfield directed The Seeds of Doom. He's another Camfield favourite appearing in many of the director's non Doctor Who productions such as The Sweeney episode Thou Shalt Not Kill where he plays Reginald Dowland. He's also in Sweeney 2, the second film based on the television series, as a Bank Manager.
Noel Coleman plays the very suspicious General Smythe. Many, many years later he plays the Cat Priest in the fourth Red Dwarf episode Waiting for God.
Playing Sgt. Major Burns is Esmond Webb. He disappears after this episode and then pops up again in the 7th when Smythe also returns!
The aforementioned Blackadder lookalike Major Barrington is played by Terence Bayler. It's not his first Doctor Who appearance as he previously played Yendom in The Ark episode 3 The Return. Later in his long career he goes onto have an association with the Monty Python's Flying Circus team which begins with appearing in a variety of roles in Rutland Weekend Television which led to playing The Rutles manager Leggy Mountbatten in All You Need Is Cash and appearing as Gregory in Monty Python's Life of Brian. Apparently he ad-libbed the famous "I'm Brian and so is my wife!" line. Terry Gilliam uses him again in Time Bandits & Brazil. One of his most recent film appearances was as the The Bloody Baron Ghost in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Toby Hadoke interviews him in Who's Round 074. He died on the 2nd August 2016.
We now enter the murky world of The War Games' extras. As a ten part story, which features location filming, several of the extras show up in more than one role. For example David Billa, who's down on IMDB as a German Soldier for this episode is also down as a German / Roman Soldiers / Alien Technician for episode 4 and a Time Lord Technician for episode 10.I suspect that's him on the left of the photo bellow as the other soldier speaks so is the credited German soldier John Livesey.
The firing squad contains a large number of extras who have worked on the series at different points. Keith Ashley was an Extra in The Savages and returns as a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a Villager in The Dæmons, an Extra in Planet of the Spiders, a Dalek Operator in Genesis of the Daleks, a Zygon in Terror of the Zygons, Sir Colin's Aide in The Seeds of Doom & a Brother in The Masque of Mandragora. Roy Brent returns as a Miner in The Monster of Peladon and appears as an Armoured Knight in the Monty Python's Flying Circus episode Njorl's Saga. Eden Fox is also a miner in The Monster of Peladon: Imdb reckon he's in episode 2 of this story as a machine gunner. Alex Hood returns as a British Soldier in episode 7, and is another technician in The Silurians. He also plays a man in the second series Doomwatch episode The Islanders. Finally from the Firing Squad is Tom O'Leary who IMDB think is a Prison Sergeant in episode 2 plus German / Roman Soldiers / Austro-Hungarian Officer in episode 4. I don't think he can be playing THREE roles there but we'll have a go at seeing if we can see an actor reused! He's also an Auton in Terror of the Autons, another Miner in The Monster of Peladon and Albert Einstein in Time and the Rani!
IMDB has Derek Hunt down as Carstairs' and a British Soldier in episode 7. He returns as a U.N.I.T. Soldier in Day of the Daleks, a Prison Guard in Frontier in Space, James the footman in Black Orchid and a Man in Market/Dinner Guest in Snakedance. Another Carstairs' Man, presumably the soldiers on location which help recapture the ambulance, is David Melbourne. He's plays a Resistance Man in episode 4 but is also a British Soldier in episode 7 which makes me wonder if there's a pair of British soldiers also shot on location there. Something to watch out for. He later returns as a U.N.I.T. Guard in Day of the Daleks. He also appears in Moonbase 3 as a technician in Castor and Pollux & View of a Dead Planet, another Technician in the Blake's 7 episode Dawn of the Gods and a Hotel Guest in the Fawlty Towers episode Communication Problems.
Ken Fraser, who's down as a Sentry here, was previously a Guard in The Enemy of the World. Alastair Meldrum is listed on IMDB as a Trench Solider / Chateau Guard for this episode. They reckon he's another British Soldier in episode 7 and a Resistance Man in episode 9. He's also got 3 uncredited Doomwatch episodes on his CV: a Bar Customer in Tomorrow, the Rat, a Man in Re-Entry Forbidden and a Man in Train and De-Train.
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