Friday 3 May 2019

246 The War Games: Episode Three

EPISODE: The War Games: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 246
STORY NUMBER: 050
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 03 May 1969
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke & Terrance Dicks
DIRECTOR: David Maloney
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Derrick Sherwin
RATINGS: 5.1 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The War Games

"You are dangerous English spies. You are spies and you are going to be shot!"

The Doctor & his friends restart the ambulance and reverse into the mist, returning to 1917. The Doctor works out that the time zones must fit together so they visit the château to see if Smythe has a map showing them all. They blow Smythe's safe open using the explosives from a hand grenade finding a map with a blank space in the middle. They drive towards it but are apprehended by German troops. The Doctor is interrogated by a German officer Lt Lucke The Doctor demonstrates he's from the future by taking his revolver apart with the sonic screwdriver. His superior, Von Weich, arrives and placing his monocle in his eye convinces Lucke that they are spies. Von Weich reports to his control via video communicator he has captured the time travellers. The Doctor pulls the trick with the sonic screwdriver again allowing Jamie to overpower the Lt and for them to escape. In the control are the War Chief arrives and orders the travellers captured and interrogated. The ambulance escapes to the American Civil War Zone. Carstairs is captured by American Soldiers. Seeking shelter in a barn Lady Jennifer and the Tardis crew witness the arrival of a travel capsule with streams of soldiers coming out. The Doctor & Zoe go inside to investigate and are trapped inside when it leaves.

Another cracker this week. Jamie's joke that the Doctor might pick the lock with a tuning fork is a reference to The Space Pirates where he does just that. There's a couple of other nods to past stories too: The Doctor is driving again as per The Invasion and uses a alias previously heard in the Wheel in Space.

LUCKE: For the last time, what is your name?
DOCTOR: Why don't you just call me Doctor?
LUCKE: That is not a name. I want your full name.
DOCTOR: Oh, very well. Doctor John Smith.
LUCKE: Good. Now we are getting somewhere!
We'll be hearing a little more of that one later.

The sonic screwdriver's back too, with an effective demonstration of it's main function using Lucke's gun!

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There's a cracking piece of special effects in this episode too: as the capsule dematerialises Jamie runs towards it and through the space where it just stood. Looks fabulous.

We're starting to get some answers too:

BUCKINGHAM: Doctor, who were those people who attacked us just now?
DOCTOR: Oh, they were Romans.
CARSTAIRS: Oh, but that's impossible!
DOCTOR: Oh, lots of impossible things happen when you pass through time.
BUCKINGHAM: Time? But no one can alter time.
DOCTOR: Look, it is 1917 where we are now on this map. Where we were attacked by the Romans it is two thousand years ago.
CARSTAIRS: But surely, Doctor
DOCTOR: Surely before we met the Romans we passed through a mist didn't we? A gas you called it. Now, supposing this mist is a barrier between different time zones?
ZOE: I see. So we went off the edge of this map and into a different time zone.
DOCTOR: Yes. What we need is a map which covers all the time zones. I'm afraid we shall have to get back to General Smythe's headquarters, to the château.
JAMIE: Well how are we going to get back there?
DOCTOR: Well, that's easy. You will take us!
The map does indeed tell them what they need to know. It's sideways on in the show but thanks to the wonders of technology it's easy to flip it round and maie it readable:

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DOCTOR: Look, Zoe. 1917 zone, Roman zone, American Civil War zone. This whole place is divided into time zones.
ZOE: But there's a blank space in the middle. There's nothing marked at all.
DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, and I think that that's where we've got to get to.
There's several other wars on the maps besides the ones mentioned here:
1917 War
American Civil War
Crimean War
Roman
Mexican Civil War

English Civil War
30 Years War
Boer War
Peninsula War

Russo-Japanese War
Greek

The Greek and Roman wars are undefined but the best known Greek one is The Trojan War, which we've already seen in the Mythmakers. Two of the wars on the far right are hard to read but we know the one at the top right is Mexican Civil War because we see someone from it later in the story. The one on the middle right is almost certainly the Peninsula War, which I'd never heard of!

So can anyone spot the problems with the map? Where's the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 which we saw a Redcoat from in episode 2? We see in the last episode and this one that it seems to be possible to travel from the 1917 zone to both the Roman and American Civil War zones. Surely then they should both be adjacent to the 1917 zone?

We visit the other side of the lines in the 1917 zone this episode and meet Kapitan Von Weich who pulls the same hypnotism trick with his monocle on his subordinate Lucke that General Smythe did in the previous few episodes!

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Von Weich is played by David Garfield who'll be back in The Face of Evil as Neeva. Garfield also appears in Arrival, the first episode of The Prisoner as a Hospital Attendant.

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Playing Lt Lucke is Gregg Palmer who we previously saw as Cybermen Gern and Shav in The Tenth Planet.

In amongst their soldiers we have Andrew Andreas who we've seen in Dalek Masterplan 10: Escape Switch as an Egyptian Warrior and The Enemy of the World as a Central European Guard, Dennis Balcombe who's in the next episode as a German / Roman Soldier / Alien Guard and returns in episode 10 as a Redcoat and The Mind of Evilas a UNIT Soldier. He's also the driver in Timeslip The Day of the Clone: Part 1. Gary Dean was in The Ice Warriors as a Technician and returns as a UNIT Soldier in the Silurians. He's also in Doomwatch as a Man in Project Sahara and Fawlty Towers as a Hotel Guest in Communication Problems.

It's really sinister to see Von Weich and his opposite number General Smythe confering about an upcoming battle:

SMYTHE: If my troops make a push here, what resistance can you put up?
VON WEICH: Along here we shall have pillboxes, machine gun nests, landmines. You'll have no chance, but it will be an excellent test of the morale of your humans. Your entire force will be wiped out.
SMYTHE: Ah, but I will use my reinforcements to turn your flank. There!
VON WEICH: Then it will not be a fair battle.
SMYTHE: Perhaps not, but it will be an excellent test of your morale.

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We meet Smythe & Von Weich's superior this episode, the War Chief, and also get a hint that he isn't the top man in the organisation:

SMYTHE: Did you have a comfortable trip, sir?
WAR CHIEF: Excellent. The War Lord is pleased with our work. But the rate of progress must be accelerated.
SMYTHE: A report from my zone, sir. The prisoners that escaped from the château been recaptured in the German lines. I have advised they be shot immediately. They gave some ridiculous story about being time travellers.
WAR CHIEF: Time travellers? And you ordered them to be shot? I want them brought here for re-interrogation.
The War Chief seems very concerned about the possibility of Time Travellers being involved:
WAR CHIEF: Time travellers? I wonder.
The Doctor meanwhile looks genuinely shocked when he hears the Tardis noise in the barn and sees the box materialise again making you think it might be his people who are responsible!

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The War Chief is a hauntingly familiar face here to Children of my generation, even without the beard and trilby we're used to seeing adorn it. He's played by Edward Brayshaw, who previously appeared in Doctor Who Léon Colbert in The Reign of Terror. He can also be found in Moonbase 3 as Adam Blaney in Achilles Heel. I will now bring the entire edifice of this story crashing down by reminding you that he is Mister Meeker in Rentaghost!

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And if you think a bit of his costume looks familiar then you're right: The War Lord wears the necklace that previous adorned Zephon in The Dalek Masterplan. There, can cross that reminder off my list,it's been there three years!

Two new locations this week: Underhill Lane in Clayton, West Sussex provides the spot where the ambulance is ambushed by the Confederate Horsemen.

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High Park Farm is where these scenes of the Horsemen galloping past were shot.

The Confederate Horsemen are mainly stuntmen, obviously hired for their ability to ride a horse! Chief amongst them is Peter Diamond. He was previously a stunt double in The Daleks and a Fight Arranger for The Dalek Invasion of Earth. He played Delos in The Romans, which he also acted as Fight Arranger for. He was a Morok Technician/Guard in The Space Museum, another Fight Arranging credit which he repeated for the following story The Chase. He's then a Sailor in The Highlanders, fight arranger for The Evil of the Daleks, Davis who's killed in the avalanche in The Ice Warriors episode 1 and the double for the Doctor / Salamander in The Enemy of the World. He's an Alien Guard in episode nine of this series and acts as a fight arranger as well. His final doctor Who appearance is in the Dæmons where he stunt doubles & fight arranges. During his long career he appears in all three original Star Wars films playing a Stormtrooper / Tusken Raider / Death Star Trooper in Star Wars, the Snowtrooper Gunner in The Empire Strikes Back and the Biker Scout Pushed Off Bike in Return of the Jedi as well as appearing as a German Soldier in Raiders of the Lost Ark. We last saw his fellow Confederate Horseman Gerry Wain waving a cutlass in The Mind Robber: Episode 5 as Blackbeard: he'll be Alien Guard in episodes 6 & 9 while Reg Dent was previously an English Horseman in The Highlanders. Arthur Howell has no other Doctor Who appearances but his film career doing stunts and fight arranging includes Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, Star Wars, Superman, Superman II, Octopussy, Krull & Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

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Leslie Bates is the only person IMDB has down as an 1862 Soldier this episode but annoyingly fails to clarify which side he's on! The DWAS production file says he later plays a Confederate Soldier & a Foot Soldier in episode 4 of this story. His most prominent role in Doctor Who comes at the end of the very first episode where he cast the shadow that falls across the Tardis. He then played a Tribesman in the second episode, The Cave of Skulls. He's a Man at Lop, Mongol Warrior and Mongol Bandit in Marco Polo, a Guard in The Massacre, a Villager at Inn / Pirate in The Smugglers, an English Soldier in The Highlanders, and an IE Guard in The Invasion. He returns as a Waxworks Visitor/Auton in Spearhead from Space, a BBC3 TV Crewmember in The Dæmons, a UNIT soldier in The Three Doctors, a Lunar Guard, Draconian & Williams Guard in Frontier in Space, a Security Guard & UNIT Soldier in The Green Death, an Army Corporal & UNIT soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks, a Guard in Planet of the Spiders, a Time Lord in Deadly Asssasin and a Bi-Al Member in Invisible Enemy. In the The Andromeda Breakthrough he was a British Soldier in Gale Warning, in Doomwatch he was a man in Hear No Evil, The Islanders & Flood and in Moonbase 3 he's a Technician in Castor and Pollux. He's also in our favourite Adam Adamant Lives! episode D for Destruction as a TA Soldier.

However there's clearly more the one 1862 Soldier as the above photo shows and I think they're the bunch of men that IMDB has down as foot soldiers, which I think are confederate soldiers as opposed to their horsemen. David Cannon was, like Gerry Wainabove, also in The Mind Robber: Episode 5 where he played Cyrano De Bergerac. John Spradbury first appears in the story after him as a Cyberman in The Invasion. He's an Alien Technician 5n episode 8 before playing a UNIT Soldier in the Silurians. Patrick Milner goes onto play an episode 7 Resistance Man and an episode 8 German Soldier before also returning in The Silurians as a Security Guard and The Dæmons as a UNIT Corporal. He'd been in The Andromeda Breakthrough as the Policeman at Manor House in Gale Warning and appears in Doomwatch as an Airport Policeman in By the Pricking of My Thumbs... Martin Lyder is later an episode 5 Alien Guard. Peter Kaukus later has a Doomwatch appearance in Hear No Evil.

Given we've seen confederates earlier in the episode I'm guessing the soldiers coming out the box are the Union Recruits, who IMDB lists as also being Alien Technicians & Alien Guards for this episode.

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In amongst the Alien Technicians we have Ian Munro, who was a Thal in The Rescue, a Trojan Soldier in The Myth Makers and a Worker/Fleeing Man in The War Machines. He's in Doomwatch as a Man in High Mountain & Flood and Blake's' 7 as a Scavenger in Deliverance and a Rebel in Voice from the Past. Terry Sartain starts his Who Career here and returns as a Warrior in The Mutants, a UNIT Soldier in The Three Doctors, an Earth Prison Guard & Draconian in Frontier in Space, an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks, a Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, a Gundan in Warriors' Gate and a Man in Market in Snakedance. His Doomwatch is Doomwatch as Minister's P.P.S. / Man in Club / Man at Palazzo in The Killer Dolphins and he's also in Blake's 7 as a Crewman in Space Fall and a Hooded Figure in Cygnus Alpha.

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FINALLY the Alien Guards: Bill Richards was a Sailor in The Chase episode 2: Flight Through Eternity, a Monoid in The Ark episode 4: The Bomb and a Pirate in The Space Pirates. He goes on to play an 1862 Union Soldier in the next episode. Bruce Wells was a Thal in the Dr. Who and the Daleks film before playing a Cyberman in The Tenth Planet. He'll return as an Ogron in Day of the Daleks and Frontier in Space.

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