247 The War Games: Episode Four

EPISODE: The War Games: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 247
STORY NUMBER: 050
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 10 May 1969
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke & Terrance Dicks
DIRECTOR: David Maloney
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Derrick Sherwin
RATINGS: 5.7 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The War Games

"Emergency alert, emergency alert. This is the War Chief to all guard posts. Close section areas. Detain two resistance members!"

Doctor & Zoe find themselves inside a larger area inside the box, like the Tardis. Inside are groups of soldiers in the uniforms of different times and armies. The ship lands and the Romans leave. Jamie and Jennifer are captured by American Union forces. They are freed by Confederate forces but then imprisoned on the orders of their officer: Von Weich from the 1917 zone. The War Chief and his scientist talk about programming the soldiers when Von Weich reports on Jamie & Jennifer's capture. The travel capsule returns to it's base. The Doctor & Zoe disguise themselves and explore. Jamie & Jennifer are rescued by a soldier who has broken his conditioning and can't be hypnotised but he is captured in the escape. The Doctor & Zoe stumble into a lecture the scientist is giving explaining about taking the soldiers from Earth, processing them to convince them they're still on Earth. Some have broken the conditioning and formed a resistance. He brings in a captive who has broken his conditioning: Lt Carstairs! He reconditions Carstairs to make him obedient, which makes him unable to recognise his advanced surroundings. Carstairs accuses the Doctor & Jamie of being spies, recalling the court martial.

The Doctor suggest that Carstairs being completely de-processed before being reconditioned. Jamie & Jennifer are recaptures and returned to the barn, reunited with their saviour from the resistance. The resistance attacks, freeing them and capturing Von Weich. The War Chief and his guards arrive at the lecture and recognises the Doctor. An alert is sounded and as they flee Carstairs escapes, taking Zoe prisoner because he believes her a spy and draws his gun on her to shoot her....

My opinions on the War Games went up when I saw it on DVD but now I'm watching it episodically it's absolutely cracking. Loving it to bits.

There's a tinsy bit of time wasting in this episode though: Jamie & Jennifer escape, get split up, Jamie gets in a fight, Jennifer gets captured, Jamie frees her, they both get captured and taken to the barn where they started from, but it's minor and at the same time the Doctor's part of the story is moving on as they discover the conditioning of the soldiers and confirm they're not on Earth.

SCIENTIST: Should you arrive on another planet, you may not be aware that the problem is to retain the specimen's personality as a fighting man while at the same time putting him under our control. As you know, we remove the human specimens from their own world and time, and place them in a context which seems to them to be the same. It is vital that they continue to believe that they are living their own lives on the planet Earth and fighting the wars from which they were taken.
ZOE: So this isn't Earth.
DOCTOR: Quite right, Zoe, quite right.
SCIENTIST: With the majority of human specimens, the process used is both lasting and effective. However, in the case of certain humans of particularly strong character and individuality, the effects of the process have not been permanent. Gradually the processing tended to fade and the specimens developed the ability to pass through the Time Zone Barriers. Some formed themselves into resistance groups which have considerably hampered the progress of our plan. It is to overcome this problem that I have further refined our processing technique. To demonstrate the process I chosen a particularly difficult specimen. A man who finally shook off the effects of the process completely, and allied himself to resistance elements in order to fight us.
SCIENTIST: This Lieutenant Carstairs is a 1917 British army officer, who for some time after his initial processing, believed himself to be fighting for his country. However as I shall now demonstrate, the process has completely lapsed and he is now fully conscious of his surroundings. Where are you?
CARSTAIRS: I don't know.
SCIENTIST: Describe what you can see.
CARSTAIRS: A room. Filled with a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo. Funny people, strange clothes and those sort of glasses that you're wearing.
SCIENTIST: As you see, he is fully aware of his surroundings and very hostile. After my new technique has been applied, he will not only be completely docile, but will be fully convinced that whatever I tell him will be the truth.
ZOE: Oh, can't we help him?
DOCTOR: No, no, no, not yet. Later.
SCIENTIST: This machine is, of course, only a prototype. In due course, other machines will be built to this pattern, capable of processing large groups of specimens simultaneously.

Good to see Carstairs again. Despite having read the book when I was younger I was convinced he was a gonner when he's left behind in episode three the first time that I saw it.

The Doctor seems to have his suspicions that his own people are involved in this affair and almost, but not quite, says so in this episode.

ZOE: Doctor, look, it is like the Tardis. Bigger inside than out.
DOCTOR: Yes, Zoe, you're right.
ZOE: But who else would have space time machines like the Tardis?
DOCTOR: Well, there is an answer to that, but I hope, I just hope.....
ZOE: What?

The look of shock on his face, and the War Chief's as they recognise each other is superb.

There's a shock too for Jamie & Lady Jennifer as they run into Von Weich in the American Civil War Zone! Now I'm not up on my US Civil War so I've had trouble figuring out which side is which! However Von Weich's refers to Jamie & Jennifer as enemies of the south which makes them Confederates and thus their initial captors from the Union forces!

It seems odd seeing Von Wiech command two armies, the Confederate forces in the Civil War zone and the Germans in 1917, where his character's name insinuates he belongs. Is General Smythe on the Union side? Or is Von Weich only here to recapture the prisoners?

He quickly convinces initially friendly Leroy that the prisoners are spies using his monocle once again to reinforce the suggestion:

LEROY: Now don't you worry, ma'am. You're safe now. Oh, just like those Yankees to treat a lady like this.
BUCKINGHAM: Thank you.
LEROY: Oh that's my pleasure, ma'am. Happens all the time, ma'am. Yankees, they take over your house, tie you up, steal your food Oh, would you excuse me, ma'am?

LEROY: The Yankees had some civilian prisoners, sir.
VON WEICH: These people are enemies of the South.
LEROY: But Captain
VON WEICH: The boy is a Yankee soldier, the woman is a spy. You tie them up.
LEROY: Yes, Captain.

However the same trick fails to work on Harper who then stands revealed as something other than a Civil War soldier!

VON WEICH: What happened?
LEROY: They got away, he turned them loose. They can't have got far.
VON WEICH: Get a cavalry patrol, get after them. Hunt them down. So you turned them loose? Now where're they making for, boy?
HARPER: Look, I ain't going to tell you nothing.
VON WEICH: You're going to tell me where they're making for.
HARPER: Sorry, Captain, but that stuff doesn't work on me.
VON WEICH: You're from the Resistance.
HARPER: That's right, and I'm not one of you. Listen, you all. You're not fighting the war between the States, you know. He's just using you!
VON WEICH: It's no use. You'll never get them to understand. They're under my control.

Playing confederate soldier Leroy, is a young Leslie Schofield. He'll be back as Calib in The Face of Evil. He's a very recognisable face to anyone who's seen any TV in the last 40 years. He appears in the surviving fourth season Out of the Unknown episode Deathday as Det. Sgt. Roberts which appears on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set. His Doomwatch episode Say Knife, Fat Man, where he plays Harry, isn't so lucky as that is still missing like many of the other 1972 third season episode. He's in The Sweeney as Ian Ross in Country Boy. His most recognisable film role is in Star Wars as Chief Bast the Imperial Officer that recommends the Death Star is evacuated. Footage of him shot for Star Wars is recycled in the Star Wars Holiday Special. Shortly after he appears in the second Blake's 7 episode Space Fall as the sadistic Sub-Commander Raiker. Since Edward Brayshaw appears in this story as the War Chief we probably ought to mention Schofield's appearance on Rentaghost! He's also had stints in Coronation Street & EastEnders as well as loads of other roles.

Rudolph Walker, playing Harper, was also in East Enders but is best known for his role in the controversial ITV sit com Love Thy Neighbour. Modern viewers will know him as P.C. Frank Gladstone in The Thin Blue Line

Vernon Dobtcheff makes his only Who appearance in this story where he plays the Scientist. On his extensive CV we find the missing third season Out of the Unknown episode Beach Head, where he plays Waldron, which was reconstructed for the DVD. He appeared in Blake's 7 as The Chairman in Shadow and The Sweeney as Harry Kretchmar in Supersnout. On the big screen You'll have seen him as Max Kalba, one of the scientists being blown up near the start of The Spy Who Loved Me and as Butler in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Toby Hadoke interviews him in Who's Round 31.

John Atterbury appears a s the speaking Alien Guard outside the lecture room. He was previously a White Robot in The Mind Robber. He too has been interviewed by Toby Hadoke in Who's round 192.

Union Officer Sgt. Thompson is played by Bill Hutchinson who has an uncredited role in Diamonds Are Forever as the Moon Crater Controller. His underling Corporal Riley is played by Terry Adams.

IMDB lists a number of actors for this episode as German / Roman Soldiers / Alien Student, the insinuation being that the same people playing the aliens in the lecture hall are the Roman & German soldiers we see in the Aliens' travel machine.

DOCTOR: Zoe, come and see.
ZOE: Why are they just standing there like that?
DOCTOR: They seem to be in some sort of hypnotic trance.
ZOE: Romans, like the ones that attacked us. But these soldiers, what are they here for?
DOCTOR: They're going to fight, Zoe. That's what soldiers are for.
ZOE: But they're all from different times.

Amongst them are Neville Simons who was a Space Corps Technician in The Space Pirates and returns as Astronaut Michaels in The Ambassadors of Death. IMDB thinks Ron Conrad was an Extra in The Space Pirates and is a Soldier in The Ambassadors of Death. Barry Kennington returns in the Silurians as a Technician and also appears in Doomwatch as a man in Hear No Evil & The Islanders. It's George Howse only Doctor Who appearance but he's in Blake's 7 as a Scientist in Project Avalon. Likewise Bob Wilyman doesn't return to the show but he was in 2001: A Space Odyssey as an ape and pops up in Moonbase 3 as a Technician. They're joined by David Billa, a German Soldier in episode 1 who returns in the tenth episode in a third role, and Tom O'Leary, a Firing Squad Member in episode 1 and a Prison Sergeant in episode 2, who as well as being down as a Roman/German, IMDB thinks he's the Austro-Hungarian Officer as well, presumably the man who walks past the Doctor & Zoe when their travel machine arrives.

We didn't quite work out who the Foot Soldiers were in the last episode, but thought they might be with the cavalrymen so I'm guessing that the Foot Soldier in this episode, Terrance Denville, is one of the mob who capture Jamie & Lady Jennifer. He'd been in The Invasion as a Cyberman and returns later this story as an Alien Technician in episode 7. He's in The Silurians too, as another Technician and later returns as a Prison Guard in Frontier in Space, an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks and an Ice Warrior in The Monster of Peladon. He plays a Technician in Moonbase 3 Departure and Arrival, Behemoth and Outsider, appears as a Russian Security Council Member in the Pierce Brosnan James Bond film GoldenEye and appears in the Miranda episode Before I Die as an Old Man. Les Conrad plays an 1862 Union Soldier in this episode. He was previously a Tavern Customer in The Massacre and one of the space suited pirates in the surviving sequence from The Space Pirates episode 1. He returns as an Alien Guard in episode 7, a UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Ambassadors of Death & Terror of the Autons, a Prisoner in The Mind of Evil, a Thal Survivor in Genesis of the Daleks and Mestor's Guard in The Twin Dilemma. That story features a pair of twin with the same surname and m'learned colleague Mr Hadoke confirms that they are his sons. He was in the A For Andromeda squeal The Andromeda Breakthrough as a British Soldier in Gale Warning, Doomwatch Burial at Sea as a Man, Blake's 7: Gold as a Space Princess Guard / Passenger and the Douglas Camfield Beau Geste adaptation as a Legionnaire. Jim Delaney is an 1862 Confederate Soldier here, a Resistance Man in episode 7 and an American Soldier in episode 8. He returns as a UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a Presidential Guard in Frontier in Space and a Station Policeman in the David Maloney directed The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Harry Tierney plays a Resistance Man here and in episode 7. He was previously in The Smugglers as a Villager at Inn / Pirate and later plays a Plain Clothes PC in Day of the Daleks. Other resistance men include Allan Travell, a Trench Solider / Chateau Guard in episode 1, and David Melbourne, Carstairs' Man in episode 1 and a British Soldier in episode 7.