Doctor Who (TV Series) The War Games: Episode Six (1969) User Reviews

Welcome Troughton Junior.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 11 March 2018]

It's virtually the same format as the previous episode, The Doctor and co. battling for freedom, whilst The War Chief battles with The Chief of Security. I enjoy it, because I'm a fan of The War Games in general, but it's hard to say it's original, as it's virtually a repeat of the previous episode, lots of running around, toing and froing.

The content of the episode isn't wildly original or fresh, midway and it's a little padded out, but the episode does have its strengths, the Time Lord Society finally comes to life, and of course the arrival of Patrick's son David, in his first credited role on the show, Private Moor. Such a talented actor, he was great here in one of his first roles, such a beautiful speaking voice. James Bree's Security Chief has grown on me over the years, his antagonistic, almost laboured delivery somehow suits the character, and you get a true sense of hostility between him and The War Chief's character.

Perhaps having a break in between each episode is helping, as it is one step forward two back, but Troughton as a joy to watch in his last adventure.

Momentous, historic, fabulous epic which starts a lot of the series' mythology.

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 10/10 · 19 September 2014]

Review for all 10 episodes:

This is an epic of a story as it spreads across a huge 10 episodes. Much more than that though, this has truly epic importance in the history of Doctor Who! There a number of reasons why this is one of the most important and pivotal stories in the whole series.

Firstly, it finally reveals that The Doctor's own people are called Time Lords and it introduces them as a society for the first time. This, after 6 whole series, finally removes a little of the mystery of the show by telling us something of The Doctor's origins. It also tells us that The Doctor has run away, stealing his TARDIS and that he is at complete odds with the way in which their society behaves. He is shown to be quite terrified of the Time Lords, in fact.

As well as these hugely important revelations it also has the major event of the end of Troughton's tenure as The Doctor with him being forced to regenerate. This is not only the second ever regeneration, it has the added impact of being done as a punishment for him refusing to conform to Time Lord rules and running away with the TARDIS. It changes the course of the series as well because they also exile The Doctor to late 20th Century Earth. This is done in order that the series can have a period of purely Earth based adventures with a team of regular 'helpers' (in the form of UNIT).

As if that isn't enough it features the emotional departure of Jamie and Zoe. This is done in a heartrendingly sad way which involves wiping all memories of their time with The Doctor apart from their first meeting.

Even though these massively pivotal aspects occur in this story the most striking thing of all about this story is the brilliance of it as entertainment. It involves a plot where the TARDIS arrives in what appears to be a purely historical setting of the First World War trenches but then has the twist of slowly introducing science fiction aspects leading you to believe it is a 'pseudo-historical' story with alien intervention in Earth history. It then twists again to show they are, in fact, surrounded by many historical periods of war going on at the same time. Soldiers have been removed unknowingly from various wars on Earth to take part in 'War Games' which are being manipulated by an alien force to create perfect soldiers.

The whole 10 episodes are thoroughly enjoyable, superbly written (by Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks), acted, directed (by David Maloney) and presented. Troughton is fantastic (although his finale where he has to pull faces to show the effects of his regeneration are a shame, I wish they had done that differently), Frazer Hines is at his absolute best as Jamie and Wendy Padbury has a good send off too. All the guest cast (including Patrick Troughton's son David) and especially Philip Madoc and Edward Brayshaw as a renegade Time Lord, excel in their roles. For its importance and its exceptional quality this is one of the best stories of all.

My Ratings: All 10 Episodes 10/10

Despite this and The Invasion both being all-time great stories, disappointing stories The Dominators, The Krotons and The Space Pirates dragged the Season down to just medium quality for the series overall.

Average Season 6 Rating: 8.01/10

Really needs some new ideas & momentum.

[poolandrews · 5/10 · 13 May 2008]

Doctor Who: The War Games: Episode Six starts as Jamie (Frazer Hines) & several members of the resistance are captured by the Security Chief (James Bree) & his guards. The Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Zoe (Wendy Padbury) & Lieutenant Carstairs (David Savile) watch on helplessly. The Doctor has to think fast & after rescuing Jamie devises a daring plan to use the aliens TARDIS like space time machines to get back to the war zones but the Security Chief & the dreaded War Chief (Edward Brayshaw) are right behind them trying to prevent their escape...

Episode 40 from season 6 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during May 1969, during my previous comment for Episode Five of The War Games I said that I thought the script by Terance Dicks & Malcolm Hulke was going round in circles & needed some sort of fresh injection of new ideas or something to just reignite the story but my wishes have not been fulfilled here in Episode Six at all. Like every other episode of The War Games this episode features people getting captured, in this case Jamie & some members of the resistance, & then them escaping & spending the majority of the rest of the episode trying not to get recaptured again. I must admit all this constant running around getting caught, then escaping & then trying not to get caught again for the next ten minutes until they inevitably do is starting to get really annoying & very repetitive to say the least. Virtually the whole of Episode Six is spent with character's running around the aliens control centre & the constant bickering between the Security Chief & the War Chief which is also becoming monotonous. The very first mention of the Doctors race the Timelords is heard here although not by the Doctor himself. There's a fairly blatant script error here as during the escape attempt towards the end of this episode the Doctor tells Zoe & some resistance members that he will transport them back to the 1917 First World War zone but they actually arrive at the American Civil War zone.

Episode Six sees the introduction of Private Moor as one of the resistance rebels played by David Troughton who, as the name suggests, is Patrick Troughton's son. All the impressive war scenes from the earlier episodes have been replaced with more traditional Doctor Who sci-fi elements & lots of running around corridors. The Doctor, Jamie & Zoe disguise themselves as First World War soldiers in this episode in uniforms that look about three sizes too big.

The War Games: Episode Six isn't terrible but the story as a whole is really starting to go round in circles & I think it desperately needs to go in a new direction very soon.