The War Games

The War Games is the seventh and final serial of the sixth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in ten weekly parts from 19 April to 21 June 1969.

On an alien planet, the Doctor uncovers a plot to conquer the Galaxy with brainwashed soldiers abducted from Earth and forced to fight in simulated "war games", representing the periods in history whence they were taken.

The aliens' aim is to produce a super-army from the survivors; to this end, they have been aided by a renegade Time Lord, calling himself the War Chief.

Joining forces with rebel soldiers who have broken their conditioning, the Doctor and his companions foil the plot and end the fighting.

The Doctor admits he needs the help of the Time Lords to return the soldiers to their own timelines, but in asking, risks capture for his own past crimes, including the theft of his TARDIS.

Bernard Horsfall (First Time Lord) had previously appeared as Lemuel Gulliver in The Mind Robber (1968), and would subsequently play Taron in Planet of the Daleks (1973) and Chancellor Goth in The Deadly Assassin (1976).

David Garfield later played Neeva in The Face of Evil (1977) and Professor Stream in the Sixth Doctor audio drama The Hollows of Time.

[7] Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping wrote of the serial in The Discontinuity Guide (1995), "It might be six episodes too long, but The War Games is pivotal in the history of Doctor Who.

"[8] In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker stated that the serial "gets off to a cracking start", though they noted that "A commonly expressed view is that, after this strong beginning, the story becomes dull and repetitive, picking up again only in the closing stages when the Time Lords are introduced.

[10] He also wrote positively of Madoc's War Lord and Jamie and Zoe's departure, and said that the story purposefully "doesn't resolve neatly or satisfyingly".

[11] Alasdair Wilkins of io9 praised Troughton's performance and the way that it was structured to "constantly [expand] the story's scope", though he admitted there was still padding.

[14] A novelisation of this serial, written by Malcolm Hulke, was published by Target Books in September 1979, entitled Doctor Who and The War Games.

Since this VHS re-release, better quality film prints of the story were located at the BFI, and were used for the DVD release which occurred on 6 July 2009.