Doctor Who: The War Games (Story 50)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Frazer Hines, Patrick Troughton, Wendy PadburyBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Box set, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Original recording remastered
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 244 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-11-03
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Worldwide
Product features:
- The TARDIS arrives on a planet where a race known only as the Aliens have gathered soldiers from a number of different wars in history, brainwashed them and put them to battle. Their aim is to form an invincible army from the survivors and use this to take over the galaxy. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION Rating: NR Age: 883929088461 UPC: 883929088461 Manufact
Movie Reviews of Doctor Who: The War Games (Story 50)
Movie Review: "All these evils I have fought, while you have done nothing but observe!"
Summary: 5 Stars
As the last Doctor Who story of the 1960's, "The War Games" seems to be encapsulating and then enlarging on all that was unique and wonderful about the series during its black & white decade, and it succeeds with flying colors. The story hits the ground running and draws the viewer in as it goes, disguising itself first as a good solid historical story for which the show was known but set in the midst of the First World War, then quietly introducing curiously anomalous elements leading the attentive observer to gradually assume that this is a pseudo-historical of a sort the show had innovated and developed, finally frustrating this expectation for something in a way even stranger yet--and much more sinister. Patrick Troughton's portrayal of the Doctor as clownishly bungling if only to disarm his opponents amuses here as always, but also serves to accentuate the bleak and grim fact that now for once the situation spins more out of his control with his every move, until his palpable panic when he's forced to involve his own people (the Time Lords, as revealed here for the first time) is positively electrifying. In the end, he is punished for saving the day, but not before articulating his reasons for doing so with classic eloquence indelibly defining this character forevermore.
At ten episodes long and in a pivotal position in the show's history, this rare masterpiece has so much that could be noted about it, and different things will stand out to different folks. Something that strikes me first is that here is a science fiction storyline that only the BBC could get away with without looking shoddy or half-baked; their experience and expertise in historical dramas, their attention to accurate detail in sets and costumes, allows "The War Games" to manage not just one realistically believable war zone but many, each one quite distinct. And the ragtag collection of renegades assembled from all different historical eras is a weird sight you'll only ever see in Doctor Who. Just as intriguing in a way is the story's attitude to war as a whole, touching on its horrors and absurdities in a responsible manner appropriate to the show's format and audience, generally taking a dim view of it but not in a gratingly preachy manner. On a different note, there is something clearly archetypal going on in the battle of wits between the Doctor and the War Chief, another renegade Time Lord who, like the Doctor, does "tend to get involved in things" but out of aggressive self-interest. Retrospectively speaking, it's hard not to see this one-off character as a prototype of the Master, but merely within the space of this story alone his rather bombastic mood swings nicely contrast with the smoothly calculating cruelty of the War Lord: a fine balance of complementary villainy, indeed.
Speaking of complementary pairs, Jamie with his brawn and Zoe with her brains really shine here as the Doctor's companions, and the chemistry and friendship between these three characters seems so natural that the nature of their separation at the end is all the more poignant. The bad guys are defeated, and yet the tale ends on a plaintive note of heartbreaking loss. Few shows have the guts to do this, and of those few can manage it with such a sure touch of subtlety. To be honest, Doctor Who itself has kind of dropped the ball on this score more than once, making it all the more precious that "The War Games" aims true and on target as it does. Still, it's odd that four incarnations later the Doctor was put on trial again on the same charges--perhaps Time Lord jurisprudence has no concept of double jeopardy?
Summary of Doctor Who: The War Games (Story 50)
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