"I've never seen such an incredible bunch" - The War Games

It is appropriate that in the last Second Doctor story, ending the black and white period of Doctor Who, Patrick Troughton gives an absolutely stellar performance. Whether pretending to be an official, manipulating the gullible alien scientist, fleeing in terror or acting the clown before the Time Lords, Troughton displays complete brilliance.

The War Games is a story that fans will always celebrate, after all it is the story in which we first learn of Dr. Who's people the Time Lords and his reasons for abandoning his kind. The fine scripting, the clever blending of historical with science fiction and the impressive acting within this serial are rightly praised. Yet The War Games is let down by the excessive length that was inflicted on it for production reasons. While the extra episodes does allow an interesting exploration of the tense and fractious relationships among the aliens and create a sense of constant peril and chaos for the TARDIS crew, the overall result is a repetitive and seemingly never-ending run of capture and escape routines. It would have worked so much better in six episodes, though this was sadly not an option at the time.

I know it is not the most important detail, but I do wonder if Lady Jennifer Buckingham's hair is authentic for the period. Her hairstyle does look a little modern for 1917. Of course, I could be wrong about that.

The unnamed aliens in The War Games look human, but they definitely have an alien quality to them. David Bree, who plays the Security Chief, gives his character a distinctive slow protracted form of speech. It was also a great decision to cast the Time Lord War Chief as somebody who looks physically distinct to the other alien characters. While the War Chief is handsome, suave and charismatic, the other aliens are pudgy, bald and pasty-faced. They are stereotypical bureaucrats. The best of them is of course Philip Madoc as the War Lord. He is absolutely fantastic. Instead of playing the character with bluster, he is cool and quiet, exhibiting a constant menace. He even smiles when he threatens people. With his scruffy beard, his spectacles and palour, he looks every inch a psychotic. Echoing the Nuremburg Trials, he remains defiant before the Time Lords, refusing even to acknowledge their authority. His terrified cry of 'No! No! No!' as he fades out of existence is a nice end for him.

The other alien who really stands out, even more so than General Smyth, is the fake German officer, Von Weich. He seems to take great delight in putting on different accents, switching from being a German officer, to a Confederate and then to a 19th century British officer. Von Weich must have been so disappointed that there was no Second World War zone and therefore no opportunity to play a Waffen SS officer or a Soviet commissar! This makes a really interesting point about the theatricality of military authority. After all military authority is largely about dressing up and speaking in a certain tone of voice. Also highly effective is the scene where Von Weich and Smyth move about their model soldiers and talk about how they will kill off each others troops. War truly is a game to these people.

The War Chief, the first character ever to be identified as a Time Lord, is very nicely developed. He is a much more complex and interesting character than the Master ever was. It might have been nice if he was an earlier incarnation of the Master, though this is clearly contradicted by the novels, which identify him as Magnus, yet another one of Borusa's errant pupils.


The Time Lords are pretty impressive here, with their incredible power. They are aloof and mysterious. It is unfortunate that they are less effectively used in other stories, though many of the later developments with the Time Lords were not without interest. It is amusing to watch the Doctor clowning around in the court room, dismissing all the faces he is offered, though it is hard not to be bothered by his lack of concern about the Time Lords erasing his companions' memories. It's hard not to laugh at the fact that when attempting to show his people the terrible things in some corners of the universe, he shows them the Quarks. Though admittedly, the Quarks proved themselves in the comics to be resourceful opponents; taking control of domestic robots, making use of a giant wasp and stealing racing cars. Interestingly, he seems to expect the Time Lords to be relatively lenient with him. He predicts that as a punishment, the Time Lords will make him listen to a 'long boring speech.' There is no implication that he would face the same treatment as the War Lord. His terror at capture by his people must have been a terror of losing his freedom.

We know of course, that Dr. Who does not immediately change his appearance after this story. There is a gap between The War Games and Spearhead from Space, referred to by fans as Season 6B. This is shown by two stories, The Five Doctors, in which the Second Doctor is aware of Zoe's departure and The Two Doctors, in which he and Jamie are working for the Time Lords, despite his having no dealings with them during the Troughton era. It seems that after his trial, the Doctor was given limited freedom to travel in the TARDIS, in return for performing missions on the Time Lord's behalf. Season 6B was first revealed in the TV Comic, where the Second Doctor is exiled to Earth before the Time Lords can change his appearance. He takes up residence in the luxurious Carlton Grange Hotel, which remarkably makes it into the newspaper headlines. In a series of stories, the exiled time traveller tangles with criminals and alien invaders, as well as becoming a panelist on a television show. Finally, he is captured by the Time Lords' scarecrow servants, who force him to regenerate. It is logical to conclude that the other TV Comic Second Doctor stories take place in Season 6B, as they do not fit anywhere else in the Second Doctor era. It would seem that some time during this period, Dr. Who was reunited with his grandchildren, John and Gillian. It also seems that Jamie took a break from travelling with the Doctor and temporarily resided in a castle in modern day Scotland. It is possible that other adventures happened in this period, such as Dr. Who's first contest with Fenric and perhaps his first encounter with Lady Peinforte. We have no way of knowing how long Season 6B lasted. Given discrepancies in the Doctor's age, it may have lasted as long as a century.

The Mind Robber

On paper, The Mind Robber sounds like a really fascinating concept. The idea of being turned into fiction is a remarkably ingenious existential terror. Yet I find The Mind Robber incredibly tedious to watch. It is very much one of those Doctor Who stories that is dearly loved by fans, but which is actually a bit rubbish.

The first episode was hastily written and tacked on. This is very much in evidence, as the episode does not gel neatly with the tone and plot of the other episodes. This episode has a surreal nightmarish quality that earns a lot of praise, but which does not disguise the fact that the story is not going anywhere. It is like Edge of Destruction without Hartnell and Hill to carry the story. The problem with nightmare sequences like this is that we know they are not real; they can never really engage the viewer. A child watching the apparent destruction of the TARDIS might be upset, but an intelligent older viewer can be pretty sure that this is just an illusion.

Things get worse in the next episodes, as the TARDIS crew meet one bizarre peril after another- tin soldiers, being turned into a cardboard cut-out and mythical monsters. This rapidly becomes tedious, as there is no sense of narrative or plot development to it, but just a string of weird events, one after the other. I find it hard to understand how fans can enjoy repeat viewings of these episodes. Why care about a monster that does not exist and which disappears when you stop believing in it? These episodes go nowhere and the attempt at resolution proves unsatisfactory when it comes.

To be far to all involved, this was a production in which almost nothing went right and which was beset with problems. Despite these problems, all of the cast seem to be approaching the story with a sense of enthusiasm and fun. This is the spirit of Doctor Who, but it is still a rubbish story. It is also hard to overlook some of the shoddy design elements too, such as the naff Minotaur and the model shot of the forest that does not match the set.



It's a pleasure to watch Bernard Horsfall (I note sadly his recent passing away). As somebody who was born in Nottingham, I appreciated his attempt at the accent, even if he did not get it quite right. Rapunzel is really cute, but I get so annoyed when I hear her say she is a 'princess.' Rapunzel was not a princess! Did Peter Ling never read any fairy tales?

It is refreshing to have a Troughton story without an alien invasion, a returning monster or a base under siege. The Mind Robber was an attempt to do something genuinely different, but it's a story that fails badly in this and bores me to tears.

The Krotons

"The hoy brains hiv bin kiptured!"

I am sure I am not the only fan who watches The Krotons and finds himself wanting to say everything in a Kroton voice. The Krotons' mock South African accents have me in stiches for a good deal of this serial. In the unlikely event of their ever returning to the televised show, I do hope they don't change this detail!

There is a lot more to watching Doctor Who than simply enjoying silly-looking monsters, but sometimes this can be a big part of it. For me, The Krotons is a story where that basic enjoyment of silly monsters really kicks in. The Krotons are one of the silliest looking monster races ever to appear in Doctor Who. I love the way they prod and pinch Jamie with their little pincers! Nevertheless, the Krotons, despite their ridiculous appearance, are quite an imaginatively conceived alien race. They are grown from crystalline matter, which rather sets them apart. They are also very cruel and brutal, despite their silliness. This is why their return in Lawrence Miles' novel Alien Bodies worked so well. Miles was able to capture perfectly the tension between the silly appearance of the Krotons and their disturbingly violent nature. The scene in Alien Bodies where a Kroton is destroying a Dalek is a very memorable and haunting moment.


The Krotons might seem a forgettable story if not for two important facts. Firstly, it is the first Doctor Who story to be written by Robert Holmes and secondly, it features the first appearance of Philip Madoc. As a Robert Holmes script, The Krotons comes across as rather unremarkable. It certainly lacks the wit and exuberance of his later work. Some of the ideas in this story would later find their way into Mysterious Planet. Philip Madoc's appearance here has all the charm and quality of his later appearances. He injects layers of depth into his performance that are entirely lacking from the other members of the guest cast. In particular, its fascinating to watch how he reacts to the dawning realisation that it is safe to go into the wasteland.

The snake-like electronic probe is an impressive effect. Unfortunately, much of the rest of the visual designs are a good deal less impressive. The Kroton's ship is supposed to be grown from chrystalline matter, yet it looks like any old metal spaceship. It really ought to look like Omega's palace in The Three Doctors. The model shot of the Gond's village also fails to match up with the interior sets.

The regulars are on top form here and the script offers some great material for the Doctor and Zoe. We have some priceless moments between the two of them, such as their rivalry in the Hall of Learning and their pretend bickering in the Krotons' ship. Jamie is good, but he suffers for having been separated from the Doctor and Zoe.

My big problem with this serial is that the planet is too much like a typical poorly realised world. Like so many Star Trek episodes, this is a planet with a population of ten people all living within one square mile. Remarkably, the much hated Dominators actually does a much better job of realising an alien world. An easily missed piece of dialogue in The Dominators mentions fires, floods and earthquakes. For all its apparent dullness, there are natural disasters on Dulkis. It is a planet where things happen. The Krotons does not give any sense of what life is like for the Gonds beyond the story.

The Space Pirates

Zoe : "Milo, there's one thing I don't understand."

Milo Clancey : "Well you're very lucky, girl. There's about a hundred thousand things I don't understand but I don't stand around asking fool questions about them, I do something useful. Why don't you do something useful? Why don't you... um... make us all a pot of tea or something?"

By all accounts, this story cannot really be appreciated in audio format. This is very much intended to be an highly visual story, with heavy use of modelwork to create various spacecraft. I suppose it is in part the limitation of the audio format, but I find The Space Pirates incredibly boring. It does feel awfully padded in places. Some of the plot elements feel like they have been used a few too many times before, such as the Doctor defusing a bomb at the last moment. Ending the story on a bad joke is also a bit irritating. Nevertheless, The Space Pirates is not without a few charms. One of these is the use of ethereal operatic vocals by Mary Thomas in the score. This is a delightfully atmospheric effect.

The way that The Space Pirates incorporates the atmosphere and dynamics of the western genre into the new frontier of space is is imaginative. Milo Clancy is a brilliantly conceived character who reflects that old pioneer spirit. His cheeky interaction with the snooty General Hermack is hilarious. Having him prepare food in his spaceship is also a smart idea. His accent is a bit odd, but as Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood point out inn About Time, he may not actually be American; non-English speakers using English sound American in a weird way to us native English (though apparently not to Americans).

The space pirates are a bit dull, though Caven is appropriately scary. The space corps are also not terribly interesting, apart from General Hermack. I love his plummy voice and his flirting with Madeleine is amusing. The Doctor is delightfully whimsical. One has to love the way he retrieves the green marble because it is his favorite.

As the Hinchcliffe era has not started yet, Madeleine is not miserably killed off. It's nice to see that she surrenders peacefully to the long arm of the law. In the end, she is escorted off to a (hopefully) short stay in the clink.

The Seeds of Death

Slaar: You have dessstroyed our entire fleet!
The Doctor: You tried to destroy an entire world.


Jamie! Zoe! Let me in! Oh! Oh no! Oh my word! Let me in!

I don't get Doctor Who fans. This story is an absolute classic. It is the best surviving Troughton story. Yet for some reasons a lot of fans think it is a bit rubbish. Why? Because it is too long? Lots of stories are too long. Each episode of this story is full of action. Because it has holes in the plot? So does Pyramids of Mars. Gaping big holes. Because the 21st century costumes look silly? The costumes in Robots of Death look a bit silly too and most people seem to like that. Because the Ice Warrior Grand Marshal wears a spangly, disco helmet covered in glitter? Well, I think he looks cute. I just don't see what the problem is with this story. It is a brilliant one.

The Seeds of Death was among the first ten or so novelisations I borrowed from the library when I first got into Doctor Who back in 1990. And then to my delight, it turned out that my parents had bought me the video that Christmas. I was both surprised and delighted when I unwrapped it back in Xmas 1990. Oh memories, aren't they sweet? The BBC Video had not remastered the original recording so the sound and picture got a bit jittery towards the end. In my childhood innocence, I thought this was my fault because I paused the video too many times.

Some people seem to think that Seeds of Death is not as good as Ice Warriors. Personally, I never compare complete stories to incomplete stories. I found the Ice Warriors rather boring, but then the missing episode probably did not help.

What is so great about Seeds of Death? Well, for one thing, it contains some of the most inventive camerawork of the black and white era, such as showing the moonbase crew from the Martians point of view and the projection of numerals onto Gia Kelly's face. It also has one of the best musical scores in the history of the show. It is an highly cinematic score. At times it feels like it belongs in a Charlie Chaplin or Laurel and Hardy film.

The Seeds of Death is a base-under-siege story. Yes, the Troughton era was a bit overcrowded with those kind of stories, but this one is different. For one thing, we get the relief of more than one location. We see the concern of the Earth command centre when the moonbase is no longer in contact with earth. The Doctor does not conveniently turn up in the base-under-siege in the TARDIS (oh hello, problem with alien invaders is it?) but has to travel there in an antiquated rocket.

The premise behind the story is remarkably original. Back in the late Sixties rockets were at the cutting edge of technology and interest in space travel was at it's peak. A story about rockets and space travel being made obsolete would have been pretty radical. Given that our society no longer has much interest in space travel now, the serial may be seen as prophetic. We might wonder that governments would completely rely on one form of technology to keep the world fed and organised, but it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they could be so complacent (though how it is that only Gia Kelly understand T-Mat is another question). The moment where Eldred and the Doctor indulge in their boyish enthusiasm for rockets is beautiful and might awaken in older viewers a nostalgia for that old Dan Dare vision of space exploration. One of the things that brings this sense of the future-obsolete is the way the moonbase seems so big and deserted, filled with rooms stuffed with unused equipment.

Seeds of Death is full of fantastic supporting characters. Osgoode is not on for very long, but he is great while he is there. His look of grim defiance in the face of death is stunning. Eldred and Radnor are a great pair. There is a real sense of history between them. They are too old men whose friendship was spoiled by politics. When Kelly defies Radnor and goes to the moon, Eldred dryly comments "She's after your job, Julian." Kelly herself is great. Somebody who knows she is indispensable; cooly efficient, but rather too quick to seek somebody to blame. I love the fact that as soon as the crisis is over Eldred, Radnor and Kelly are back to the old arguments about the merits of rockets over T-Mat. Terry Scully is also brilliant as Fewsham. When he wails "I want to live!" you believe him. He is helped of course, by being blessed with a very expressive face that helps to enhance his misery.



The Ice Warriors look great in black and white. The lack of colour helps to attract attention to their crustiness and makes them look especially scary. It has been suggested that with the introduction of an officer class, a 'Davros Factor' was added, reducing the impact of the ordinary Ice Warriors. I am not so sure. With Davros, you had somebody who was not a Dalek bossing the Daleks around and thus making them look stupid. Slaar, on the other hand is very much one of the Ice Warriors, despite his differing armour. Alan Bennion at times gives Slaar an hilariously camp posture, though on the whole he is pretty menacing.

The Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe were such a brilliant team. Zoe was so cute and sassy. She is pretty useful and effective in this story. You have to feel for Jamie, however, he is patronised mercilessly through this story by both the Doctor and Jamie. Though he does get a good comeback, stating the obvious fact that they will die of thirst before they drift into orbit around the sun.

Patrick Troughton clowns around an awful lot in this story. The contrast between this and his rather more straight performance in Tomb of the Cybermen is striking. He is wonderful entertainment throughout the story, though he becomes deadly serious when he confronts Slaar towards the end. The Second Doctor was certainly the most ruthless Doctor. He was prepared to destroy the entire Martian fleet, even knowing that they were a dying race. He was no pacifist and in this story goes into action, killing Ice Warriors with his make-shift solar energy weapon.

This story definitely deserves a better reputation than it has so far received.

The Dominators

The Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe visit the planet Dulcis and foil alien invaders with bad posture and their cute robots.

If you did a straw poll of the black and white story that fans most hate, it is probably The Dominators. This serial is very poorly regarded. What makes the fan hatred worse is the fact that this story had the cheek to survive, while Fury From the Deep, Power of the Daleks and The Macra Terror have been lost. What is it that fans hate so much about this story?

The Quarks

The cutest robots ever to appear in Doctor Who. When you want scary monsters, making them cute is a bad idea. Perhaps, if you trouble yourself to think about it, it might make them a little sinister. On the whole, they are fun to watch and laugh at.

If you are an even more obsessive fan than I am, you will have made at least an attempt to work out how many Quarks the Dominators brought with them and how many are left at the end.

The Costumes

Why is it that whenever you see male characters on t.v. wearing long tunics or flowing robes, viewers describe them as 'dresses' or 'frocks?' It may be the norm in western culture for men to wear bifurcated clothing, but in some parts of the world and in many cultures in the past, men wore non-bifurcated clothing like robes or tunics. That people today have a problem with this is a sign of cultural arrogance (or just ignorance).

I actually rather like the shower curtain robes, gowns and sandals that the Dulcians wear. The female characters look very attractive and the men look elegant in a neo-classical way. They look much more original than the jumpsuits, waistcoats and boots look that so many space age cultures are decked out in across post-Star Wars science fiction. Its great that Zoe gets to wear a Dulcian costume too.



The Dulcians

A boring bunch of tedious pacifists. True. Which makes it fun to watch them getting slaugtered by the Dominators. Not the most edifying entertainment, but you can't say it makes viewing a dull experience.




The Gung-ho Moral Message

Its odd that fans sometimes call Pertwee the 'Tory Doctor' (though often Pertwee fans are more conservative, or at least hostile politically correct tendencies) when it seems perfecly clear that it was during the Troughton era that the show was at its most right-wing and militaristic phase.

During the Second Doctor era, the writers absorbed a lot of Cold War paranoia and so we have a Doctor who speaks about 'corners of the universe that have bred the most terrible things, things that are against everything we believe in. These things must be fought!' Many of the stories of this era echoe the paranoia of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The First Doctor seemed determined to avoid getting involved, the Second Doctor seemed to go out of his way to deal with villains and monsters with dangerous ideological tendencies. This Doctor was much more prepared than some of the other Doctors to use deadly force against his opponents. He had been happy to wipe out the Macra (we have all watched Gridlock, so we know that the Macra were building an empire, but there was none of this in The Macra Terror. The Macra seemed to be happily going about their business) and in this story he blows up the Dominators with their own bomb.

Naturally, the right-wing values of the Second Doctor era are not exactly the ideology of the average leftie Dr Who fan, but is it not a positive thing that the show has adopted different postures and ideologies at different times? Even in the Second Doctor era, The Macra Terror offered some rather liberal sentiments. Besides, was it really so irrational to believe that Communism was a menace that needed to be fought? Surely, Communism was a global terror that brought unhappiness and tyranny to millions.

So what is great in this story?

The Dominators are pretty good. Their costumes are clever; in that they cause the wearer to sluch forward giving them a non-human look without any rubber mask. Unlike a lot of other aliens in Doctor Who, they have individual personalities. The conflict between Rago and Toba is an interesting feature of this story.

And of course, Patrick Troughton is glorious in his mania. He is so funny in his pretence of being stupid. Also charming is the way he jumps for joy when blowing up the Dominator spaceship. I think it is safe to say that the Second Doctor would have got on very well with Ace, probably even better than with the Seventh Doctor! We also get great supporting performances from Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines.

I would seriously challenge fans to give this story a try, and if they do, they can be sure to find something in it to delight. I would honestly say that this is my favorite surviving Patrick Troughton story, and that is not just because I read the novelisation when I was nine years old.

The Invasion

The Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe give the newly formed UNIT a helping hand dealing with the Cybermen.

Throughout the Patrick Troughton era, there are hints of what we would get in Season 7 under John Pertwee. Under Troughton, we see more monsters, more scientists, more alien invasions and more near future and contemporary settings. However, more than any of the other Troughton stories, The Invasion stands out as a prototype for the earthbound Pertwee stories. We have the near future setting, the return of Lethbridge-Stewart, the first appearance of UNIT, Benton, an alien menace, scientists, gadgetry, a dastardly tycoon and military leaders turning out to be helping the bad guys. All the vital ingredients of the earthbound Pertwee stories are present. The temptation is to evaluate it purely in terms of what the show would become rather than as a story in itself.

Two episodes of this story have been lost from the BBC archives. Thankfully, these have been reconstructed by animation for the DVD release. These animations are really quite effective, though they slip up by putting Zoe in the wrong outfit. The Invasion is a little long, but it is not too padded, compared to other Sixties and Seventies stories. The story has something of a difficulty with scale. We see a Cyberman invasion that consists of just a few Cybermen in London who do not do very much. There is a UNIT military action that rescues a significant character that takes place offscreen. We have a space battle that is created using a bit of stock footage. Still, the story does the best with what it has. Despite the limitations of what we are shown, somehow The Invasion manages to capture an epic, movie feel.

Troughton is in top form in this story, dominating every scene. One interesting thing to note is how well he gets on with the Brigadier. There is not a hint of the tension between the Third Doctor and Lethbridge-Stewart. It seems that the humble, self-effacing (but ultimately rather anarchic) Second Doctor got on much better with the Brigadier than the arrogant, haughty, but still more conservative Third Doctor.



Wendy Padbury is also marvellous as Zoe. I like the fact that as well as doing her usual clever clogs stuff, she gets to dress up in fashionable clothes and act girly. It makes something of a change for the character. This is helped along by pseudocompanion, Isobel Watkins. I love her trendy cocknified received pronunciation. It is a shame she did not become a regular, because she gets on so well with Zoe and Jamie. In fact for a few minutes, the show seems to morph into Scooby Doo with the Brigadier talking about 'those crazy kids.' Jamie, Zoe and Isobel bear a striking resemblance to Shaggy, Velma and Daphne. All we are missing is Fred and that dog! Perhaps if Zoe had been introduced to the TARDIS when Ben and Polly were around the comparison would be more apt, though what this would make the Doctor does not bear thinking about too much!

UNIT in this story seem to have pretty impressive resources at their disposal and are able to carry out effective covert operations. They are a far cry from the Dad's Army we would see in the later Pertwee years. It might be nice to see more of Benton in this story, but their are too many other prominent non-regulars for John Levene to really get the chance to shine.

Kevin Stoney is incredible as the villainous Tobias Vaughan. Although he at times rages like every other Dr. Who megalomaniac, a good deal of the time he maintains a calm demeanour. Particularly impressive is his amusement at Zoe's destruction of his computer. Stoney also shows a great chemistry with Troughton in the scenes they have together. It has been asked why a genius like Vaughan would put so much trust in the hilariously incompetent Packer. Presumably, Packer's skills had never before been sufficently tested.



The Cyberman are a bit of a let down in this story. They act like zombies, showing no real intelligence. They seem to take their orders from a computer. Their metal faces looking strangely happy. Their vulnerability of the week is to artificially induced fear.

I think it is clear that this story is not mean to be set in the Sixties. The computer technology is more advanced and there seems to be peace with Russia. The story is specifically stated by the Brigadier to have taken place four years after Web of Fear which was set in 1975, according to Professor Travers. This is clear evidence that the UNIT stories have an 80s rather than a 70s setting.