Doctor Who: The War Games (part ten)

At last this story ends, with a strange and sad coda that serves as the epilogue to the first six seasons of this series. This was the end of the black and white era of Doctor Who, with the Doctor finally explaining who he is and why he left his home. Because he was bored, really. All three of its stars were leaving, and the modified format, with the Doctor exiled to Earth in the present(ish) day, would see Peter Bryant and Derrick Sherwin’s ideas about a secondary supporting cast become the new norm, as the Doctor would defend our planet from extraterrestrial threats. The new lead actor would be Jon Pertwee, and he was announced to the press the week this episode was first shown in June 1969.

Our son was absolutely riveted by the Doctor’s sad farewells to Jamie and Zoe, returned to their own places with most of their memories cruelly wiped. But their fates aren’t as bleak as the War Lord. After giving Philip Madoc the chance for a downright frightening and bloodcurdling scream, the Time Lords wall off the Aliens’ homeworld with a time barrier, and then “dematerialize” him from time completely, as though he never existed. This depiction of the Time Lords as omniscient and all-powerful would be undone a little with pretty much every successive appearance, which is kind of why some of us think the series has used the Time Lords way, way too often.

Among the Time Lords – we only see three, plus a couple of technicians – are Bernard Horsfall, whom David Maloney had cast as Gulliver earlier in the season, and Clyde Pollitt. Both actors would later return to the show as Time Lords, Pollitt as the Chancellor in 1973’s “The Three Doctors” and Horsfall as Goth in 1976’s “Deadly Assassin.” I figure they’re the same characters in each story, myself. The other Time Lord here is played by Trevor Martin, who would later actually play the Doctor himself in a stage play that was mounted in London for four weeks in 1974.

Our boy piped up quite loudly when the War Lord was revealed, thinking we’d seen the last of him in the previous part, and gave a pleased laugh when he is removed from reality. He also clutched onto Mommy very tightly and was really sad to see Jamie and Zoe leave. Frazer Hines went on to join the initial cast of Emmerdale Farm, a soap drama produced by Yorkshire TV that kept him very busy for the next two decades. We’ll be seeing Wendy Padbury again in one of her next projects next month.

And as for the Doctor, Patrick Troughton remained one of the UK’s most beloved and respected character actors for the next eighteen years, with dozens of great appearances in film and TV, everything from heroes to second bananas to villains to creepy old guys. He died in March 1987 at a con in Columbus GA.