The War Games/Spearhead from Space: New Beginnings

 Hello!

This week is the Second Doctor's swan song and the Third Doctor's introduction! Though there is some confusion regarding the Second Doctor's regeneration - The War Games was supposed to be his regeneration episode, but he regenerated off-screen, as Jon Pertwee hadn't been hired yet. Also, future episodes featuring the Second Doctor as a guest character had the Second Doctor reference the events of his own regeneration episode. I'm just going to write the review under the assumption that the opening sequence of Spearhead from Space happens right after the closing sequence of The War Games.

In which Patrick Troughton is not the last person to demonstrate a painful process by pulling faces. (Sylvester McCoy does it in the TV movie)

The War Games

The War Games arguably qualifies as its own series - it's ten episodes long! It starts with the Doctor and his companions, Jamie and Zoe, exiting the TARDIS on what appears be a battlefield in 1917. They're picked up by a nurse called Lady Jennifer; after a diversion towards the German trenches and a rescue from German soldiers, courtesy Lieutenant Carstairs, they travel to the British trenches. The Doctor attempts to get back to the TARDIS; however, as he's heading into no-man's land, and the soldiers don't know about the TARDIS, they decide he's a spy. The Doctor is sentenced to death by firing squad. Before he can be shot, Zoe saves him (oops, that's the cliffhanger for episode 1 spoiled!). Once reunited with Jamie, Lady Jennifer and Carstairs, they travel across no-man's land, through a strange mist, and get attacked by Ancient Romans. As it turns out, the planet the Doctor and friends are on is not Earth; people from various different time zones across Earth's history have been transported through time and space and deposited on this planet to engage in simulations of various wars. Wars such as the American Civil War, the First World War, the Boer War, and whatever war the Roman one is. The Doctor and his friends make their way to the American Civil War zone, with Carstairs getting kidnapped on the way; when they arrive at a barn, a familiar whooshing sound occurs. Spoiler alert: there's another Time Lord, working for the aliens organising the games, and he's given the aliens space-time travel technology. The Doctor and Zoe make off in the newly-materialised machine, called a SIDRAT. Once reaching the aliens' base of operations, they sit in on a brainwashing session, with the test subject being the unfortunate Carstairs. After being brainwashed, Carstairs recognises the Doctor and Zoe...as German spies; Zoe gets captured and subjected to an interrogation involving a horrific mind-control device which forces her to tell the truth. The Doctor is able to trick the scientist in charge of brainwashing the soldiers into de-processing Carstairs, and together they rescue Zoe. Meanwhile, in the barn, Jamie and Lady Carstairs meet the Resistance - people who have shaken off the brainwashing and who recognise that they are not on Earth. Another SIDRAT materialises and Jamie and several Resistance members enter it; they exit at the landing bay and get shot down by security guards wielding sonic blasters.

SIDRAT is TARDIS backwards, surprisingly enough. I have no idea how the acronym works in that case.

Happily, the sonic blasters were set to stun, so rather than being dead, Jamie and the Resistance members are simply captives. The Security Chief has a good grasp on what's going on - he tells the scientist to scan for abnormalities in the brain which might indicate that the 'specimens' captured in the ambush were never processed. The scientist quickly finds abnormalities in Jamie's brain, which makes sense given that he arrived a few hours ago. Jamie is rescued by the Doctor; the Doctor and friends begin making plans to aid the Resistance. Helpfully, during Zoe's interrogation, the Security Chief showed her a list of all the Resistance leaders; she has photographic memory, so they are easily able to get in contact with them, Using a SIDRAT, the Resistance establishes a base of operations back in the 1917 zone; the Doctor and Zoe use the aliens' technology to establish a barrier around the base which can only be penetrated by non-brainwashed people. From there, they start getting in touch with other Resistance groups. The Doctor gets recaptured by the aliens and meets the other Time Lord, a chap called the War Chief; the War Chief tries to tempt the Doctor over to his side. Once the various resistance groups are united, they begin an operation to draw all the security guards out of the aliens' base, by smashing communications units across the Zones; the purpose of this is to make it easier for the Resistance to take the base. Disappointingly for a group of strategists, the aliens fall for it; their leader actually points that out. They decide to resort to a neutron bomb to wipe out the Resistance; the Doctor pretends to ally with the aliens in order to trick the Resistance leaders into coming into the base to save them from the bomb. Said leaders aren't happy with the apparent betrayal - they try to kill him. In the end, he convinces them that he is actually on their side, and they quickly take over the base, neutralising opposition. However, there's still millions of humans stranded away from their home - the SIDRATS don't have enough life in them to make repeated journeys to Earth, and the Doctor, as yet, can't control the TARDIS with any accuracy. The Doctor calls the Time Lords to get all the humans home; they then put both him and the aliens on trial - the Doctor's put on trial for interfering in the affairs of other species, and the aliens are put on trial for the callous disregard for life involved in their scheme. All defendants are found guilty; the aliens are time-locked and the Doctor is forced to regenerate and exiled. Zoe and Jamie, meanwhile, are sent home as well, with their memories of the Doctor erased. As for the War Chief - the aliens found out about his plan to double-cross them and killed him. Well, sort of - according to expanded universe material, he regenerated, though with some difficulties.

The Security Chief and the War Chief

Sorry about the length of the summary - it's a long serial!

Spearhead from Space

Unusually for the classic series, Spearhead from Space starts by introducing the Doctor's new companion. Well, it properly starts with the titular spearhead falling from space; it's a spearhead comprised of meteorites. It's observed entering the atmosphere by a technician at a satellite observation facility; the Doctor's new companion, Doctor Elizabeth Shaw, discusses it with the technician. She's doubtful that it's anything other than meteorites. A local man sees the meteorites land, takes one and absconds with it. By pure coincidence (or a TARDIS that's taking him where he needs to go), the Doctor turns up in a field, not far from where the meteorites land. He collapses upon exiting the TARDIS and is taken to hospital. The hospital staff have a 'fun' time puzzling over the Doctor's dual hearts, confusing cardiovascular system and non-human blood - the doctor looking after him thinks it's a prank. Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Steward , an old friend of the Doctor, makes his way to the hospital to enlist his help with the meteorites - as it happens, the Brigadier doesn't recognise him and apparently never knew of his ability to regenerate. The Doctor acts a bit loopy, though less so than his predecessor did; he keeps going on about his shoes. He also seems initially unaware that he's even regenerated - he's nothing short of confused that the Brigadier doesn't recognise him, and remarks that he wasn't expecting the Time Lords to 'change' him that much. Did I mention this is all in colour now?

This is the man the Brigadier knew...

...This is who he is now

The Brigadier is in charge of an organisation called UNIT, dedicated to investigating things of extra-terrestrial origin. The Doctor successfully escapes an abduction attempt by the villains, then gets shot by a soldier. Luckily, the shot grazed him, so he's just out for the count. The Doctor proceeds to repeatedly fake being comatose until he seizes his opportunity, escapes the hospital and makes his way to UNIT headquarters. He begins investigating the mysterious meteorites, which are made out of plastic, with the help of Elizabeth Shaw. In the meantime, the Nestene Consciousness (the alien responsible for the meteorites) collect all but two of the meteorites - one is with the Doctor, the other is with the civilian. Unfortunately for the heroes, the Nestene is successful in claiming both of them. The plan is to take over Earth, naturally; it plans to achieve that by creating plastic duplicates of important national leaders. These duplicates would assume the role of the people they replaced. There's also killer shop dummies. As the final stages of the invasion begin, the shop dummies are activated and they begin slaughtering people. The Doctor and Liz, meanwhile, create a device capable of shutting down the dummies. They...also use it on the Consciousness itself, in order to halt the invasion. It works, the dummies are deactivated, and the Doctor agrees to work for UNIT in exchange for assistance in repairing the TARDIS. The TARDIS won't work properly - turns out, when the Time Lords said the Doctor would be exiled, they meant he'd be stuck on one planet in one era of history. Funny, that.

This is the Nestene Consciousness. Bear that in mind for the future.

Overall, I really like The War Games - it's one of my favourite Classic serials. One of the best things about it is the music - it's atmospheric and fittingly war-themed. For example, there's a bugle tune which plays whenever General Smythe - one of the aliens - appears, or when the heroes enter his private quarters in the 1917 zone. Similarly, when the leader of the aliens appears, there's a sound like a siren - it does a good job of presenting the leader as a very sinister, alarming figure. There's a tune that plays in action scenes - it's particularly prominent in the scene when the Resistance takes the fight to the aliens, by way of smashing the communications units. 

It's also interesting seeing the Doctor from so early in the show's history. As River Song puts it, "it's like seeing a picture of someone you know, and it's from years before you know them, so it's like they're not done yet." The first Doctor I watched was the Tenth Doctor - my parents had the fourth series when we were in Africa. Watching The War Games, I can see echoes of the Tenth Doctor in the Second - such as his outrage at the aliens' plan to take over the universe. Adding on to that, his sacrifice at the end - he calls in the Time Lords, knowing that he'll most likely be arrested and put on trial, because helping people is more important than his own safety. 

I also like the way the various characters interact - it's a lot of fun to watch. One example is the War Chief and the Security Chief bickering - one particularly amusing scene is where the Security Chief decides that the Doctor and the War Chief must be working together, simply because they're the same species. Seeing them argue over strategy when fighting the Resistance is also fun, as is the aliens' leader calling them out for bickering. Conversely, the heroes all work together and support each other - even after the Doctor seemingly betrays the Resistance, Carstairs, Jamie and Zoe trust him. The Doctor and Zoe have a touchingly sweet father-daughter relationship - one example is when he's being taken away to await execution for being a spy. The Doctor isn't worried about his own fate, focuses on comforting Zoe, and sings her praises when she finds a way to rescue him. When the Doctor says farewell to his companions, he's overjoyed to see that they'll be alright - particularly after Jamie, placed back in his time of origin (1745-ish) sends a gun-wielding Redcoat running armed only with a sword. Jamie and Zoe also have some nice moments - one example is when Zoe complains about a rather sexist Resistance leader. Jamie, being from the 18th century, decides that the leader in question sounds like a nice guy - then when Zoe gives him a death glare, wisely apologises. The heroes are united, trusting, loving and respectful, while the villains are divided - distrustful, spiteful and power-hungry; the serial shows the importance of unity and trust. I'd rank it at 7/10.

Overall, I enjoyed Spearhead from Space. One thing that works really well is the Autons. The costumes are cheap, but that makes them even more unsettling. The Nestene Consciousness, not so much - the climactic battle with the Consciousness is the Doctor flailing around with obviously plastic tentacles while Liz struggles to save him. Though speaking of the Doctor and Liz's interactions, they are quite fun to watch - Liz has considerable wit for sarcasm. The Brigadier finds them both annoyingly sarcastic. The villain is very sinister - he looks and acts almost human, but ever so slightly off.

I also like the Doctor's post-regenerative confusion; though as with The Power of the Daleks, the confusion disappears mid-way through the serial. Though as with The Power of the Daleks, it helps to demonstrate that the Doctor's regeneration has completely finished. The Doctor is amusingly eccentric, though he's like that in every incarnation. With the Third Doctor, it differs to his predecessor's habit of being cheerfully clownish - he's more absent-minded. By way of example, he steals his iconic outfit from the hospital - he only realises at the end of the serial. He also goes on a tangent about the planet Delphon, including greeting Liz with a Delphon greeting, seemingly randomly. 

On the other hand, the serial does have weak points. The scene changes can be a bit random. There's three main plot points in the serial: the Doctor making his way to UNIT, showing what the villains are up to, and the Doctor and UNIT investigating the meteorites. It takes a while for those plot threads to connect - it's not until the penultimate episode that UNIT finds out about the villains. Overall, I'd rate it at 7/10.

Random observations:

-In the Second Doctor's first serial, he interfered and left without helping clean up. In his final serial, he's punished for all the times he's done that. Might have been better to accept that bill, after all!

-It's funny that both The Tenth Planet and The War Games feature the Doctor being mistaken for a spy.

-Smythe, the central antagonist for the first few episodes, gets unceremoniously gunned down in the seventh - it's rather cathartic, actually, given how smug he is.

-The leader of the aliens is extraordinarily arrogant during his trial - he dismisses the authority of the Time Lords, to their faces, and gloats about the crimes he committed.

-There's a reference to Time Lords being functionally immortal - my interpretation of that is that they're immortal in comparison to standard lifespans. They can live up to 1,000 years in each incarnation, and have 13 incarnations - that's 13,000 years! Individual Time Lords, on any other planet, would live long enough to outdate legends, so would seem effectively immortal.

-There's a scene in The War Games where the Doctor tries to bluster his way into a military prison, without psychic paper. It goes about as well as you'd expect.

-The War Games features the sonic screwdriver being used to remove a screw with soundwaves - truly a sonic screwdriver!

-The Second Doctor doesn't experience much angst over his upcoming death, while the Tenth Doctor throws a tantrum - I suspect it's because the Second Doctor was at the beginning of the cycle, while the Tenth Doctor was close to the end, so the prospect of final death was looming.

-Spearhead from Space does have odd discrepancies with regards to the end of The War Games - the Doctor seems surprised that the Time Lords made him regenerate and stripped the knowledge of the TARDIS from him, despite them saying they would do that.

-The War Games isn't perfect - Arturo Villar, one of the Resistance leaders, does have quite a few unfortunate implications attached to him. He's the only leader who's not European or from North America (Mexican Civil War zone), and he's the only one who fails to realise that the Doctor allying himself with the aliens and re-processing the Resistance leaders is an act.

-Spearhead from Space marks one of the jumping-off points for new viewers - it had a new Doctor, a new monster, and about 1 returning character (the Brigadier).

-The civilian and his wife in Spearhead from Space have a spectacularly poor relationship which is equal parts funny and tragic.

-Regeneration count - second regeneration, induced by the Time Lords (Second Doctor to Third Doctor). 10 of 12 regenerations left.