Doctor Who Retro Review: ‘The War Games’ Episode 9

The Second Doctor makes a difficult choice in the penultimate episode of ‘The War Games’.

*** This review contains spoilers. ***

For our review of Doctor Who’s ‘The War Games’ Episode Eight, click here.

And here we reach the ninth and penultimate episode. Except that in a lot of ways, this episode feels like a conclusion, to the main story, at least. Which actually fits, in a way: three episodes of beginning, three episodes of middle, three episodes for the ending. But as this story concludes the main story, it sets things up for the final episode. Not just for the serial, but for the whole of the black and white era of Doctor Who.

After the Second Doctor tricks his friends into getting captured, their belief in him has been shaken, to say the least. Jamie and Zoe still believe there’s a good reason for what he did, but Russell and Villa have completely lost all their trust in him. And that becomes a big problem later.

The Doctor, meanwhile, quickly learns the real reason the War Chief wants to keep him around – the travel machine’s life span is running low. The aliens need a new one to use, and soon. In the meantime, the Doctor is to further prove his trust by adjusting the old processing machines and convert the remaining humans, starting with his own friends.

The first person he processes is Jamie, and one thing becomes immediately clear: the processing doesn’t work, nor is it supposed to, at least not for the Doctor’s purposes. It’s really great seeing Jamie playing along with the Doctor and putting on some wonderful naïve charm. Of course, Villa doesn’t get what’s supposed to be going on and believes he’s too strong willed for the machine, thus ruining the ploy, but by that point it doesn’t matter, as events are escalating rapidly.

First, the Security Chief finally has evidence of what he’s suspected all along – that the War Chief plans to betray them all once he gets what he wants – and arrests him. This arrest only forces the War Chief to (very briefly) ally himself with the Doctor, allowing the TARDIS team and their friends to escape and take over the aliens’ base. The War Chief kills the Security Chief, and the Doctor forces him to stop the fighting in all zones.

It looks like everything’s going to be ok. The only problem left is, other than capturing the War Lord, returning all the surviving soldiers home. Unfortunately, the problem is bigger than the Doctor realized: only two travel machines are left working. The Doctor soon realises there’s only one way out: calling for his own people to help.

The look on the Doctor’s face in that moment of decision is nothing short of heartbreaking. It’s a look of total defeat before he’s even truly gone through with it, and it says a lot about everything the Doctor’s about to sacrifice to do the right thing.

It also says a lot about how powerful and unforgiving the Time Lords are. The War Chief’s so afraid that he tries to run for it, but is quickly caught by the War Lord, who knows about his deception and kills him.

More from Doctor Who

• Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor Who Christmas special is a “complete reinvention”
• Ncuti Gatwa is “so nervous” to take on Doctor Who role
• The Doctor and Donna are better than ever in “Wild Blue Yonder”
• Take the Black: House of the Dragon season 2 trailer hints, the Fallout show, and more
• Jodie Whittaker didn’t pick up on any of the hate for her version of the Doctor

It’s funny how that moment can make a viewer speculate, at least retroactively. It was known that Time Lords could change when their bodies “wore thin”, to quote the First Doctor, but it wasn’t known that they could do it from a mortal injury, not until the Third Doctor‘s regeneration in ‘Planet of the Spiders.’ So while the War Chief’s death would’ve been easily accepted at the time, now it’s a moment that makes you wonder – did he regenerate off-screen and is he still out there? Speculation for another article, I think.

Meanwhile, the Doctor prepares to send his message to the Time Lords, in a little white box that contains information about everything that had happened on the planet. Oddly enough, this white box wouldn’t show up again until ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ – over four decades later! (Neil Gaiman very knowingly teased before broadcast about something showing up that hadn’t been seen since ‘The War Games.’ It didn’t disappoint, and it was a great little bit of continuity on his part.)

The Doctor is getting ready to run, but Villa and Russell, unsurprisingly, don’t trust the fact that he’s not sticking around for people he’s supposedly called for help. There’s a moment that I really love when Villa threatens to shoot the Doctor if he leaves, and the Doctor’s response is so perfect:

"“Then you will just have to kill me, Mr Villar!”"

And then he walks away, just like that. Because, by this point, the Doctor is done. He’s done with threats, done with worrying about helping anyone else, done with everything. His role in saving the day is finished, as far as he’s concerned. His only worry is to get back to the TARDIS with his companions and get away, as soon as he can.

I just love the power of the Time Lords that we see at the end of this episode. We don’t even see them, and yet we see Carstairs vanish instantly, presumably sent to his own time (we don’t even get to see him reunited with Lady Jennifer). The Doctor and his companions, inches away from the TARDIS, can barely move, trapped by a force field. The War Games themselves might be over, but the escape from the Time Lords has only just begun…

Next: Christopher Eccleston Apologies for Past Bullying

Next Episode: The End of an Era