Holistic Review: Despite being one of the two longest single-narrative stories in the entire series, The War Games overall manages to grab and hold the viewer's attention during all 10 episodes (although the dialogue could do with some punching up).

Given the fact that I usually have to muster up my determination before I put a six-parter into the DVD player, it will come as no surprise that my first reaction upon thinking "I could watch The War Games" is to think "Oh, but then I have to slog through ten episodes." This is especially unsurprising when you consider the point that, as the title strongly indicates, the plot is largely built around a whole lot of people fighting. Not the sort of plot that usually excites me. At all. However: when I actually do take the plunge and put The War Games into the DVD player, it never fails to surprise me by how watchable it is.

Of course, a big, big part of that is the regulars. These three are such great actors individually, and when you put them together, they become a juggernaut of hilarity, physical comedy and warm rapport. I think that if you took my least favorite Doctor Who story (assuming I could decide what story that was) and put the second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe into it, its watchability would increase a thousandfold. But we'll come back to them.

Another crucial factor in my enjoyment of The War Games is how very well plotted it is. I mean, first off, contrary to expectations, this story isn't really about a lot of fighting. Although there are a lot of fight sequences in it, they're generally well-justified and not overlong. Mostly, The War Games is concerned with the mysterious nature of the situation, and the forces behind the war games, much more than the battles themselves. This helps a lot. Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke are clever; rather than trying to plot one big overarching 10-episode narrative, they sort of divide the story up into "acts", each encompassing roughly two episodes. Episodes 1 and 2 are about slowly revealing the mystery of the World War I zone; episodes 3 and 4 are about the mission to reach the central zone; episodes 5 and 6 are about exploring the war centre; episodes 7 and 8 are about organizing the resistance; episode 9, essentially the end of the story, is about attacking and toppling the war centre; and episode 10 forms a thrilling coda in which the Doctor tries to evade the Time Lords. With the focus continually shifting, and new information constantly being revealed, the story's really never in any danger of feeling boring or over-padded, which for a ten-parter is quite astonishing. It's very deftly structured. The first two episodes, in particular, are great, with little hints sprinkled throughout that something isn't quite right, and the charges against the Doctor and his companions snowballing out of control until they're facing death by firing squad, despite having done nothing at all. And it must be said that the cliffhangers throughout are superb.

Of course, The War Games is probably most renowned for introducing the Doctor's backstory, and the Time Lords. Given that we've only ever met one other member of the Doctor's people after six years of adventures, this is pretty monumental, and the Time Lords are handled brilliantly. The gradual re-introduction of the concept is great; we're given a hint in episode 5 — which is confirmed in episode 6 — that the War Chief is a Time Lord before we actually meet some proper (non-renegade!) Time Lords a few episodes later. The Time Lords are made out to be omnipotent superbeings who essentially ignore the rest of the universe until something attracts their wrath — basically, some people's conception of God. Plus they can dematerialize people out of space and time altogether, such that they never existed! Anyone can quite plainly see that the Doctor would be the black sheep of that family. So it's no wonder that he decided to steal a TARDIS and escape to roam the universe on his own, and you can equally well understand why he's been terrified all this time that the Time Lords would manage to track him down again; they don't come across as the most lenient, forgiving sort. I find myself kind of sad to think that in the years to come, the Time Lords would be watered down into a bunch of very-powerful-yet-wimpy civil servants, but that's another matter for another review.

If I had to pinpoint a negative aspect of the story... well, actually, there are two that come straight to mind. First, and in no particular order: there are an awful lot of characters to keep track of (aside from the regulars, The War Games boasts 36 speaking roles). I feel like I only learned maybe a third of their names; aside from those, I found it difficult to tell many of the characters apart. Bear with me; by necessity, this is a big discussion. In most cases, the characters rotate in and out of the story in a logical way that serves the plot (Arturo Villar, for example, doesn't appear until he's needed to support the resistance; likewise, the Time Lords are offstage somewhere twiddling their thumbs until episode 10). However, some of them — and I'm thinking particularly of the wonderful Lady Jennifer, who disappears without a trace after episode 5, and the likeable young Redcoat, whose very successful pairing with Jamie only lasts for part of episode 2 — vanish altogether the moment that their intended purpose has been accomplished. (At this point, anyone who's watched The Three Doctors recently will be cheering and shouting that I ought to be thanking the writers. Yes, sometimes eliminating your surplus characters is a good thing; but when they're characters we like, or characters who could maybe have been useful if the writers had just thought of a way to utilize them, it makes you wish that there had been some way to keep them involved in the story.)

As long as we're talking about characters, though, let's get into the nitty-gritty. First, the World War I zone. Top marks go to Lieutenant Carstairs (David Savile) and Lady Jennifer Buckingham (Jane Sherwin), who are both super-likeable characters. We're not even into the UNIT years yet, and Doctor Who is already firmly portraying the military as being full of power-hungry self-important bureaucrats who care about nothing more than saving their own skin, and hyper-aggressive fighting grunts who follow orders blindly ("the military mind", as the Doctor says). Carstairs is neither of these; he's open-minded, friendly and trustworthy, while still being good in a fistfight and canny enough to cover up for the Doctor when the need arises. Actually, in many ways he's an Ian substitute, and practically a surrogate companion throughout the story. Lady Jennifer just misses the same title on account of her vanishing halfway through the story. She's a positive, perky, proactive and gung-ho person who's almost good-natured to the point of obliviousness, which is probably why I like her so much. Right from her opening line ("I say! Are you all right?") she's immediately appealing, and like Carstairs, Lady Jennifer seems to get attached to the TARDIS crew quickly ("I know it's an awful thing to say, but I can't help hoping they get away."). Together, she and Carstairs become the human face for what the aliens are doing to their human prisoners, and the scene of the two of them commiserating over their lack of memory makes them into intriguing, relatable characters. You almost wish they'd stayed on board the TARDIS, if Jamie and Zoe had to leave.

Elsewhere in World War I, we've got General Smythe (Noel Coleman), an alien (we eventually learn) whose agenda is mysterious right from the outset. He looks unexpectedly creepy with his faceted spectacles, and his slightly bumbling personality hides a cruel, intelligent mind. Hubert Rees also makes a very positive impression as Captain Ransom, a man who seems to want to do the right thing, but keeps getting hypnotized out of doing it by Smythe. This gives him an amusingly bewildered air, particularly when Lady Jennifer and Carstairs start pulling the wool over his eyes. He gets one particularly cute line: "You know, not many women take an interest in the problems of supply." I was really fond of Tony McEwan's wide-eyed fish-out-of-water Redcoat, who had a lot of potential as a double-act with Jamie. I mean, what are the odds that Jamie would get locked up with a man who comes from the year before him, and who happens to be a member of the enemy army, much less that they would become friends? Sadly it was not to be, aside from their brief team-up against the guards; I'm grateful that his injuries weren't more serious, but I'm sad that he didn't get to be a more major character. Just ekeing into the "memorable" list is Commandant Gorton (Richard Steele), whose attempts to suck up to the Doctor, believing him to be an examiner from the war office, are pretty funny. I like his self-important line "Who? Civilians? Well, tell them to wait, I'm having my tea." (which he then promptly spits everywhere when the Doctor storms in yelling at him!). Despite his comparatively large amount of screentime, I find that I barely remember Major Barrington (Terence Bayler). The same goes for a lot of other characters in this zone: Smythe's aide Sergeant Major Burns (Esmond Webb), Lieutenant Crane (David Valla) and Sergeant Willis (Brian Forster), and the minor characters of the military policeman (Pat Gorman) and the military chauffeur (Peter Stanton). I actually had to rewatch the first couple of episodes to remind myself who these characters were, and have decided the following: Barrington seems friendly enough but is not particularly memorable, being mostly a stock military character who ultimately becomes a minor adversary for the TARDIS crew. Burns, Crane and Willis only get a handful of lines; Burns is mostly "Man Who Marches Prisoners Around" (and who gets the line "Here, what're you asking me all these questions for? Meh!"), Crane has only one scene as the slightly-suspicious lieutenant who grills Carstairs about the spies, and Willis only gets a brief look-in with Barrington. The chauffeur is likeable in his brief appearance, but he only has about a line and a half.

The German trenches fare rather better thanks to their smaller cast list. Lieutenant Lucke (Gregg Palmer) is appealing in much the same way as Ransom, as a man who is clearly intelligent, ethical enough to do the right thing, and likeable (despite being one of the enemy), but is constantly being mind-controlled by his superior. Von Weich (David Garfield) is definitely one of the story's high points, with his striking looks and an unusual voice that combine in a really effective way, making him even creepier than Coleman's General Smythe. You get the sense that von Weich (or whatever his real name is) is a sadistic and bloodthirsty man behind the calm veneer, even though we're really never given anything to directly suggest this.

The American Civil War zone is awash with characters I can't remember one thing about, the exceptions being Harper and Moor. Harper (Rudolph Walker) is a rare example of a pivotal character being cast with a black actor, and it's a delight to see him team up with Jamie and Lady Jennifer to take down the enemy. He gets a really great part, although it's a shame that the character dies in episode 5. I'd rather have seen him join the group in the chateau than Russell. The icing on the cake is that Walker is quite a good actor, which for some reason has not always been the case with minority actors in Doctor Who (I'm thinking particularly of Mindwarp; on reflection, it's surprising that Mindwarp would have so many bad actors, because 1986 was a comparatively more enlightened time than 1969, so you would think the available pool would have been much wider). As for Moor, I don't know that I would have found him quite so memorable if he weren't played by David Troughton, given that he barely has any screentime at all, but since he is played by David Troughton, he therefore becomes memorable. (Or, at least, he does now that I know David Troughton well enough to recognize him.) Nice touch, by the way, that he got to play a part in his father's final story as a regular, even if they never share any screentime, and (the younger) Troughton turns in a nice performance. Aside from the two of them, we have Sergeant Thompson (Bill Hutchinson), Corporal Riley (Terry Adams), Leroy (Leslie Schofield), Spencer (Michael Lynch) and Russell (Graham Weston), who I don't remember at all, even through Russell was leading the American Civil War resistance. I think this is partly because the other Union and Confederate characters (and the resistance members with them) never get named, and partly because they're also fairly stock soldier characters. On further viewing, I find that Russell fits into the "stock character" mold pretty well, so it's no wonder I could never remember who he was. I will, however, praise the entire cast of Confederate soldiers, who all do very good Southern accents — even David Garfield!

I've already talked about Coleman and Garfield, but we still have the other aliens to discuss. Overall I enjoyed this bunch, although to varying degrees. Aside from Garfield's von Weich, the best of the bunch is easily Philip Madoc in a chilling turn as the War Lord. He's immediately scary in a way that nobody else in this story is; his delivery is so measured and quiet, but also confident and effortlessly threatening. The Chief Scientist (Vernon Dobtcheff) is an amusing character, rather full of himself and — at least once the Doctor gets involved — wearily put-upon. Perhaps because of the emotions he's allowed to play, Dobtcheff is very naturalistic in the role. Somewhat less successful are the War Chief (Edward Brayshaw) and the Security Chief (James Bree), both of whom are entertaining enough but come across stilted. In the case of the Security Chief, you get the impression that Bree's robotic (and amusingly nasal) delivery was a deliberate stylistic choice to reflect the Security Chief's alien nature (and, probably, his obsessive need for control, given his job). In contrast, Brayshaw's intense delivery just feels forced, so although he has some good moments, it's sometimes difficult to forget that you're watching an actor who has most likely received extensive Shakespearean training. It probably doesn't help that he's given lots of duff stock megalomaniacal lines (one scene alone gives us "I'm not interested in excuses!", "I hope for your own sake the experiment will be successful", and "They will make excellent specimens for your reprocessing experiment." which are later followed by "You can help me to rule... if you will co-operate."), although his lame cries of protest as he's dragged away in episode 9 don't lead me to believe that it's entirely the script's fault. Having said that, it's not just the War Chief who suffers; the War Lord gets some doozies of his own ("You dare cross-question me? The security of this entire venture is being threatened by your incompetence! You will find this intruder!", "I am tired of this eternal bickering." and "Failure will mean death... to both of you."), as does the Chief Scientist ("What a stupid fool you are."). This gives me an opportunity to mention that I will shortly segue into Negative Aspect #2. (I bet you thought I'd forgotten, didn't you?) Rounding out the alien contingent are the Alien Guard (John Atterbury) and the Alien Technician (Charles Pemberton), who are the large-cast-size fatalities of this particular group, owing mostly to their lack of screentime. I have to say, I wish that these unnamed aliens were given a little bit more backstory. It would be nice to know why they want to stage these war games and why they want to take over the galaxy, and how they ended up allied with a renegade Time Lord. For that matter, although the interpersonal dynamics are interesting, I never did quite figure out exactly why the Security Chief has such animosity for the War Chief. He just doesn't trust him? Or is there an actual reason why?

Toward the end of the story, we meet a few of the resistance leaders and other assorted characters. Of these, Arturo Villar (Michael Napier-Brown) is the most successful, with his larger-than-life pistol-slinging fiery-Mexican-temper personality. I'm not quite sure that Napier-Brown can decide on Villar's origins; at times it sounds like Villar comes from whatever part of Mexico is in Italy. Petrov (Stephen Hubay) gets just enough screentime to make a fairly positive impression, but not much beyond that. My impression of Du Pont (Peter Craze), on the other hand, was mostly giggling at his French accent.

And at the very end of the story, we meet three Time Lords: First (Bernard Horsfall), Second (Trevor Martin, pre-reuniting with Wendy Padbury in Seven Keys to Doomsday) and Third (Clyde Pollitt). Given that they're never named onscreen, in my mind they were called Blond Time Lord (Horsfall), Taller Dark-Haired Time Lord (Martin) and (this one will surprise you)... Shorter Dark-Haired Time Lord (Pollitt). All three actors are quite good, particularly Horsfall.

The War Games marks the only time in the history of the series thus far in which we lose the entire regular cast in one fell swoop (unless we're counting Survival and The End of Time, although personally I don't think it's quite the same situation). Of the three of them, I think only Frazer Hines gets a raw deal; Jamie is mostly relegated to the position of a foot soldier here, getting into lots of fights (with guards, lots of Civil War soldiers, a soldier on horseback, and the big battle at the end) and not really doing much else, which is a shame because I think Carstairs takes over a lot of the action that Jamie could have had. He and Lady Jennifer even get stuck in a complete runaround during episode 4, after being abandoned in the American Civil War zone, in which they spend the entire episode escaping and being recaptured. Perhaps if he'd gotten paired off with the Redcoat, he'd have been able to contribute more to the plot. Do you suppose he was sad that The Laird of McCrimmon never got made? That would've been a great send-off. However, Hines — as usual — pitches in a number of really delightful character gags, like Jamie stepping on the Doctor's foot as they're marched toward the general, and not being sure which way to turn as they're marched out. (I just love the way the regulars interact!) Amusingly, after all this time, Jamie's still a little slow to pick up on the Doctor's ruse with Gorton, but he does eventually catch on to the Doctor's trickery by episode 9. His pride at being put in charge is cute, and he gets one real moment to shine when he pretends to be a resistance leader; his uncertain swagger and his wince at Villar's overenthusiastic handshake are great.

Although neither she nor Frazer Hines gets a particularly tailored-to-suit-them departure story, Wendy Padbury does much better out of The War Games. Zoe gets a lot of opportunities to strike out on her own and demonstrate her intelligence. She bravely sneaks away from Lady Jennifer at night to rifle through the General's bedroom and find the keys to set the Doctor free, and she also finds his telecommunications unit; she whacks Gorton over the head with a vase (and don't you love the expression on her face? she almost looks infuriated!); she gets to trot out her eidetic memory with the list of resistance members and again later with their locations; she prompts Jamie during his meeting with Villar (or sometimes just states her viewpoint outright, although of course Villar doesn't listen to her unless her words are coming out of Jamie's mouth) and does an impressive job of convincing him to join their cause. It's lovely, if not at all unexpected, that both she and Jamie are insistent about staying by the Doctor's side as long as possible during the last couple of episodes. One of my favorite of her deliveries is "Please let us see him." and I love her little grunt of frustration as she tries to untie the Doctor's firing-squad bonds, and the way Zoe looks away sadly as a resistance member whacks a 1917 officer with his gun. The moment when the Doctor gives her a fond paternal kiss on the forehead — the first Doctor/companion kiss, apparently, although it's not in the same league of kisses as the post-1989 years — is heartbreakingly sweet. I also love her trenchcoat, which of course is appropriate given the number of trenches that this story features. I must also add that, as much as I love Liz, I wish the production team had been able to convince Wendy Padbury to stay on into the Jon Pertwee years. Wouldn't it have been interesting to pair Zoe with the third Doctor?

And finally, the very sad loss of possibly my all-time-favorite Doctor, Patrick Troughton. I don't know that I would consider The War Games to be his very finest hour (by which I mean that I'm not sure it exploits his full potential; he's as wonderful as always with what he's given) but it does a good enough job of reminding us why Troughton is so wonderful that we're left with warm fuzzies and sad wistfulness as the second Doctor spins off into oblivion (or at least into season 6b). He deviously blusters his way into commandeering a military vehicle and intimidates Gorton without a shred of evidence to back up his confident attitude. He solves problems (like the short fuse) with simple clever thinking (purloining a candle wick) and demonstrates his cunning with the way he only pretends to tie Carstairs' knots. We get to see the playful side of his personality, with his delight at putting on the crazy alien glasses. And his moral outrage gets put on display in the wonderful scene where he takes the Time Lords to task for their non-interference policy. I love his lines "Better leave him on simmer.", "They like making speeches.", his convincingly mealy-mouthed delivery as the Doctor fades away at the end, and his awesomely reassuring "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you" as he's surrounded by guards pointing guns at him! And, you know, I've always liked the way he says "were" (rhyming with "wear"). So many things about him to miss!

So, now that we've discussed the enormous cast at length, negative aspect #2 of The War Games? The dialogue. Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke have written us a fascinating and energetic story, but there aren't a ton of quotable lines over 10 episodes, whereas there is unfortunately a lot of stock-villain dialogue. Combined, it makes you think that their talent lies much more in plotting than scripting, although I think their other work would prove that assumption wrong. (I mean, neither of them is my favorite writer for Doctor Who, but they've both done plenty of good stories... Dicks, in particular, gave us Horror of Fang Rock and State of Decay, two personal favorites of mine, and both quotable.) It does make me wonder slightly if part of the reason that Philip Madoc comes off so much more positively than Edward Brayshaw is that he knows how to breathe life into the lines (although, as I've mentioned, even he gets a couple that he just can't do much with).

I have a lot of praise for David Maloney, who I think turned in one of the best directorial efforts in all of classic Who with The War Games. Every shot seems to be carefully composed, and there are a number of really excellent ones: Zoe standing behind the Doctor and Jamie in the cell as they discuss the anachronisms; the TARDIS crew ascending the hill in the Roman war zone; the SIDRAT fading away as Jamie races for it (probably my favorite shot of the entire story); Jamie running down the hillside in the American Civil War Zone; the framing of the War Chief trying to escape up the ramp behind the War Lord (and I wish they'd held that shot when he was killed; it would've been a dramatic angle); the First Time Lord forcing the War Lord to speak (because his eyes almost seem to glow; I think he's just slightly widening his eyes, rather than there being any kind of lighting effect, but it's still a cool shot); the sweet shot of Jamie and Zoe holding hands, then turning around to wave goodbye to the Doctor; and the handheld shot following Jamie as he races into battle. I should also dollop a bit of praise on Peter Diamond, who arranged at least the fight scenes in episode 10 but presumably throughout the story? At any rate, there were certainly a lot of them to put together, and I thought they were all well done.

There's one set in the story that I particularly like: the central control corridor set, with its parabolic perspex reflectors, or whatever they are, and the spikes coming out of the wall... neat. The door to the security room is cool too, the way the bottom half slides off to the right while the top half slides upward (although if any real-life doors opened that way, can you imagine the accidents it would cause and the lawsuits that would result?). Plus it's decorated with a cool circular design. The other set that really caught my attention was the crazy dry-ice-filled Time Lord landscape that the TARDIS crew have to navigate in order to escape. How impractical is that?! But it looks awesome! (What do you suppose they use that room for? Not a dance floor, surely.) I should also mention the chateau set, which is mostly impressive for its level of detail, like graffiti on the walls and peeling paint everywhere. And in the realm of props, I really like the peculiar design of the hypno-specs, kind of like faceted gems. The control system for the SIDRATs, though, with its assortment of differently-shaped magnets, just looks silly.

Overall, Dudley Simpson's incidental music is nice, particularly the recurring theme that starts when General Smythe uncovers the telecommunicatons unit behind the portait in his office. There are times, however, when it sounds like an overeager 1950s B-movie (like when they're concentrating on the wall behind Smythe's portrait). In the realm of sound effects, I liked the sound effects of the telecommunications unit activating. The sound of the SIDRAT doors opening is really familiar — it must be re-used from somewhere, right? — but I can't place it! There's a nice echoing sound as the Doctor, Jamie and Carstairs have a chat inside the timezone barrier. And, aww, listen to that cute little sound of tape forwarding when the Security Chief plays his recording of the War Chief's conversation with the Doctor. What a quaint little advanced alien race they are!

The few visual effects in this story are uniformly good: the telecommunications unit coming into focus as Lady Jennifer and Carstairs focus on it, the forcefield made up of rows of concentric circles (even though both the aliens and the Time Lords seem to use the same kind of forcefield; perhaps the War Chief gave them the technology), the awesome effect of the SIDRAT walls shrinking, the white cards forming a box (wonder if this is how the Time Lords create all their message boxes, à la The Mutants?), the slow-motion sequence of the crew running toward the TARDIS... and I really like the way the "Episode Eight" caption fades out as the SIDRAT fades in behind it. I would, however, like to know why Jamie's brain is visualized with a load of boxes!

I'm a bit surprised to realize that I do have at least one childhood memory of The War Games... I don't remember seeing it (or, for that matter, any other Troughton stories) when I lived in West Virginia, although I feel certain they must have aired the existing stories, but I do remember seeing it in North Carolina at some point after 1988 or so, which means I was around 11 or 12 at the time. The part I remember is the cliffhanger to episode 1; however, I remembered it ending with Zoe screaming "Murderers!" However, that is actually the ending of The Space Pirates episode 2, which I couldn't have seen until 1991 when it was released on VHS. So I'm clearly having another Ambassadors of Death / Inferno type moment of confusion.

Minor points:

• Even though it throws me for a bit of a loop, it's always fun seeing them play around with the titles. I like this particular version; it certainly makes an impact! (so to speak)

• The Doctor and Zoe certainly are good-humored about stepping in a load of mud! They don't seem to be worried in the slightest about having ruined their shoes, or about having to squelch around with dirty wet socks for the rest of the day. No, they just look at each other and have a good old laugh! Oh, isn't mud funny.

• In answer to Jamie's query where they are, the Doctor replies, "We're back in history, Jamie." Weeeeell, yes, if you're only using The Space Pirates as a reference. But for a lad from 1746, this is most certainly the future. There should've been a scene in The Long Game in which the ninth Doctor told Rose and Adam "We're back in history." For you, maybe.

• How does Zoe escape the death sentence? One minute we're being told that she's facing capital punishment for espionage, and the next minute Zoe's just off to a civilian prison for 10 years of penal servitude. That's just a slight reduction in sentence! Did she flash them her adorable puppy-dog eyes? No, wait, I know what it was. She put on her silver catsuit, asked Jamie to start the Captain's desk spinning around, then clung to it and screamed. That seems to work for everybody else.

• In the same league as my "close the door behind you when sneaking around the enemy lair" pet peeve is the moment in which, having searched Smythe's quarters and successfully found the key to the Doctor's cell, Zoe races out of the room and leaves the pillows in disarray. Had she straightened them back up, it might have taken a while for Smythe to notice her snooping, but as it is, that'll be the first thing he checks when he comes back. (Of course, in the end it doesn't matter, because Ransom would've been coming for the Doctor anyway; so maybe the issue is really that she should have flung the pillows aside first thing and not wasted a millisecond of time searching through them. After all, then maybe she could've spirited the Doctor away in time!) Although, having raised this question, another comes up: how does she know exactly where the Doctor is being held? Or did Dicks and Hulke just spare us the scene of Zoe checking numerous buildings and trying her key in dozens of locks?

• Cute scene, with a sweet delivery by Padbury and Troughton:

  Doctor: "How on earth -?"
  Zoe: "Well, I couldn't leave you to be shot, could I? It's dawn!"
  Doctor: "Oh, what a nice and clever girl you are."

• I've always secretly snickered to myself at the trend, mostly in sitcoms, for one person in a scene (say, Rhoda) to decide it's time to leave the room just before the next character (say, Phyllis) decides to show up at the door. It's a great way to keep the scene rolling, but it gets to be incredibly obvious and unnatural after a while. Dicks and Hulke give The War Games a similar peculiar tendency, only in this story — as befits Doctor Who — what happens is that a group of people start to escape (or leave somewhere that they aren't supposed to be), only to be intercepted by the enemy just as they reach the door. Shall we count how many times it happens? I think we should!

  	0:23:19		The Doctor and Zoe race out of the cell as dawn breaks, but Captain Ransom is waiting for them at the door.
  	0:36:50		The Doctor and Zoe take Jamie out of the commandant's office, planning to smuggle him out of the prison, but the door opens to reveal Captain Ransom.
  	0:43:28		As Carstairs takes the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe to the ambulance, Ransom enters the room. (but Carstairs is able to bluff their way past.)
  	1:24:18		After Jamie and Lady Jennifer have left the barn, Harper turns to do the same, but is stopped by a gun being poked at him through the curtain.
  	1:30:51		As they flee the soldiers, Jamie tells Lady Jennifer, "Come on! There'll be more of them after us!" and then immediately looks up to find that they have been surrounded.
  	1:40:48		Jamie and Lady Jennifer attempt to escape the barn again, but are stopped when an armed Russell enters just as they are leaving.
  	2:37:55		Smythe tries to run out of the room just as the resistance start pouring in (although it's possible that he was only leaving because he saw them rescue the Doctor and head his way)
  	3:54:03		As the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe reach the TARDIS, the Second and Third Time Lords stop them with a forcefield: "There is no escape, Doctor."

• Given the noise that the SIDRAT makes when it materializes, I wonder how many viewers at the time immediately realized that it was essentially a TARDIS?

• Is it just me, or does it look like, when the Doctor's finished spying on the prison, he puts a cap on his telescope that makes it look like his recorder? Either he's got a bizarrely-shaped telescope cover, or he's somehow augmented his recorder such that if you take off the mouthpiece, you can use it as a telescope?

• After Zoe whacks Gorton over the head with a vase, doesn't anyone think about replacing the telephone handset? It sounds like he might've been on the phone with Smythe by that point; whoever it was, they would've heard the Doctor say "Yes, I, I think he'll survive"! (Although as they're immediately captured by Ransom anyway, I don't suppose it matters whether or not Smythe overheard them.)

• A little flub by Hubert Rees, as he seems to forget his line mid-sentence:

  Ransom: "Do you know, in the — last push, we lost over 100 shovels?"

• Man, these WWI artillery people are pretty bad, if they can't even get close to hitting an ambulance on the road. And speaking of roads... if the ambulance crosses over into an authentic Roman war zone, how come they're driving along a paved road? (You could make a case that the aliens have just cordoned off parts of their own planet, paved roads and all, and transplanted human soldiers into them. The alternatives would be that the aliens kidnapped the people and the land itself, sort of like the CET in Nightmare of Eden, but then you'd expect big triangular holes in the ground back on Earth. Or, the war zones are actually located in their respective timezones, but all linked through Central Control and accessible by traversing the time barriers. Then you'd have whole acres of land throughout Earth's history cordoned off by time mists. So, the simplest explanation seems to be that the people alone are kidnapped and put into time-mist "cages" on the aliens' planet, which are outfitted with replica period buildings.) Either way, the fact remains that there is a paved road in the Roman Zone, so what do the Romans make of it?!

• That hill the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe climbed looks pretty steep. How exactly do the Romans plan to drive their chariot down it?

• According to the map, the zones are as such:
  1917 War Zone \ American Civil War Zone / Crimean War Zone \ Roman Zone / Mexican Civil War Zone
  English Civil War Zone / 30 Years War Zone \ Central Command / Boer War Zone \ Peninsular War Zone
  Russo-Japanese War Zone \                                 / Greek Zone

  Soooo... how exactly did the ambulance cross directly from the 1917 War Zone into the Roman Zone? There ought to be two zones in between!

• Von Weich's mention that the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe "tricked my human lieutenant" is the first clue we get that these people with the mysterious spectacles are actually aliens. (Although, given their advanced technology, it's not exactly a surprise!)

• An interesting choice, to let us in on the War Chief's thoughts... ("Time travellers... I wonder.") And yet it only happens the once in this entire story.

• Zoe's mapreading abilities show an amazing attention to detail and yet a surprising amount of stupidity. Looking at the map of the timezones, she sees the zone that we know is labelled "American Civil War Zone" but she reads it out as "America, 1862." Fair enough, 1862 is one year of the Civil War... it could only be a guess at best on her part (how does she know it's not 1864?) but it's a reasonable assumption. However, then she loses about 200 IQ points by asking, "That was the American Civil War, wasn't it? Another war!" Yes, Zoe sweetie, that's what the nice map was trying to tell you. (Also, you would be less surprised about "another war" if you paid attention to the map and realized that they're all wars.) Then again, could be she's just trying to subtly quiz the Doctor to see if he knows.

• "Quick! Hide!" yells the Doctor, and leads everyone to a pile of hay in the middle of an open stable, which naturally they all flop down upon without hesitation. I suppose there aren't that many great hiding places in a barn, but please, couldn't you have done better than that?! It's pure luck that nobody happens to glance that way. (Jamie and the resistance fighters do exactly the same thing again in episode five, so he must've thought this was a great idea!)

• Now it's Jamie's turn. Zoe can't read, the Doctor is lacking in common sense, and Jamie apparently can't see. "Hey, you with the blond hair, I'm talking to ya," he says, and a very dark-haired soldier stands up and goes to talk to them. It's possible that his hair is just very dark blond, but I think this is unlikely. And it's certainly not that the soldier was hard of hearing; both of them seem to have about the same dark shade of hair.

• Oh, go on, one more. Let's drag the aliens into it! Indicating a dazed (and extremely docile) Carstairs, the Chief Scientist claims, "As you see, he is fully aware of his surroundings, and very hostile." I must choose to believe that this line was meant to be funny!

• How did Jamie and Lady Jennifer get so separated? One minute they're escaping together, and the next, each of them is haring through the countryside completely on their own.

• Very amusing scene in which the Doctor essentially takes over the Chief Scientist's lecture. I love the Scientist's annoyed delivery on "Will you leave that apparatus alone?"

• Time for Rudolph Walker to have a little trouble with his tongue! (The subtitling says "Look, you came..." but even if that's the case, he says "Look-k".)

  Harper: "You c- c- you came through one of those mists to get here, right?"

• When Jamie stops Harper from killing von Weich toward the end of episode four, Harper is angry and even threatens to kill Jamie if he stands in his way. So what caused his turnaround by episode five, in which he tries to stop a Redcoat from shooting von Weich, and nearly gets shot himself as a result?

• Zoe is awfully inclined to fudge her age, when the Security Chief asks her:

  Zoe: "I was born in... the twenty-first century!"

• I'm a little surprised that red flags don't go up for the Security Chief when Zoe tells him that she came in the TARDIS. Has the War Chief not mentioned this term around them at some point? Perhaps not, if he renamed all his travel capsules?

• Another great delivery by Troughton, as the Doctor tries to find out Zoe's fate without giving himself away:

  Doctor: "Has she been caught?"
  Chief Scientist: "Yes. I sent her to the security section for questioning."
  Doctor: "Oh, good." (he frowns, disappointed)

• The fact that the War Chief and the Security Chief assume that Zoe is from some unknown resistance group is a little weird. They have photos of the other resistance members, which makes me think that surely they must keep track of what soldiers they kidnap? So if their records are complete, why don't they realize that Zoe just plain isn't in them?

• I'm intrigued by this bit of information that the SIDRATs are green. I don't think I've ever seen a color photograph of one. They look black-and-silver to me!

• Isn't it strange that von Weich is doing double-duty, leading both the 1914 Germans and the 1862 Confederates? Don't they have enough aliens to go around? The Germans surely must be getting worried about their captain's whereabouts, while he's busy being tied up in the American Civil War Zone.

• Sexist!Jamie is funny! (I should be less forgiving; this is, after all, the last we see of Lady Jennifer!)

  Jamie: "Ah, no, Lady Jennifer, I don't think you should come."
  Lady Jennifer: "Because I'm a woman?"
  Jamie: "Yeah — uh, no, uh, well, in a way, yes."

• What makes Lady Jennifer think that Carstairs is wherever the SIDRATs are going? Surely she should expect him to still be somewhere in the American Civil War Zone; nobody has told them that Carstairs was captured and taken back for reprocessing.

• A rare example of a Precognitive Companion Moment (PCM) that doesn't involve the phrase "Doctor, look!"

  Russell: "You two, you're coming with me. Come on, move!"
  Jamie: (at 01:57:33) "Door's closing!"
  Russell: "Quick, come on!"
  (they enter; the door begins to close at 01:57:39)

• In episode five, a SIDRAT disgorges guards into the American Civil War Zone, and they're shooting to kill (although the only one they actually manage to off is Harper). This, of course, sets us up to believe that when the resistance members use the SIDRAT to sneak into Central Control at the end of episode five, they're all killed by the guards. But, for some reason, the guards decide to use less lethal force when the resistance invades them, just stunning them and then taking them away for interrogation. Why the change of heart? Sure, it might be a challenge dragging unconscious rebels back to the base, but there's no reason why confronting them on their home turf would make them less suitable for interrogation or reprocessing.

• How does Carstairs knock out the guard in the processing room? It looks like he just drags him down to the floor.

• If Jamie and Carstairs are insisting on staying with the Doctor to help find the reprocessing machine, why does Zoe meekly agree to escape Central Control with the resistance? One minute it's "Oh Doctor, I can't leave you to face terrible danger by yourself" and the next it's "Okay, have fun, see ya!"

• A funny, and telling, exchange between Jamie and the Doctor:

  Doctor: "Now don't worry, these things are impregnable against outside attack."
  Jamie: "You mean like the TARDIS?"
  Doctor: (no response)

• The one and only mention of the travel capsules' name (and our one bit of evidence that it's pronounced "SIDE-rat"):

  War Chief: "It's impossible to pick them up when the SIDRAT is still moving. I'll pinpoint their position the moment it lands."

• Way to re-use footage, honey. Either that or the Romans are stuck in a rut when it comes to charging and attacking things.

• I love that the Doctor has managed to foment internal strife among the aliens (well, between the Security Chief and the War Chief, at any rate) merely by having shown up. I mean, the Security Chief does seem to be the paranoid type, but it's pretty cool that he suspects the War Chief of being in league with the Doctor, when nothing could be further from the truth! And I must admit that I do kind of enjoy the bickering between the two of them; the War Chief's line "It's a simple enough conclusion. You might even have reached it yourself!" is great.

• The line-stumbling baton is passed to David Savile:

  Carstairs: "This isn't the war. We're not in — on our own planet."

• The Doctor is clever to steal the aliens' technology and use it against them, deprocessing the soldiers! That'll teach them to leave it just lying around for any passing genius to steal.

• Umm, why can't the Doctor speak to the French soldier himself, or understand what he's saying? TARDIS translation circuits on the blink? Maybe they did need that instant-language machine from Farewell Great Macedon.

• A rare Troughton flub!

  Doctor: "No, Mr Ruggill — Russell — I am doing my best!"

• Just like the Daleks, this alien race wants to "bring peace to the galaxy" by, of course, conquering it. Nice how they always have such noble, selfless aims, isn't it? One perplexing aspect of their plan, though, is that they want to use "the most vicious species of all [in the galaxy]" in order to accomplish their aims, and apparently humans are more savage than anyone else (No Wirrn? Mandrels? Drashigs? Cheetah People? Sontarans? ...Daleks?? Maybe they meant "the most vicious species that we can subjugate".) You also have to wonder, would humanity really object to conquering the universe, if someone offered them the chance? Sadly, overall, I think we might not. Then again, it does sound like the aliens had "slaves" in mind rather more than "co-conquerors", so that might make a difference in the number of eager volunteers.

• Oops, looks like Zoe didn't get enough sleep last night. Upon meeting Villar, she asks "Who are you?", despite having memorized his photograph, name and camp location.

• Villar is the first character in the story that really gets some great lines:

  Zoe: (incensed) "Well, I think you might at least have a -"
  Villar: "Women should never think. For such a little woman, your mouth is too big."

• He also manages to revive the cute teasing relationship between Jamie and Zoe:

  Zoe: (irked) "He's got rather primitive ideas about women knowing their place."
  Jamie: (elbowing her cheekily) "Has he now! Oh, sounds a nice chap!"

• I do not think Villar is a very mannerly eater. It looks like, as he's chomping away on whatever they've prepared for dinner, he pulls some food out of his mouth and flings it back into his bowl. Could be he's just shaking excess food off his fingers, but that's not quite the impression I got. Dare I ask what it might have been...?

• A moment that feels out-of-character to me: why would Villar, as a resistance leader on the run (aka a "hunted fugitive"), hurl away a perfectly good bowl of food? Is he really that hot-tempered?

• Nice lines for both Zoe and Jamie (who demonstrates that he really was just teasing before):

  Villar: "Why you let a woman speak for you?!"
  Jamie: "Well... why not? Only if she's right, of course."
  Zoe: "And I am."

• While Wendy Padbury avoids the Land of Flubs, she has apparently decided that Zoe ought to be Italian. (Maybe Napier-Brown's meandering accent is rubbing off on her?)

  Zoe: "Well, we have been there. And if-a we can get a big enough army together, I can take you all there."

• Hrm. The War Chief declares that the war zones represent "most of the major wars in the planet Earth." Is that so? His wars cover 1618ish, 1745, 1808ish, 1854ish, 1862, 1881ish, 1904ish, 1910 and 1917. Seems like that's pretty front-loaded to me; surely they're missing some massive wars that took place before 1600? And then there's the obvious exclusion of World War II, although it's understandable that they wouldn't want to dramatize that a mere 20ish years after its conclusion. He's also got the "Roman Zone" and the "Greek Zone" but those sound more like cultures than wars to me. Is Doctor Who trying to imply that the Roman and Greek empires were basically one big long war? (which might be true, but still!)

• I wonder why it is that the SIDRAT landing zone for 1917 is in a locked office in the HQ, but in the American Civil War, it's in an old dilapidated barn that anyone can wander into.

• It's pretty entertaining to watch the resistance slowly panicking the enemy and depleting their guards. Nice strategy! The aliens, however, are also very clever in manipulating the Doctor to come up with a way to defeat the resistance... so, nice strategy on both sides!

• Carstairs learns, over the telephone, that the control unit in the Roman Zone has been destroyed. Presumably he's talking to one of the resistance members in the Roman Zone. But how were they able to call from the Roman Zone? Even leaving aside the fact that it would be hard to get a telephone signal through the timezone barriers, surely they don't have telephones there - or, for that matter, in most of the other war zones either. Could he have been communicating with someone else in the 1917 zone? but if he's heading up the organization of this strike, why would the Roman Zone operatives report back to someone else and have them relay the message to Carstairs?

• Worried that a newly-arrived SIDRAT might be occupied, Carstairs creeps up to the door and takes a quick look through the doorway. "It's all right, it's empty," he reassures the others, apparently having forgotten that there is much more to the inside of a SIDRAT than what you can see from a glance in the doorway!

• Why did the War Chief think it was important to fit the SIDRATs with flexible dimensions? (For that matter, why would any TARDIS need that capability? Is "squishing prisoners" a common need for Time Lords?) And why does remote control shorten the life of a TARDIS? Given that the second Doctor will very shortly be acquiring a remote control for the TARDIS himself (as of The Two Doctors), one can only assume that the Time Lords suddenly figured out a miracle way to get around this problem.

• I like the fact that the War Chief has now changed his plans such that they hinge on the Doctor's help. But you do have to wonder what he would've done if the Doctor hadn't shown up. Presumably his SIDRATs would have all died within the week. And that makes me wonder, where did he get this batch from? Surely he didn't steal them from Gallifrey. I would've thought he made them himself? And if that's the case, what's preventing him from just making another batch? (I assume it's not as easy as a batch of cookies, but still.)

• The Doctor reassures the War Lord that the members of the resistance "are no longer my friends, they are our enemies" but then, within earshot of the War Chief, insists that he's trying to save their lives. Aren't the two mutually exclusive, at least to most people?

• A great bit for Jamie. Love the way he teases the Doctor!

  Doctor: "I am the McCrimmon of McCrimmon, your hereditary chieftain."
  Jamie: "Y- uh, yes, of course! You're the chieftain!" (he looks at the War Chief, and smiles slyly) "Uh, who's that?"
  Doctor: (momentarily thrown) "Well, that, that is a, that is a friendly chieftain. You will obey his orders as you will mine."

• Why does the Doctor even bother putting Villar in the processing machine, and why is everyone bothering to pretend that they've been processed? There aren't any guards anywhere around; couldn't the Doctor just explain the situation to them? The pretense seems completely unnecessary.

• Time for Brayshaw to get in on the flubbing:

  War Chief: "I can stop, the arrival of the time. Machines."

• Hee! Nice delivery by Troughton:

  Villar: "First we get our guns, no?"
  Doctor: "No. I mean, yes."

• When the resistance members invade the war room, the technician behind the desk seems to notice that the guards are being overpowered, but he does nothing about it. He doesn't even warn the Security Chief!

• A classic wobbly set makes an appearance when the technician activates the alarm, and the act of pressing the button causes the table to flex alarmingly. Of course, this is nothing compared to the moment when he's killed and falls heavily on it!

• A nice bit of realism when one of the soldiers has to press a few buttons before he finds the one that turns the alarm off.

• The situation doesn't seem quite as dire as the Doctor tries to make out. Sure, the SIDRATs are all malfunctioning, but the Doctor's TARDIS would certainly hold everyone. Is he just worried that he wouldn't be able to pilot it properly? (A valid concern, to be sure; who wants to go galumphing around the universe with thousands of soldiers?)

• Another thought: if the aliens' ultimate goal is to conquer the universe with the most vicious humans, then what good does it do them to kidnap all these trained soldiers from the worst wars throughout history... and then kill them off?! Surely it would make more sense to kidnap, brainwash and train them instead?

• A monumental exchange in the history of the series:

  Zoe: "What did he mean, Doctor? Who mustn't you call?"
  Doctor: "The only people who can put an end to this whole ghastly business and send everyone back to their own times. The Time Lords."
  Jamie: "Well, who are they?"
  Doctor: "They're my own people, Jamie."
  Jamie: "Oh, well, that's all right, then!"
  Zoe: (noticing the Doctor's expression) "But it isn't all right, is it, Doctor?"
  Doctor: "No, it's not, Zoe. But I'm afraid there's no alternative."

• Poor War Chief, he really doesn't do a very good job of covering up his treachery from the War Lord. He makes a valiant attempt, but when you assert your innocence with "He forged that recording you heard", it's best not to then take a flying leap toward the exit. Looks a tiny bit incriminating.

• If the War Chief is a Time Lord too, then why doesn't he regenerate when he's shot? Is it possible that happens offscreen?

• Another "easy-out" solution... why doesn't the Doctor just wait to send the message to the Time Lords until they're at the TARDIS? Then they could have slipped right inside and been away before the Time Lords had a chance to react. (...presumably. They are, after all, Lords of Time, so there are no guarantees.)

• A very nice explanation for why the Doctor stole a TARDIS and fled Gallifrey, and interesting that his original intention was not at all to interfere in anything, merely to explore.

  Jamie: "Uh, why, why did you run away from them in the first place?"
  Doctor: "Uh, well — well... I was bored!"
  Zoe: "What do you mean, you were bored?"
  Doctor: "Well, the — the Time Lords are an immensely civilized race, uh, we can control our own environment. We, we can live forever, barring accidents. And we have the secret of space-time travel."
  Jamie: "Well, what's so wrong in all that?"
  Doctor: "Well, we hardly ever use our great powers! We're, we consent simply to, to observe and gather knowledge."
  Zoe: "And that wasn't enough for you?"
  Doctor: "No, of course not, with the, with the whole galaxy to explore? Millions of planets, aeons of time, countless civilizations to meet?"
  Jamie: "Well, why do they object to you doing all that?"
  Doctor: "Well, it is a fact, Jamie, that I, I do tend to get involved with things."
  Jamie: "Aye, you can say that again."

• Hooray for all this "escape from the Time Lords" stuff, because it lets us keep tiny bits of footage from The Web of Fear and Fury from the Deep! (even if it does look as though the TARDIS has landed in very shallow water, and the TARDIS in space appears to be getting covered in webbing... again.) However: why is Jamie, who has just demonstrated his awareness that TARDISes are impregnable, afraid that the shark will get them? And why does he think that the noises the TARDIS is making are being caused somehow by the shark? And why does the Doctor think they'll be safe from the Time Lords "in outer space"?!

• Does this mean that Jamie and Zoe are officially the first humans ever to set foot on Gallifrey, particularly given that outsiders weren't allowed until the Doctor took Leela there? (Assuming, of course, that this is Gallifrey... it could equally well be one of the Time Lords' courtroom space stations.)

• Interesting that, now he's back home, the Doctor doesn't feel the need to lock the TARDIS doors. (He probably knows the Time Lords could get in perfectly well on their own anyway.)

• Errr... why do the Time Lords, with their access to visual records of all of space and time, represent the slaughter caused by the aliens with historical Earth paintings and a couple of photographs? It's not like they only have access to twentieth-century-Earth images of the events in question.

• Good heavens, for all their god-like-ness, the Time Lords seem alarmingly susceptible... the aliens manage to kill two of them outright! Unless the technicians aren't actually Time Lords proper and can't regenerate? (Speaking of which, one wonders how the aliens managed to get onto Gallifrey in the first place. Surely they should have defenses against exactly this sort of thing?)

• When the War Lord forces the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe into the TARDIS, there's a dial very obviously in shot with a shattered glass face. Are we supposed to know when or why that happened? It's filmed as though it's a big thing.

• How hilarious that the first example the Doctor gives of "the evil I've been fighting against" is the fiendish... Quarks! (Perhaps the production team were feeling optimistic about their potential popularity, back in the days when the Quarks and their giant wasps made for thrilling comics fodder?)

• A good line for the Doctor, as he concludes his evidence in the trial:

  First Time Lord: "Is that all you have to say?"
  Doctor: "Well, isn't it enough?"

• Er. Quicker on the draw, people! The Time Lords finally lower the forcefield around the TARDIS, and do Jamie and Zoe run straight for the Doctor's side? No. They just stand there. And then Zoe asks "Where are we going?" Pff.

• Waugh! How cruel are they! Immediately before their sentence is carried out, Jamie tells the Doctor, "I won't forget you, you know." *sniffle* Yeah, well, that's exactly what you are gonna do, Jamie.

• This is one of my two least-favorite moments in classic Doctor Who. I think Jamie and Zoe are such superb companions, and they've both grown so much during their time with the Doctor. Jamie has exercised his bravery in whole new ways and really developed his intelligence, and Zoe has gotten in touch with her emotions and learned a lot about the real world... and now it's all been taken away from them. At least they still remember their first meetings with the Doctor (so some of Jamie's time with him is preserved at least in Zoe's mind) but to think that they would have to forget about everything they've been through and all the wonders they've seen... it's just heartbreaking. This is where I'm extremely grateful for the season 6b theory, first proposed by the authors of the Discontinuity Guide to explain away discrepancies in The Five Doctors (in which the Doctor can control his TARDIS, and remembers Jamie and Zoe's memories having been erased) and The Two Doctors (in which the Doctor and Jamie appear older, and the Doctor has — ahem — a remote control for his TARDIS and is on a mission for the Time Lords). It's quite an ingenious solution, which has since been endorsed by Terrance Dicks himself, who even wrote a couple of novels set during this missing season. And, since Jamie is clearly travelling with the Doctor during season 6b (along with, apparently, Victoria!), we can rest assured that his memories, at least, were returned at some point. Fandom seems to be a little less inclined to believe that Zoe ever regained hers — see, for example, "The Tip of the Mind" by Peter Anghelides, in Short Trips 2: Companions — but I'm optimistic that Big Finish may yet turn that around. My friend Jason Bauer wrote a really nice piece of fanfic along those lines too, back in probably 1992, involving Zoe and the fifth Doctor... it's things like that that enable me to handle this ending. (Because, you see, I can pretend it's really all okay.)

• It's kind of sheer luck that Jamie doesn't get fatally shot by a Redcoat the moment he arrives home! Stupid Time Lords, couldn't you put him back someplace away from danger? (The Doctor, at least, doesn't seem overly concerned about Jamie's fate; in fact, he seems to find it quite amusing that Jamie's back to attacking people with swords again!)

• For the Doctor, being stranded on Earth with no ability to time-travel is really a pretty harsh sentence. (You'd think it would also have made it a lot harder to write for the show, too, if your options have been shrunk from "all of time and space" to "aliens invade England in the present day". No wonder they invented the Silurians and the Master during this era. One originated on Earth, and the other facilitates bringing aliens to the planet.)

• Is it really less awkward for the Doctor to be stranded on Earth looking like someone else? Surely that just makes things tougher on him; at least he has friends on Earth who would be able to help him if they recognized him!

• Gotta love the crazy line drawings that the Time Lords give the Doctor to help him choose his new appearance. The Doctor is quite right to object to them! I wonder what he would've made of Pertwee if they'd put his face in the line-up? (Wouldn't that have been funny?)

And with that, one of my favorite eras of Doctor Who comes to an end. (Sort of. Roll on season 6b!) It's not a perfect story, but it's amazingly good considering all of the elements that were stacked against it. Given its length, I still don't think it'll ever be the first story I pick up, but the entertaining storytelling and the magic that is this TARDIS team certainly make it well worth watching.