Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #771 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-07-06
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 241 minutes

DVD Description
Patrick Troughton’s final adventure as Doctor Who is something of an epic by the show’s standards. For The War Games spans a full ten episodes, and gives on of the most endearing popular actors to take on the title role a fitting, and quite unsettling, send off.

The last Doctor Who> adventure to be filmed in black and white, The War Games sees the Doctor, along with companions Jamie and Zoe, seemingly in the midst of the trenches of World War I. But things soon take a puzzling turn, when the Roman Army appear, as well as American civil war soldiers.

The mystery of just what’s going on in The War Games keeps the interest going throughout the story’s prolonged episode count. Granted, there’s some lag on its journey, but the subsequent digging into the Time Lords as a race that the adventure contains is fascinating and very welcome.

When Troughton does finally end his tenure, it’s not in the showy blockbuster way you might expect of today’s Doctor Who. And while, of course, the title character would re-emerge in the form of Jon Pertwee, it’s still some ending.

Packaged up with the usual high standard of extras that we’ve come to expect from classic Doctor Who DVDs, The War Games is a strong serial, and a welcome addition to di sc. More Patrick Troughton stories would be much appreciated… --Jon Foster

Synopsis
The TARDIS arrives on a planet where a race known only as the Aliens have gathered soldiers from a number of different wars in Earth's history, brainwashed them and put them to battle. Their aim is to form an invincible army from the survivors and use this to take over the galaxy.

The War Lord is assisted by a Security Chief and a War Chief, the latter of whom the Doctor quickly recognises as a member of his own race, the Time Lords. The War Chief has provided the Aliens with the time vessels, SIDRATs, that are essential to their scheme; but he secretly plans to double-cross them and seize power for himself.

Customer Reviews

An Overdue Release
A very welcome release it being 2006, (yes 2006!) since the last Troughton release. Naturally it's a little overlong at 10 episodes and sags in the middle (well it is middle aged at 40) but good parts more than compensate. The story never forgets that war is a dirty business, explosions rarely far away
A very atmospheric opening (and special title sequence) as the gang apparently land in Earth's history. There are generals who even by wartime standards seem ruthless-a particularly fine turn by Noel Coleman as General Smythe. A great touch here is by donning eyeware (glasses, monocle) they are then able to hypnotise soldiers.
Soon they find they can step between different times. There is a great deal of movement (always a plus for a long story) but at times it's so back & forth, it's monotonous.
As the Warlords are properly introduced and we discover what's really going on, the story picks up. The main ones are Galactic Nazis ; James Bree is a slimy Goebbels/Himmler type Security Chief and Philip Madoc as a charismatic but scary warlord is a temporal Hitler.
The 2nd renegade Timelord the Doctor encounters, the war Chief is a wonderful creation. A brilliant performance by Rentaghost's Edward Brayshaw, he's a Galactic Arthur Daley who sells, makes or designs for the Warlords a joblot of ringer Tardises, which like fake Rolexes look the part but soon break down. (they also seem to be controlled by fridge magnets!) The cheeky beggar even calls them SIDRATs! (Space In Dimensions Relative And Time?)

Some young bloke called David Troughton plays a bewildered soldier.

Understandably for a man at the end of a tiring run, Patrick Troughton is occasionally on autopilot but remains watchable and where he gets some really good material; recognising the War Chief, playing the villain and defending himself in court, he's magical!
Jamie and Zoe carry welcome humour, Jamie being imprisoned with his mortal enemy (a redcoat) and then giving a stirring speech, prompted by Zoe. Fraser and Wendy are as good as ever.
The trial and events leading up to it ( e.g. a sequence where time seems to slow down) take the story up a gear for the end. Silly bit of cod dialogue as the Warlord says that when the Timelords catch the Doctor he'll wish he'd been shot (being exiled to Earth and becoming Jon Pertwee is better than being shot!). In the trial watch for stage Doctor Trevor Martin.

It's the renegeration that never was as Pertwee had not been cast yet.
If you're not a fan of old 60's shows, you may find it a bit long. If not, it's highly recommended.

2 entertain have made this a 3 disc release, laying on a creeping barrage of extras (sorry I couldn't resist). The Commentary is a pick n' mix commentary as various people drop in and out, occasionally there's repetition but not much. Lots of great moments e.g. Fraser & Wendy recall Mrs. Troughton as the driving force behind PT's departure and Wendy wishes she'd stayed long enough to snog David Tennant! Best of all Jane Sherwin calls Pat the best Doc until David T. and Terrance Dicks rebuts with "I put up a case for Jon & Tom!"

"War Zone" is an excellent and good length making of with many contributors including archive footage of director David Maloney. The genesis of the story, departure of the regular cast & all important aspects of WG are covered. It's well supplemented by a "Now & Then"
look at locations plus "Time Zone" on the historical background to the conflicts featured (don't be eating when they explain what "trenchfoot" is!).
"Shades of Grey" is a muddled but enjoyable look at black & white TV, if you like Z Cars & Compact there are clips to enjoy.

The 2nd Doctor's comic strip stories are covered well despite the short length in "Stripped for Action" e.g. Dalek and Quark stories plus stories set after War Games. "Devious" is a fan film also set after War Games with a new Doctor but we only get the opening and a trailer for the main story plus the entire Pertwee regeneration sequence, worth checking out the commentary, shame there isn't more of the film.

The welcome debut of an ongoing feature "On Target" covers the novelisations of War games co-author Malcom Hulke. A promising debut as Hulke's strengths are explored well.
Make up supremo Sylvia James and uber Composer Dudley Simpson both give charming interviews on their work on 60's Who.

"Talking 'bout Regeneration" does exactly what it says on the tin and sees the best use yet of celebrity fans giving a light hearted look at the regeneration sequences.

It's a shame there's no restoration feature as this is some of the best work yet, I doubt it looked better on 1st broadcast.

If I could rescore for the whole package it would now be a 5.

War to the death...
THE WAR GAMES is one of the DOCTOR WHO DVD releases that I have most been looking forward to, and I was not disappointed. This ten episode tale that brought to an end the period of Patrick Troughton playing the Doctor (and also sees the departure of Frazer Hines as the ever loyal Jamie and Wendy Padbury as the lovely Zoe) and also sees the introduction of the Time Lords into Doctor Who lore has been lovingly restored and now looks far better than the original videotape release I so enjoyed all those years ago.

The plot is straightforward enough, starting in a very well recreated First World War setting (and one of the best ever cliffhangers at the end of episode one) which is a prelude to the dastardly plot of the rather groovy (at least in their choice of décor) but unnamed aliens, and their dastardly plot to take over the galaxy by choosing the best fighters from the worst wars in Earth history. All pretty diabolical, really. Some would have you believe that what you get is 9 episodes of runaround followed by half an hour of Time Lord gold as some of the mystery behind the character of the Doctor is revealed in the final episode, but I would have to disagree as I do find this a very compelling four hours of entertainment, and the Time Lord sequences at the end are just the icing on the cake. It all gets really rather moving, too, as our heroes have to come to terms with the end of their travels together.

The story itself has been divided over two discs, and every episode has an audio commentary, provided by 7 different contributors mixed and matched four or five to each part, and the usual comprehensive text production notes. The commentaries are fun, if a little repetitive when someone who wasn't on the last one asks something that someone else answered when they were not there. My favourite moment is Philip Madoc's "tequila" gag, which is well worth the wait. It's a long, meandering story, but I never feel that it's outstayed its welcome. Indeed the longer episode count gives the opportunity for some of the guest roles - and there are some very impressive guest performances in there - to expand into real characters.

The third disc in the set is jam packed with special features of variable interest. The pick of them are a nice little "making of" that gives an overall view of the show but contains a few spoilers if you watch it first; a fascinating little piece about black and white television in general that I thoroughly enjoyed; a longish piece looking at the Doctor's various regenerations; and an affectionate tribute to Malcolm Hulke's writing on the series and in the Target book range. There's a couple of enjoyable interviews about the 1960s series in general with the make-up designer Sylvia James and a charming chat with composer Dudley Simpson which promises more to come. There's also a shortish piece putting the various wars portrayed in the serial into their proper historical content, which is fair enough, and another in the "take it or leave it" occasional series on the Doctor Who comic strips. The "Jon Pertwee final performance" thing ("Devious") is the kind of cheap looking fan produced stuff that I could have lived without, but I suppose it is worth a look even if I can't really see much point to it. Also included are the usual photo galleries, PDFs and Easter Eggs that make this range so comprehensive and cared about.

Patrick Troughton as DOCTOR WHO was one of those all time great performances that somehow has managed to get itself chronically overshadowed by later eras of the programme. Maybe it's because they were made in black and white, or maybe television from the 1960s is nowadays considered to be unsophisticated or slow, but that's a great shame because there's some excellent television to be had there. One of the tragedies of the BBC's videotape wiping policy in the cash strapped 1970s is that only 6 of his 21 stories still exist in their entirety (if you're interested the other five are TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN, THE MIND ROBBER and THE SEEDS OF DEATH which already have DVD releases, and THE KROTONS and THE DOMINATORS which are, as yet, still waiting for DVD release, but can be tracked down on video. THE INVASION is not a complete story, but has had its missing episodes restored with animation for its DVD release, and some other incomplete stories can be found on the LOST IN TIME DVD set). So it's probably nothing short of a miracle that this ten episode epic that brought his era to a close is one which did somehow manage to survive. I suppose we should be grateful that most of the rest of his stories are now available in the audio CD range at least which are worth a look if this release whets your appetite for more Patrick Troughton episodes.

3 disks of classic Doctor Who
This 3 disk set contains the entire ten part serial which sees Patrick Troughton bowing out as the Doctor (at least until the 10th anniversary story The Three Doctors). The sound and picture quality are superb having been remastered from the original recordings.

Disks one and two contain The War Games (5 episodes per disk). There is a facinating audio commentary on each episode by various members of the cast and crew including Fraser Hines and Terrance Dicks.

Disk three is packed with probable the best selection of special features to grace a Doctor Who dvd for quite a while. Included is a facinating making of doccumentary, a featurette about the Doctor's various regenerations and a short segment on Malcolm Hulke and the Target book.

The War Games is one of the longest Doctor Who stories and is also one of the best - this dvd is a fitting tribute to Patrick Troughton and well worth buying.