The War Games - Episode 7

We are starting to enter the business end of the serial and today marks the 250^th episode of the show and the thing that stands out about this episode is that there isn’t any time for celebration. The regulars have been put in danger at regular intervals and whilst that is part of the course the thing that I am always reminding myself of is the fact that this is their last story and so the tension is cranked up.

Sergeant Wilkins is bought in a talking head but he doesn’t really do very much here except for interact with Smythe. Speaking of which, Smythe makes a brief return in this episode though it ends badly when he is shot. Though for the time that he is involved allows him to enjoy his badness. I have enjoyed him during this story even though he had a very short shelf life and like other characters that have appeared in this story, he has stayed just long enough. However compared to the War Lord, he looks quite charming in comparison. We get more mentions of the War lord. When he finally appears he does instead steal the scene and I love it when he has had enough of the bickering between the War Chief and the Security Chief. It’s the first time that it feels like an adult is in charge. The capsule is called SIDRAT which is cleverly TARDIS backwards. There is more mentioned about the technology and how the War Chief’s people are the only ones that have the technology of time travel which implies that the Doctor is of the same race as the War Chief. Philip Madoc lays down the law to both the Security Chief and the War Chief. There is no sense that he takes fools gladly but has no choice but to keep them around despite their incompetence.

It does feel at times like the story is starting to recycle things. The budget is clearly starting to run out as at one point we also have a reprise from episode two cliffhanger. It’s not just a copy of the cliffhanger but it’s the exact same shots that they used in episode two. Thankfully that seems to be all that they copied but I wonder just how run down everyone involved was feeling as they will have been working on this story for nearly two months and there’s more to come.

I must admit that this is the first time in this story that I have been disappointed with the cliffhanger. It just felt rather flat and that was a shame because every cliffhanger so far had something about them but this didn’t have anything and I think that this is the weakest episode so far. There are just three episodes left before we say goodbye to Patrick, Frazer and Wendy and it feels like it’s the end but that the moment has been prepared for. An ok episode with some good performances but nothing special.