Geek Syndicate
The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton 1966-1969)
Luke’s Choice:
The War Games is an incredibly important, epic
and special story in the history of Doctor Who.
It is important because the second Doctor regenerates but it is not as simple as that. We see
The Time Lords for the first time and witness
them put the Doctor on trial for meddling in
the affairs of the universe – which is against
their laws.
This story is epic in both the size of the problem that the Doctor must overcome as well as
behind the scenes for the creative team. Can
you imagine spreading a story across ten episodes of twenty five minutes long, continuing
to build the anticipation and the anguish and
succeed? Well that is exactly what the crew of
The War Games did. It would have been difficult
to this in today’s Who and yet they managed
this task in 1969, creating what is to this day
one of the best Who stories containing some
of the most heart wrenching moments you will
see.
Synopsis (from TARDIS.wikia.com):
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive on an unnamed
planet. At first believing themselves in the midst
of World War I, they realise it to be one of many
War Zones overseen by the War Lords, who have
kidnapped large numbers of human soldiers in
order to create an army to conquer the galaxy.
Infiltrating the control base, the Doctor discovers that the War Chief is also a Time Lord. The
creeping realisation sets in that the Doctor cannot solve this problem alone, and that his days
of wandering may be at an end...
This was a very difficult choice for me because
in many respects Patrick Troughton is the definitive Doctor. There are so many classic stories in his run and even more that tragically
do not exist or have episodes missing from
them. Tomb of the Cybermen and The Mindrobber were both high up there for me, but in
my opinion The War Games just edges in as the
best story here.
46
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive on what
seems to be Earth in World War One. They have
landed right in the middle of the trenches and
Doctor and Friends in the trenches of WWI ...