Day 246: The War Games Episode 3

One of the best things about The War Games comes about because of the circumstances under which it was written. Doctor Who's previous producer, Peter Bryant, did not have the best of luck when it came to producing Doctor Who, meaning that several stories fell through and other stories would have to be lengthened to conpensate. Which meant that the new script editor, Terrance Dicks, was left with the commission of a four part serial that was quickly extended to a ten part serial. How does he, along with the other writer of this serial Malcolm Hulke, write such a piece? By eking out the plot such that we are drip fed each new bit of information which changes the entire way in which the story is moving along. Take, for instance, the plot as it stands. We have the Doctor and co. arriving in World War One, then discovering that a General is hypnotising the troops, then we discover that the General has futuristic technlogies, then we discover that there's more than one war occurring in this place ie there's also the American Civil War and a Roman battallion amongst others. And finally in this episode we meet the people who appear to be in charge of the whole thing, but we still don't know their motives or their true powers. This could have all been told in one episode, but by stretching it out to three all of these revelations are allowed to be brought to their true size and we get a strong sense of the scale of the events. It's a strong benefit of the longer form of storytelling and one that puts The War Games in good stead.