Day 247: The War Games Episode 4

We settle, as an audience, into how this is all going to play out. The Doctor and Zoe are undercover listening to a lecture delivered by one of the alien scientists. Lieutenant Carstairs, an ally of the Doctor's, is brought out and re-programmed, essentially being hypnotised again. He recognises the Doctor and Zoe, but not as friends, instead as the enemy, in line with the way in which they were treated when he first encountered them in Episode 1. And as an audience, we expect that this will lead to them being captured and incarcerated for much of the next episode. Instead, it's dismissed. It's a surprising turn in this story and refreshing to see that the villains have enough sense to require sufficient evidence before jumping to conclusions. Hats off again to Hulke and Dicks for taking a plot mechanism and subverting it, keeping The War Games completely fresh.

But something goes wrong. A man, who we've seen previously to appear to be in charge, looks at the Doctor. Recognition goes across his face. Fear goes across the Doctor's face. The true cliff-hanger to this story is not Carstairs holding a gun to Zoe, instead it is this moment. Suddenly, the audience gets a sense that everything is about to change impossibly.