WAR GAMES, part 1

I have no idea how well this is going to work, given that I know Episode 6 was just marking time. Anywho. (Two sentences in and I'm punning. This will not end well.)

Okay, you have ten episodes to get from "this looks like to WWI" to "Holy #$%&, TIME LORDS!!!!!!" (even though, and this won't be the last time I say it, the Time Lords are not the point of the story). Along the way you have "this is not really WWI," "Holy #%$&, ROMANS," "this is the BBC Costume Drama Extravaganza," and "ALIENS!" So that's four plot points. There's no way "Holy #$%&, ROMANS" was going to wait for four whole episodes, and I don't really remember when the action shifts to the alien base (episode 4) - I'm only watching one episode a day - so I really shouldn't comment on the pacing that much.

Still. We've hit both "this looks like WWI" and "this is not really WWI" in the first episode. It would have been forgivable if Smythe hadn't said "1917 zone" which tells us immediately that there are other zones - and thus "Holy #$%&, ROMANS!" can't really be much of a surprise when it shows up in (let me check my handy-dandy guide) Episode Two. Ah.

My vague recollection of the plot after they get to the alien base probably has something to do with the fact that I thought this episode was kind of rushing it. Given that this is a 10-episode story, you could spend two episodes honestly thinking this was WWI. If Smythe hadn't said "1917 zone" but had still done all that hypnotizing (and kept that fancy TV in his office), we could think that this was a bigger, longer remake of The Time Meddler, which it already is in all the unimportant ways (bad guy has time machine, another Time Lord shows up, etc). Without giving the game away, you could have had us think "okay, guy's manipulating the war (the worst war in history, as the Doctor is quick to point out), and he has shadowy superiors." By giving the game away and all but saying that there are different time zones, it diminishes the impact of the next cliffhanger. (I will not stoop to comment on cliffhangers that end with the Doctor not getting shot; one of the reasons Caves of Androzani is so freakin' awesome is because we actually see a body we think is the Doctor's get shot at the end of Part 1.)

If they wanted to drop a little hint, they could have called it "zone 19," or better yet, "Zone 20," for the 20th century. (Okay, okay, there's the Russo-Japanese War going on in another zone as we learn in a later episode, and there are four wars in the 19th century; American Civil, Crimean, Peninsular and Boer. And we'll later meet a Private from 1871, which fits none of those dates.) I'm riffing here, but my point stands; saying "1917 zone" completely gives the game away.

(Also, the wars are all Earth wars from 1969's past. What, no Dalek invasion? Or can you not even say "Dalek" if Terry Nation hasn't been paid a redonkulous amount of money?)

Am I too clever for the 1969 audience, or am I just blessed with foreknowledge of what's to come? The point that I'm missing is that all the ads, including the Radio Times, said that this serial was going to take place in WWI. This means that the fake setting has already been established, and we can start dismantling it in Episode One. This effect is completely lost on contemporary viewers.

Another writing quibble: Smythe hypnotizes two people twice. The first one is his personal assistant, basically, and is done to establish that he can hypnotize people. So it's no surprise that he pulls that stunt and hypnotizes the assistant again at the court-martial. Why show him hypnotizing the other officer before the court-martial? Give the viewer a glimmer of hope that maybe the other officer, who is not part of Smythe's command staff, isn't vulnerable to hypnosis and then take the rug away. Instead we know we've got a show trial before we even get to it. Yay.

I suppose if I were really going to quibble I'd mention the Germans who come quite literally out of nowhere at the beginning to ambush the Doctor and company. Hey, it's only been three years since Lee Van Cleef did it so well in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

Also: we. get. it. Nobody except Smythe (who, let's remember, we don't know is an alien just yet. We know he's a time-traveler who can hypnotize people, which would make him a perfect shoo-in for the Master except that we're going to get an even better one later on) seems to remember how long they've been there. Pretty much every. single. character says they don't remember.

Were 1969 audiences really that thick?