The War Games, Heroes, Torchwood CoE, and the way we watch television.

A couple of days ago I wondered if The War Games is as good as the reputation within fandom that it's built up for itself over the past decade or so. As you may has guessed from my previous post, my opinion is that it is. There's a lot of good things going for it. Barring maybe Evil of the Daleks (which I haven't seen), The War Games is the only time a Troughton story goes truly epic. It has a massive sense of scale, even before the last two episodes. It has some some great location filming, and strong direction by David Maloney. Mac Hulke is one of my favorite Who writers, and this serial showcases some of his strengths There's a large cast of strong characters, with no real weak link in chain. All get to share the screentime evenly (though Lady Jennifer mysteriously disappears in part 5). All in all, The War Games may not be strongest story of Season 6 (I still think that honor goes to The Invasion), but it's certainly right up there as one of Troughton's best.

But last night I was still pondering why its reputation has shot up in the way it has over the past 10-15 years, and it dawned on me that one reason could be the that over that timeframe there's been a shift in the way people consume television. During the VHS era, I think the tendancy (well, mine anyway) was to plonk a tape into the VCR and watch the whole thing in one sitting. I thought nothing of sitting down and watch a four-parter in one go, and even a six-parter wasn't unheard of. Once we got into Season 7 territory it becomes trickier, but I do distinctly remember watching all of Inferno one weekend night with a friend. But The War Games? Egad, even the sad teenager with no life that I was could manage that comfortably. I think the closest I ever came was to split the whole thing up into two viewings 5-and-5.

So, maybe this story had a poor reputation of being just far too long because people couldn't view it all at once. Stay with me here, this is going someplace.

In the DVD/BD era, it became far more regular for people to purchase an entire season of a show and watch it in a slow-but-steady way. For me, anyway, the practice began with Season 1 of Heroes. Instead of watching it over the course of 8 months, Tasha and I watched it 2-3 episodes at a time, over the course of two weeks or so. That was a great way to watch that specific show too, because you could actually see the plot move just fast enough to keep you hooked. (I know I'm not saying anything original here, but Heroes Season 1 holds up remakably well when viewed in this way. Characterization is very strong and the plot unfolds in a natural manner that never feels rushed or jerky).

Other things have changed too. Most specifically when Doctor Who was rebooted, the shift to a 45ish minute episode length changed my feelings on how the show should be watched. I've come to the point that I can no longer sit down and watch a 100-minute four parter in one go. Even before I decided to do this marathon, I was tending to watch the older stories two episodes at a time, which is roughly the length of one complete modern episode.  For me, it's just long enough to hold my interest before I start to lose focus and my attention drifts to other things. Our modern ADD culture? Maybe, but that how it's come to be with me.

So, with these two factors, The War Games almost becomes a mini-series within the larger confines of Season 6. Indeed, watched two episodes per day over the course of 5 days, it's almost the exact same length and viewing experience as Torchwood: Children of Earth. As I was thinking about this last night, it occurred to me that each two parts each makes up a "chapter" of the larger story:

• Parts 1 & 2- Laying out the groundwork. These are set almost entirely within the WWI Zone, focuses almost exclusively on those characters with only occasional hints about the larger story going on. It's not until the cliffhanger of Part 2 that we really start to see the big picture. 

•  Parts 3 & 4- The story broadens to multiple time zones, and it become about the Doctor figuring out exactly what is going on, with much of the plot dealing with finding the map that reveals all the time zones. The aliens are also introduced, though the TARDIS crew doesn't have much interaction with them until....

• Parts 5&6- ...When the story moves away from the times zones to the alien base. Much of the plot is about capturing the new Mind Control processing machine so that it can be used to back in the time zones to de-hypnotize more soldiers. There's a plot thread about the War Chief and the Security Chief one-uping each other, which also starts the plot concerning the Time Lords. 

• Parts 7&8 The focus shift back to the war zones, and the plot is concerned with organizing all the resistance troops into a cohesive force and then slowing taking over all the war zones from the baddies. 

•  Parts 9&10. The main plot gets resolved, and the focus moves to the Doctor and the Time Lords, the trial, and the forced regeneration.

 So there you go. Basically, I think one reason this story's reputation shot up is because people are now more willing to watch longer story in parts and experience the plot unfold than they were in the past. The War Games, when viewed in this manner, is not unlike watching more modern, shorter British series like Life on Mars, Sherlock, or indeed, modern Doctor Who.

It's been fun spending time with Troughton. Onward to the UNIT era!

The War Games episode 1 &2

The first big impression that I get from just the first two parts of The War Games is how dynamic and expansive it feels. It uses Time as a plot device in a way that hasn't been seen since Evil of the Daleks,  The Ark, and Dalek Masterplan. Since so much of Troughton's stories are tied down to one small base or area, this already has a larger sense of scope that lends it a nice, exciting energy. Episode 2 also benefits from some good location film work and a funny bit by Troughton as he impersonates a government inspector.

The War Games preview and Season 6 retrospective.

I've now been a Doctor Who fan for something like 21 years. I can't single out the exact point I became a fan, because the process was gradual, but it would've started around fall of 1992. It was definitely in the leadup to the 30th anniversary with that cool altered diamond logo.
 
In that time, I don't think any single story's reputation has improved in the collective eyes of fandom as much as The War Games. In the early nineties it was still more or less considered a bloated monstrosity; a 6-parter painfully stretched to 10 episodes only from sheer necessity. Now it's held in very high regard, and considered on of the finest epics Doctor Who ever produced. Somehow I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle.  I am on record as stating David Maloney is my favorite Who director, so it's got that going for it before I even begin.

It's been years since I've sat down and really watched The War Games, and never in context. Season 6 has been a nice surprise; it's much better than it's reputation as being somewhat dour in tone and creatively out of ideas. (Actually, that description neatly summarizes my opinion of Season 11, but let's not burn bridges before we get to them). The Mind Robber and The Invasion are two excellent back-to-back stories, and The Seeds of Death is just a level below them. There's nothing great about The Krotons but nothing wrong about it either; it's perfectly average Doctor Who. The Space Pirates has a bad reputation but since I've (mostly) only watching extant stories during this marathon, the only part I viewed was episode 2, and I've always rather liked Milo Clancey and his broken, newfangled solar toaster. That just leaves The Dominators, which admittedly is pretty dour and uncreative.

As I get ready to depart the Troughton era I will say that, despite Season 6 being better than it's reputation, I didn't like it has much as the Hartnell era. Patrick Troughton has gathered this reputation as being the first "real" Doctor off which all future Doctors are at least partially based, but the truth is that during this marathon I often found the Second Doctor lacking. Certainly he's nowhere near as compassionate as the First Doctor. For example at one point in The Invasion Jaime is actually shot, and the Doctor sort of shrugs it off once he learns he's going to live. If such a thing had happened to Ian, the First Doctor wound be shitting kittens worrying if his friend was okay. It's a moment that didn't sit well with me.

But, again, there's so much I didn't see, especially from the almost totally missing Season 4. Before this marathon, if you had asked me what were the Missing Stories I'd most want to see, I'd have answered with the great epics of Season 3, like The Dalek Masterplan or The Massacre of St Batholomew's Eve.  Now, I really want stuff from the early Troughton era, so we could see this mischievous character develop. Power of the Daleks, certainly, but also The Highlanders and, The Macra Terror and, God help us, The Underwater Menace. Thankfully, that last one does have another episode coming, and I have a gut feeling it's going to improve that story's reputation somewhat.

Which brings us full circle. Didn't mean to go on quite so long, but I think the caffeine kicked in and these are some thoughts that have been bouncing around my head of late. It's going to take me the better part of a week to watch The War Games. Will is be great? Will it be dull? Will it just be a really long but  otherwise unremarkable Doctor Who story? I look forward to finding out.