Doctor Who Social Club

When the Tardis lands in the horrors of World War I, the Doctor uncovers a threat spanning galaxies and history itself. But this time, saving the day might doom the Doctor forever.

These are my thoughts on the colourised, re-cut version of the War Games serial released on December 23 2024: https://bw.artemislena.eu/tardis/wiki/The/_War/_Games/_in/Colour/(TV/_story). It had been edited down from 10×25 minute episodes to one 90 minutes special, with new material added in, including score.

Surprisingly enough, the cuts for (much shorter) airtime worked quite well. Some parts of the plot were lost, and people were inexplicably saved from certain pickles to appear unharmed — but that was to be expected. I enjoyed the edit more than I thought I would. There were more exterior shots added than strictly necessary, and I guess they were often used to disguise cuts. They did seem a bit too frequent in the second act, but that could be just my preference.

The colourisation was pretty loyal to the colour film of the time, I thought. Especially for the genre and target audience. Quite bright, but with all the earth tones required for the initial World War One setting. The recovery of 16mm location recordings made some scenes stand out even crisper than they ever looked on screen!

I did have issues with the hamfisted way the War Chief was retroactively confirmed as an earlier incarnation of the Master, with the much later Saxon Master’s theme inserted into the soundtrack, and a sound effect of a beginning regeneration after the War Chief’s demise. That seemed an unnecessary indulgence of old fanboys’ head canon.

The reason to race through most of the serial, of course, was to get to the Time Lord trial and the Second Doctor’s [edit: previously unseen] regeneration into the Third — canonically eliminating another ambiguity from the Whoniverse that had until now allowed for ample Season 6B theorising.

The trial had some fun, 21st century additions that I rather enjoyed — if you know you know, I'm not going to spoil those — but the added regeneration sequence (pasted from this fan video) didn’t just fill a gap where fans’ imaginations had run creative for 55 years. It also gave us an absolutely atrocious CGI rendered closeup shot of “Jon Pertwee”.

Is anybody happier and better off that we have this new end to War Games? I doubt most viewers are more than indifferent to those superfluous, dreary last minutes. And I’ll definitely remember season 6B fonder than I will this ending.

Thoughts, fellow viewers? Did you watch this hour and a half more charitably?

Asking for a friend

This is almost off-topic, but there's just enough DW content that I'm not going to punish myself.

Although Doctor Who is now made with U.S. money, he reiterated previous remarks that the sci-fi smash is still not as lavishly invested in as rival American shows. For a recent scene in the currently-filming Doctor Who season, Davies said he demanded 200 extras for the first time in his career, only to turn on the first episode of The Day of the Jackal and see that, in his mind, there were 500 extras. “I just think, ‘How do you keep up with this?’,” said Davies.

While Davies stressed that he wanted Doctor Who to “look like Stranger Things,” hence the attraction of the Disney money, he said it “would have found a different shape, a different form,” had the Mouse House not jumped aboard. As we revealed recently, the future of the BBC-Disney deal hangs in the balance and Davies said no decision has yet been made over Season 3 of the regenerated version, which stars Ncuti Gatwa as the 14th Doctor.

what are Davies and Moffat’s secrets to telling a great Yuletide yarn? And what do they get up to at Christmas themselves? In [Radio Times'] exclusive fireside chat, they reveal all. Are you sitting comfortably? Then they’ll begin…

In which the writers of christmas episodes past and present discuss

• each other's christmas specials;
• how Joy to the world came about;
• why the Doctor doesn't just solve everything by going in the TARDIS;
• writing, and why AI won't steal creative writers' jobs; and
• what comes next on Doctor Who?

According to Radio Times,

this new version of the serial will feature a 'lost' piece of Doctor Who history – while the Second Doctor's regeneration into the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) originally took place off-screen, the special edition of The War Games will depict the changeover on-screen.

and

We're also promised the new release – which will air on BBC Four and be available on BBC iPlayer – will feature "recovered footage not seen since the original broadcast".