Doctor Who “The War Games Part 7”

Man, the Doctor sure is clever.

So much of this episode revolves around the Doctor engaging in a battle of wits with the War Chief, and he owns so much of what happens.

For example, sure, the War Chief is shrinking the chamber the Doctor, Jamie, and Carstairs are tying to zap away and escape in, but the Doctor has a plan.

He surrenders.  Jamie and Carstairs stay inside the room, but the Doctor surrenders…but not really.  He tosses a gas canister, swipes some of the control panels bits, and then runs back into the chamber, escaping to another zone.

But while all this is going on, the War Chief and the security chief are arguing on how to catch the Doctor, and then the War Lord shows up.  The man in charge.  The big cheese.  The head honcho.  A guy in glasses with a neatly trimmed beard.

How anticlimactic.

But for now, the War Lord lets the War Chief try to catch the Doctor.  The War Chief believes the Doctor will go to the 1917 zone because that’s where the TARDIS is.

Ah, but the Doctor goes somewhere else first!  Namely, the Roman zone.

But the War Chief knows he’s there and sends local soldiers to get him!

But the Doctor and company recognize the spot they’re in as close to the border and get into the fog, knowing the Romans can’t follow them there.

But General Smythe is back in the 1917 zone, and he has a machine gun open fire on the Doctor and the others!

But then Zoe and the rebels take the machine gun!

But then the Doctor gets to the headquarters, and even as he and Carstairs try to convince other soldiers that Smythe isn’t even human, it all looks hopeless…

But then Zoe and company show up again!  Smythe is killed in the confusion.

But then the War Chief has the brainwashed soldiers open fire on the chateau!

But the Doctor whips up a time fog and secures the building!  He even uses the brainwasher to fix one guy, and it looks like the rebels can fix everybody.  You know, if they could do more than one person at a time.

Of course, by then the War Lord has had enough of the War Chief, and as the security guy has been questioning how much this particular Time Lord can be trusted and if he’s even interested in achieving the plan of…whatever it is.

But all that means is the War Lord lets the security chief use his own plan:  send some guards to grab the Doctor and the brain thingee and run.

That actually works.  The Doctor has been captured and returned to Central Control.