Quote:
Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs  Second Doctor Patrick Troughton in a promotional image for his final story the epic ten parter The War Games (1969)
Also in the photo - A Yeti, Dalek, Ice Warrior, Cyberman and a Quark. |
The War Games is a masterpiece. There are occasions where I dither between something is worth a 9 or a 10 (I mean there's always going to be mistakes, even in a 10/10 serial, but you can't hate something like Caves of Androzani or Mind of Evil because of the Magma Creature or the Chinese Dragon Hallucination) but The War Games is an exception: its 10 episodes and over 4 hours long but I can easily sit through it in one sitting, which always feels like it flies by (unlike certain 2 parters cough Edge of Destruction, The Awakening cough).
But... That promo implies that literally every main monster from the Troughton era is in it (and not in a courtroom flashback as was shown). Could you imagine that was how it played out? You could keep the basic plot with the War Lord, War Chief and Security Chief stealing people out of time but instead of just WW1 soliders, it could also be Daleks. Cybermen. Yeti: all of them in the picture. That... Would have been a sight to see (and very feasonibly have been the first fight between Daleks and Cybermen instead of in Doomsday).
But that's not to criticise what we got: what we got is top 10 Doctor Who of all time material. For me its unquestionably better than most final Stories, with the (possible) exception of The Caves of Androzani and Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways. I think I might (its very close between them) prefer World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls but hey, they really screwed up by not having that as the regeneration story eh?