The Doctor tends to find himself thrust in the middle of many battles throughout history, but what if he landed in the middle of all of them? That may well have been the inspiration for The War Games, the epic-length finale of the Patrick Troughton era of Doctor Who. By taking the idea of multiple wars — each a live-action board game played for the amusement of powerful aliens — with the soldiers eventually realizing the deception and resisting, the story puts forward one of the most powerful anti-war messages of the series. To top it off, The War Games concludes with the revelation that the Doctor is a member of a race of beings called the Time Lords: frighteningly god-like in their first appearance, ending all the wars with a wave of their perfect hands. But the end of the fight is just the beginning.
Commentary for The War Games begins at 31:35.
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Story Essentials
Season 6, Serial 7
Story number: 49, per the The Pull To Open Codex
Writer: Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke
Director: David Maloney
Producer: Derrick Sherwin
Aired 19 April – 21 June 1969
Pull To Open: The War Games
Season 4
Episode 20
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Ultimate Fighting Championship (Disarming “The War Games”)