1. The War Games (Story 050, 1969)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gksakJ89qBs Well, here we are. The last is first, or something to that effect. Yes, the final Second Doctor story is my personal favorite. Weighing in at a hefty ten episodes (?!), this story has it all. We get a renegade Time Lord in the form of the War Chief, we get soldiers from various periods in time fighting their wars, and we get the Doctor, a wanted criminal on Gallifrey, putting aside his own freedom to do the right thing by calling in the Time Lords to help deal with the chaos unfolding around him. That costs the Doctor his life, and hes forcibly regenerated by the Time Lords and exiled to Earth, but before that happens we get everything weve come to expect from the Second Dcotors era. Theres real affection between him and his companions, Jamie (Frazier Hines) and Zoe (Wendy Padbury). Theres humor. Theres tension. Theres everyone getting captured far more times than is really necessary. It really is an idea Second Doctor story, made all the more bittersweet by the fact that it was the last. The Second Doctor himself was seen again, returning in The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors. But even if wed never had him on screen again, this story would have been an excellent farewell. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xm26StUZVY
Chris Swanson
Chris Swanson is a freelance writer and blogger based in Phoenix, Arizona, where winter happens to other people. His blog is at wilybadger.wordpress.com
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