The War Games In Colour: it will all be over by Christmas

Between April and June 1969, the black and white era of Doctor Who – and Patrick Troughton’s tenure as the Time Lord – came to an end in the 10-part epic The War Games.

Epic is not a word used lightly in Doctor Who circles.

In the original run, between 1963 and 1989, episodes ended on a cliffhanger and the serialised nature of the show was integral into its success as a nation spent a week pondering how our heroes would get out of that.

This storytelling setup has been all but eradicated in the modern era, which is 20 years old in 2025. Stories are mostly one 45-minute chunk, with the only indication that there is more to come thanks to the Next Time trailer.

The closest we’ve come to Old Testament Who was Jodie Whittaker’s final season, but even then, each part was essentially a standalone story rather than one continuous adventure.

Genesis of The War Games

The 1960s seasons of Doctor Who were long. Very long.

For those of us used to the streaming era of eight-episode seasons with convoluted arcs and years between each run, the idea of Doctor Who being on almost all year round in new adventures is quite foreign.

Especially as each episode was designed to be shown once, and once only. No chance to rewind the video, watch on catch-up or stream to your mobile.

It was this set up – seasons of 40-odd weeks or so on air – that broke Patrick Troughton after three years in the role, and he decided Season Six would be his last. It was a strong run of stories and, apart from two episodes of The Invasion and the whole of The Space Pirates, we are fortunate enough to have them all in the BBC’s archive.

Including The War Games.

It was an invention of necessity, as other scripts fell through, and script editor Terrance Dicks was left with a hole to fill. Quite simply, 10 weeks of Doctor Who needed to be made and the buck stopped with him. To be honest, it’s a relief that one of the stories never made it past the drawing board. The Prison In Space was The Two Ronnies The Worm That Turned a decade too early and it would have probably been the nadir of the series to that point.

Faced with this gap, Terrance teamed up with Malcolm Hulke to produce the 10-week journey through different war zones, creating a puzzle box that satisfyingly came together until Part Nine, where the story took an unexpected turn.

Although hinted at earlier in the tale, this was the first time viewers were going to learn about the Doctor’s origins. No longer a lonely wanderer in space and time, here he was given roots, even if he didn’t want to have them. It was, for the Doctor, an invention of necessity. To get all the participants of The War Games home, he needs the help of a higher power: the Time Lords.

The consequence was to be catastrophic – he was captured by the Time Lords and made to stand trial.

The decision to exile him to earth in the late 20^th century was another idea from the production office. To make the series more cost effective, setting it in the present day would make things cheaper. Although at one stage, it was entirely possible Doctor Who would have ended here, which makes some of the events of the final episode even more poignant.

However, the black and white era of the show ends, appropriately enough, on a cliffhanger. We don’t see the Second Doctor become the Third. Instead, his protesting face spins into darkness and viewers would have to wait a whole six months – an eternity when you’re used to all-year-round Doctor Who – to find out what, and indeed Who, happens next.

 So, what about The War Games in Colour?

This is the second 1960s adventure to be given the cutdown treatment, following on from The Dead Planet / The Daleks / Whatever you want to call it, which was released to mark the 60^th anniversary of Doctor Who.

The Dead Planet received a mixed reaction. Many loved the colourisation, while others felt some of the palette chosen was too garish. Some loved the reworking of the story to make seven parts fit within its 70-minute timeslot, while others felt it didn’t work. Then there’s the new incidental music, Dalek voices and, and … essentially, it’s a bit Marmite.

As the adage goes, the original version is still available, should you prefer it.

There’s also the Peter Cushing version, which manages to retell the tale in a similar timescale, and in glorious colour. But that is, quite literally, another story altogether.

The War Games In Colour first aired on December 23, 2024 on BBC Four, and given a prime slot of 9pm.

The 90-minute runtime was always going to be a tall order because the original story’s duration is four hours and 10 minutes. That means more than half of the filmed footage had to be lost to fit the timeslot.

The condensed version made things harder for itself by condensing much of the first nine episodes into just an hour, leaving around 20 minutes for the final part and a few more minutes for the fan-pleasing but ultimately unnecessary regeneration scene.

Does the colourisation work?

The War Games In Colour benefits from being rooted in an environment that is meant to look like the planet earth, while featuring soldiers using unforms for which we have good references for.

There are colour photos of the War Lords’ domain, and it looks like these colour schemes were stuck too, with some embellishments.

The bottom line is the colour palette the team had to work from was already there for them and they didn’t need to invent a landscape for the characters to work with.

What they have done is perform a miracle. And there is no other way to describe it.

If you showed it to someone who didn’t know it was originally made in black and white, they would be hard pressed to point it out to you. There are some scenes that you would swear were the original colour film, the skin tones and background details are that impressive.

It is a step up from last year’s story, and the entire team deserve praise for their creation here.

Can you condense The War Games into 90 minutes?

No.

And unfortunately, that was proven by The War Games In Colour.

There has long been an accusation that The War Games is padded out beyond belief (see also Ambassadors of Death, Doctor Who and the Silurians, and the original four-part version of Planet of Giants).

But even with the need to fill 10 weeks of slot, every episode moves the story along be it travelling from one war zone to another, setting up some development at the War Lords’ base, or pulling the resistance together – those who managed to resist the mental conditioning given to all humans sent to the games.

At once maddening, at others genius, this is a story that manages to advance the plot at a snail’s pace while providing some brilliant set pieces and character moments.

Unfortunately, it’s all lost in this cutdown version.

Characters appear or disappear without warning. Having the resistance suddenly taking over the chateau that moments earlier was under control of General Smythe is jarring, not least as we have no idea who they are.

Likewise, the power struggle between the War Chief and the Security Chief is lost to time, so some of their bitchy battles is denied to the modern viewer. If ever there is a reason to seek out the original version on the iPlayer, this is it.

We also lose control of the narrative in the various zones. Are we in Roman times? The days of the Civil War? The First World War? The only guidance is the backgrounds.

The best way to describe The War Games In Colour is that it is a 90-minute trailer for the real thing. It cuts too rapidly, its pace is too frantic, and its redirection misses the powerful interplays and complex court intrigue.

To be fair, trying to condense down more than four hours of screentime to such a short slot is an impossible task, but someone should have said this needed more space for the plot to unfold.

It doesn’t help that the farewells to Zoe and Jamie are reasonably intact, while the Doctor’s indignation at his potential regenerations is switched around for some infantile in jokes could also have been tweaked to give some seconds for elsewhere.

Ultimately, this is an abridge too far, and hopefully other cutdown versions will make more measured decisions.

Look, old school Who fans are used to condensed storytelling: for much of the 1970s, Christmas often meant an omnibus story that was cutdown to a shorter runtime, including Brain of Morbius, The Robots of Death, and Planet of the Spiders, while in 1982, Genesis of the Daleks received the cutdown treatment losing two episodes worth of material in the process.

It can be done, but not taking four hours of Who and shoving it into a quart pot: the Tardis might be bigger on the inside, but the runtime sure ain’t.

If The War Games In Colour is a dud, should they make more?

Yes.

Just because the plot doesn’t quite come together for The War Games doesn’t mean this is a disaster. As discussed, the colourisation is top quality, and the 90-minute duration a straitjacket that constrains the decisions made.

There is so much potential for this range, and fingers crossed they’ll be back again next year with another classic given a modern makeover.

More The War Games In Colour

The story will be available to buy on DVD, Blu-ray and Steelbook.

Amazon has them available for order (this is an affiliate link)