Doctor Who: The War Games (1969)

The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Zoe (Wendy Padbury) accidentally land the TARDIS in No Man's Land between the German and British trenches during the First World War.

They are quickly captured by the British and a rather zealous commander sentences The Doctor to be shot by a firing squad as a spy.

The TARDIS crew begin to notice strange anachronisms in their surroundings and aided by a nurse (Jane Sherwin) and Lieutenant Carstairs (David Savile) escape through a fog bank where they are immediately set upon by Roman legionnaires.

Eventually The Doctor discovers they are not actually on Earth, but on an alien planet where a nameless race have been kidnapping human soldiers from throughout history and running them through a series of "war games" to shape their own galaxy-conquering army.

The aliens have been able to carry out their cross-time kidnappings with the assistance of technology supplied by a rogue Time Lord who they call The War Chief (Edward Brayshaw).

Although the aliens claim that Earth men are perfect for their "experiment" because they are the "most vicious", this is just another unexplained example of an alien race's fascination with Earth and its history.

Yes, I know this is only a TV programme and some production executives believe it needs to be Earth-centric to hold a mainstream audience, but within the context of the story, the fascination with our planet for both The Doctor and his assorted enemies has never really been tackled head-on.

The War Games is an important Doctor Who story for several reasons, but mainly because it introduces us to The Doctor's people, The Time Lords, for the first time. In the last episode, The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe actually travel to Gallifrey, although it is never named.

Even with its incredible four hour, 10-episode duration, the story is compelling enough to hold the attention (the only longer stories to date have been The Daleks' Masterplan at 12 episodes and The Trial Of A Time Lord at 14 episodes, although most people consider that to be four seperate stories anyway).

The War Chief is a fascinating character; not only does he recognise The Doctor (despite his 'new face', and The Doctor seems to know him by sight as well), so presumably they had some connection back on Gallifrey, although this is never discussed.

And while he is apparently killed towards the end of the story, which is very close to arrival of The Time Lord delegation (one of them is Chancellor Goth, who we would next see in The Deadly Assassin), presumably he would have been able to regenerate - although I don't know if this has ever been picked up by anyone in any of the spin-off media.

Special mention also must be made of charismatic Philip Madoc's performance as the War Lord, the overall commander of the aliens. Madoc, of course, also appeared in The Krotons, The Power of Kroll and most memorably as Dr Solon in The Brain Of Morbius.

The last story shown in black and white, The War Games also marked Patrick Troughton's last regular appearance as The Doctor, although he would return in The Two Doctors, The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors - with any continuity issues this threw up dealt with by The Season 6B Theory!

Not only does The War Games explain why The Doctor stole The TARDIS and went on the run from The Time Lords, but also ends with his exile to Earth and forced regeneration (which concludes in Spearhead From Space, when he appears as Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor).

With the anonymous aliens only kidnapping humans - and none from later than 1917 - this story was a chance for the BBC's costume drama department to shine and, as usual, everything looks button-perfect authentic. Even the subdued strangeness of the alien control section (with its odd-shaped magnets as control levers and plastic shower curtains for walls) retains a certain degree of verisimilitude.

If the story has a fault, it is simply its duration. There is no getting round the fact that The War Games is overly long, probably far too long for the casual viewer, but as a point of monumental change in the direction of Doctor Who it remains a crucial story that delivers a lot of facts and just as many plot hooks for the future of the show.