I am writing this blog post for the single purpose of sharing this screenshot with you:
| Zoe, played by Wendy Padbury, is guarded by a soldier in the grooviest room ever |
Isn’t that fabulous? I was watching on my laptop and my finger just sort of reached out of its own accord and stabbed “Print Screen.”
It’s a still from The War Games. Not WarGames (which I think of as that-movie-by-the-same-people-who-did-Sneakers-only-more-famous-and-not-as-good). No, this is “The” War Games, the old Doctor Who serial. It’s 250 minutes long, black-and-white, made on a budget that’s probably less than my month’s rent, and, if the commentaries are to be believed, written at such speed that script pages were being turned in as it was filmed.
It is also, surprisingly, very good.
It’s got strong pacing, a great supporting cast, a deliciously creepy villain, semi-not-awful action scenes, lots of twists and betrayals, and of course, the unforgettable last episode that I will not spoil for you in case you have somehow managed to avoid spoilers from a TV show that originally aired in 1969.
(I’m assuming you can ignore the actors putting on truly painful American/Mexican/Russian accents. And the plot would melt like tissue if you breathed on it, of course, but what are you expecting here? It’s Doctor Who, not Agatha Christie.)
Oh, and then there are the time machines that are controlled by fiddling a set of kids’ geometric magnets around a metal board. Love those.
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| I’ll never look at a magnetboard the same way again |
This was the second episode I’ve seen featuring Patrick Troughton, whom (as the Brits would say) I think I rather fancy. He’s such an interestingly ugly man.
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| He seems to have a charmed life. —The Security Chief |
Is it wrong to fancy someone who died when you were two?
…No, don’t answer that.
Cheers!
Emma
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