This morning marked my viewing the final episodes of The War Games, and by extension the final episodes of the Patrick Troughton era, the final monochrome episodes, and the end of the 60's. On top of that, I very nearly broke the 270 barrier weighing in at 270.1 lbs. That is a new record low for this project, and I am within three tenths of a pound of dropping below my lowest recorded weight of the twenty-first century. It appears that I may well hit that milestone tomorrow morning, fittingly with an explosion of color as Doctor Who enters the 70's with a new Doctor, a new companion, and a new basic premise for the show. But before then, there were still two last episodes to get through today.

Let's talk about that.

The War Games - Episodes 9 & 10

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

The ninth episode effectively wraps up the story's conflict, with the Doctor rapidly freeing all of the rebel leaders and with the Security Chief finally proving to the War Lord that the War Chief has long been plotting to take control of the universe at his employer's expense. The really interesting bit, though, is that due to some scientific mumbo-jumbo it turns out that the SIDRATs are all going to fail before much longer, and as such cannot be used to safely transport back home all of the thousands upon thousands of humans kidnapped to fight in the titular War Games. With no other options remaining, the Doctor summons the Time Lords from his still-unnamed home world even though he knows it means the end of his own journeys. Still, he tries to escape at the last moment with Jamie and Zoe, struggling to enter the TARDIS which is now surrounded by a Time Lord-generate force field.

The tenth episode is where we finally get our first look at the ruling Time Lords, and visit the Doctor's home world. First there is a chase sequence, with the Doctor repeatedly jumping from danger to danger in the TARDIS, but before long they are all dragged back for trial. Before the Doctor's tribunal, however, the Time Lords make a very rare intervention by putting the War Lord himself on trial. He tries a wee bit of treachery, but of course fails badly and is sent back to his planet which the Time Lords have now quarantined. As for the Doctor, he actually manages to convince the Time Lord council that his actions in fighting evil across the universe have not been entirely without merit. That being the case, they elect to send Jamie and Zoe back to their own times and wipe them of all memories of anything but their very first encounter with the Doctor. Then the Doctor is forced into a new regeneration and exiled to 1970's Earth, with all knowledge on how to operate the TARDIS wiped from his mind. And with that, we say goodbye to the Second Doctor, my Doctor, and we face an unknown future.

For me, it is quite literally unknown. For whatever reason, I have just never really been interested in the Third Doctor. As such, to my recollection the only entire stories I have ever seen from that era are the tenth anniversary special The Three Doctors, and the next following episode The Carnival of Monsters (which is truly excellent, and I am very much looking forward to watching it again soon). So for me, the next five seasons and twenty four episodes will be almost entirely new. There are a couple where I read the Target novelization back in the day, and a few others where I am familiar with the basic story, but on the whole tomorrow marks the beginning of a grand new adventure IN LIVING COLOR!

STATS:

Doctor(s): Second
Companion(s): Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe Heriot
Episode(s): The War Games - Episodes 9 & 10
Steps Walked: 6,923 today, 861,378 total
Distance Walked: 3.57 miles today, 418.14 miles total
Weight: 271.62 lbs (five day moving average), net change -35.68 lbs