I do like this 2nd version of the theme with its sparkly spangle effects laid over the original, although I believe Delia didn't approve.
And the title sequence that goes with it. No problem with face-in-the-titles here. Although Trout always looks like he's got three eyes when his face starts to fade in.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly Plus, high as a kite expression.The season's streak of unique title cards continues. Love these little intro bits they used to do, like the moon in The Seeds of Death or the volcanoes for Inferno.
Do you think Tez and Mac are trying to tout themselves as "Big Guns" with this title card? 😜
KeithSay@50dw50 they do give a story a more special feeling. the opening shots indicate that this is not going to be a comedy!EPISODE ONE (19th April 1969)
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly The beginning of the end for my favourite TARDIS team.The TARDIS materializes in a landscape of undulating mud, of utter desolation. A smashing bit of direction from David Maloney as we see the materialization in the reflection of a muddy puddle. A beautifully modern touch.
James Cooray Smith@thejimsmith Putting a lot of film up front so we believe in a wider world when later stuck in a tiny VT studio frequent Maloney tactic.Jamie McCrimmon steps out of the TARDIS and is soon up to his ankles in mud.
Zoe suggests they've landed on Earth, and the Doctor seems in agreement that it very much looks like it.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly "Oh, look, mud!"
Doreen Kelly@DKellyCrafts A kilt is always good to see.As they hike up a nearby hillside, the Doctor whistles a jaunty tune.
Yeah, Jamie, stick your fingers on the "wee spikes", you can't see they're sharp, can you?
The Doctor's suspicions are aroused by the barbed wire.
He explains that they're back in history, in "one of the most terrible times on the planet Earth."
His suspicions are confirmed when a shell explodes on the hill behind them.
It's a creeping barrage, and it's creeping in their direction!
The friends take cover in the crater from a previous attack.
As the explosions and machine gun fire subside, an army ambulance trundles out of the smoke.
The friends are astounded to be greeted by a friendly face when the ambulance driver, Lady Jennifer Buckingham, calls over to them.
"I say! Are you alright?" Guessing she's not one of the Germans, then.
KeithSay@50dw50 she is a great character, its a pity she was not in it until the end
Lady Jennifer tells them they're lost between the lines. She'd been heading for Ypres.
They're soon captured by Germans, though.
Doreen Kelly@DKellyCrafts I thought I was watching The Empty Child for a second thereThe German soldiers commandeer the ambulance.
They don't get very far, though, before they're ambulance-jacked a second time.
Now the Germans have been captured by the British. Blimey this story's mere minutes old; they've been captured twice. Bet there won't be too much of this over the next 10 episodes.
Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly "Capture And Escape - The Epic Miniseries" This small band of men are led by Lieutenant Carstairs, who directs them back to the nearby trenches.
It's okay, they're in Blackadder's trench. He'll have a cunning plan to get them back to the TARDIS. (Not really, this is Major Barrington).
The soldiers in the trench provide covering fire for the ambulance's arrival.
Carstairs reports in, with "a couple of prisoners".
Jamie is understandably keen to get back to the TARDIS, but the Doctor is cautious.
Carstairs reports in.
Barrington is amazed to hear that Carstairs found civilians in No Man's Land.
The Doctor explains to Jamie that this is one of the worst wars in human history, and that at that time trenches like this one ran the length of Europe.
Detecting a lull in hostilities, the Doctor decides now might be the best time to make a break for it.
Just as they're about to go over the top, though, the sergeant collars them.
The Sergeant stops them in their tracks and hauls them off to see the Major.
Barrington receives orders from the General, Smythe, to go over the top at 0400.
Carstairs is having some difficulty remembering how long he's been out there, but that doesn't necessarily seem strange in itself. "Seems like forever, doesn't it?"
Barrington wants to know why the travellers needed rescuing from a bomb crater in the first place, and finds their explanations vague.
The Major recognises a missing one of the Highlanders when he sees one.
Zoe protests at being told that the front line is no place for a young lady, and the Doctor asks that they be allowed on their way.
Barrington is not inclined to agree when the Sergeant informs him that the travellers were making for enemy lines, and decides to transfer them to General Smythe for further interrogation.
Love the music that repeats throughout this.
Stealexanderuk@stealexanderuk I had a go at recreating that music sting for a fan audio. :)Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly No sense that they're trying to eke things out. Terrific pace.General Smythe's command post is based out of un grand Chateau. He's officiously sending men to their deaths when his adjutant, Ransom, brings the news that there are suspicious civilians on their way over.
Smythe is so looking forward to the interrogation he marches off to his office without his cuppa.
Once Smythe is in his office he crosses to a painting on the wall...
...but is interrupted by the Sergeant Major bringing his forgotten tea. The hapless Sergeant Major is given his marching orders.
There's an unexpected twist - General Smythe Skypes some unseen reinforcement store and orders up "at least 5000 specimens".
KeithSay@50dw50 for such a long story there is no padding, love the space TVSmythe identifies his location as the "1917 zone". Are there other such "zones", then? Who exactly is Smythe?
Ruther@Ruther2 perhaps they needed to reassure viewers early on that this wasn't a historical but it's odd they give the game away so early. The Doctor's pleas fall on deaf ears, with Barrington unwilling to let him go in case he's a spy.
The Major doesn't take too kindly to being called a "Sassenach" by Jamie, either!
Lady Jennifer tries to calm things, assuring Jamie that she's sure he'll get a fair chance to explain himself at the Chateau. Wouldn't get your hopes up!
Lady J wishes the Doctor good luck as they're bundled off.
The friends wearily march into the Chateau.
They're processed by Ransom while Jamie "stands at ease" right on the Doctor's toe.
Ransom gleefully informs them that the General wants to question them personally. The Doctor's sure they'll be able to explain everything to his satisfaction. Want to bet?
Oddly, though, Smythe doesn't appear to be in his room.
Improvising, Ransom orders them taken to the cells.
The Doctor smells something fishy, and it's not Baldrick's apple crumble.
This means more marching, and - much to Zoe's annoyance - more shouting.
As soon as they're gone, Ransom glances uneasily at the General's quarters.
As Carstairs pours the tea, Lady Jennifer tells him that she's having trouble remembering things, like where her hospital actually is.
Carstairs is a slightly limper, posher version of Steven Taylor. Or maybe Mike Yates' grandad. I don't mean he's not great - he is - but it's that sort of part. A bit nice but dim, though nowhere near as dim as George!
Ruther@Ruther2 yes, trying to chat up a dolly bird over a cup of cocoa clearly runs in the family.Carstairs ventures that "Memory's a funny thing out here. Can't always remember things myself. Silly things. Names, dates, how long I've been here. Sometimes wonder if I've got a touch of the old shell shock..."
MAW Holmes@MAW_H Not so much shell shock as missile mist... Barrington receives a call from the Chateau informing him that they're all needed as witnesses. Once they've got the ambulance out of the mud, they can all go together.
At the Chateau, the heavy oak door and solid stone of the cellar are proving a very effective prison.
The Doctor is happy enough to wait until they can clear up the misunderstanding with the General. "I expect he's a very nice chap."
Smythe exits his room, and Ransom informs him that the travellers are in the cellar.
When Ransom explains that he couldn't find the General earlier, Smythe slowly and calmly reaches for a pair of spectacles...
The specs have an obviously hypnotic effect as Ransom parrots back Smythe's insistence that he was asleep when Ransom checked.
KeithSay@50dw50 i love the hypno spectacles such a simple but effective idea.Ransom switches straight back into his report without batting an eyelid, explaining that Barrington thinks Jamie is a deserter, and that the Doctor tried to make off for the enemy lines.
Smythe has convened a court martial; the charge is espionage, the punishment for which is death!
KeithSay@50dw50 that never occurred to me, a trial bookends the story, clever that!
Smythe uses the hypno specs to convince Barrington that he knows Ransom from school, for... reasons.
Smythe reaches for his copy of the King's Regulations so they can get this show (trial) on the road!
Ruther@Ruther2 See you in court! 
When the Doctor moves forward to greet Major Barrington, Smythe barks him back into line. They haven't exactly hit it off.
Although Smythe says they'll have a chance to be heard, the fact that the whole area is under martial law doesn't seem to bode well.
"The prisoners waylaid an ambulance in No Man's Land..." Well, that's wrong for a kick off, isn't it?
Zoe tells him as much and the Doctor demands to know the charges against them. For Jamie, it's desertion. For him and Zoe, espionage.
"This is monstrous!" exclaims the Doctor, only slightly mollified by the promise he can ask his own questions of the witnesses.
"Certainly, we wish to give you every opportunity to explain yourselves," says Smythe...
...before cutting across any of the Doctor's questions with a terse "There's no need for that. It's in the statement." Carstairs begins to look uncomfortable.
Zoe is outraged when Smythe says the Court will now consider its verdict. "You don't really call this a trial, do you?"
Jamie's complaint that he hasn't even been asked a question is dismissed outright. "There's nothing to ask you. You are a deserter!" Nothing like an open mind!
And with that they're marched away.
Out come the hypno specs again as Smythe nobbles the jury.
"Yes, they're guilty. Knew it as soon as I looked at them."
With that, the TARDIS team are trundled back in to hear the bad news.
Smythe pronounces them all guilty to the surprise of precisely no one.
Jamie insists he's no deserter "I was never in your rotten army."
Zoe is sentenced to 10 years penal servitude for spying.
It's the firing squad for the Doctor.
The Doctor is denied a right of appeal...
...and told he'll be shot at dawn!
Lady Jennifer is able to persuade Ransom that Zoe shouldn't be kept in the cells overnight, and volunteers to be responsible for her.
The Doctor says his goodbyes to Zoe, kissing her forehead as if it really could be their final parting.
Zoe appeals to Carstairs but he's powerless.
Zoe can't believe they're actually going to execute the Doctor on so flimsy evidence.
Ransom just gets on with shuffling paper, with the idea of an execution seemingly water off a duck's back.
The Doctor is cellar-bound once again.
At least he'll get a last meal.
When the Doctor asks Sgt. Major Burns how long he's been at the front, it seems he too - much to his annoyance - is having memory troubles.
This memory loss is definitely a thing.
Ramsom gives the cellar key to Smythe, and reports that all's prepared for the tomorrow's execution.
Once Ransom has left, the General stashes the keys under his pillow, turns out the light, and seemingly lies down for a kip.
Outside, Zoe waits for Lady J to nod off then sets out for a mooch.
Doreen Kelly@DKellyCrafts Never under-estimate a woman.She creeps into Smythe's room - but now there's no-one there.
Perhaps by instinct, Zoe senses something up with the painting and finds Smythe's communication device.
It doesn't take her long to find the cellar keys either.
The Doctor hears someone approaching outside the cellar, and hides behind the door.
"Oh, what a nice and clever girl you are!" he says...
...but his thoughts immediately turn to rescuing Jamie.
They don't even make it out of the cellar, though, as Ransom has come to collect the Doctor for his appointment with the firing squad.
No one is more surprised than the Doctor to find that he has not been shot at all.
In fact, it's one of the firing squad that's been shot, by a marksman aiming from the upper floor of a nearby outbuilding.
Zoe avails herself of the opportunity to untie the Doctor and the pair make their escape.
Not for the last time in this serial, the caption card announcing the episode number comes at a natural lull in the action rather than necessarily at the start of any new material.
There's a sound not unlike the materialization of the TARDIS, and a large metal box appears on the other side of the room!
KeithSay@50dw50 the spacey aspects in the story come into this far quicker than i remember. for the fans at the time all this Tardis stuff must have seemed to exciting and epic.Once again, Ransom puts his foot in it, barging in to report the Doctor's escape and earning himself a tongue-lashing from the General.
It's an opportunity for Smythe to remind the audience of his hypno-specs trick from the previous week's proceedings.
With Ransom instructed that the General is off to an important meeting (which technically is not untrue), Smythe departs in his intriguing TARDIS-like travel machine.
The box dematerializes in much the same way as the TARDIS, although if anything perhaps a little more smoothly than the Doctor's ramshackle police box tends to do.
With the box gone, Ransom admonishes his own 'forgetfulness': "Oh, of course, he's gone to that meeting!"
Jamie is just complaining about the lack of breakfast being provided when the guards throw in another prisoner.
Astonishingly it's an English Redcoat from Jamie's own time.
The Redcoat thinks it's 1745!
🍻🍻SimonG💜💜@SHGB001 17:45?? Jamie will think its Tea Time already and demand yet more grub Having retreated to a safe distance, the Doctor and Zoe check out the guarding arrangements for Jamie's temporary accommodation, once again using the Doctor's mini-telescope disguised as a recorder.
When a car approaches, the Doctor rushes into the road and flags it down.
The Doctor bluffs the driver into thinking that he's some sort of government official who's been awaiting collection.
The Redcoat recounts to Jamie how he got lost in the Highlands. A mist descended and he found himself in an unfamiliar world, with guns bigger than he'd ever seen and carts moving along without horses.
Jamie determinedly tells the Redcoat that he's going to help him. It doesn't look like he's going to take no for an answer.
The Doctor and Zoe arrive to wreak at the Commandant's office, with the Doctor's bombastic complaints causing Gorton to spit out his tea in surprise.
The Doctor says he's an Examiner from the War Office. He pretended to be an Examiner in his first story too.
KeithSay@50dw50 excellent, do you think these were deliberate parallels or just happy coincidence?
In this case, I suspect an ad lib from Trout, who may have consciously or subconsciously remembered the titled of Examiner.
The Doctor claims that Zoe is his secretary and they've come to inspect the military prison. When Gorton wants to see some ID he just shouts him down.
Ransom sets about recruiting Carstairs into his search teams and asks Lady Jennifer to co-ordinate by phone from the Chateau.
Ransom is somewhat distracted when recalling that the General is at his 'meeting'. Carstairs can't help but agree with Lady Jennifer's sentiment that she rather hopes the travellers escape.
Jamie and the Redcoat stage a scrap to lure in the guards and overpower them.
"You fight very well... for a Redcoat."
Back at the Chateau, Lady Jennifer voices her misgivings about the Court Martial. Carstairs isn't overly fussed on that score: "Oh well, military justice, you know. It's not like the Old Bailey."
But Lady J has also started to recall how she got here, driving through some fog.
Carstairs also has a recollection of mist descending around the time when his own memories get hazy. His theory is that it could have been some sort of gas invented by the Germans.
At the Commandant's office, Gorton is explaining the security arrangements, but the Doctor is more interested in the list of prisoners.
The Doctor wants to speak to the latest arrival, a "Scottish deserter awaiting return to his regiment".
The phone rings, with news that two prisoners have escaped, the "Scotsman" being one of them.
Jamie and his new friend haven't got very far before a guard (played by none other than Doctor Who stalwart Pat Gorman!) spots them.
When the lads ignore his instruction to halt, he makes good on his threat, and fires.
Naturally, the Doctor and Zoe are most perturbed to hear that one of the escapees has been shot.
The Doctor gives Gorton a piece of his mind, denouncing the shooting of prisoners as barbaric.
Jamie is safe (phew!) and is dragged into the office, where he's initially slow on the uptake in needing to play into the Doctor's "Examiner" act.
The Doctor appears to have pushed his luck a bit too far, when he suggests General Smythe will want to know about Gorton's men shooting prisoners, as the Commandant agrees and gets straight on the phone.
Zoe cuts him off with a swift vase to the head.
Pausing only to check Gorton is alright, the friends make to escape, only to run straight into Ransom.
Lady Jennifer is just calling out the General's determination to see the Doctor shot when Ransom returns, chuckling at the Doctor's audacity.
Ransom is quick to shoot down any suggestion that the trial wasn't in accordance with King's regulations, though.
Ransom just didn't seem to remember the trial at all.
Back in the cellar once more, the friends try to put things together.
They're most puzzled by the anachronistic Redcoat and the General's communication technology. They don't even know about his hypno specs or knock-off TARDIS yet.
They're surprised to be paid a visit by Carstairs, who holds them at gunpoint and tells them to close the door behind him. What's his game?
Lady Jennifer phones through the news of the recapture to Major Barrington, then stalls Ransom by feigning interest in his woes.
"People don't understand. It's the paperwork, you see. It's quite fantastic how many forms we have to fill in!"
She's got her work cut out just to keep from snoring.
Carstairs wants to hear what the pals have to say, and is willing to give them the chance to prove what they say by checking out the General's "kinematograph".
Ransom is still boring for England, so it's a blessed relief for Lady J when Carstairs calls on an internal phone line.
A wild goose chase is in order for Ransom, so the resourceful Lady J tells him the General has summoned him to the furthest outpost in the sector.
She gives Carstairs the all clear and watches as Ransom's car drives away.
Carstairs arrives with the time travellers, and Zoe directs them to the General's room.
There's a snag, though: Carstairs and Lady Jennifer can't see anything there when the scanner screen is pointed out to them.
The Doctor urges them to concentrate, and sure enough the communication unit fades into view.
Zoe explains that the device is like a telephone with pictures, and Lady Jennifer asks the salient question: "What's on the other end?"
What's on the other end is General Smythe and a technician in a dark visor, watching them through a glass map divided into triangular sectors.
Realizing they've been rumbled, the group have to get away. Carstairs and Lady Jennifer will be in danger now, so they have to come too.
While Lady Jennifer goes to start the ambulance, Carstairs will nab some maps and then distract the sentries.
Ransom is slightly dubious, having been given the runaround by Lady Jennifer, but lets them go.
The group make their getaway in the ambulance.
Smythe's not-TARDIS returns, and he steps out to check his communicator has been hidden again.
He chews out the inept Ransom for falling for Carstairs' trick...
...and has him issue orders along the command posts to look out for the fleeing ambulance.
Ransom works out their position and pinpoints where they could cut them off.
Smythe, however, says there's no need, and orders a creeping barrage be laid on to kill them all. With two women on board, that's a bit too much for Ransom.
"A very good idea, sir. Creeping barrage - stop them dead!"
"That's just how we want them: Dead!"
The shell fire forces the ambulance to make a stop, and Carstairs joins his passengers in the back to go over their purloined maps.
They're still seven miles from the German lines, which means it's Smythe shelling them.
As the ambulance moves into another sector, it appears to fade away!
When a mysterious fog descends, Lady Jennifer starts to feel as though something is pushing her back so the Doctor takes the wheel.
The ambulance reappears on a deserted - and peaceful - country road.
Having seemingly reached sanctuary, the escapees take the opportunity to stretch their legs.
Carstairs makes sure Lady Jennifer has recovered.
There's nothing for miles around, although there is a faint noise in the distance that seems to be getting closer.
The noise is a phalanx of Roman soldiers racing towards them! Back to the ambulance, quick!
Start the engine!
Carstairs frantically tries to get the unco-operative engine to start...
...as the Romans rage towards them.
They're cutting it fine, here.
The Romans don't spare the horses. Are the friends done for? Cliffhanger!
EPISODE THREE (3rd May 1969)
The engine starts in the nick of time! Hurrah!
The friends reverse back up the road, and the ambulance fades away, just before the Romans close them down.
The Romans are astounded.
The ambulance returns to the relative safety of 1917, where at least the shelling has stopped.
The friends decide they need to take a closer look at the maps they pinched.
What they need is a map that covers all the time zones.
They'll have to go back to the Chateau.
Carstairs makes a half-hearted attempt to claim he's re-captured the Doctor and company, but ends up having to turn his pistol on the hapless Adjutant.
Jamie sets about tying up and gagging Ransom.
The Doctor makes a beeline for the General's safe.
With little time for fannying about the Doctor sends Carstairs to find him some explosives with which to blow the door off.
Carstairs suggests hanging a grenade on the front of the safe, which the Doctor says might blow up the rest of the room but would be unlikely to affect the safe.
That's not to say the grenade's contents might not have its' uses.
The Doctor carefully extracts the detonator.
He then empties the explosive powder onto a scrap of paper...
...before funnelling it into the safe's lock and arranging some fuse wire, while Carstairs has to subdue Ransom again, after he's managed to dislodge his gag and call for help.
Lieutenant Crane must have heard some of the commotion as he's arrived to ask after Ransom, having found Zoe and Lady J hiding in the ambulance.
Unaware of the hitch outside, the Doctor and Jamie light the fuse.
Carstairs is not having much joy persuading Crane to leave things to him.
Too late, Jamie and the Doctor realize there's someone outside.
Crane finally makes to leave.
It's too late to put the fuse out!
"Cheerio!" BOOM!
Crane rushes back in only to find himself at gunpoint.
Jamie's bandaging skills are called upon once more.
The 'master' map shows them all the time zones: 1917, Roman, American Civil War, Crimea, 30 Years, Russo-Japanese, Greek, Boer, Peninsular, English Civil and Mexican Civil war zones.
They're barely on their way before they're captured by German soldiers. Again.
Carstairs feigns injury to keep up the pretense that they're on an errand of mercy.
The Germans direct them back to their trench.
Jamie doesn't really see the point in keeping up the pretense that Carstairs is wounded, but Zoe points out it's probably the only thing keeping them out of a prison camp.
The Doctor has to account for himself to Leutnant Lucke, and when he won't take "the Doctor" for a name, it's "John Smith" again.
The Doctor tries to tell him they were lost, but Lucke can't believe that a bunch of civilians would just accidentally cross the lines.
"Admit it, you are spies!"
Lucke advises the Doctor (at gunpoint) to tell the truth.
Jamie and Zoe are completely overwhelmed by the horrors of early 20th Century warfare.
Lucke is having a hard time believing the Doctor's explanations. "Other planets? A time machine? The girl is from the future and the boy is from the past?" Sums up the season nicely!
Lucke sends for Jamie and Zoe, and the Doctor encourages them to be absolutely truthful so as to back him up.
"You were fighting the Redcoats in 1745? That ambulance, was it going to a hospital or to a lunatic asylum?" Let's just say that Lucke is less than convinced.
Exasperated, the Doctor decides the only way to convince him is to show him some advanced technology - the sonic screwdriver!
Lucke keeps his hand on his revolver, as the Doctor remotely removes the screw in the hand grip...
...before replacing it.
Lucke is suitably impressed.
It's at this moment that his superior, Kapitan Von Weich, enters the trench.
Von Weich takes the Leutnant to one side.
Hang about, this routine with the monocle is ringing a Hypno Specs shaped bell.
"They are English spies! We must hold them! I'll talk to the General about it."
Lucke parrots back that the Doctor and his friends are spies, much to their disbelief.
The Doctor will have to go through the whole sonic screwdriver palava again.
Out...
...and in...
...and pinching his pistol. At least he's apologetic about it.
In an alien war room, an alarm sounds, and General Smythe stands to welcome the new arrival, who is preceded by a squad of visor-wearing, black-clad, guards.
The man with the epically sculpted facial hair and ostentatious bling is the War Chief. He tells Smythe that the War Lord is pleased with their work but that further progress is expected.
Smythe reports that some prisoners in his zone escaped, and that they have claimed to be time travellers.
This piques the War Chief's interest more than Smythe bargained for.
The War Chief countermands the order to have the prisoners shot on sight just as Von Weich reports in, telling Smythe that the escapees will probably head back to his lines. Smythe tries to point score but the War Chief is quick to point out that they also escaped from him.
The War Chief is quite clear that he wants them captured alive, but Smythe's very next orders to the time zones is that the ambulance is to be treated as a hostile vehicle and destroyed at all costs.
Unusually, we hear the War Chief's inner thoughts: "Time travellers? I wonder..."
Despite Smythe's apparent insubordination, the ambulance isn't headed for the British lines, or even the 1917 zone at all. They're heading down another road, watched over by an American Civil War soldier.
The Doctor and his friends work out that it's 1862 where they are now.
The lookout starts shooting and Carstairs returns fire.
At least they know they're going the right way, even if the road is blocked.
This tree didn't fall on its own, though. As soon as the group are on the road, the American soldiers open fire.
A gunfight ensues, Carstairs singlehandedly taking out their attackers while the others lie low.
Carstairs is the better marksmen, but the Americans have the numbers.
As the attackers get closer, he's forced to tackle them hand to hand.
While the others try to remove the blockade, they too come under attack, forcing Jamie to get handy with his fists too.
With the tree moved, they can continue on their way, but Lady Jennifer floors it before Carstairs can see off the opposition so he does his best to hold them back while the others get away.
They only make it a bit further to, some woods, before running out of petrol.
They'll have to continue on foot.
Smythe and Von Weich are at the War Map, planning the next moves of their WW1 recreation.
They're like a couple of psychotic kids.
The War Chief is less than impressed. The ambush that was designed to capture the Doctor and his friends only came away with Carstairs as a consolation prize.
Von Weich notes that these humans are vary loyal to one another in stressful situations, a quality for which the War Chief expresses admiration. It won't do Carstairs too much good, though - he'll be brought back and "reprocessed".
In the American Civil War zone, Jamie finds a barn, and ushers his friends in to take shelter from their pursuers. it'll do for the night, anyway.
The Doctor is telling Jamie that they've no alternative than to keep on heading for the blank space at the centre of the map, when the sound of a time machine materializing begins to fill the air, forcing them to hide.
They dive for cover, and a machine like the one in Smythe's quarters appears.
They watch as a group of Union soldiers pile out.
Once the soldiers have left the barn, they emerge to have a look at the machine.
The Doctor is keen to get a look inside and goes on ahead, closely followed by Zoe. Jamie turns back at the sound of gunfire.
As Lady Jennifer cranes her neck to see where the gunfire is coming from, the machine's door slides shut and it begins to fade away!
Jamie rushes towards the fading machine, but is too late. The Doctor and Zoe are gone! Cliffhanger!
EPISODE FOUR (10th May 1969)
In a landing bay, a technician operates the controls to bring in the travelling machine.
They're spotted making a break for it, and a fire fight ensues. Harper keeps Jamie and Lady Jennifer covered while they escape through a hole in the planks.
Harper himself is prevented from leaving by the return of Von Weich.
Von Weich adopts his monocle in order to extract Jamie and Lady J's destination.
KeithSay@50dw50 great world building!
Jamie and Lady Jennifer have become separated, and the young Scotsman is confronted by a cavalry rider on a hillside.
They're ushered into a lecture room by one of the guards.
KeithSay@50dw50 some of those alien guards fill out their PVC uniforms better than others!
In the lecture, they listen as the alien scientist spells out that they are abducting soldiers from their own world and time and transplanting them to an artificially constructed environment.
The Scientist goes on to describe how their brainwashing technique has had to be refined to overcome the stronger will exhibited by the "specimens" forming resistance groups in the time zones.
Chris@KosmicKris I love how this story really rattles along. Considering it's a behemoth of a tale, you never feel it's dragging.
Chris@KosmicKris this is Terrance Dicks showing himself to be a real craftsman. Hulke's raw material fashioned by Dick's skill and scheming.
Like the preceding couple of episodes, this starts with a "new" reprise.
Zoe is saved by the arrival of the Scientist, who speaks to Carstairs as if he's a disobedient puppy. "Lieutenant, we mustn't kill her."
Back at the barn, the resistance are keeping a beady eye on their own prisoner, Von Weich.
It may only be a temporary stay of execution for the alien, as Harper is only committed to holding off until their leader, a man called Russell, arrives to decide what to do with him.
Having seen new troops piling out of the barn at regular intervals, Harper believes there must be a tunnel somewhere within.
Although he's seen many strange things with his own eyes, he's not prepared to believe Jamie and Lady Jennifer when they describe machines that appear from thin air.
A Yorkshire-accented Redcoat tells Harper that as there's nothing here they should move out and kill the prisoner before they leave. Harper grapples with him to wrest the rifle from his grip.
This turns into quite the wrestling match, as the rest of the resistance keep out of it, letting the two men fight it out between them.
Jamie and Lady Jennifer decide to make themselves scarce...
...but proceedings are brought to a halt by the arrival of Russell, a Boer War soldier, who fires his pistol into the air to stop the squabbling pair.
Jamie suddenly spots Von Weich making a dash for a panel in the barn wall and tackles him as the communicator is revealed, confirming what Jamie has been telling them.
The Security Chief gives it a bit of 'I'm asking the questions'. He's not the most imaginative of interrogators.
I should like a hat like that.
Using his interrogation device, the Security Chief wants to know who Zoe is.
He's convinced that she's from the resistance...
...and refuses to believe that she was born in the 21st Century.
The Security chief decides on a different tactic - showing her mug shots from his archive of resistance forces so she can pick out the Doctor for him.
The Doctor is still on the loose.
He's delighted to find himself at the processing room, where the Scientist is working on Carstairs again. When the Scientist appears ready to raise the alarm, he waves away his concerns by saying that the War Chief was only after Zoe.
He says he only ran to try to catch Zoe, but has come back because he's so interested in the Scientist's work.
The Scientist seems to buy it, and immediately starts leaking information about the grand plan like a sieve again. Just doesn't learn, this one. He doesn't know the exact time table of the plan, though.
He's following up on the Doctor's earlier suggestion, by
de-programming Carstairs.
The Scientist confirms that Carstairs will retain all his memories once de-programmed.
Carstairs recovers swiftly enough to overpower the Scientist and subdue him with his own machine.
The Doctor breaks it to Carstairs that he's been brought to the aliens' War Centre.
"Better leave him on simmer!"
The War Chief enquires as to whether Zoe had anything out of the ordinary to say, which the Security Chief denies.
A technician arrives to report the emergency contact from the American Civil War Zone, and the War Chief leaves to deal with it, commanding the Security Chief to come along and telling him that dealing with Zoe can wait.
Carstairs and the Doctor creep about, narrowly avoiding the Security Chief's departure as they search for Zoe.
The Doctor blusters his way into the Security Room, allowing Carstairs to sneak up behind Zoe's guard and knock him out.
It's not long before he figures out how the contraption works.
Zoe goes on to explain that the Security Chief wanted information about "the resistance", and the Doctor becomes very interested in the faces he sees.
There are apparently resistance forces in every war zone. This is a bigger problem for the aliens than the Doctor first realized.
Thanks to her photographic memory, Zoe can remember all the names and faces of those identified as resistance members. If the Doctor can track them down, they can be organized into one big army!
Their first step will have to be getting back to the war zones.
The Security Chief orders a squad of guards to the Civil War barn to investigate the reported emergency.
The Doctor and his friends have to dodge the guards but have to follow them to the landing bay.
They watch as the squad disembarks in one of the alien time travel machines.
Harper has posted sentries on outposts all around the barn, which, as Lady Jennifer and Jamie point out, will be bloody useless if the aliens arrive inside the barn in one of their travel machines.
Told you so.
The guards emerge and gun down Harper with their energy weapons.
He clutches his head, wracked with pain, before falling to the floor, dead.
The rest of the resistance fighters capture the guards - and their weapons.
They note that there's not a mark on Harper's body.
And now they have their own travel machine.
The Security Chief believes the emergency call is the result of resistance activity in the American Civil War Zone.
The War Chief is critical of the Security Chief's efforts to tackle the ever growing pockets of resistance fighters.
"When I came to your people I was promised efficiency and co-operation. Without the knowledge I have, this complete venture would be impossible." So the War Chief is not one of them, and the man behind the time travel machines.
All of which does rather beg the Security Chief's question. How *did* he recognize the Doctor earlier?
The Security Chief takes out his considerable frustration on the data cube in his hand, crushing it in his grip.
He'll be even more annoyed when he finds out that Zoe has indeed scarpered.
Jamie urges Russell to take the fight to the alien HQ using the travel machine. Von Weich refuses to confirm or deny that Jamie's plan could work.
As a man of his time, Jamie is less than keen to have Lady Jennifer in the line of fire.
Russell does however have a valid reason for asking her to stay, as he has hundreds of injured men in need of her medical skills.
KeithSay@50dw50 goodbye Lady Jen, pity they write her out
Russell leaves Von Weich under guard and follows Jamie into the travel machine.
Von Weich allows himself a wry smile. After all, he knows what they're heading into.
In the processing room of the War Centre, the Security Chief finds the Scientist, and frees him from the brain-washing machine.
The Security Chief dismisses his guards when the Scientist proposes alerting the War Chief about the Doctor.
The Security Chief has his suspicions about the War Chief's loyalties. When the Scientist points out that only the War Chief knows the secret of time travel, the Security Chief corrects him: "And his people. He is a traitor to his own people. How can we be sure he is not a traitor to us?".
In the War Room, the War Chief is monitoring the fighting when a technician reports a travel machine returning to the landing bay without following the usual protocols.
As suspicious of his "ally" as the Security Chief is of him, the War Chief orders him kept out of the loop, and begins to issue orders directly to the guards.
The Doctor, Zoe and Carstairs hide behind the landing bay control panel to wait for a travel machine to hijack.
A squad of guards piles in and takes aim at the landing bay.
"It looks like somebody important's coming!"
Sure enough, a travel machine arrives, and Jamie cautiously creeps out, revolver in hand.
"It's an ambush!"
The guards open fire, and Jamie collapses, clutching at his head, exactly as we saw Harper do earlier.
Have... have they killed him? Is Jamie dead? Cliffhanger!
TTFN! K.
Next: The War Games - Episodes Six to Ten
The Doctor claims that Zoe is his secretary and they've come to inspect the military prison. When Gorton wants to see some ID he just shouts him down.
Gorton tries to get himself off the hook by offering a cup of tea, but the Doctor tells him to stop wasting time and get on with it.
Ransom sets about recruiting Carstairs into his search teams and asks Lady Jennifer to co-ordinate by phone from the Chateau.
Ransom is somewhat distracted when recalling that the General is at his 'meeting'. Carstairs can't help but agree with Lady Jennifer's sentiment that she rather hopes the travellers escape.
Jamie and the Redcoat stage a scrap to lure in the guards and overpower them.
"You fight very well... for a Redcoat."
Back at the Chateau, Lady Jennifer voices her misgivings about the Court Martial. Carstairs isn't overly fussed on that score: "Oh well, military justice, you know. It's not like the Old Bailey."
But Lady J has also started to recall how she got here, driving through some fog.
Carstairs also has a recollection of mist descending around the time when his own memories get hazy. His theory is that it could have been some sort of gas invented by the Germans.
At the Commandant's office, Gorton is explaining the security arrangements, but the Doctor is more interested in the list of prisoners.
The Doctor wants to speak to the latest arrival, a "Scottish deserter awaiting return to his regiment".
The phone rings, with news that two prisoners have escaped, the "Scotsman" being one of them.
Jamie and his new friend haven't got very far before a guard (played by none other than Doctor Who stalwart Pat Gorman!) spots them.
When the lads ignore his instruction to halt, he makes good on his threat, and fires.
Naturally, the Doctor and Zoe are most perturbed to hear that one of the escapees has been shot.
The Doctor gives Gorton a piece of his mind, denouncing the shooting of prisoners as barbaric.
Jamie is safe (phew!) and is dragged into the office, where he's initially slow on the uptake in needing to play into the Doctor's "Examiner" act.
The Doctor appears to have pushed his luck a bit too far, when he suggests General Smythe will want to know about Gorton's men shooting prisoners, as the Commandant agrees and gets straight on the phone.
Zoe cuts him off with a swift vase to the head.
Pausing only to check Gorton is alright, the friends make to escape, only to run straight into Ransom.
Lady Jennifer is just calling out the General's determination to see the Doctor shot when Ransom returns, chuckling at the Doctor's audacity.
Ransom is quick to shoot down any suggestion that the trial wasn't in accordance with King's regulations, though.
Ransom just didn't seem to remember the trial at all.
Back in the cellar once more, the friends try to put things together.
They're most puzzled by the anachronistic Redcoat and the General's communication technology. They don't even know about his hypno specs or knock-off TARDIS yet.
They're surprised to be paid a visit by Carstairs, who holds them at gunpoint and tells them to close the door behind him. What's his game?
Lady Jennifer phones through the news of the recapture to Major Barrington, then stalls Ransom by feigning interest in his woes.
"People don't understand. It's the paperwork, you see. It's quite fantastic how many forms we have to fill in!"
She's got her work cut out just to keep from snoring.
Carstairs wants to hear what the pals have to say, and is willing to give them the chance to prove what they say by checking out the General's "kinematograph".
Ransom is still boring for England, so it's a blessed relief for Lady J when Carstairs calls on an internal phone line.
A wild goose chase is in order for Ransom, so the resourceful Lady J tells him the General has summoned him to the furthest outpost in the sector.
She gives Carstairs the all clear and watches as Ransom's car drives away.
Carstairs arrives with the time travellers, and Zoe directs them to the General's room.
There's a snag, though: Carstairs and Lady Jennifer can't see anything there when the scanner screen is pointed out to them.
The Doctor urges them to concentrate, and sure enough the communication unit fades into view.
Zoe explains that the device is like a telephone with pictures, and Lady Jennifer asks the salient question: "What's on the other end?"
What's on the other end is General Smythe and a technician in a dark visor, watching them through a glass map divided into triangular sectors.
Realizing they've been rumbled, the group have to get away. Carstairs and Lady Jennifer will be in danger now, so they have to come too.
While Lady Jennifer goes to start the ambulance, Carstairs will nab some maps and then distract the sentries.
When Ransom barges in, Carstairs thinks quickly enough to be holding the group at gunpoint so as to claim they're his prisoners and he's transferring them to the General's custody.
Ransom is slightly dubious, having been given the runaround by Lady Jennifer, but lets them go.
The group make their getaway in the ambulance.
Smythe's not-TARDIS returns, and he steps out to check his communicator has been hidden again.
He chews out the inept Ransom for falling for Carstairs' trick...
...and has him issue orders along the command posts to look out for the fleeing ambulance.
Ransom works out their position and pinpoints where they could cut them off.
Smythe, however, says there's no need, and orders a creeping barrage be laid on to kill them all. With two women on board, that's a bit too much for Ransom.
So out come the Hypno Specs again.
"A very good idea, sir. Creeping barrage - stop them dead!"
"That's just how we want them: Dead!"
The shell fire forces the ambulance to make a stop, and Carstairs joins his passengers in the back to go over their purloined maps.
They're still seven miles from the German lines, which means it's Smythe shelling them.
When a mysterious fog descends, Lady Jennifer starts to feel as though something is pushing her back so the Doctor takes the wheel.
The ambulance reappears on a deserted - and peaceful - country road.
Having seemingly reached sanctuary, the escapees take the opportunity to stretch their legs.
Carstairs makes sure Lady Jennifer has recovered.
There's nothing for miles around, although there is a faint noise in the distance that seems to be getting closer.
The noise is a phalanx of Roman soldiers racing towards them! Back to the ambulance, quick!
Start the engine!
Carstairs frantically tries to get the unco-operative engine to start...
...as the Romans rage towards them.
They're cutting it fine, here.
The Romans don't spare the horses. Are the friends done for? Cliffhanger!
EPISODE THREE (3rd May 1969)
The engine starts in the nick of time! Hurrah!
The friends decide they need to take a closer look at the maps they pinched.
They'll have to go back to the Chateau.
Carstairs makes a half-hearted attempt to claim he's re-captured the Doctor and company, but ends up having to turn his pistol on the hapless Adjutant.
That's not to say the grenade's contents might not have its' uses.
The Doctor carefully extracts the detonator.
He then empties the explosive powder onto a scrap of paper...
...before funnelling it into the safe's lock and arranging some fuse wire, while Carstairs has to subdue Ransom again, after he's managed to dislodge his gag and call for help.
Lieutenant Crane must have heard some of the commotion as he's arrived to ask after Ransom, having found Zoe and Lady J hiding in the ambulance.
Unaware of the hitch outside, the Doctor and Jamie light the fuse.
Carstairs is not having much joy persuading Crane to leave things to him.
Too late, Jamie and the Doctor realize there's someone outside.
It's too late to put the fuse out!
"Cheerio!" BOOM!
Crane rushes back in only to find himself at gunpoint.
Jamie's bandaging skills are called upon once more.
The 'master' map shows them all the time zones: 1917, Roman, American Civil War, Crimea, 30 Years, Russo-Japanese, Greek, Boer, Peninsular, English Civil and Mexican Civil war zones.
They're barely on their way before they're captured by German soldiers. Again.
Carstairs feigns injury to keep up the pretense that they're on an errand of mercy.
The Germans direct them back to their trench.
Jamie doesn't really see the point in keeping up the pretense that Carstairs is wounded, but Zoe points out it's probably the only thing keeping them out of a prison camp.
The Doctor tries to tell him they were lost, but Lucke can't believe that a bunch of civilians would just accidentally cross the lines.
"Admit it, you are spies!"
Lucke advises the Doctor (at gunpoint) to tell the truth.
Jamie and Zoe are completely overwhelmed by the horrors of early 20th Century warfare.
Lucke is having a hard time believing the Doctor's explanations. "Other planets? A time machine? The girl is from the future and the boy is from the past?" Sums up the season nicely!
Lucke sends for Jamie and Zoe, and the Doctor encourages them to be absolutely truthful so as to back him up.
"You were fighting the Redcoats in 1745? That ambulance, was it going to a hospital or to a lunatic asylum?" Let's just say that Lucke is less than convinced.
Exasperated, the Doctor decides the only way to convince him is to show him some advanced technology - the sonic screwdriver!
Lucke keeps his hand on his revolver, as the Doctor remotely removes the screw in the hand grip...
Lucke is suitably impressed.
Von Weich takes the Leutnant to one side.
Hang about, this routine with the monocle is ringing a Hypno Specs shaped bell.
"They are English spies! We must hold them! I'll talk to the General about it."
Lucke parrots back that the Doctor and his friends are spies, much to their disbelief.
The Doctor will have to go through the whole sonic screwdriver palava again.
This piques the War Chief's interest more than Smythe bargained for.
The War Chief is quite clear that he wants them captured alive, but Smythe's very next orders to the time zones is that the ambulance is to be treated as a hostile vehicle and destroyed at all costs.
Unusually, we hear the War Chief's inner thoughts: "Time travellers? I wonder..."
Despite Smythe's apparent insubordination, the ambulance isn't headed for the British lines, or even the 1917 zone at all. They're heading down another road, watched over by an American Civil War soldier.
The Doctor and his friends work out that it's 1862 where they are now.
The lookout starts shooting and Carstairs returns fire.
The Doctor sticks his head out in the open, risking a look at the soldier to confirm the time zone.
At least they know they're going the right way, even if the road is blocked.
This tree didn't fall on its own, though. As soon as the group are on the road, the American soldiers open fire.
A gunfight ensues, Carstairs singlehandedly taking out their attackers while the others lie low.
Carstairs is the better marksmen, but the Americans have the numbers.
As the attackers get closer, he's forced to tackle them hand to hand.
While the others try to remove the blockade, they too come under attack, forcing Jamie to get handy with his fists too.
Carstairs holds off another shooter while Zoe and the Doctor get the job done.
With the tree moved, they can continue on their way, but Lady Jennifer floors it before Carstairs can see off the opposition so he does his best to hold them back while the others get away.
They only make it a bit further to, some woods, before running out of petrol.
They'll have to continue on foot.
Smythe and Von Weich are at the War Map, planning the next moves of their WW1 recreation.
They're like a couple of psychotic kids.
The War Chief is less than impressed. The ambush that was designed to capture the Doctor and his friends only came away with Carstairs as a consolation prize.
In the American Civil War zone, Jamie finds a barn, and ushers his friends in to take shelter from their pursuers. it'll do for the night, anyway.
They watch as a group of Union soldiers pile out.
As Lady Jennifer cranes her neck to see where the gunfire is coming from, the machine's door slides shut and it begins to fade away!
EPISODE FOUR (10th May 1969)
It's another specially recorded reprise.
Jamie and Lady Jennifer are captured by Union Soldiers.
Inside the alien time machine, the Doctor and Zoe begin to explore.
"Who else would have space time machines like the TARDIS?" asks Zoe. The answer is not one the Doctor cares to think about.
In another area is a legion of Roman soldiers, like the ones that attacked them.
The craft is visiting the various time zones one by one, depositing the entranced reinforcements, just like it was doing when they stepped aboard.
Zoe suggests they get off at the next stop, but the Doctor has a better plan: the last stop must be the base it started at...
Jamie and Lady J are having a hard time explaining what an English woman and a Scotsman are doing in the middle of their war.
The barn is soon under attack from Confederate forces.
It's that 5% that are causing them grief, with "Sabotage, murder and subversion. Pockets of resistance building up everywhere." Oh aye?
"Who else would have space time machines like the TARDIS?" asks Zoe. The answer is not one the Doctor cares to think about.
Zoe finds an odd pair of visors in the ship's storage.
The Doctor has made a discovery of his own...
...a battalion of German WW1 soldiers, in a hypnotic trance.
In another area is a legion of Roman soldiers, like the ones that attacked them.
The craft is visiting the various time zones one by one, depositing the entranced reinforcements, just like it was doing when they stepped aboard.
Zoe suggests they get off at the next stop, but the Doctor has a better plan: the last stop must be the base it started at...
Jamie and Lady J are having a hard time explaining what an English woman and a Scotsman are doing in the middle of their war.
Once again, Jamie finds himself suspected of being a spy.
The barn is soon under attack from Confederate forces.
The captives think this might be their opportunity to escape. If Lady Jennifer can reach Jamie's knife, they can free their hands at least.
The Confederates arrive before they can get away, though they do untie them.
It seems like it's out of the frying pan and into the fire, though, as the Confederate Commander is none other than the monocle-wielding Von Weich.
At the alien HQ, a Scientist assures the War Chief that the processing machine only has a 5% failure rate.
It's that 5% that are causing them grief, with "Sabotage, murder and subversion. Pockets of resistance building up everywhere." Oh aye?
"If ever they band together in one organised group, they could cause enough trouble to upset the major plan." Bit on the nose.
Von Weich reports the capture of Jamie and Lady Jennifer, but that the Doctor and Zoe are still at large.
With all the soldiers finally delivered, the Doctor and Zoe wonder if they can get the hang of the controls well enough to track down Jamie.
In a landing bay, a technician operates the controls to bring in the travelling machine.
The Doctor and Zoe cautiously peep out.
The coast is clear so they venture out. An 1800s soldier marches past wearing a visor like the ones Zoe found in the time machine...
The Doctor and Zoe each pop on a pair as a disguise.
Back in the barn, Jamie demands to know how long they'll be kept there. The blond haired soldier, Leroy, tells them that as soon as their Captain has tracked down Jamie and Zoe, all four will be shot as "Yankee spies"!
However, a union soldier, Harper, stealthily infiltrates the barn and frees them.
They're spotted making a break for it, and a fire fight ensues. Harper keeps Jamie and Lady Jennifer covered while they escape through a hole in the planks.
Harper himself is prevented from leaving by the return of Von Weich.
Von Weich adopts his monocle in order to extract Jamie and Lady J's destination.
But here's a twist: Harper puts Von Weich right in his place. "Sorry, Captain, but that stuff doesn't work on me!" He's from the resistance! From a brief mention by the War Chief a few scenes back the story has just added another intriguing layer!
KeithSay@50dw50 great world building!Jamie and Lady Jennifer have become separated, and the young Scotsman is confronted by a cavalry rider on a hillside.
Jamie dives aside at the last minute to evade the attack.
Arming himself with a hefty branch, the resourceful Jamie is able to bring the rider down and nick his horse.
Jamie is soon on his way, with the rider uselessly firing after him.
The Doctor and Zoe make their way through the control centre, which they liken to a university due to the way the accommodation is arranged around lecture rooms.
The Superman disguise seems to work: no-one bats an eyelid at them due to their wacky glasses.
They're ushered into a lecture room by one of the guards.
KeithSay@50dw50 some of those alien guards fill out their PVC uniforms better than others! In the lecture, they listen as the alien scientist spells out that they are abducting soldiers from their own world and time and transplanting them to an artificially constructed environment.
Zoe notes this - it isn't even Earth at all, never mind a different time zone!
He's going to demonstrate re-processing a particularly difficult specimen: Carstairs!
At the Scientist's instruction, Carstairs looks around him describing his unfamiliar surroundings. He clearly clocks the Doctor, who frantically gestures for his silence.
The Scientist sets up Carstairs to give him a dose of Fake News.
Once he's been processed, the Scientist says, Carstairs will believe everything he tells him to believe.
Post-processing, Carstairs reports for duty.
He believes that the Scientist is his superior officer, and he's in the General's office, but - very much as intended - when he looks at an object his mind can't understand, he just can't see it.
He says the other aliens in the crowd are his "brother officers", except for the Doctor and Zoe, who - you've guessed it - are "German spies!".
Lady Jennifer is still on the run, but, exhausted, she finally stumbles, with a rider bearing down on her.
He dismounts to capture her.
Luckily, Jamie arrives in the nick of time and thumps him.
Rather unluckily, though, he's led the Confederates right to her, and they're recaptured.
The Doctor and Zoe have something of a reprieve as the Scientist simply assumes that something has gone amiss with Carstairs' processing.
The Doctor decides to brazen it out, telling the Scientist he doesn't think much of the demonstration. "Why did he call me a German spy? It's obviously ridiculous, isn't it?"
Of course, the Doctor just wants a closer look at the machine.
The Doctor suggests that layering courses of programming on top of one another are bound to fail, and Carstairs should have been de-programmed before the second attempt. Intrigued, the Scientist unwittingly demonstrates how to undo the brainwashing. He's a wily one, that Doctor.
Thrown back in the barn, Jamie and Lady Buckingham are reunited with the captive Harper.
Harper explains how he began to notice things weren't right and how he found different wars beyond the mists. He found others like him, and they've been hiding out in the woods.
Von Weich, who has been eavesdropping, butts in to demand the whereabouts of Harper's allies. He's been combing the area but hasn't found a one.
He needn't have worried. Before too long, the resistance come to him.
A struggle ensues.
Although Von Weich is able to shoot a couple of them, the resistance soon have the upper hand.
Eventually Von Weich is captured.
Harper is all set to execute Von Weich, but Jamie urges him not to, proposing that he's more use to them alive.
The Doctor knows exactly what to do now, and the Scientist gets ready to dismiss the class when an alarm sounds.
The Doctor lifts his visor to get a better look at the new arrival following the squad of guards that have piled in.
The War Chief wants a report on the experiment, and the Scientist is happy - too happy - to give credit to "one of the students" in helping him overcome the deficiencies of the process.
At first the Doctor looks altogether pleased with himself, but his face soon drops.
The War Chief and the Doctor's eyes lock in recognition, and there's the briefest split- second where everything stands still, as if time has stopped.
Time starts again, and as the Doctor urges Zoe to run, the War Chief screams "Stop them! Stop them!" What the flip? How do they know each other!
There's a complete scramble for the door, and the Doctor and Zoe get away.
As they split up, dividing the guards' attention, Carstairs struggles free.
The War Chief orders the base into lockdown to prevent them returning to the war zones. Is that fear in his eyes? What does this all mean? This has become a very different story all of a sudden.
Chris@KosmicKris I love how this story really rattles along. Considering it's a behemoth of a tale, you never feel it's dragging.
They unpeel the onion layers cleverly, introducing new batches of characters every few episodes :-)
Chris@KosmicKris this is Terrance Dicks showing himself to be a real craftsman. Hulke's raw material fashioned by Dick's skill and scheming.
Zoe makes it as far as the landing bay, but finds herself grabbed from behind.
"Oh, Lieutenant Carstairs, thank goodness!" I think she of the photographic memory is forgetting something here.
Sure enough, Carstairs draws his pistol. "You're a German spy."
"A German Spy! It's my duty to shoot you..." Cliffhanger!
Mac Hulke will get good mileage out of conflicted soldiers who are resolute in their belief that it's their duty to shoot the doctor or one of his friends in the following season, too.
EPISODE FIVE (17th May 1969)
Like the preceding couple of episodes, this starts with a "new" reprise.
Zoe is saved by the arrival of the Scientist, who speaks to Carstairs as if he's a disobedient puppy. "Lieutenant, we mustn't kill her."
When Carstairs insists "But she's a spy, she must die!" the Scientist lays it on a bit thicker: "Lieutenant Carstairs, I am your superior officer. You will obey my commands."
Carstairs finally relents, much to Zoe's relief.
Back at the barn, the resistance are keeping a beady eye on their own prisoner, Von Weich.
It may only be a temporary stay of execution for the alien, as Harper is only committed to holding off until their leader, a man called Russell, arrives to decide what to do with him.
Having seen new troops piling out of the barn at regular intervals, Harper believes there must be a tunnel somewhere within.
A Yorkshire-accented Redcoat tells Harper that as there's nothing here they should move out and kill the prisoner before they leave. Harper grapples with him to wrest the rifle from his grip.
This turns into quite the wrestling match, as the rest of the resistance keep out of it, letting the two men fight it out between them.
Jamie and Lady Jennifer decide to make themselves scarce...
...but proceedings are brought to a halt by the arrival of Russell, a Boer War soldier, who fires his pistol into the air to stop the squabbling pair.
Russell rebukes the pair, telling them they're like a couple of kids.
Jamie suddenly spots Von Weich making a dash for a panel in the barn wall and tackles him as the communicator is revealed, confirming what Jamie has been telling them.
In the alien HQ, Zoe is roughly shoved into the Security Chief's office. No messing about with Security Kitchens for these guys.
The Security Chief gives it a bit of 'I'm asking the questions'. He's not the most imaginative of interrogators.
I should like a hat like that.
Using his interrogation device, the Security Chief wants to know who Zoe is.
He's convinced that she's from the resistance...
...and refuses to believe that she was born in the 21st Century.
Zoe is a bit incautious in volunteering that she arrived in the TARDIS, even going as far as to spell out what the acronym stands for.
The Security chief decides on a different tactic - showing her mug shots from his archive of resistance forces so she can pick out the Doctor for him.
Bit of an own goal, really. She does have a photographic memory, you know, so if there's one thing she's going to remember, it's photographs.
The Doctor is still on the loose.
He's delighted to find himself at the processing room, where the Scientist is working on Carstairs again. When the Scientist appears ready to raise the alarm, he waves away his concerns by saying that the War Chief was only after Zoe.
He says he only ran to try to catch Zoe, but has come back because he's so interested in the Scientist's work.
The Scientist seems to buy it, and immediately starts leaking information about the grand plan like a sieve again. Just doesn't learn, this one. He doesn't know the exact time table of the plan, though.
He's following up on the Doctor's earlier suggestion, by
The Scientist confirms that Carstairs will retain all his memories once de-programmed.
The Doctor deliberately fumbles tying the soldier up.
As the Doctor feared, the disorientated Carstairs gives him away.
Jamie and Lady Jennifer find themselves having to explain things all over again to a sceptical Russell.
Von Weich lunges for the communicator and succeeds in pressing a switch.
"What's that noise?"
"You'll find out soon enough."
He's succeeded in opening a channel to HQ, raising the alarm that something is amiss at the barn.
The War Chief arrives at the Security Chief's office, where the two aliens quickly become prickly with one another. The Security Chief insists that Zoe is a nurse from 1917 like Lady Jennifer.
A technician arrives to report the emergency contact from the American Civil War Zone, and the War Chief leaves to deal with it, commanding the Security Chief to come along and telling him that dealing with Zoe can wait.
Carstairs and the Doctor creep about, narrowly avoiding the Security Chief's departure as they search for Zoe.
The Doctor blusters his way into the Security Room, allowing Carstairs to sneak up behind Zoe's guard and knock him out.
The Doctor rouses Zoe with some smelling salts and she explains how she was interrogated by a man wearing a strange headset projecting photographs.
Naturally, the Doctor wants to give it a whirl.
It's not long before he figures out how the contraption works.
Zoe goes on to explain that the Security Chief wanted information about "the resistance", and the Doctor becomes very interested in the faces he sees.
There are apparently resistance forces in every war zone. This is a bigger problem for the aliens than the Doctor first realized.
Thanks to her photographic memory, Zoe can remember all the names and faces of those identified as resistance members. If the Doctor can track them down, they can be organized into one big army!
Their first step will have to be getting back to the war zones.
The Security Chief orders a squad of guards to the Civil War barn to investigate the reported emergency.
The Doctor and his friends have to dodge the guards but have to follow them to the landing bay.
They watch as the squad disembarks in one of the alien time travel machines.
Told you so.
The guards emerge and gun down Harper with their energy weapons.
He clutches his head, wracked with pain, before falling to the floor, dead.
The rest of the resistance fighters capture the guards - and their weapons.
They note that there's not a mark on Harper's body.
And now they have their own travel machine.
The Security Chief believes the emergency call is the result of resistance activity in the American Civil War Zone.
The War Chief is critical of the Security Chief's efforts to tackle the ever growing pockets of resistance fighters.
"When I came to your people I was promised efficiency and co-operation. Without the knowledge I have, this complete venture would be impossible." So the War Chief is not one of them, and the man behind the time travel machines.
All of which does rather beg the Security Chief's question. How *did* he recognize the Doctor earlier?
The Security Chief tells him to take up any beef with "the War Lord", but the retort is only to get on with interrogating Zoe "before she escapes as well".
The Security Chief takes out his considerable frustration on the data cube in his hand, crushing it in his grip.
He'll be even more annoyed when he finds out that Zoe has indeed scarpered.
Jamie urges Russell to take the fight to the alien HQ using the travel machine. Von Weich refuses to confirm or deny that Jamie's plan could work.
As a man of his time, Jamie is less than keen to have Lady Jennifer in the line of fire.
Russell does however have a valid reason for asking her to stay, as he has hundreds of injured men in need of her medical skills.
KeithSay@50dw50 goodbye Lady Jen, pity they write her outRussell leaves Von Weich under guard and follows Jamie into the travel machine.
Von Weich allows himself a wry smile. After all, he knows what they're heading into.
In the processing room of the War Centre, the Security Chief finds the Scientist, and frees him from the brain-washing machine.
The Security Chief dismisses his guards when the Scientist proposes alerting the War Chief about the Doctor.
The Security Chief has his suspicions about the War Chief's loyalties. When the Scientist points out that only the War Chief knows the secret of time travel, the Security Chief corrects him: "And his people. He is a traitor to his own people. How can we be sure he is not a traitor to us?".
In the War Room, the War Chief is monitoring the fighting when a technician reports a travel machine returning to the landing bay without following the usual protocols.
As suspicious of his "ally" as the Security Chief is of him, the War Chief orders him kept out of the loop, and begins to issue orders directly to the guards.
The Doctor, Zoe and Carstairs hide behind the landing bay control panel to wait for a travel machine to hijack.
A squad of guards piles in and takes aim at the landing bay.
"It looks like somebody important's coming!"
Sure enough, a travel machine arrives, and Jamie cautiously creeps out, revolver in hand.
"It's an ambush!"
The guards open fire, and Jamie collapses, clutching at his head, exactly as we saw Harper do earlier.
Have... have they killed him? Is Jamie dead? Cliffhanger!
TTFN! K.
Next: The War Games - Episodes Six to Ten
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