Trivia / Doctor Who S6 E7 "The War Games"

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• The Cast Showoff: Frazer Hines shows off his riding skills in part four.
• California Doubling: All location filming was conducted in Sussex, near Brighton, and was meant to represent a variety of battlefields in overseas locations like World War I trenches in France, the Ancient Roman Empire, and The American Civil War. Or at least, fake versions of them on an alien planet.
• The Danza: Jane Sherwin as Lady Jennifer Buckingham.
• Distanced from Current Events: the book, Who's 50, says that the real reason that the Aliens stop with their kidnaps at World War I is that the writers wanted to avoid mentioning World War II. Don't forget that when this story was made, in 1969, WWII was only 24 years in the past. There were a lot of people, including Patrick Troughton himself, who had direct memories of fighting in that war, or had lost loved ones, or had otherwise been affected. Who's 50 argues that the writers felt it would have been bad taste to feature WWII because it was just too soon. In fact, Classic Who didn't do a story set during WWII until the final season, in 1989. The fact that the wars chosen for the zones are all nice and safely in the past also allows the programme to avoid anything then-currently controversial like The Vietnam War.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Philip Madoc grew a beard to play the War Lord so that viewers wouldn't recognise him from his guest role in "The Krotons".
• Fake Nationality: The German officers and the Mexican Arturo Villar were played by British actors.
• Fake Russian: Both Stephen Hubay and Clare Jenkins, the latter returning from "The Wheel in Space".
• First Appearance: Of Gallifrey and the Time Lords (although the planet isn't named yet).
• Real-Life Relative: Patrick Troughton's son David plays Private Moor.
• Recycled Set: The First World War battleground was actually a rubbish dump in Brighton that had previously been used for Oh! What a Lovely War.
• Technology Marches On: The viewscreens of the aliens' video phones are notably primitive by modern standards, and the device that plays back the recording of the War Chief's treachery makes the distinctive sound of an analogue tape deck rewinding and fast-forwarding.
• Throw It In!:
  • The Doctor kissing Zoe on the forehead wasn't scripted.
  • As scripted, the Doctor was to say that the Time Lords were the rulers of his people. Instead, he simply says that they are his people — giving rise to decades of arguments in fandom about whether all Gallifreyans are Time Lords, or only some.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A Kroton was originally going to be one of the foes the Doctor brings up on the projection screen in the courtroom, and a copyright payment made to Robert Holmes. However, neither of the two Kroton costumes was in usable condition, according to the DVD Production Information subtitles.
  • Season 6 was originally going to end with a six-part serial called "The Impersonators" and a then-untitled four-part serial, but production difficulties meant they were both scrapped and ten-part story was hastily put together in order to replace them.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Terence Bayler was Yendom.
  • Peter Craze had been Dako.
  • Philip Madoc had previously played Eelek.
  • Edward Brayshaw was Léon Colbert.

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