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TARDIS Guide

Review of The War Games in Colour by RandomJoke

24 December 2024

This review contains spoilers!

I didnt like it. And I really went in with an open mind, I was skeptical, even more than I was with The Daleks and well… if anything the Colors here look stunning. And I am happy they didn’t used too many wild Colors, as they did with The Daleks, our Tardis Team feels so strange seeing them in all the brown and green setting.
That being said… somehow the Edit is worse for me, while it starts out very solid with its first 30-40 minutes, it starts to rush more and more. With such a huge Cast in the Story, we miss out a lot of great Character Moments, some Characters just appear out of nowhere! Especially this great part of the Original, where we slowly build up a new threat to another threat to another, and the Resistance feel barely like Characters here.
I understand they couldn’t and wouldn’t do all Episodes in Color, but why pick this one and remove so many great bits? While not as harsh as The Daleks, I would imagine a new viewer would look at their screen and think they missed something.
The Music, while being good on its own, it doesn’t work for me for the most part. It gets too loud at times and I miss the more eerie soundtrack of the Original. It feels like an attempt to make the War Games more like a NuWho Episode. Which is just a bit of a dumb idea, because while I am all for alternative Versions of classic Serials, taking one of the LEAST NuWho Era and trying to make it more like it, just doesn’t work and at best is just jarring, at worst just feels a bit sloppy.
As for some extra bits that got added here:
The CGI Shots look good, but don’t mix too well overall.
Having the Master Themes over the War Chief is annoying. Headcanon fun aside, I wish they wouldn’t have done this, since it MIGHT lead to future appearances of the War Chief just being an early Master. It makes the Universe feel smaller for me and I preferred the ambiguity of it all.
Showing off some future Faces is a fun idea, but done a bit sloppy. Just having those quite famous promo pictures seems charming on first glance, but the more I think about it, the more I dislike it. Why is 12 shown here, when 12 based his face on somebody he would later meet, for example. I understand Who isn’t the most consistent with some of its own canon, but I wish they have done it differently. Perhaps even more in the style of the Original, where it’s drawing of future Doctors. (How they have done it and who they chose is more a nitpick than a real criticism point, although I really wish they went a bit differently about it).
The Regeneration is good, but I still preferred the original attempt, even through it’s quite a morbid note to end the Story on. But it’s still really well-made and nice way to end this alternative take on this Story.

Overall, I understand this Story isn’t for me and that’s okay, but I really hope as they continue with this range that they learn and find some way to improve on some technical issues (please don’t overdo with the music, please!)
I also hope they won’t do TOO MUCH of those slight Implications, there is a lot of fun with some ambiguity.

Glad to see that many see it differently and enjoyed it overall! Not sure if I rate it higher than the Daleks, but the back and forth cutting works MUCH better here for sure, even if I am not totally in love with how they have done it.