The War Games in Colour

Following on from the success of last year's update to The Daleks, The War Games is given a fresh update, edited and colourised.

I'm a fan of The War Games, but because of the hefty running time, I don't watch it too often, but when I do, it's a rewarding watch.

This rehash, the first thirty minutes was terrific, the colourisation was incredibly good, it looked fabulous, the problem then arose after about thirty minutes, so much of it has been hacked away, that the pacing felt frantic, it had no chance to breathe, too many important scenes were cut.

Ok, so there are a few liberties, fulfilling a long held fan theory that The War Chief was The Master, even though the character at the time didn't exist, I'm not too sure about that.

It may way well appeal to a new audience, one that's used to a more punchy pace, but for us long standing fans of the classic series, I'm assuming most of us will be sticking to the original.

I liked the regeneration scene, I thought that worked rather well, and I really liked the way they concluded it. There were some really nice new special effects, and some of the new music worked well, but Murray Gold's Master music, I'm not sure.

A generous 7/10.

The War Games in its entirety is a 7.5/10 for me, but that's the original black and white without any cuts.

The coloured version started out great, but was given a serious disservice by being so sloppily chopped midway through. In an attempt to make it flow better, they continually show a CGI outlook of central command. Without former knowledge of the full episode, it'd be difficult to know what was going on.

The result of such butchery makes the entire episode move too fast, and leave out important details. Like Jamie and the nurse meeting the resistance team. Or how Jamie got caught.

Though I must say, the slight change to the 2nd Doctor's trial and regeneration was a nice touch.

I was still hoping for more in watching the War Games in Colour. Hopefully one day they give the full serial the justice it deserves one day, but I doubt it. Oh well.