"I'm in pieces, bits and pieces."

I’ve been luxuriating in “The War Games in Colour” a bit since Christmas. A favourite story in a new edition, skilfully cut down to TVM length, and coloured more effectively than I could ever have imagined possible. What’s more, some sections of this new version are even in genuine HD, due to the discovery of in-camera location film for some sequences during the compilation’s, er, compiling. Seriously, what’s not to love?

Yes, some people have quibbled with some decisions made by the production team, as we fans are wont¹ to do, but it’s not like the original version has been wiped or thrown away or even made temporarily unavailable to make way for the new one. It’s on iplayer right now, where it’s literally more accessible than it’s ever been. Plus it will be included in the box when its younger, more colourful sibling arrives on Blu-ray² in a few weeks’ time. That latter fact alone surely makes it more likely that someone drawn to the story by the free-to-air/stream 2024 version will sit down and work their way through all 240m of the 1969 one, rather than less?

I come through, not to praise or even justify The War Games in Colour, but rather to fixate obsessively on one particular bit. Because one of the most interesting and indeed exciting things about The War Games in Colour is the addition of a new sequence after the serial’s original final scenes (above); one which depicted Troughton’s Doctor regenerating into Pertwee’s, an event not seen on television at the time, not least because Pertwee was contracted to play Doctor Who on the 21st May 1969 while the studio pre-filming for the The War Games later episodes, including the beginning of the Doctor’s “change of appearance" had been shot on 3rd April, well over a month before. In 1969, time-wimey could only get you so far.