War Time
Assigned to safely transport a radioactive cargo, UNIT’s Sergeant Benton is plagued by nightmarish memories when he passes a rural site he remembers all too well - his younger brother Chris died there while the two were playing as children. Increasingly bothered by the memory, Benton finds himself literally working through the ghosts of his past, but is unaware when the other UNIT soldier is knocked out. By the time Benton recovers from his trip down memory lane, he’s alone against terrorist agents who are trying to steal the radioactive material for their own sinister ends.
written by Andy Lane & Helen Stirling
directed by Keith Barnfather
music by Mark AyresCast: John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Michael Wisher (Mr. Benton), Mary Greenhalgh (Mrs. Benton), Paul Greenhalgh (Chris), Steven Stanley (Johnny), Peter Noad (Willis), Paul Flanagan (Man), Nicholas Briggs (Soldier)
Timeline: unknown, though it may fall before The Android Invasion, in which Benton has been promoted to Regiment Sergeant Major.
Review: Reissued not too long ago in a new VHS package with supplemental material, War Time is the granddaddy of them all: the first fan-made Doctor Who spinoff video to ascend beyond the realm, or budget, of home movies. As Doctor Who was still in production at the time, producer/director Keith Barnfather made the decision to focus on a fan-favorite secondary character instead. John Levene, who played recurring UNIT troop Benton in the 1960s and 70s, had actually retired from acting when he was approached to do War Time. As it so happens, he was impressed with the script, was eager to work with Michael Wisher, and couldn’t pass up a project that would be focused entirely on him. The rest, as they say, is history.
Though exceedingly short and somewhat simplistic, War Time still manages to parallel the era of Doctor Who during which it was made: the production values are decent, the acting is top-notch, and it’s a bit of a head trip. All in all, actually rather enjoyable, and if you’re not that fascinated by it, fear not - it clocks in at under 40 minutes. Still, when so much of modern-day Doctor Who is now in the fans’ hands - the novels, the audio plays, and an ongoing stream of video spinoffs - it’s hard to overstate the importance of War Time. This production really set the ball rolling in terms of the fans paying for permission to use characters from Doctor Who, and then turning around and making a bit of a profit from the results.
This is a point repeatedly hammered home in the Making Of War Time documentary, which actually far exceeds the running time of the program it documents (a recurring phenomenon with Doctor Who video spinoffs). Many of the show’s participants are interviewed at length, including Barnfather and Levene himself (who now resides in Los Angeles under the name of John Anthony Blake), and there’s also a lengthy before-and-after section discussing the amateur fan films that preceded War Time - and the much glossier efforts that came in its wake. Sometimes it gets a bit too self-back-patting for my taste, but considering that the people involved in the late 80s/early 90s cottage industry of Doctor Who spinoffs are now keeping the entire property going, I suppose they’ve earned it.
NeWorld University, a new high-tech campus in central London, has attracted the attention of reporter Sarah Jane Smith. She visits to ask a few pointed questions about the school’s cult-like atmosphere, but is rebuffed by the new headmistress and her persistent assistant. As Sarah leaves, they begin looking into her background, including her association with UNIT. In the meantime, retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, who left UNIT behind years ago and has even recently retired from teaching, experiences unusual visions of a woman in black - a woman Sarah knows as NeWorld’s headmistress. Daniel Hinton, a former pupil of Lethbridge-Stewart’s and now a NeWorld student, escapes from NeWorld with some damaging information, and the headmistress mobilizes an army of students to track him down. Hinton escapes and is protected by a homeless man who also happens to be an ex-Army officer - but Hinton also figures prominently in the Brigadier’s visions. Lethbridge-Stewart is surprised by a phone call from his estranged daughter Kate, who - like many other perfectly normal civilians - are growing increasingly paranoid of the appearance of “chillys” (zombie-like NeWorld students) around the country. Kate also introduces him to a grandson he didn’t know he had. As the evidence of some vast conspiracy continues to build up, the Brigadier and Sarah follow entirely different paths to the same conclusion. The Great Intelligence, the disembodied consciousness that terrorized London with its robotic Yeti in 1968 (and was defeated by the Doctor with Lethbridge-Stewart’s help) is back, and it is once again weaving its web of mind control, this time through the internet. This time the Doctor isn’t around to fight the Great Intelligence and its new servants - Victoria Waterfield, a former companion of the Doctor, and Professor Travers, whose research into yeti sightings led him into the Intelligence’s trap. The Brigadier may be forced to kill old friends to ensure that his grandson’s world has a future.
The solar racing yacht Tiger Moth, a sleek (but vulnerable) spacecraft, is readying for its berth in a solar sailing competition. But en route to the starting point, the Tiger Moth is attacked by a Sontaran War Wheel and forced to accept a boarding party. The Tiger Moth’s captain, Lisa Deranne, is already unhappy with the delay, but matters become worse when Sontaran shock troops storm her ship, taking her crew and herself prisoner (except for chief engineer Robar, who is working safely below decks during the attack). The Sontaran commander, Steg, is on a mission to find a Rutan spy who escaped from the Sontarans and stowed away aboard a ship from the space station which was also the Tiger Moth’s last port of call. Steg will stop at nothing to find and destroy the Rutan, whose intelligence could turn the tide in the age-old Rutan-Sontaran war. One by one, beginning with Robar, Lisa Deranne’s crew is killed off, and it becomes evident that the Rutan is indeed aboard the Tiger Moth. But which party would make a more deadly ally - the shapeshifting Rutan, or the merciless Sontarans?
