From Doctor Who Magazine #100-101
A Review by Finn Clark 29/10/04
This story is another favourite of mine. DWM's Colin Baker strips were a wonderful period, but of the post-Parkhouse 6th Doctor stories only The Gift (DWM 123-126) rivals this in my affections. Funhouse (DWM 102-103) comes close, but falls apart in the second episode. War-Game has everything... fantastic art, emotional weight and even thematic depth. It's less powerful than Steve Parkhouse's Davison two-parters, but that hardly qualifies as criticism.
War-Game even kicks off an eight-month story arc, albeit one so loose that you'd only recognise it with hindsight. In this story we meet an older version of Kaon, the Draconian warrior who returned in The Warrior's Story (DWM 106) and Frobisher's Story (DWM 107). His knowledge of the Doctor and his TARDIS is left as a mystery to be picked up later, though oddly I never realised that at the time. Somehow Kaon's Draconian identity feels like a sufficient reason for his special knowledge, compared with his barbarian subjects, though there's no reason why simply being an offworlder should give anyone the inside track on Gallifreyan time technology.
Mind you, I have doubts about whether Alan McKenzie knew all that when he was writing this. The Draconian warrior of the Stories is definitely a younger Kaon, but it's hard to reconcile that with this story's dialogue. It's implied that Kaon only knows the Doctor by reputation. Hmmm. Well, this wouldn't be the first time Who made it up as it went along. I guess Kaon simply understands time paradoxes and the importance of not giving away more than one should.
The art is wonderful, even by John Ridgway's standards. He's clearly having a ball drawing all these savage warriors, riding lizards, spiked shields, etc. We never learn the name of this barbarian world, but it looks great! At times it reminded me of Arabia or North Africa. Oh, and the 6th Doctor wears a cork hat.
We learn a little more about Draconians. They rule a third of the galaxy in this time period, which according to the Stories is again the comics era of the 82nd century. They also undergo childbirth like mammals instead of hatching from eggs.
Thematically it's one of DWM's most interesting strips, especially since it's only a two-parter. There's discussion of loyalty, duty, why people do what they do, motivations, etc. Kaon claims that his people follow him only for selfish reasons and intends to abandon them and go home at the earliest opportunity... but when charging to their deaths, their battlecry is "For Kaon!" One has to wonder. This is a primitive world, but it's not without nobility. And of course there's the chess analogy, comparing Kaon's tactics with what the Doctor told Frobisher in the opening TARDIS scene while beating him 23 times at "check".
Then there's the ending with Princess Kara. I'd have liked this story even without its last page, but that final decision is what for me makes it special. I'm tempted to call the daughter a better man than her father. That's one brave girl.
Overall, this is a lovely piece of work. To date it's only been reprinted in the third Golden Wonder mini-comic, but I hope that soon gets put right. Would it kill Panini to publish two volumes collecting all of John Ridgway's Colin Baker stories? Strongly recommended.