Filling in the Holes, by Ben Jeapes

Photo by cottonbro studio

It’s just possible that news of the colourisation of ‘The War Games’ has passed you by, but that’s because you’re not me.

This was the final adventure of Patrick Troughton’s run in Doctor Who, shown in 10 episodes from 19th April to 21st June 1969. It was also the last adventure to be filmed in black and white. Thanks to the magic of modern technology we can now see it (on BBC iPlayer as I write) in colour, and pretty good it looks too. Hard to imagine that the brilliantly sinister, malevolent War Lord is played by the same actor as the German U-boat captain in Dad’s Army (Philip Madoc).

For reasons that no doubt make sense, it has been edited down to a 90 minute continuous adventure. The original episodes were 24-25 minutes each, so a maximum of 250 minutes in total, and even allowing for the time taken by up the credits in each episode, that’s quite a loss. There are very definitely sudden jumps between scenes, but it’s still possible to work out what must have happened and you might not even notice if you come to it brand new.

In fact, given that I tend to watch old Doctor Who while I do the ironing, I only give it about half my mind –especially when it’s a story like this one, which I already know well. So the amount of information given in the colourised version is approximately the amount I would take in anyway were I watching the original. The gaps can very easily be filled in with a bit of imagination.

Which is something that humans are quite good at, really. Just think of how much detail is missing from the gospels. An entire childhood, in Mark, for a start. And all those times we are given a laconic “He / she went …” leaving out the fact that they probably went on foot, over harsh and rugged territory that could kill the unwary. It’s a helpful lesson to bring forward into our own writing. The original run of ’The War Games’ had to keep its audience over a run of ten weeks, in a time when there was no video or catch-up, and if you missed an episode then it stayed missed, so it really did have to keep reminding you of what was happening. Watched all at once, however, it needs a lot less. 

How much do you really need to put in? Probably not as much as you thought because your readers will be very good at filling in the gaps with their own imagination.

Ben Jeapes (www.benjeapes.com) took up writing in the mistaken belief that it would be easier than a real job (it isn’t). Hence, as well as being the author of eight novels and co-author of many more, he has also been a journal editor, book publisher, and technical writer. His most recent title is Ghostwriting Novels: A Guide for Ghostwriters and the Ghostwritten.