Doctor Who will gain more than it loses by remastering The War Games - don't underestimate it

But perhaps most significantly of all, it revealed a level of darkness hitherto unseen of a show that was still loosely being dubbed a "children's programme".

The 10-part epic sees the TARDIS materialise in no man's land. Wondering where on earth they've turned up, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe promptly find themselves apprehended and consequently separated from their TARDIS.

At first, it appears that they've landed at some point during the First World War. However, things are far from how they appear - dark forces are operating from the sidelines. To stop them, the Doctor will be locked in a battle of wits against the mysterious War Lord (Philip Madoc).

With emotional stakes at its heart, The War Games is a classy high-brow thriller of Shakespearean proportions.

In short, it's perfect. There's just one thing that's holding it back: The War Games is long - really long. In fact, it's historically, infamously, notoriously long.

It was initially broadcast from 19th April to 21st June, seasons changed, spring turned to summer, and still The War Games went on.

Its full runtime clocks in at an impressive four hours and 10 minutes. But it was actually never really intended to be an epic of Lord of the Rings’ towering scale. A number of factors contributed to its length: several scripts for other serials either fell through or were scrapped altogether before the team essentially ran out of time and The War Games was hastily given the green light on 23rd December 1968.

Its two writers, Doctor Who legend Terrance Dicks and his former mentor (the man who gave Dicks his first big break in television) Malcolm Hulke, got to work straight away, churning out episodes every two or three days to be in time for an early February deadline.

At one point, they found themselves struggling to such an extent that they moved on to the ending, and actually handed the finale’s script in at the same time as episode 5. Dicks reportedly said that they knew how it would start and they knew how it would finish, but they found it difficult to sustain the momentum in the middle episodes.

But this Christmas, 55 years on from its initial broadcast, The War Games is getting a 21st-century makeover, with a new colourisation and an edit that will attempt to condense over four hours’ worth of storytelling into 90 minutes.

We will also see an entirely new regeneration scene as the Second Doctor becomes the Third. However, should this classic really be reconfigured to such an extent?

Some fans say that it's heresy, others just want to see Jamie screaming "Krakatoa!" in vibrant HD. Whatever the case, it's fair to say that early Doctor Who suffers from a problem - that of accessibility for the casual viewer.

This is largely because so many episodes are missing, especially from Patrick Troughton's tenure. Vital stories, such as the handover from the First Doctor to the Second and all of the serials that introduced his companions, were wiped after initial broadcast (although they still exist via audio recordings and some have been animated).

This only serves to hamper the most pivotal era in the show's rich history. Of the 119 episodes starring the Second Doctor, 53 are missing.

That The War Games survives at all (and in its full majesty) is a blessing. It's a beautifully directed story by David Maloney, an Orwellian tale, one full of dark corners and a foreboding tension that builds to the serial's climax (a Blackadder Goes Forth style ending – but decades before Blackadder existed).

Our heroes are in a desperate struggle to get away, advancing in slow-motion towards the TARDIS. Surely, they will escape? The Doctor will think of something at the last moment... won't he?

There's no doubt that audiences of 1969 would have been shocked by just how dark the story got. But that's what Doctor Who does best: it takes risks, it pushes the boundaries. That The War Games is causing controversy 55 years on seems only right.

And while there's no doubt that something will be lost by not seeing the Time Lords standing before the Doctor in a palette of deathly grey, we know that something will be gained by seeing the blue of the Doctor's eyes as he grapples in a battle of wits against Philip Madoc’s fantastically menacing War Lord (the actor was yet to make history in Dad’s Army’s iconic "Don’t tell him, Pike!" moment).

While many fans have said that this colourisation and hefty edit should not be happening, I say that if it makes just one person reconsider, who might never have given the early years of Doctor Who a chance, then it is more than worth it.

This 23rd December, make it your destiny to watch one of the greatest actors ever to play the Doctor starring in his own definitive blockbuster - a landmark moment in sci-fi fantasy history, but as we've never seen it before.

The War Games' special edition will air on 23rd December 2024 on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer. Doctor Who is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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