Scientist (The War Games)

Scientist
Species:	War Lord
Appearance:	The War Games
Main actor:	Vernon Dobtcheff

The Chief Scientist was one of the War Lords in charge of the War Games. He was responsible for developing the machines that brainwashed the kidnapped soldiers into believing they were still on Earth fighting their own wars.

The War Chief chided him that a 5% failure in processing was causing soldiers to break their conditioning and form resistance groups. The scientist was trying to refine the process so it would prove more effective. He also intended to build a machine capable of processing large groups simultaneously. He was present when the War Chief received a communication from Von Weich stating he had captured Jamie and Lady Jennifer and was continuing the search for the Second Doctor and Zoe. The War Chief suggested they might provide him with subjects for his new machine.

The scientist demonstrated the machine to a group of students by reprocessing Carstairs. The process initially seemed successful but lingering memories caused Carstairs to believe the Doctor and Zoe, who were posing as students, were German spies. The Doctor suggested he should have been deprocessed first and the scientist showed him how to reprogramme the machine to do so. The War Chief arrived. Recognising the Doctor, he ordered the guards to stop Zoe and him. In the confusion, Carstairs got free and tried to kill Zoe, but the scientist arrived with guards, convinced Carstairs to obey him and sent Zoe to the security section.

The scientist prepared to deprocess Carstairs. He was interrupted by the Doctor, who convinced him the guards were only after Zoe and left Carstairs unsecured during the experiment. After the scientist returned Carstairs to normal, the Doctor and he overpowered the scientist and left him attached to the machine. He was freed by the Security Chief, who stopped him telling the War Chief what had happened by voicing his fears that he was a traitor.

The Security Chief told the scientist he believed the Doctor and Zoe were space-time travellers secretly working with the War Chief, pointing out the Doctor's advanced technical knowledge. He told the scientist to examine the captured resistance members led by Russell before reprocessing them. The scientist discovered Jamie had never been processed and sent him to the Security Chief, but was forced to tell the War Chief what he had found when he interrupted him. Soon after, the Doctor, Zoe and Carstairs entered the room, surprised the scientist and released the captured resistance members.

The scientist spotted the Doctor, Jamie and Carstairs stealing the processing machine and presumably raised the alarm. When the machine was recovered by the Security Chief and his men, the War Lord gave instructions that the scientist return to his home planet to begin work on mass-producing the new machines. (TV: The War Games)

Behind the scenes

• The Chief Scientist has the distinction of being the first character in the series to mention the Time Lords, by name, on screen. This was during his conversation with the Security Chief in episode six.