“You may have changed your appearance, but I know who you are! …We were both Time Lords and we both decided to leave our race!” – The War Chief to the Second Doctor – in The War Games 1969.
Renegade Time Lord meddles in time – like the Master perhaps?
The War Chief (played by Edward Brayshaw) was a fellow renegade Time Lord, who (like the Doctor) had fled the constraints of Gallifreyian life, in a Tardis.
Like the Meddling Monk and the Master, the War Chief now travelling the galaxy; looking for nefarious opportunities, to meddle in other races affairs; in time-and-space.
After meeting and joining up with a race of Warmongering Aliens, led by the War Lord. The War Chief becomes (second-in-command) and helps to create a huge ‘time’ army – in The War Games.
Using the Time Lords knowledge of time-travel, the War Chief created cloned Tardis machines (known as SIDRAT’s) – to steal human soldiers; from various Earth time-periods. Before hypnotising and then blooding them, in a training programme; called “The War Games”.
The winners/survivors of which, would go onto form a super-army, with access to SIDRAT time-machines to be used at the War Lord’s whim; to transport them all over space-and-time and conquer the galaxy.
The War-Chief attempts to persuade the Second Doctor to join the War Games – in ‘The War Games’ 1969.
The War Chief is surprised to run into a fellow Time Lord (the (Second Doctor) who gets inadvertantly caught up in the War Games. The War Chief recognises the Doctor, knowning that the Doctor stole a Tardis and left Gallifrey.
The pair converse about their own escapes from the Time Lords. The War Chief tries to (unsuccessfully) talk the Doctor in joining the War Games operation (to help improve the lifespan of the SIDRAT machines) – and when finally defeated; attempts to counsel the Doctor not to call in the Time Lords for help. Fearing their response to them, as fugitives.
The Doctor eventually persuades the War Chief to change sides and help stop the War Games. The War Chief is then ‘killed’ by the War Lord, when the betrayal is discovered. The War Chief is then presumed perished, as no regeneration is actually witnessed.
In terms of the War Chief’s actual origins, other than being a Time Lord and knowing (or knowing ‘of’ the Doctor); nothing else is known. Other than, the War Chief’s modus operandi – which is similar to the Meddling Monk and the Master.
Indeed, some have wondered if all three characters (the War Chief, Meddling Monk and the Master) are different regenerations of the same Time Lord; or regenerations of The Master.
And whilst it would make narrative-sense, that this be the case – that the War Chief is an early regeneration of the Master; it was not intended to be this way in – (between 1969 to 1971 time-periods) – when the characters appeared seperately; that link was made later.
Some official media (a BBC board game) have made the link between the War Chief, Meddling Monk and the Master but whether this is counted as definitive canon is not clear.
The former (the War Chief and the Meddling Monk), were effectively prototype Master characters but no direct link is implied – in the original series.
The War Chief did not appear again, in the original series and was presumed to be dead. Although being a Time Lord, it was possible – that the slain War Chief might have regenerated and escaped.
