The Crimes of War

The first tale from Season 6b is a short story called "War Crimes" by Simon Bucher-Jones.

It's a bit of an odd one and begins with a memo written by the aliens responsible for the War Games. We learn that they had an interest in species other than humans. Next is a Time Lord memo indicating that the victims of all the aliens' machinations are to be sent back from whence they came.

The repatriation process went well, for the most part, but a creature named Ossu-male of the Aelcluk clan experienced some difficulties. His deprogramming didn't go quite as planned and he continues down the path set for him by the War Lord and his cronies. His species has a strange way of reproducing which involves the males sacrificing themselves in a poison sea so that the females can get on with the process of having babies without the fear of a male eating some of the young.

There's just enough of Ossu-male left in his brain and he does the right thing and throws himself into the sea.

Later his body washes up on a shore and the TARDIS lands there during the time when the Doctor is trying to evade the Time Lords after sending his SOS box. Ossu-male isn't quite dead and begins to come alive once more. The Doctor sees the pain in his eyes and hastily finds the creature's "off switch".

I guess I was expecting this story to focus on the Time Lords and our TARDIS crew trying to effect an escape but instead got a story about a strange creature and his species' odd mating practices. A neat postlude to The War Games.