The War Machines

The TARDIS makes another trip to contemporary London, this time in 1966, landing at the base of the newly completed Post Office Tower. The Doctor and Dodo emerge and immediately the Doctor has an odd premonition about the tower and decides to investigate, but finds nothing more menacing than a supercomputer named WOTAN, which is about to be linked to computers across the world. WOTAN, however, is full of surprises, and can solve any problem; it even knows that the word TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, which tips the Doctor off and makes him suspicious of the machine and its creator, Professer Brett. Brett's secretary, Polly Wright (no relation to Barbara) becomes fast friends with Dodo, and they hit the local club where they befriend Ben Jackson of the Royal Navy. WOTAN, meanwhile, begins to exude some form of influence over everyone around it, taking over Brett, two of his associates, and then Dodo in its attempt to get at the Doctor. Polly eventually falls under WOTAN's influence as well and joins a work crew who are creating one of many massive War Machines, which will be WOTAN's soldiers in its coming war against humanity. The attack of one machine is triggered prematurely so the Doctor can get a look at it, and with Ben's help he is ready for the next one when it emerges on the streets of London. The Doctor manages to turn the machine back on WOTAN, which effectively ends the computer's bid for world domination. Having recovered from the machine's influence, Dodo decides to stay in London, but as the Doctor is attempting to leave Ben and Polly accidentally enter the TARDIS and are whisked away with him.

I watched The War Machines with my friend Jay, who is not very familiar with the early years of the show, but he had a lot to say about the production values. It has been pointed out before that at the time it was made, Doctor Who was state-of-the-art despite the flimsy sets and effects, but it was also affected by the timeline it was made under; the third season had 45 episodes and there was no luxury of time to re-shoot anything that went wrong (hence some of William Hartnell's flubbed dialogue carrying over to the final takes). Jay also noted a lot of close-ups gone wrong, which I had never thought much of, but it's almost as if the actors were not told about the close-ups and moved off their marks ever so slightly so rather than see their faces, we get a close up of an ear. The War Machines is also the first episode to experiment with a "customized" opening title, with the episode title and the writer's credit in some computer-ish text, with a dramatic drumroll in the background.

The army is involved in this episode a lot, the Doctor's first direct involvement with the local authorities to help combat an alien menace. In a few years the show will touch on this theme again, and it will become part of the programme's history. Although a lot will change between now and then.

So season three is over. There is no starscape this time as with the previous two seasons, just some confused pedestrians as the TARDIS dematerializes with a new crew...

NEXT EPISODE : THE SMUGGLERS