The War Machines Episode 2

The one where Dodo gets sent away to the country...

"Doc-tor Whoooo isssss re-quir-ed! Bring him heeeeere!" hisses the newly-discovered voice of WOTAN, thus opening a can of worms which has reverberated down through the decades and still has an impact today. WOTAN refers to the Doctor as Doctor Who, as does Professor Brett ("Top priority is to enlist Doctor Who"). Why he calls him Doctor Who is a mystery, unless it's his actual name (after all, WOTAN even knows what TARDIS stands for, so maybe it also knows what the Doctor's real name is?). Some of this is addressed with tongue firmly in cheek in World Enough and Time 51 years later of course.

A quick mention also for Gerald Taylor's thoroughly spooky voice for WOTAN (the end titles would have us believe that WOTAN is actually real and plays itself!), which is eerie, rasping and ghostly, not at all what you'd expect a computer to sound like. But it's all the better for that, swapping predictable electronic Dalek-style monotone for a more menacing vocalisation.

Director Michael Ferguson continues to impress with his youthful ambition. I mean, look at that very early shot where Professor Brett closes his office doors on the camera, which then creates the white-out screen for the animated episode title to fade onto. Simple, but clever. Then there are the various camera angles in the warehouse, shooting down from above or over the tops of crates. The location filming at Covent Garden and around the Royal Opera House is also directed stylishly.

WOTAN doesn't waste any time, which I suppose he wouldn't, seeing as he is a super-efficient super-computer. He wastes no time in telling his newly-recruited operatives (Dodo, Brett, Krimpton and Green) the details of his plan to take over the world from humankind, starting with London, then Washington, then Moscow. Yes, because the British are far more dangerous and strategic than the Americans or Russians, aren't they? It takes just an hour or three for Brett and co to recruit a good number of slaves to begin building the War Machines in warehouses in central London. Quite where the parts for the War Machines come from (and so quickly) is glossed over, but they appear to be flown in from somewhere, and come packaged in cardboard boxes and crates labelled with WOTAN's own personal W logo. As well as an eye on world domination, WOTAN also has an eye for brand management.

The truth is, the first War Machine (number 9) is constructed rather too quickly to be totally believable, and writer Ian Stuart Black expects us to swallow the fact so much is achieved in so little time. Mind you, Black has a questionable understanding of the passage of time - the body of the tramp who's killed in the warehouse is found at Covent Garden at 3am, yet the news still manages to make it into that morning's newspapers (and with a perfectly posed portrait too - I had no idea national newspapers kept file photos of vagrants).

As an aside here, I'm fascinated by the news story to the left of the tramp's obituary in the Doctor's newspaper - "Mrs Kennedy in Seville for Gala Ball". I Googled it, and it all happened. JFK's widow visited the Feria Debutante Ball at the Palace de Pilatos on April 19th, 1966 with Princess Grace of Monaco. The fact The War Machines is supposed to be set in July 1966 conflicts somewhat with this real-world event, but let's gloss over that too, shall we?

The radical freshness of this story continues to amaze me, even down to little details like Kitty worrying about losing her nightclub licence, Polly scrabbling for change for a taxi, or the montage of aeroplanes, jeeps and power stations which put Doctor Who firmly in the here and now (or the 1966 here and now, anyway!). The B-movie japes of Season 2 have long gone; this is Doctor Who taking itself, and the world it's in, very seriously.

WOTAN's speedy operations are as dangerous as they are resourceful. Major Green demonstrates the power of War Machine 9's fire power by mercilessly sacrificing an innocent slave worker, while the hunting down and extermination of the poor tramp is equally as blunt. There's a story to be told about that tramp too - he can afford to travel to Covent Garden by taxi, but has no home to go to. He says he's had a terrible last six months, and also states he's recently out of hospital. Whatever happened to the poor chap? His demise is made that little bit sadder by Black giving him a character and a background, a truthfulness. Too many Doctor Who incidental characters get killed off and we don't care a jot for them because they're just ciphers or avatars. This tramp was a much realer person. I mean, he must have been important in some way for his death to make the news!

The Doctor's companions circle him like Danaerys Targaryen's dragons: Polly claims to have been sent by Professor Brett to replace Sir Charles's secretary, but I'm not sure why. It means Polly and Ben have a reason to be in the story beyond the Inferno Club scenes though, as Ben follows Polly to Sir Charles's house after she misses her lunch date with him. And wasn't Michael Craze handsome? A jolly Cockney wide-boy sailor with a face like a cheeky angel. And when Ben gets cornered by a rampaging War Machine in the warehouse for the cliffhanger, the viewer genuinely fears for his life, because as far as we're concerned, he's just another guest character for this story.

Then there's Dodo. Poor Dodo. Poor Jackie Lane. Hypnotised into trying to get the Doctor to fall under WOTAN's spell, she even colludes with mysterious men in dark corners who are ready to pounce on the unsuspecting Doctor with a bottle full of chloroform! It's unsettling to see the usually happy-go-lucky Dodo get embroiled in such nasty business, and after she's woken from her hypnosis by the Doctor's ever-astonishing ring, she's sent off to the country to stay with Sir Charles's wife for a few days. Leaping ahead, I know that this is Lane's final appearance in the show, because Dodo never returns, and opts to stay in contemporary England, from whence she came. No goodbyes, no picking up a few belongings from the TARDIS, nothing. Just written out by the production team with no care for the character or actress. It really was disrespectful, and no wonder producer Innes Lloyd felt compelled to write to Jackie Lane to apologise for the abruptness of her departure. Lane would never act on screen again, and didn't appear on our TVs again for another 47 years, as a surprise (and very welcome) insert on the otherwise lamentable Doctor Who After-Party in 2013.

Dodo Chaplet was great. She was feisty and chirpy and cheeky and always happy to be wherever they landed. There was probably a lot more of Jackie Lane in Dodo than anything the script writers put into the character, and that shows through in Lane's always professional and competent performances. Dodo was not a failure as a companion, and nor was Jackie Lane. The failure was completely on the part of those behind the scenes - the writers, producers and script editors.

First broadcast: July 2nd, 1966

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Although a little repetitive, Ferguson's scenes of the War Machines being constructed add a lot of sheen to the piece: men welding, shifting, carrying, hammering. The sense of British industry is palpable!
The Bad: The way Dodo is written out is unforgivably disappointing.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

NEXT TIME: Episode 3...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 3; Episode 4

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-war-machines.html

The War Machines is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-War-Machines-DVD/dp/B001BKYAY0