Holistic Review: Three of the four regulars are wonderful. And... that's about it.

I have a feeling that The War Machines is one of those stories that played very differently back in 1966 than it does now. On first broadcast, it was the only full story to be set on present-day Earth (this became a bit more common during the Troughton era, and of course by the Pertwee era, intended near-future setting notwithstanding, it was commonplace; in fact, it's kind of funny that there wasn't one before this), and it involved the burgeoning field of computers, which was no doubt new and interesting enough all by itself to hold the audience's attention. But looking back at it today, the contemporary setting is nothing special (aside from the fact that it's the only Hartnell story of its kind), and the mad-computer storyline certainly isn't, this sort of thing appearing at least three more times in Doctor Who itself.

And then there's the "plot". In The War Machines, a scientist creates a computer which develops the ability to control human minds. It uses this ability to brainwash slaves and have them build a fleet of War Machines. The Doctor captures two of them, and reprograms one to destroy the mad computer. That's it, folks. It could pretty much have been told in the span of a single episode, so stretching it out over four yields lots of scenes with people acting brainwashed, War Machines slowly being built, and completed War Machines running amok and destroying things. The last point at least yields some nice action scenes, but they're largely repetitive. The plot is stretched out so thinly that basically nothing happens in episode 2.

Unfortunately, WOTAN's habit of turning its subjects into mind-controlled zombies results in most of the cast having their acting ability sucked out of them too. Aside from William Mervyn, who plays Sir Charles, practically all of the other guest cast of any importance spend the entire story walking around stiffly and reciting dreary lines in an emotionless monotone. (A prime example of this: Green's awful lines "He will work for us. We must all work! Go back to your work." and "You are an enemy of mechanized evolution!") Sure, it conveys the fact that they're acting against their volition, but it's not in the least exciting.

Impressively, Anneke Wills is the one actor who's able to breathe life into these tired lines. She looks and acts like a mind-controlled zombie too, but through a combination of facial acting and carefully-modulated line readings, she gives a compelling performance even when Polly is under WOTAN's control. Most of the time she has a fiery, fanatical look in her eyes, and acts almost arch, but her confusion and distress about Ben is well-handled (watch the moment when she suddenly snaps back to complete control), as is the way she delivers her lines when Polly is clearly exhausted but determined to continue working for WOTAN (her "Yes" is brilliant!). When she's not being controlled by WOTAN, Polly also comes across as proactive (making an effort to call hospitals and find Dodo) and caring (helping the homeless man with change). Overall, Anneke gives a really enjoyable performance; she has a great rapport with every actor she meets, she gives inspired line deliveries ("wretched thing!", "Not that I mind helping people", "The Navy's in trouble!", "You think you do? Well, I must have made a big impression." and the way she says "Hey, Ben!" as she holds up the TARDIS key being especial favorites) and I particularly love her talented face-pulling. The scene in which she demonstrates to Ben his own mopey expression is super. Polly's dress at the beginning is something else; it's too bad there don't seem to be any color pictures of it, because I think it looks pretty cool on her in black-and-white! And she looks like a right little sailor herself, in the outfit at the end. (The amount of eye make-up they put on her, though... I'm amazed her lashes didn't fall off from the weight!) Michael Craze also makes a very positive impression as second new companion Ben Jackson, who gets to step into the limelight late in the second episode. He shows off his protective side straightaway by leaping to Polly's defense, and seems to bond quickly with both Polly and the Doctor. His frantic attempts to escape the warehouse are very convicing, and when Ben gets hysterical, wow, Craze really delivers and makes his desperation seem entirely genuine. In fact, Ben and Polly seem like the most naturalistically-acted companions since Ian and Barbara; nothing against the others, who I certainly enjoy, but the two of them feel refreshingly real. They have an engaging relationship - one could even read a bit of flirting into it, particularly their interaction at the nightclub and Polly's offer to buy Ben lunch. So, even though Polly spends half the story in a daze, and despite the actual content of the story, the two of them get a nice introduction, and I love the way they end up becoming TARDIS crewmembers.

Poor Jackie Lane, however, is treated awfully in her final appearance as my beloved Dodo Chaplet. She spends episode two thoroughly zombified, and this turns out to be her final Doctor Who performance, as she disappears the moment the Doctor cures her - partway through episode two - never to return again! She even sends her goodbyes to the Doctor off-screen (which I can't possibly believe Dodo would ever actually do). Honestly, she might as well not even have been in this story. But for her first episode she's generally enjoyable, although she gets basically nothing to do (being mostly a plot device to introduce Ben and Polly), and if you're watching this straight on from The Ark, she sounds amazingly posh! ("I see what you mean" and "Scotland Yard, whipped off into time and space!")

Hartnell is particularly enjoyable, and for some reason seems far more focused in this episode than usual (although that's not a criticism of his usual style, as I happen to love his absent-minded performances!). He looks especially good with his swirling dark cape, which makes him appear even more commanding than usual, particularly when he grabs his lapels (a mannerism I adore). Aside from a couple of (very amusing) flubs and one rather overdone line ("It was as - as if something enormous and terrific was trying to absorb me!"), he turns in a great performance. I especially like the way he waves his ring in Dodo's face to de-hypnotize her.

While none of the guest actors really impress in their zombified states, some of them do manage to give a good performance otherwise. Until he's zombified, John Cater as Professor Krimpton is quite likeable, and I certainly approve of his wholehearted attempt to resist WOTAN's influence. I also enjoyed Sandra Bryant as Kitty ("Have one on the house, Doctor! It isn't every day we get the over-twenties in this place."), although it's a bit disappointing that she was willing to risk Dodo's life for the sake of her liquor license! John Harvey as Professor Brett has a tendency to stumble over his lines (witness the halting way he delivers the line "We are about to link this up with computers all over the world as a central intelligence."), meaning that he's not that much more impressive out of WOTAN's control than he is under it. The other actor I noticed was Ric Felgate as Roy Stone, the American reporter, whose accent in his first line is horrible (although it improves thereafter), and who most definitely overacts on the line "Is this new threat to world peace only confined to London?"). Mervyn isn't bad as Sir Charles, but although he has a nice rapport with the Doctor, I never find him to be a particularly interesting character.

As the evil megalomaniac of the story, WOTAN isn't bad. The idea of a computer linking up to other computers around the world is actually quite ahead of its time (a nice prediction of the Internet, minus the controlling element), and it's a logical conclusion that such a computer could try to take over the world. However, the precise details of its plan don't really stand up to scrutiny, and on top of that, WOTAN is abominably slow to speak (it takes 22 seconds to say the line "Other means must be employed. Doctor Who is required."). And despite speaking at a snail's pace, it's still extremely difficult to understand. There's even one bit (right before the first "Doctor Who is required!") where WOTAN seems to utter several syllables, but it's completely incomprehensible. And as long as we're talking about Doctor Who being required... how embarrassing is that?! If it weren't for this story, the whole "Doctor Who" thing would be waaaay easier to ignore. Sigh. Stupid WOTAN.

Its War Machines, while impressively large, as well as being apparently quite strong and lethal, fail to represent a convincing threat. Their dramatic abilities seem to be limited to three actions: firing its gas-nozzle weapon (we see them doing this - usually in close-up, although sometimes in a long-shot - 26 times), smashing things with its club arm (we see them lift this arm 14 times; impressively, despite its highly limited range - which only allows it to hit things at a certain height directly in front of its arms - it actually manages to hit something seven of these times, although mostly what it hits - a table, two crates (twice each) and a transceiver - are inanimate and immobile; the sole exception to this is Krimpton at the end, which it lifts rather than hitting) and, most terrifying of all, smashing into piles of boxes that have been conveniently positioned around the warehouse (which they do 4 times). Their ability to jam weapons is a nice touch, though. Happily for the props department, the second War Machine is not introduced until the Doctor has incapacitated the first one, and thus only one prop is actually needed. And the gigantic tape reels on the sides are very amusing.

There's a lot of confusion about the War Machines, too. Their gas weapon is apparently lethal (as shown by its first murder; the gas jet doesn't appear to go anywhere near the man - oops - yet he drops dead immediately) but thereafter it fires the thing like crazy in the warehouse without noticeably killing much of anyone (people are constantly walking through clouds of the vapor), and when it emerges into the open, the gas actually sets one stack of crates on fire, but not another. Green speaks to one of them as though it can understand him perfectly well ("There must be no mistakes!") although given how intelligent WOTAN is supposed to be, maybe this is reasonable.

There are some pretty amusing effects throughout the story - the worst is when we see a family listening to a radio broadcast about the War Machines, but they're clearly standing in front of a cardboard image of a wall of shelves holding a radio. There's also a pretty funny shot of the War Machine trundling down a London street, as the passing buildings are rear-projected onto the screen behind it. I suppose the opening credits count as an effect of sorts, in which case I must say that they're an interesting change, and I like that they differ from episode to episode. I prefer the episode 2 style, where "machines" isn't split up across two lines (grr), but the positive/negative effect in episode 3 is nice too. (And WOTAN gets its own credit at the end of each episode - I can't decide if I find that funny or worthy of eye-rolling!) Sound effects last: the only ones really to speak of are the eerie noises made by WOTAN and its War Machines, all of which I quite like.

Minor points:

• At the beginning, why do we hear the noise of a descending spacecraft just before the TARDIS materializes?

• When Dodo glances behind her to see the policeman approaching, Jackie Lane initially looks over the wrong shoulder and completely misses him. Hee.

• Classic Hartnell fluffing; listen out for what appears to be a member of the crew failing to stifle their guffaw just after he says "the same":

  Doctor: "You know, there's something alien about that tower! I can scent it!"
  (Dodo sniffs the air.)
  Dodo: "Smells okay to me. Good old London smoke."
  Doctor: "I c- I, I, I can, I can feel the, i- i- it's like something, like a sort of, powerful is... Look at my skin! Look at that! I've got that prickling sensange- that sensation again, the same - just as I had when I, thought the Taleks... those Daleks were near."

• Intending to challenge WOTAN's intelligence, the Doctor gives it a ridiculously simple question (the square root of 17,422) and Dodo gives it an impossible one (how on earth could she expect it to know the meaning of TARDIS, which has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with prior knowledge?) which, astonishingly, it answers accurately.

• Good old 1966, when men wore suits and ties to the hottest nightclubs in town!

• Polly certainly seems to have a high opinion of herself!

  Polly: "It must be something pretty big, not to have noticed me."

• Inside the Inferno there's a wooden wheel-like structure... I couldn't see it very well, but it looks quite a lot like the bit of set dressing behind which Jo and Benton hide in the crypt during The Dæmons.

• When WOTAN calls Dodo, but doesn't answer after she says "hello" like three or four times, why doesn't she just hang up? I certainly wouldn't wait around on the phone that long! (Two seconds without a reply and I assume "telemarketer"!)

• If WOTAN destroys all of mankind... who will repair it?

• Kitty exclaims that the Doctor looks like some DJ. I'd love to know who that's supposed to be! Exactly which 1966 DJ could claim that he resembled William Hartnell?

• When Polly introduces Ben to the Doctor, she says that they've "just met", despite the fact that she apparently met him a week ago (and was disappointed when Ben failed to remember that fact immediately).

• WOTAN apparently needs Krimpton to oversee the building of the War Machines, the implication being that he is going to design and implement the creation of the very first one. But, around an hour and a half later, one of them has already been fully constructed!

• The homeless man who stumbles upon WOTAN's plan is pretty funny... he sees one computer in the middle of the warehouse and immediately decides that the place is a nuthouse!

• One of my all-time-favorite Hartnell flubs:

  Sir Charles: "Now isn't it an extraordinary thing, that two such well-known men could vanish so suddenly?"
  Doctor: "Yes, I wonder, Sir Charles, do you suppose, uh - eh, no, I don't suppose you would."

• An incredibly out-of-character Dodo line for an incredibly out-of-character Dodo!

  Polly: "Hello, Dodo. How are you feeling?"
  Dodo: "Quite well, thank you. Hadn't you better start work?"
  Polly: "Pardon me for asking!"

• Good old 1966, when the Doctor can just pick up a phone and ask to be connected to Professor Brett at the Post Office Tower.

• Why does Dodo - who is deeply under WOTAN's control and obeying his every whim - stop leaving the room the moment the Doctor asks her to?

• This is (unintentionally) hilarious! As Green approaches a brick-passing assembly line:

  Green: "All human beings who break down will be eliminated!"
  (He sees a man who has momentarily paused to wipe his brow, and beats him to the ground.)
  Green: "There is no time for rest!"

• Most of the padding in this story at least seems to fit... the War Machines being built, their fiery battles, etc. But why must we endure the entirety of Sir Charles' one-sided phone call to the Minister? Merely knowing that he was going to call and request that the army be dispatched would have been enough; we don't have to hear every word of the thing!

• For some reason, I am amused that there's a box of New Zealand apples lying in front of the warehouse. I sure hope the War Machines got to knock over empty crates of those.

• Why exactly does the War Machine stop when the Doctor plays chicken with it? What reason does it have not to kill the Doctor?

• Why is the news reporting on the War Machine "attack" in London, when all it did was massacre a group of soldiers in a warehouse? It's not like it went on a rampage, they came to it. And how does the news know about it anyway?

• Mmm, questions are coming fast and furious now. Why on earth does WOTAN give up the element of surprise and advertise its plan (further attacks around London) to the public so that they can anticipate it and try to stop it? Does it help in any way for the public to know what it's planning to do?

• I like the subtle scene of Ben pocketing the TARDIS key after it falls out of the Doctor's cloak. That was nicely handled!

• The silly London news! Now they're reporting that the War Machine is causing havoc, when in fact all it seems to be doing is trundling up and down streets, periodically firing its gas nozzle into the air and waving its club about.

• Why does the Doctor have to capture and reprogram a second War Machine? Can't he make use of the one he's already captured?

• This plan to cordon off roads and funnel the War Machine where they want it to go seems rather silly. How exactly do they expect to keep it from going wherever it wants? A few traffic cones aren't going to do it! Along the same lines, the cables that they use to entrap the War Machine are easily flimsy enough for it to break through, if it really wanted to. And how do they know it won't just go around the smallish trap they've set up for it? They don't exactly cover the entire width of the street.

• Cute performance by Hartnell, as the War Machine raises a threatening club against the Doctor:

  Doctor: "Ahh, temper, temper!" (he giggles)

• The War Machine at the end is nicely used, as the Doctor makes it turn against its creator and destroy WOTAN. I'll give this story points for that!

• The Doctor claims that he took Dodo "all the way around the world". Assuming that he isn't just referring to their little jaunt in Tombstone, there must be a bunch of unseen adventures with them on Earth (perhaps between The Savages and this story?).

• At the very end of the story, as the TARDIS dematerializes, two people walk past. They clearly see the ship vanish, yet they look neither surprised nor impressed in the least!

Given the dearth of plot, it's a shame that this is the only complete adventure we have to date starring Ben and Polly; fortunately, both Craze and Wills turn in beautiful performances that give us an idea of just how great their characters were. Hartnell likewise energizes a story that, without these three, would otherwise be pretty hard to watch.