The War Machines is the tenth and final serial of the third season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Ian Stuart Black and directed by Michael Ferguson, it was broadcast on BBC1 in four weekly parts from 25 June to 16 July 1966. In the serial, the First Doctor (William Hartnell) and his travelling companion, Dodo Chaplet (Jackie Lane), arrive in London shortly after the Post Office Tower was constructed. They meet secretary Polly (Anneke Wills) and sailor Ben Jackson (Michael Craze), and work to stop the sentient supercomputer WOTAN from invading London with its deadly War Machines.
Story editor Gerry Davis employed the academic Kit Pedler to develop the story idea, and scriptwriting duties were assigned to Pat Dunlop, who soon asked to be removed; he was replaced by Black, who also wrote the preceding serial. The War Machines is the programme's second serial set entirely on contemporary Earth. It marked the final appearance of Lane as Dodo, and the first appearance of Wills and Craze as Polly and Ben. Filming included extensive location shooting from May 1966, and the episodes were recorded in Riverside Studios from June to July.
The War Machines received an average of 5.2 million viewers across the four episodes, an improvement over its predecessor but low compared to the previous year. Reviews were largely positive, with praise for the setting, concept, performances, and new companions, though Dodo's departure was criticised. The videotapes and film prints were wiped by the BBC in the 1970s but subsequently recovered from collections, with some cuts for censorship. The story was novelised by Black, and the serial was released on VHS, DVD, and as an audiobook.
Contents
Plot
The TARDIS lands in London, near the Post Office Tower, where the First Doctor and his travelling companion, Dodo Chaplet, meet Professor Brett, the creator of WOTAN (Will Operating Thought ANalogue). In four days, WOTAN will be linked to other major computers across the world to take them over. Dodo goes with Polly, Brett's secretary, to the Inferno nightclub, where they meet Ben Jackson, while the Doctor attends a Royal Scientific Club meeting about WOTAN, led by Sir Charles Summer. Before Brett can depart for the meeting, he is hypnotised by WOTAN. Major Green, the chief of security in the Tower, is also hypnotised, and sends WOTAN's control signals to Dodo at the nightclub via telephone.
Using its hypnotic control, WOTAN enlists a workforce to construct twelve robotic War Machines around London. One of these machines is built in a warehouse in Covent Garden, close to the nightclub. The next day, the Doctor telephones Brett at the Post Office Tower, and is nearly possessed by WOTAN. Thinking the Doctor is now controlled, Dodo reveals that the War Machines are being constructed in strategic points in London. The Doctor breaks WOTAN's control over her, and she is sent to stay with Sir Charles's wife to recover. The Doctor sends Ben to investigate the area around the nightclub, where he discovers a War Machine, now fully assembled. Ben is detected by the Machine and caught by the now hypnotised Polly. Ben learns that the War Machines are to attack the next day. He escapes and alerts the Doctor and Sir Charles. Polly is sent back to the Tower to be punished by WOTAN.
Under Sir Charles's instruction, an army task force investigates the warehouse. They are forced to retreat, but when the Doctor stands before the Machine, it stops, having not been completely programmed. Following reports of another War Machine taking to the streets, the Doctor traps the Machine in an electromagnetic forcefield and reprograms it to destroy WOTAN. Ben goes to the Post Office Tower and drags Polly out of WOTAN's room as the Machine enters and attacks the computer. WOTAN is destroyed, halting the other ten War Machines and breaking the hypnosis. Ben and Polly meet the Doctor at the TARDIS and explain that Dodo has decided to stay in London. The Doctor thanks them and heads into the TARDIS, shortly followed by Ben and Polly as it dematerialises.
Production
Conception and writing
After assuming their roles as Doctor Who's producer and story editor in early 1966, Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis sought to phase out historical serials in favour of contemporary science-fiction, following the lower figures and mixed responses to The Myth Makers (1965) and The Massacre (1966). Davis sought a scientific consultant for the programme and met with several academics—including Alex Comfort, Eric Laithwaite, and Patrick Moore—but felt their ideas were restricted by reality; conversely, Kit Pedler (an academic at the University of London with television experience) was more flexible, enthusiastic about science fiction. Davis considered a story in which the recently opened Post Office Tower "took over"; while most prospective writers had routine ideas, Pedler's concept of a rogue computer felt exciting, and an outline was created after one meeting. Pedler was paid £25 per episode (equivalent to £407 in 2025).
Scriptwriting duties for the story, titled Doctor Who and the Computers, were assigned to Pat Dunlop, a staff writer at the BBC; Davis commissioned him to write the four scripts by 4 April 1966. After completing a draft for the first episode by mid-March, Dunlop asked to be removed from the serial to work on scripts for United! and consulting for Dixon of Dock Green. Davis subsequently assigned the story to Ian Stuart Black, who had recently completed his scripts for the preceding serial, The Savages (1966). Black was the first writer (and one of only three in the programme's original run) to pen two consecutive serials. He was formally commissioned on 15 March with the same due date, but soon given more time to accommodate Davis and Lloyd's changes to the companions; Black delivered the four scripts to Doctor Who and the War Machines on 21 March, 30 March, 7 April, and 28 April, respectively.
The War Machines was the first time the lead character had been directly called "Doctor Who"; Black believed it was his name, not "the Doctor", and Davis did not alter this in the scripts. The serial was the programme's second set entirely on contemporary Earth, after Planet of Giants (1964), and it established a story type that became commonplace with the programme in the early 1970s. It was Davis and Lloyd's first original story, having adopted the preceding serials from their predecessors. Michael Ferguson was assigned the serial's director; he had previously worked as assistant floor manager on The Daleks (1963–1964), on which he had controlled the Dalek's arm in the first episode. In preparation for The War Machines, Ferguson watched the film Machines Like Men on 25 April, spoke to representatives at ICT Limited on 28 April, and visited IBM in Hammersmith. The War Machines was the first Doctor Who story to feature a sentient supercomputer, later a science-fiction staple.
Casting and characters
The War Machines was the first instance of the Doctor (portrayed by William Hartnell) participating in everyday activities, such as hailing taxis and visiting institutions, rather than interacting with historical figures or futuristic civilisations. The serial marked the final appearance of Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet; Lloyd chose not to renew Lane's contract, following the recent departure of Peter Purves as Steven Taylor in the preceding serial. Lloyd wanted two contemporary companions to make the programme relatable, partly inspired by the popularity of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the James Bond films. Ben and Polly are 24-year-olds from Swinging London, the former an able seaman with the Royal Navy and the latter an intelligent but impulsive woman whose trendy outfits echoed Julie Christie and Marianne Faithfull. In the first outline, Ben, named "Rich", initially quarrelled with Dodo before they became attracted to each other.
Anneke Wills and Michael Craze were cast as Polly and Ben by early May and offered contracts for four serials (18 episodes) on 25 and 26 May, respectively. They sought to discuss the characters with Hartnell and Ferguson. Wills recalled that her husband, Michael Gough, had enjoyed his time working on the serial The Celestial Toymaker (1966), though he warned her that Hartnell may be difficult to work with. She considered playing the role with a posh debutante accent, but the idea was soon dropped. Craze temporarily lived with Wills and Gough for six weeks after being cast, unable to find other accommodation; Wills and Craze became lifelong friends. Hartnell tried to help the new cast settle in, but they had different approaches to working; Craze struggled to relate to Hartnell.
Ferguson cast several guest actors he had worked with, as the BBC did not use casting directors. William Mervyn was the serial's primary guest star, cast as Sir Charles Summer. The character, originally named Sir Robert, was inspired by Inspector Lestrade in the Sherlock Holmes stories: unimaginative and opposed to receiving advice. Ferguson had recently directed Mervyn in an episode of The Flying Swan (1965) alongside John Cater and John Boyd-Brent, who he cast as Professor Krimpton and the army sergeant, respectively. He had also worked with John Harvey (who portrayed Professor Brett) on several projects. Ferguson cast Dwight Whylie as a radio announcer as his voice was immediately recognisable; the head of presentation at BBC Radio, Andrew Timothy, agreed to release Whylie for recording on 7 June. Ric Felgate, then Ferguson's brother-in-law and husband to Cynthia Felgate, was cast as an American journalist. Mike Reid appeared uncredited as a soldier; he had previously appeared in the film Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and later found fame as Frank Butcher on EastEnders from 1987 to 2005, including in the Doctor Who charity special crossover Dimensions in Time (1993).
Filming
Rehearsals for the film sequences took place on 20 May 1966, and early filming began on 22 May in London. Hartnell and Lane were released from rehearsals for The Savages for filming, soon joined by Wills and Craze; it was Ferguson's first location shoot as a director, and he was assisted by cameraman Alan Jones. The General Post Office had denied permission to film from the Post Office Tower; the opening shot of the TARDIS was instead filmed in Bedford Square from Centre Point with permission from the company George Wimpey. The actor Peter Stewart was mistaken a real police officer, with one bystander asking for directions. A taxi driver, W. Bussell, drove his own taxicab for one scene and was paid £2.10. Journalists visited to take photographs, particularly of the War Machine, as location shooting was rare for the programme at the time. Further early filming took place at Ealing Studios from 23 to 25 May; the scripts had indicated that these scenes would be filmed in the regular studio sessions, but Ferguson opted to record them in the pre-filming period.
Further location shooting took place on 26 May, including at Covent Garden market in the morning. Hartnell joined the crew in the afternoon for scenes filmed at Cornwall Gardens. Weekly four-day rehearsals for the serial started on 6 June, and recording took place in Studio 1 of Riverside Studios each Friday from 10 June. The TARDIS appears differently in some successive shots in the first episode, as the prop had undergone some refurbishment between the location and studio recordings. Craze performed additional voice recording as a policeman for the fourth episode on 29 June at Lime Grove Studios. The final episode was recorded on 1 July; it was filmed out of sequence to allow scenes with the War Machine prop to be filmed together. By this time, Hartnell's departure from the programme in October had been organised. The first episode was budgeted at £3,205 but cost more, while the rest were budgeted at £2,575 each to compensate; recording cost a total of £11,612 (equivalent to £188,879 in 2025).
Reception
Broadcast and ratings
The War Machines was broadcast on BBC1 in four weekly parts from 25 June to 16 July 1966. The first and third episodes were broadcast in their usual 5:35 p.m. timeslot, while the second episode aired later at 6:55 p.m. due to the Wimbledon finals, and the fourth aired earlier at 5:15 p.m. (in Juke Box Jury's timeslot) due to Royal Tournament coverage later. The War Machines was the final serial of the programme's third season; a trailer for the following serial, The Smugglers (1966), was broadcast after the fourth episode. Viewership for The War Machines saw an improvement over The Savages, with an average of 5.2 million across the four episodes, though its charts positions were low in comparison to the preceding year. The serial was promoted in a segment on Blue Peter, one of the earliest partnerships between the programmes.
The serial was sold overseas from the mid-1960s, requiring some cuts for the Australian and New Zealand broadcasts. The BBC wiped the original tapes in March 1974, among the last of Hartnell's stories to be wiped, and the 16 mm telerecordings were among the last to be destroyed in early 1978. A private collector in Australia recovered the film print of the second episode in the late 1970s—the first missing Doctor Who episode to be recovered. All four episodes, with some cuts for censorship (taken from the New Zealand prints), were discovered at a television station in Nigeria in 1984. The censored fragments—136 seconds from the third episode and 17 seconds from the fourth—remain missing but have been reconstructed using other footage and audio. The serial were screened at the National Film Theatre on 12 July 1986, and later aired on UK Gold in episodic and omnibus formats from January 1993. It is Hartnell's last serial and Polly and Ben's only story without any missing episodes.
Critical response
The Stage and Television Today's Bill Norris called The War Machines "one of the better" stories, enjoying the performances of Mervyn, Harvey, Cater, and Alan Curtis and "the look" of Polly and Ben. An Audience Research Report had a mixed response: many found the concept "preposterous", the ending anticlimactic, and the programme had "little or no appeal"; conversely, some viewers, particularly children, enjoyed the serial, finding it frightening and appreciating the contemporary setting. The Appreciation Index scores were low, with an average of 44 and a nadir of 39 for the fourth episode. Doctor Who Magazine (DWM) readers ranked The War Machines among the top half of the First Doctor's serials and near the middle of the programme's stories overall.
Several critics found the contemporary setting refreshing and respectable; The Telegraph's Ben Lawrence named it among the programme's best contemporary stories. Piers D. Britton noted it set a new precedent, and Mark Clapham, Eddie Robson, and Jim Smith felt it pushed the programme to be "frequently defined by the sources it drew from". Peter Haining thought it represented Doctor Who adjusting its audience from children to teenagers as it "formally entered the swinging sixties". IGN's Arnold T. Blumberg wrote that "this is where modern Doctor Who actually begins". Danny Nicol recognised that the serial criticised the abuse of governmental power, instead of private institutions as in later stories. Some critics considered WOTAN's use of 1960s telecoms technology to create a network of sentient machines forward-thinking, predating similar concepts (later a popular trope) in film and television and real technologies like ARPANET and the Internet.
Several reviewers praised Hartnell's role in the serial, especially in the third episode's ending, which The A.V. Club's Christopher Bahn called "magnetic"; some deemed the cliffhanger among the programme's best, and DWM's Mark Wright called it an "iconic hero shot" that would later become common in the programme. IGN's Blumberg considered The War Machines an effective showcase for Hartnell, calling him "commanding and magnetic ... but often lost" and "out of touch", and Mark Campbell called his performance "erratic". Wills and Craze's performances were praised; Den of Geek's Alex Westthorp found them "more naturalistic" than Lane's "rather stagy" work. The A.V. Club's Bahn called the new companions "the liveliest and most interesting characters in the story", appreciating Ben's heroism. Many reviewers considered Dodo's departure the worst of any companion and felt Lane was denied a proper exit from the programme; Valerie Estelle Frankel noted, like her introduction in The Massacre, Dodo's departure was "treated with little fanfare".
Commercial releases
A novelisation of The War Machines was written by Black based on his original scripts, preferring not to let other writers adapt them; he expanded the story by giving names to some War Machines. It was published by Target Books on 16 February 1989, with a cover by Alister Pearson and Graeme Wey. An audiobook of the novelisation, read by Michael Cochrane, was published on 7 March 2019.
The serial's audio was released on CD by BBC Audiobooks in August 2007, with narration by Wills; it was included in The Lost TV Episodes: Collection Six by AudioGO on 5 September 2013, featuring an interview with Wills and the original camera scripts. Harlequin Miniatures released metal figures of Polly and Ben in August 1998, and models of the War Machines in 2000.
The War Machines was the first Doctor Who video project overseen by the Doctor Who Restoration Team in late 1996, with the missing elements reconstructed using existing video and audio material, including sound by Mark Ayres. Ferguson admired the Restoration Team's dedication to restoring his work. Delivered under budget, it was released on VHS by BBC Video on 2 June 1997, and on DVD by 2 Entertain on 25 August 2008. The latter included an audio commentary with Wills and Ferguson, and short documentaries about the locations and restoration. Reviewers enjoyed the DVD's presentation and restoration but found the extras light or lacklustre, though Den of Geek's Westthorp appreciated the commentary and features. The serial was released as part of Eaglemoss's Doctor Who DVD Files in June 2014, and added to BBC iPlayer alongside most other serials on 1 November 2023.