The War Machines

Chapter The 197th, presents a surprising new setting for a Doctor Who story - contemporary London.

Plot:

The Doctor and Dodo materialise in London, 1966. The Doctor senses an energy emanating from the recently completed GPO Tower, so he talks his way in, mistaken for one of a number of experts invited to the launch of a new computer called WOTAN. WOTAN is a prototype of Siri essentially, but it hypnotises people and wants to destroy humankind. So almost exactly like Siri then. WOTAN controls Professor Brett and other members of its engineering team. They contact more people using the telephone network and send WOTAN's hypnotic signal down the wire. One of the people taken over is Dodo, who takes the call at a nightclub where she's out with Brett's secretary Polly and a sailor called Ben. WOTAN knows all about the Doctor, or Doctor Who as it calls him, and instructs Dodo to bring him under hypnotic control too. He resists this, though, and Dodo collapses. The Doctor's new posh friend Sir Charles lets her convalesce at his country house, and the Doctor continues to investigate, aided by Ben and Polly. Meanwhile, the hypnotised humans are building war machines to attack London. With help from the military and Sir Charles, the Doctor captures and reprograms a War Machine and sends it to the GPO Tower where it destroys WOTAN. Later, the Doctor meets Ben and Polly and they tell him that Dodo has decided to stay on Earth. Curious, they follow him when he enters what seems to be a police box. The TARDIS dematerialises...

Context:

The random choice this time was a black and white William Hartnell story, so I decided to watch it on my own from the DVD. That sounds easy, but it instigated a protracted battle between me and my home viewing equipment. Both my Sony TV and Blu-ray player are quite old now, but both are also still decent and reliable. The problem is the remote controls. The Blu-ray one broke long ago; that didn't matter too much, though, as the TV remote syncs with the Blu-ray player for most functions. Some useful ones I do miss, like seeing how much longer is left to play of something. It's good to know when one sits down to watch, say, the studio footage from the recording of Time and the Rani whether it's a pleasant 25 minutes versus a gruelling 4 hour plus run time. Luckily, they've started printing the details in the booklets. And in the case of the Time and the Rani footage on the recent Blu-ray boxset it's the latter, by the way: more than four hours of material!!! I haven't been brave enough to try watching that yet.

Anyway, recently the TV remote also broke, so I got a new one online, and that only lasted a few months (even with new batteries it's only functional in brief spasms). I found another vendor that was selling a remote supposedly compatible with my Blu-ray player model, but it turns out not to be compatible, or it's a dud. I've tried some mobile apps that are supposed to work with Sony Smart TVs but my TV is clearly not quite smart enough. The unit itself has no controls that will actually make a Doctor Who DVD start. I was reduced to using the spasming remote, pressing the relevant button over and over, harder and harder, from different angles, all the time hopping up and down, and massaging the batteries with my other hand. Finally, episode 1 of The War Machines lurched into life. I couldn't trust that pause or rewind would work thereafter, so I had to watch the lot in one go without a break. 

First Time Round:

From Swinging London to Cool Britannia: in June 1997, The War Machines was the first Doctor Who VHS release after Tony Blair and the Labour Party formed the UK's ruling government following a landslide election victory. It was a time of excitement and change, and this went for Doctor Who home media too. After the launch of the Paul McGann Doctor Who TV movie in 1996, there had been a cessation in the VHS releases of older stories; after the failure of any Paul McGann series to get picked up, the releases resumed in January 1997. From around this point, the people involved in the range were more knowledgeable about the show than those who'd been running things earlier in the 1990s. This meant a lot more care was being taken. The War Machines was restored and was presented in as complete a version as possible with excised sections reinstated from other sources. In addition to this, there were extra tidbits too including a Blue Peter clip introducing the titular machines, an era-appropriate BBC globe ident, and an outtake film trim. In another couple of years, DVD would become a viable alternative to VHS and would allow much more of that sort of thing from the same team of people, but The War Machines VHS feels like the point where it all starts. More than 30 years after its broadcast, The War Machines was still innovating.

Reaction:

New producer Innes Lloyd and new script editor Gerry Davis had been credited on a few preceding Doctor Who stories, but The War Machines is where they first fully make their mark. The previous stories up to immediate predecessor The Savages, even though they were rewritten to greater or lesser degrees, were commissioned by the previous regime. The War Machines was the very first idea to come from Who's scientific adviser, Kit Pedler, who Lloyd and Davis had recently brought on to the show. He would go on to have a very fruitful working relationship with Davis, and the two of them were soon to create the Cybermen. The themes here are not too dissimilar to their more famous creation, highlighting the dehumanising affect of machine intelligence. Also in the tradition of cybermen stories, The War Machines sees a supposedly logical entity behaving in a slightly illogical way. Exactly why a networked supercomputer would develop hypnosis powers, or why it would want to get rid of human beings, is up for debate. What isn't debateable is that Doctor Who had no need for a scientific advisor who was going to provide sensible and rigorous themes derived from current research; luckily, in this case they managed to get someone imaginative coming up with B-movie ideas; Doctor Who can always use such a person.

The War Machines doesn't innovate much in its ideas, but where it does take the series off in a new direction is in its setting. From the outset it has been a show about exploration, about travel into history or to alien planets. Just those two for the most part, though: back in time on Earth, or to strange alien worlds. For a series where the main character had a time machine that seemed to visit Earth every other story, it's remarkable that in the first three years of the show there was only one story set on a future Earth (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, which looked a lot more like World War Two than anything futuristic), and one contemporary visit (Planet of Giants, which was all about the miniaturisation, and could really have been set at any time). When the Doctor and Dodo materialise at the beginning of this story after a sweeping panoramic shot of London, it's clear that we're watching something different from what's come before. Even before that, to be honest, when the beginning credits fade out and each episode has a bespoke title sequence, as if the story, writer and episode number were being printed out by WOTAN itself. That, and the generous amount of location filming, give away that some money has been lavished on this story. But once we're into the story proper, something else becomes clear: the contemporary setting is being fully embraced. The War Machines is set in 1966 with a big capital N, S and S.

Within a few seconds, we see the GPO tower (officially opened late in 1965 and the tallest building in the UK in 1966), then we meet Carnaby Street-clad companion Polly, and before too long we're in the hottest nightspot in town swinging along with Swinging London and working class hero Ben. There's an altercation over a "bird" where Ben gets to best a tough, people "dig" each other's "fab gear", there's Covent Garden warehouses, black cabs, down-and-outs just out of prison, murders that make the papers, people watching wider events taking place on a TV in a pub with a real life newsreader appearing (Kenneth Kendall): it's the best depiction of the real contemporary world seen in Doctor Who so far. In counterpoint to this, Hartnell's Doctor is also thrust into a slightly different but just as well depicted contemporary world that he's not been in before, of establishment authority figures in London clubs (Sir Charles), scientists, and later having a lot of military hardware and personnel at his disposal. The Doctor as visiting expert is a new take on the character. Writer Ian Stuart Black brings all these elements together in a coherent narrative that flows efficiently (I had to watch this all in one go - see above - which would be tough for some black-and-white Who stories intended to be seen episodically, but The War Machines barely drags at all). Director Michael Ferguson and crew get some great looking shots both in studio and particularly on location, and the storytelling is refreshingly visual.

Ferguson can't get his trademark shot, the sun flaring behind the monster as it looms in the foreground, this time; that might have something to do with the War Machine prop being so enormous it blocks out the sun! It's solidly put together, but perhaps a bit too unwieldy and too boxy to be too frightening. This is one of the only flaws in how the production is put together, everything else is pretty glossy. The biggest issue is a script one, and something imposed: writing out the companion character Dodo. Dodo had been introduced a few stories earlier as the new 'with it' voice of youth, but fashions change quickly in youth culture, and that causes the somewhat slower-paced plodding animal, the BBC producer, to make knee-jerk reactions. Jackie Lane, playing Dodo, also had the disadvantage that she had been hired by the previous producer. In uncomfortable scenes in the first episode, Dodo has no lines and just stands watching the new duo of Ben and Polly interacting in a scene, like she's Dodo's frumpy younger sister who's insisted on coming out with her. She then does get something slightly more interesting to do: act hypnotised, and betray the Doctor. That lasts for a few scenes, then she's rendered unconscious, leaves the action, and never comes back. She is absent in the second half of the story. At the end, her replacement runs up to the Doctor and tells him that she's decided to stay put. She had appeared in 19 consecutive weekly episodes, and there would have been some young members of the audience invested in her character. It's a shabby thing to do to those viewers for the exit to be so perfunctory.

The final contracted actor on the show that Innes Lloyd inherited, the star of the show, had only two more stories left before he'd be given the push too. The myth that William Hartnell was flagging in the role is comprehensively busted by this story. He's on blisteringly fine form in every scene. An outstanding moment is the cliffhanger of episode 3; the Machines advance, but the Doctor stands his ground while behind him soldiers flee. The house style of reprising the cliffhanger at the start of the next episode, often recreating the moment in studio as that was easier than editing in a recording, means we get to see it twice, and it's even better second time. Maybe Hartnell was difficult to work with (a charge that's been consistently levelled by multiple people over the years, albeit when Hartnell was long gone and unable to counter) but none of that was showing on screen, and it seems a shame that he only had a handful of episodes left. His final story The Tenth Planet was another Kit Pedler idea with Davis tweaking the parameters of The War Machines' innovations. There was still an authority figure like Sir Charles, but they're more suspicious of the Doctor, who is again a maverick rather than slotting neatly into the establishment. Instead of roaming multiple locations, the action is set in one restricted and difficult to escape locale, meaning the adversaries can be stealthy early on to build up to the all-out action later. This would become the template for the next few years, and the next visit to contemporary Britain (where Ben and Polly would be perfunctorily written out in their turn) would be much more like The Tenth Planet than The War Machines. Things would evolve again by the time of The Web of Fear, the first story by Innes Lloyd's successor as producer. The Yeti story is seen as the progenitor of the Pertwee UNIT era, but really it's just a retread of The War Machines, the true trend-setter. 

Connectivity: 

It must be a record! Five stories on the trot now that have featured a farewell to a regular or semi-regular character. Unlike the previous four, though, Dodo's leaving such as it is (sidelined partway through the serial and having her desire to stay on Earth relayed by her glamourous replacement at the end) cannot be described as an emotional goodbye. Both stories also touch upon the dangers of networking lots of computers together (WOTAN in The War Machines, and the financial globe connected up to every bank system in the galaxy in The Husbands of River Song).

Deeper Thoughts:

Exits and entitlement. Jackie Lane, who portrayed Dodo and who recently passed away, was one of the least accessible Classic Who stars who lived through the burgeoning of worldwide organised fandom from the 1980s onwards. In all that time, she barely attended any convention or signing events, and never appeared on screen or in the commentary studio for a DVD or Blu-ray extra. Many of the 1960s Doctor Who cast and crew missed out on the fan appreciation circuit as they sadly died before things really took off, but Lane was the only one who chose not to engage to such an extent. I can't really blame her after the shoddy way she was treated when she was on the show; it was also only a job she did for a few months more than 50 years ago, no matter how important it might seem to us fans. In some of the tributes to her in the recent Doctor Who Magazine, though, I swear I noticed an undercurrent of annoyance as well as disappointment. Having a fandom of any kind in one's brain, one is always at risk of a small idea snowballing into something more overblown; we all can get a bit carried away, and a bit entitled in our desire to know things about our favourite show. Examples of this snowballing fan entitlement phenomenon were prevalent last weekend in the usual nooks and crannies of social media. The reason for this was that - after a long period of time with no news from the production team and stars making Doctor Who - there was an online panel Q&A as part of Comic Con.

The panel featured showrunner Chris Chibnall and stars Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill and John Bishop. There was also mention ahead of time of a special surprise guest who would be joining the four of them. Now, the current Doctor Who marketing approach is much more cagey than it has been in the years before Chibnall took over. Story titles, guest stars, returning foes or friends, all have been held back until the last possible moment before wide dissemination, unlike in previous years. Because of that sense of fan entitlement, this has made some people very unhappy. They want to know every detail of what's coming, and they want to know it now!!!! I can empathise to a degree, but watching detached as said fans display this to the world online one obviously sees the ridiculousness. Long before the panel, there was a lot of grumbling about when the first teaser trailer was coming (honestly, I can't see fans of Silent Witness getting so bent out of shape). One or two people mused on whether such a thing - for Doctor Who, I mean, not Silent Witness - could be shown during the Euros cup final broadcast, as it is the sort of thing that's been done previously. Before you know it, multiple people pick this up, and it snowballs. It's now definitely going to be shown during the final, and everyone's speculating about exactly what it will give away (or spoil, depending on your outlook). When there is no trailer for Doctor Who during the final, as inevitably there wouldn't be, there is disappointment and in some places outrage.

As part of the Comic Con panel, there actually was a teaser trailer shown, only about three weeks on from the football, and so everyone was happy... you'd think. But no, not everyone. For every two people who were happy to analyse every frame of the trailer for clues (spoiler: there weren't any), there was one person still outraged. The reason for this was that special guest announcement, which had snowballed and then some. The favourite to pop up was David Tennant; second favourite was a tie between the Queen and God. The speculation was so intense and so unrealistic that there could only be crushing disappointment, and so it came to pass. The special guest was a bloke who'd been in Game of Thrones who was playing a semi-regular role in the upcoming series. Insert descending muted trombone notes here. Of course, these fans are being silly, but I do feel there's a tiny bit of responsibility to take by the people arranging this sort of marketing too. That level of casting decision is press release worthy at best. They had to give the panel audience something, though, and clearly they were desperate not to give anything. I didn't watch the panel, but caught up with the threadbare "What we learned from the Comic-Con panel" articles afterwards, and what we learned apart from Jacob Anderson joining the cast (for it was he) was that each episode of the series is going to form one linked overarching story, and there's going to be old monsters returning in it (though they wouldn't say which ones). Er. And. That's. It.

It didn't feel worth anybody's time turning up, particularly the members of the panel themselves. The irony was that they did have some pretty significant and immense news that they could have shared, but for some reason they held onto this for four more days and then issued a press release. I'm not an expert on marketing, but it might have been more interesting had they told everyone then and there that at least two of the people on the panel (the showrunner and the actor playing the Doctor) were leaving the show! I won't dwell on how I feel about Jodie leaving and a new Doctor coming along yet. There's plenty of time for that later anyway, as she will feature in that story arc (six episodes long as it turns out) later this year, then a festive special for New Year's Day 2022, and two further specials next year too. In the last one, to be broadcast in the autumn as part of the BBC's centenary celebrations no less, Whittaker will hand over the baton to a new Doctor Who. Being a fan, of course, none of this is enough, and I'm automatically thinking about what's going to happen in 2023, Doctor Who's 60th anniversary year. If that's going to be the first year for a new Doctor maybe it's not fair to weigh it down with any anniversary nostalgia. Alternatively, it might be the opportunity to persuade someone to be a one-night only Doctor, maybe someone who's too big a star to sign up for a series. They could do a big feature length adventure in November, maybe with a big name director helming. The doctor dies bravely at the end and regenerates into the next long-running Doctor to start in 2024. Now I've put all this on record, of course, it could very well snowball - in my head, even if nobody else's. Let's try not to be too disappointed if we don't get Hugh Grant directed by Peter Jackson, or whatever, in 2023.

In Summary:

Doctor Who has a change of (fab) gear.