Review of The War Machines (#27)
DVD Release Date: 06 Jan 09
Original Air Date: 25 Jun – 16 Jul 1966
Doctors/Companions: One, Dodo Chaplet, Ben Jackson, Polly
Stars: William Hartnell, Jackie Lane, Michael Craze, Anneke Wills
Preceding Story: The Savages (One, Steven, Dodo)
Succeeding Story: The Smugglers (One, Ben, Polly)

The First Doctor is always going to be a hard sell for some fans. Even his stories of the objectively best quality would land near the bottom of the rankings for those who just can’t get past the peculiarities of the black-and-white era.

So when we come to The War Machines, which is one of the poorer options (coming in at #199 or 254 in io9’s Best-to-Worst ranking), I would be unsurprised if it was unfamiliar to First-Doctor agnostics (or outright haters). And while I can’t disagree that it probably belongs in that bottom ~20%, I don’t think it’s so much bad as pedestrian.

The plot is typical SF fare: a sentient computer wants to “help” by taking over for mankind, and sets out to subjugate humanity with a few ~ahem~ well-crafted war machines. There’s brainwashing and blatant disregard for human life and a creator turned into the tool/stooge of his creation. Classic stuff. But especially by today’s visual storytelling standards, the plot moves so slowly one wishes for a TARDIS to skip over all the middle bits.

Of course, if one did skip the middle bits, you might end up even more confused by poor Dodo’s fate than those of us who watched it faithfully (and by “faithfully,” I mean “didn’t fast forward through any dull bits, though perhaps walked into the next room once or twice while the DVD was still running”). Having been rudely taken over by the sentient computer WOTAN (Will Operating Thought ANalogue), Dodo did its bidding, but unwittingly tipped her (or, more accurately, WOTAN’s) hand to the Doctor.

After taking steps to release her from WOTAN’s control, the Doctor unceremoniously sends his unconscious Companion “to the country” to recover, and we never see her again, like a family pet that’s been whisked away “to a farm.” The lampshade put on the abrupt severing of this tie at the end of the serial is unsatisfying at best, and given that the behind-the-scenes dynamic was reportedly no less awkward (more so, in fact), it can leave a modern viewer scratching their head.

Of course the other famous feature of this serial is the fact that WOTAN repeatedly refers to the Doctor as “Doctor Who.” One would think that the fact that WOTAN knows what TARDIS stands for (a mysterious tidbit that is never explained), it would know that his name is the Doctor, yet on several occasions the creepy computer intones, “Doctor Who is required!”

Generally speaking, though, there’s nothing out-and-out terrible about The War Machines. It merely plods along in a sort of painfully predictable way, showing off some of the least flattering characteristics of humanity, the Doctor (“If we’re going to worry about one person [Polly], we shall never solve anything, shall we?”), and technology in a cautionary tale that never really lands. As a result, my attention wandered constantly.

Therefore, my verdict on this serial comes down firmly in the middle: It’s not truly terrible, but its Bad Reputation™ isn’t entirely unearned, either. It’s pretty middling fare. So if you’re only looking for one or two First Doctor serials to try out, I don’t think this one’s worth your time.