The War Machines Episode 4

The one where the Eleventh Doctor makes an unexpected cameo...

Sometimes it's the little things that delight me most about Doctor Who. I think a lot of fans get enjoyment out of the silly little incidentals of their favourite show, those little moments that make them chuckle or get the hairs standing up on the back of the neck. Those private little moments that may mean nothing to everybody else, but which you always notice and treasure - your bits of Doctor Who!

I do enjoy the semi-regular feature in Doctor Who Magazine called Supporting Artist of the Month, which highlights some of the oft-missed performances by those uncredited people who mill about in the background, filling scenes and adding atmosphere. There's one particular supporting artist in this episode (who I think may well crop up in two different places) who I believe is a foreshadowing of a future Doctor! He's in the background of the studio scenes outside the Burrows warehouse, fiddling with equipment in a white coat (see picture on right). He looks the spitting image of Matt Smith! He possibly pops up again briefly in the scene where the US correspondent is reporting the news: he's busy on a phone, so it's hard to tell, but it looks like the same guy (and to be honest, I don't blame the other extra who crosses the screen, gently tapping him on the waist as he passes - is there more to these two supporting characters' relationship than we can ever know?).

I'm also a big fan of Man in Telephone Box John Slavid, a very handsome chap who sadly gets killed off all too quickly, and those two pedestrians in the closing seconds of the episode, just after the TARDIS has dematerialised. We see them all too briefly before the fade to black and credits, but it's the perfect parting flourish from a young director who gave so much style and panache to The War Machines (he would bring similar flare to The Seeds of Death and The Ambassadors of Death in a few years time).

Some of the camera shots he slips into this otherwise sometimes choppily edited episode are way ahead of what most other directors were doing with Doctor Who at the time - there's a scene in a traditional London boozer, with people watching TV to receive news of the invasion from none other than real-life BBC newsreader Kenneth Kendall. A scene in a contemporary pub is revolutionary for this programme. It's almost feels naughty! There's a scene where the War Machine is on the streets of an abandoned capital, passing a barber's shop and a dairy, and then it trundles past a parked car, at which point we zoom in on the car's radio to hear a bulletin from real-life BBC broadcaster Dwight Whylie. The mind fast-forwards 40 years to Russell T Davies' New Series, where alien invasions are reported by 21st century equivalents such as Kirsty Wark, Jason Mohammad and Andrew Marr. Events being reported on the news in Doctor Who felt so modern and revolutionary in 2005, but Michael Ferguson and Ian Stuart Black were doing it back in 1966!

I could go on listing examples of Ferguson's talented vision: the reflection of the War Machine in the puddle, through the spokes of an abandoned bicycle wheel; the low angle shot of Sir Charles and the Doctor at Cornwall Gardens, and the high angle perspective on the trapped War Machine; the sweeping view of London from above, which then zooms in on the Post Office Tower...

I'll move my attention to the plot now! I love how the Doctor placates the rampaging War Machine in the cliffhanger reprise, conducting it with sweeping arms and courteous gestures like a very polite jailer. Quite how the Doctor achieves this isn't explained properly, and is a bit of a cop-out: he claims the War Machine hadn't been programmed properly, and so he was able to manipulate it, but how would the Doctor know that? And even if he did, how did he bring a gas-spewing, club-thumping tank to a standstill by merely waving his arms about? Perhaps it's just one those things about the Doctor that will forever remain mysterious!

The Doctor remains resolutely unconcerned for poor Polly's welfare throughout the episode, thinking of the bigger picture rather than the fate of one person. This is the type of alien attitude we saw in the Doctor in the first half of Season 1, and something we'd see hints of again in both Tom and Colin Baker's performances, but it really came back with a vengeance in Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor. Moments like this are a reminder to Capaldi-bashers that the Doctor has always had this detached nature in him. He's alien, and sometimes saving a world full of people must come before saving one individual. Either way, Ben is suitably appalled!

Talking of appalled, I absolutely love the way William Mervyn delivers the line: "Good heavens, it's appalling" when he's on the phone. He lacks any kind of sincerity in his lifeless delivery, but I love it because it's so misjudged. It's one of those tiny Doctor Who moments I mentioned earlier that's mine every time!

The capture of the War Machine at Cornwall Gardens is a well-orchestrated affair, although why the authorities would allow li'l ole Ben Jackson to put himself in the firing line and link up the electromagnetic field is a bit puzzling, especially with all those soldiers around. Yes, Ben's a naval officer, but this is an Army matter. Still, it puts Ben firmly back in the limelight as the action hero, and reminds me that somehow I just can't imagine Peter Purves's Steven doing the same.

Ultimately, the Doctor turns WOTAN's War Machine soldier on itself, and when it makes its way to the top of the Post Office Tower (quite how a tank that size fits in the tiny lifts we've already seen in earlier episodes, I don't know!), it swiftly destroys the rasping box of lights and switches, and saves the world as a result. Poor Professor Krimpton gets caught in the crossfire, making an impressively pointless attempt to disable the War Machine by climbing all over it! In hindsight it might have been better to have a final face-off between the Doctor and WOTAN - the computer becomes gradually less prominent and threatening as the story progresses - but the smoke-and-flashes finale is perfectly rewarding too.

Back at the TARDIS, the Doctor waits impatiently for Dodo to join him. He looks at his pocket watch as if he has another appointment elsewhere, and it's interesting to note that he's perfectly willing to leave Dodo behind without a proper farewell. In the event of course, Dodo leaves him without a farewell, sending a message via Ben and Polly that she wants to stay in London, and "sends her love". The Doctor's reaction to being the recipient of his friend's love is a mix of disappointment and bluster: "Her love? There's gratitude for you. Take her all around the world, through space and time, and then..."

He's right, of course. She should have come back to say goodbye, but Dodo was the kind of girl whose enthusiasm got her wrapped up in things. She was a girl who did things now and asked questions later. She enjoyed life, and if she was more switched on spending time at Sir Charles's country estate, or in the hottest nightspots of Swinging 60s London, than she was meeting cowboys and clowns, Monoids and Refusians, then so be it!

We also learn in these closing moments that Ben is a sailor aboard HMS Teazer, a T-class destroyer that saw service during the Second World War. It doesn't really translate into the real world, because Teazer was decommissioned and scrapped in August 1965, almost a year before The War Machines is set, but at least Ben can take solace in seeing his old ship if he watches the 1957 film Yangtse Incident (coincidentally starring one William Hartnell!), in which HMS Teazer doubles for both HMS Consort and HMS Concord.

And so Season 3 ends very differently to its predecessors. In The Reign of Terror and The Time Meddler we had some form of inspiring or insightful monologue or montage ("Our destiny is in the stars, so let's go and search for it", and the starfield faces of the Doctor, Steven and Vicki), but this time it's a last-moment infiltration of the TARDIS by new recruits Polly and Ben, a swift dematerialisation, and then those gorgeous pedestrians before the credits roll. But the fact two cool and hip new companions have joined the Doctor in the TARDIS is thrilling in itself. After the template-smashing antics of The War Machines, what lies ahead when the series returns is both intriguing and exciting. And I cannot wait...

In the two months Doctor Who was off-air between Seasons 3 and 4, the UK was gripped by the tensions of a Fifa World Cup tournament. Later the same night the The War Machines ended, BBC viewers could watch England beat Mexico 2-0, live and direct from Wembley. Subsequent Saturdays saw the Doctor Who slot filled by either Juke Box Jury or good old Laurel and Hardy films (and sometimes even the cricket!).

First broadcast: July 16th, 1966

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Michael Ferguson's direction has been exemplary throughout (sometimes undermined by some jarring editing), but he really shines in this episode. Such style!
The Bad: The elimination of the War Machines is rather too easily done - a bit of hand-waving seems to go a long way. Also, if that warehouse worker can just turn one on by flicking a switch on the side panel, surely they can also be switched off just as easily?
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆ (story average: 8.5 out of 10)

NEXT TIME: The Smugglers...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3

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