BBC Shop
Entertaining. Informing. Inspiring.
FREE Shipping on orders over $100!
Browse:
Doctor Who: The War Machines
Starring: William Hartnell , Jackie Lane
Directed by: Michael Ferguson
Produced by: Innes Lloyd
Written by: Ian Stuart Black
The TARDIS arrives in London, 1966, where the Doctor and Dodo visit the recently opened Post Office Tower. At its top they discover a brilliant new problem-solving suer computer - the Will Operating Thought ANalogue.
Item Number: 14733
- Format:
- DVD Fullscreen
- Region:
- 1 - More Details
- Run time:
- About 1 1/2 Hours
- Number of Discs:
- 1
- Special Features:
English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired
Audio commentary by actor Anneke Wills (Polly) and director Michael Ferguson
Now and Then Location featurette (6 mins)
Blue Peter Clips featuring the new Post Office Tower and the war machines (16 mins)
One Foot in the Past - Archive clip on Post Office Tower (7 mins)
WOTAN Assembly - How the story was pieced back together from disparate sources for the DVD release (9 mins)
Easter egg (1 min)
Photo Gallery (4 mins)
Production Note Option
DVD-ROM features: Radio Times listings, war machine design plan
Digitally remastered picture and sound quality
The TARDIS arrives in London, 1966, where tha Doctor and Dodo visit the recently opened Post Office Tower. At its top they discover a brilliant new problem-silving super computer - the Will Operating Thoight ANalogue.
But when WOTAN decides that it should rule the world, the Doctor is the only person who can stop its rampaging War Machines from destroying London. Luckily, he has the help of a young secretary named Polly and a sailor called Ben...
The TARDIS arrives in London in 1966 and the Doctor and Dodo visit the Post Office Tower. There they meet Professor Brett, whose revolutionary new computer WOTAN (Will Operating Thought ANalogue) can actually think for itself and is shortly to be linked up to other major computers around the world - a project overseen by civil servant Sir Charles Summer.
It transpires however that WOTAN considers that humans are inferior to machines and should therefore be ruled by them. Exerting a hypnotic influence, it arranges the construction of War Machines - heavily-armed, self-contained mobile computers - with which to take over the world.
These prove more than a match for troops, but by establishing a magnetic force field the Doctor is able to capture one of them, which he then reprograms to destroy WOTAN. Dodo, now back in her own time, decides to remain on Earth. The Doctor enters the TARDIS alone, but Brett's secretary Polly and her merchant seaman friend Ben Jackson follow him inside just before it dematerialises.
| The Doctor | --- | William Hartnell |
| American Journalist | --- | Ric Felgate |
| Ben Jackson | --- | Michael Craze |
| Captain | --- | John Rolfe |
| Corporal | --- | Frank Jarvis |
| Dodo | --- | Jackie Lane |
| Flash | --- | Ewan Proctor |
| Garage Mechanic | --- | Edward Colliver |
| Interviewer | --- | John Doye |
| Kitty | --- | Sandra Bryant |
| Machine Operator | --- | Gerald Taylor |
| Major Green | --- | Alan Curtis |
| Man in telephone box | --- | John Slavid |
| Polly | --- | Anneke Wills |
| Professor Brett | --- | John Harvey |
| Professor Krimpton | --- | John Cater |
| Radio Announcer | --- | Dwight Whylie |
| Sergeant | --- | John Boyd-Brent |
| Sir Charles Summer | --- | William Mervyn |
| Soldier | --- | Robin Dawson |
| Taxi-driver | --- | Michael Rathbone |
| Television Newsreader | --- | Kenneth Kendall |
| The Minister | --- | George Cross |
| The voice of WOTAN/WOTAN | --- | Gerald Taylor |
| Tramp | --- | Roy Godfrey |
| US Correspondent | --- | Carl Conway |
| Worker | --- | Desmond Cullum-Jones |
| Worker | --- | Eddie Davis |
Directed by Michael Ferguson
Costumes by Daphne Dare, Barbara Lane
Film Editing by Eric Mival
Produced by Innes Lloyd
Story Editing by Gerry Davis
Title Music by Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
Written by Ian Stuart Black based on an idea by Kit Pedler
1 - 25/06/1966 17:35
2 - 02/07/1966 18:55
3 - 09/07/1966 17:35
4 - 16/07/1966 17:15
Comedian and actor Mike Reid, perhaps best known for his role in EastEnders, in an early television appearance as an army soldier, is waiting beside the electrical trap for the War Machine in episode four.
There are special 'computer lettering' opening title graphics for each episode.
WOTAN is given its own credit in the closing titles for the first three episodes. This is the only time in the series' history that a fictional creation receives a cast credit.
Newsreader Kenneth Kendall and radio announcer Dwight Whylie appear as themselves.
WOTAN refers to the Doctor throughout as 'Doctor Who', the only time that the character is ever given this name in the series' dialogue (although he is credited as such on almost every episode up to and including those of the eighteenth season, adopts the alias 'Doctor von Wer' - a rough German approximation of 'Doctor Who' - in The Highlanders and signs himself 'Dr. W' in The Underwater Menace).
The third episode has a wonderful cliffhanger: the Doctor stands his ground, haughty and unafraid, as the War Machine advances upon him.
Michael Craze provided the voice of a policeman heard in Episode four.
