Episode #27 : The War Machines

"Doctor Who is required."

Episode 27:   The War Machines.
Companions: The 1st Doctor, Dodo, Polly Wright and Ben Jackson.
Air Date:        Four episodes. 25th June to 16th July 1966.

The TARDIS arrives in London in 1966 and the First 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.

The War Machines is the first story that I can truely say feels like a Doctor Who episode, based on how the show would turn out. It has everything that makes the adventures so compelling. Prior to this the situations that the time travellers found themselves in where mainly just fall into danger and try to scrape a way out of it. Not here. The TARDIS returns to London in 1966 and the Doctor immediately senses that something in terribly wrong, sets out to investigate and deal with whatever it is. You have a much more proactive Doctor from here on.

We lose Dodo as a companion in this story and sadly it is a bit of a weak ending for her. After bring hypnotised she is sent to the country to recover and we never see her again, though at the end there is mention that she plans to remain in London.
Instead we get two new stowaways, Ben and Polly, who help the Doctor throughout the episode (though Polly gets controlled for most of it) and then sneak on board the TARDIS just as it takes off. Polly comes across as a good character but Ben is very much a man's man which comes off a tad hard at times.

The story has an interesting twist that is never explained. The computer WOTAN knows what TARDIS stands for and refers to the Doctor as Doctor Who. At the time this probably wouldn't mean anything to viewers but as time has gone on it does make me wonder how it knew and why it knew enough to refer to him as Doctor Who.

War Machines is a really good story and on my list of stories to watch. Thumbs up.