What's Wrong With... The War Machines

Like the previous story, The Savages, The War Machines is written by Ian Stuart Black - the first time the same credited writer has written two consecutive stories.
Since taking over the production office, producer Innes Lloyd and script editor Gerry Davis were now able to shape the programme the way they wanted it, rather than having to work on stories commissioned by their predecessors. Both wanted a harder science fiction feel, and to this end they had sought out a number of scientists who were used to the television medium, who might want to act as "scientific advisers" to the show. One of these was Dr Alex Comfort, author of The Joy of Sex - so you could argue that that's the first thing wrong with this story: they never hired him...
Patrick Moore was another person who didn't work out. The problem was that some of these scientists were too scientific, and couldn't allow for some dramatic licence.
In the end, Gerry Davis opted to collaborate with Dr Kit Pedler, a leading ophthalmologist, who had featured on a couple of TV shows discussing his work. He had the imagination to take scientific concepts and spin them into teatime family drama.
In order to find the right man (and they were all men who were considered), Davis would indicate the newly constructed General Post Office Tower, which could be seen from his office window and propose the notion that it could be used to take over London. How could that happen? Pedler came up with the idea of a super-computer based in the Tower, which had the power to take over people's minds via the telephone system, turning them into mental slaves. (What we call "TikTok" nowadays).
The story idea was first given to writer Pat Dunlop to develop, but he had to drop out rather early on, and so Black was given the commission.
One of the things Black had to include was the writing out of companion Dodo Chaplet, which is probably the biggest thing wrong with this story.
Innes Lloyd had not liked either of the companions he had inherited, and so had decided to write both out as early as possible. He thought Jackie Lane clearly too old to be playing the teenage character of Dodo and wanted, instead of her and Steven, a pair of new companions who reflected contemporary swinging London.
Dodo is hypnotised by super-computer WOTAN at the end of the first episode, and spends the second episode under its thrall as she tries to recruit the Doctor to WOTAN's scheme. The Doctor notices this and breaks the mental conditioning. By the third episode she's off camera, sent to recuperate in the country at the home of civil servant Sir Charles Summer - never to be seen again. In the final episode, the Doctor gets a message via Polly that Dodo has suddenly, out of the blue, decided to stay on in London, and not even say goodbye to the Doctor in person.
As companion departures go, it is one of the worst. She is just written out half way through the story.
The other big problem which everyone notes with this story is WOTAN's naming of the Doctor as "Doctor Who". Previous script editors had gone out of their way to point out to aspiring writers that the character is called 'the Doctor', and not Doctor Who, yet we'll see more than one instance of this occurring under Davis' watch.
As I argued ages ago, there is a way round this. WOTAN also knows what the acronym TARDIS stands for, and it takes over people via hypnotism, so presumably it can read their thoughts in some way. It may have looked for the Doctor's name in Dodo's mind and not found it, so just called him 'Who?'.
The other way round this is to go with the novelisation explanation, which also explains why the Doctor is so cliquey with London's top scientists and civil servants these days. It's all to do with Ian Chesterton. He's a well-connected top scientist now, and WOTAN has been eavesdropping on his phone calls. This might explain WOTAN knowing what TARDIS means, but Ian never called the Doctor "Who" either.
The only proper explanation for why the Doctor can access the GPO Tower and WOTAN so easily, and hob-nob with Sir Charles so freely, is that he made some connections of his own way back prior to An Unearthly Child. Either that or he's had the Psychic Paper a lot longer than was known about.
A few other things...
The TARDIS prop for this story was newly refurbished for the studio sessions, prior to being taken down to Cornwall for the location filming on The Smugglers. However, the location filming for this story took place before the refurb. The TARDIS on film still has white window surrounds, the lock on the left hand door, and the St John's Ambulance symbol on the right. In studio, the St John's Ambulance sign has been painted over, the lock has moved to the right door, and the window frames are now blue.
The Doctor tells Dodo that he gets a weird sensation whenever Daleks are around - a prickling sensation on the skin. Despite four previous encounters with the Daleks, he has never once mentioned this phenomenon, and has always been taken aback by their appearance at the end of the story's first episode. (With hindsight we know that the Daleks are indeed active in the vicinity during the events of this story, as is another incarnation of the Doctor, though naturally Black and Davis weren't to know this).
Not long after the Doctor and his friends leave the 'Inferno' nightclub, a tramp is killed by WOTAN's servants in a warehouse nearby. Presumably it is the early hours of the morning when this happens, yet the tramp's killing manages to make it into the morning papers - with a photograph. Not only is it unlikely that the crime would have been discovered and written about so quickly, but just who was this tramp that the newspaper thinks his demise newsworthy, and had a studio portrait photograph of him on file?
It's also a massive coincidence that WOTAN has set up its top secret base of operations only ten feet away from the nightclub which the Doctor and his companions have taken to frequent. The killers haven't done much to dispose of the tramp's body very thoroughly, what with him being such a celebrity.
The 'Inferno' seems to be rather sparsely populated for London's hottest night-spot.
Something which we'll come back to in the next story: Ben is depressed because his ship is going to the West Indies without him, and he's going to be stuck in barracks for 6 months, yet the next minute he's desperate to get back to base.
The War Machines have the unexplained ability to jam rifles - so why don't we see the army throw grenades at them, or employ bazookas?
Only one War Machine prop was built. To make out that there were more, a number on the prop was changed. However, for the scene which bridges the second and third episodes, the same machine appears to be both No.3 and No.9.
At the beginning of the final episode, as William Hartnell examines the deactivated War Machine, we see him bang his head on an overhanging section of the prop.
In the closing credits, and in the Radio Times billings for this story, Kit Pedler's name is spelt wrongly as "Pedlar".
Lastly, a question of keys. Ben and Polly are able to let themselves into the TARDIS at the story's conclusion using the key which fell out of the Doctor's cloak, which was picked up by Ben. The Doctor has just used his own key to let himself into the ship - so where did this spare key come from? We know that Dodo had one, but there is no mention of the Doctor getting it back from her earlier in the story. Indeed, he has been waiting for her to rejoin him in their travels.