Number 8 represents the shape of things to come...
The Doctor and Dodo have arrived in contemporary London where a full adventure is about to be set. Since leaving the junkyard in 1963 the TARDIS landed in miniaturised form in what might have been 1963 or 1964, and then made only very brief visits to New York, Liverpool and London in the mid-1960's - never stopping long enough to spend much time in each (mainly due to pursuing Daleks).
The War Machines is the first full story set in contemporary London. There's a threat to the human race, and the Doctor allies himself with a military force to defeat that threat (as with the UNIT adventures). We also get our first "mad" computer, which wants to dominate human beings as it thinks it's better than them, and it controls the mind of its creator (shades of BOSS and Stevens).
We've seen the Doctor in a range of bizarre environments, but he is most out of place here on the streets of the London of the Swinging Sixties - the age of Carnaby Street and the first era of 'Cool Britannia'. And yet to the people of this place and time, he fits in perfectly. He reminds nightclub owner Kitty of a well-known disc jockey (presumably the one with the initials JS, who is very much persona non grata these days).
One of the main fashion styles which came out of Carnaby Street and the King's Road at this time was a form of mock Victoriana, for both men and women - so the Doctor's Edwardian garb looks perfectly normal, especially in the context of a Covent Garden basement nightclub.
As well as showing us what it might be like to see the Doctor operating in a present day setting, as would become the norm from Season 7 onwards, The War Machines also sees the introduction of young adult companions, after a run of more child-like ones. Dodo was the last attempt at replicating a Susan-like figure for quite some time. Ben and Polly are perfectly at home in a nightclub setting.
Despite coming from this time and place, Dodo just doesn't fit as well somehow.
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