Episode 123: The War Machines (1)

Synopsis:

The TARDIS materialises on the corner of Fitzroy Square in central London. On leaving the ship, the Doctor places an "Out of Order" sign on it - telling Dodo that being in the 20th Century it might be mistaken for a real Police Box.

They notice that the Post Office Tower, still under construction when she left London, is now complete. The Doctor has a sense of some evil power emanating from it.

They make their way there and are soon invited into a room at the top of the Tower. Here, Professor Brett has installed his super-computer WOTAN - Will Operated Thought ANalogue. Brett assumes that the Doctor is a fellow scientist, come to attend his press conference that evening. At this, it will be announced how WOTAN will be linked up with a number of other major computers across the western world, to act as a supervising and co-ordinating mechanism.

They learn of its advanced features and are shocked to discover that it can correctly identify what the acronym "TARDIS" stands for. 

Dodo is befriended by Brett's secretary Polly, who invites her to visit the city's hottest night spot - the Inferno Club at Covent Garden.

The Doctor, meanwhile, will attend the press conference as he is intrigued by WOTAN's abilities. Held at the Royal Scientific Club it is presided over by Sir Charles Summer and attended by Brett's assistant Professor Krimpton. Brett himself is yet to arrive.

He is still at the Tower, complaining to his security head Major Green that he is convinced that there are unauthorised people in the building. He has sensed a presence all day.

As he tries to leave, WOTAN exerts a powerful hypnotic influence over him. 

At the Inferno, owner Kitty asks Polly to help with a downcast young sailor who has been hanging around the bar for the last couple of evenings. His name is Ben Jackson, and he is depressed as his ship is going to the West Indies for six months whilst he has to remain in the UK. When Polly is harassed by an obnoxious young man, Ben steps in and defends her.

At the press event, Sir Charles has informed everyone of the impending C-Day - Computer Day - when WOTAN will link up with the other major devices across Europe and the United States. This will be Monday 16th July. As the conference draws to a close, Brett hurries in and rudely ushers Krimpton out, telling him he needs him urgently at the Tower. 

There, Major Green has also fallen under the computer's hypnotic influence. Once Krimpton arrives, he is also taken over, and together they discuss WOTAN's plans. It has decreed that the human race has failed and needs a new controlling principle, which it will provide. 

Its plan begins with a phone call to Dodo at the Inferno. She is taken over remotely, slipping away from the club as though in a trance. 

Sir Charles, believing the Doctor to be a friend of Brett's, offers to put him up for the night. The Doctor accepts, and sets off for the club to find Dodo.

There, Polly introduces him to Ben and he learns that Dodo has disappeared.

She arrives at the Tower, where WOTAN instructs that the Doctor is required...

Data:

Written by Ian Stuart Black

Recorded: Friday 10th June 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:35pm, Saturday 25th June 1966

Ratings: 5.4 million / AI 49

Designer: Raymond London

Director: Michael Ferguson

Guest cast: William Mervyn (Sir Charles Summer), John Harvey (Prof. Brett), John Cater ( Prof. Krimpton), Alan Curtis (Major Green), Sandra Bryant (Kitty), Ewan Proctor ("Flash"), Ric Felgate (American journalist), Gerald Taylor (Voice of WOTAN).

Critique:

Of course what WOTAN actually states in the closing moments of this episode is that "Doc-tor Who is re-quired...". Earlier production teams had specified that this was not the character's name, but Gerry Davis seems not to have been told that, as "Who" is employed more than once as his name throughout his tenure as Story Editor. This is the most obvious example, but in The Highlanders the Doctor calls himself Dr Von Wer, and his note to Professor Zaroff in The Underwater Menace is signed "Dr W".

One of the reasons Donald Tosh had decided not to remain on the programme when Innes Lloyd took over was the new producer's desire to have a more solid scientific basis to the stories. Tosh wanted the freedom to include historical adventures and those with more of a fantasy bent - like The Celestial Toymaker in its original, more surreal, form.

His replacement as Story Editor was far more in tune with Lloyd's vision, and Gerry Davis actively sought out someone who could act as a sort of uncredited scientific adviser on the show. This would simply be to act as a sounding board, suggesting scientific concepts that might make for good drama. 

A number of people were approached - including The Sky At Night's Patrick Moore, and Dr Alex Comfort (who would become famous for the Joy of Sex book).

Eventually, the scientist who was selected was from the medical world - ophthalmologist Dr Christopher Pedler - known as Kit.

In seeking his adviser, Davis had pointed out the new Post Office Tower which could be seen from his office, and asked for a story idea which might include it.

Knowing that the Tower's main role would be as a telecommunications hub, Pedler came up with the idea of a computer using the telephone network to take over the country.

Davis developed the original story outline, as this adventure was to introduce the new male companion, who at this stage was called Richard - or Rich. At this time, it had not yet been confirmed that Dodo would be leaving the show, so Rich departed in the TARDIS at the conclusion with her and the Doctor.

Rich was to be an Able Seaman with the Royal Navy, physically fit, down to earth and dependable.

With the main computer immobile at the Tower, it was decided that mobile armoured computers would be needed for action sequences. Much of Davis' basic storyline made it into the finished episodes.

The story was then given to writer Pat Dunlop to develop into a full set of scripts - as "Dr Who and the Computers". Whilst still working on a draft of the opening episode, he was asked to help out on the Birmingham-based football themed soap United! (which Davis himself had worked on) and asked to be released.

Ian Stuart Black was already working well with Davis on a story - The Savages - which he and Lloyd liked very much. Most importantly, the story was progressing with little or no intervention being required from Davis, so Black was tasked with taking on the follow-up adventure.

As Black worked on the story, he learned that Dodo was also to be written out of the series, and a new female companion introduced along with Rich. Lloyd claimed that it was too obvious to the viewers that Dodo was not the teenager she was supposed to be, and wanted companions who reflected contemporary London culture. This was the "Swinging Sixties" - the era of "Cool Britannia" - with Britain dominating the global music and fashion scenes. Actors like Michael Caine and Terence Stamp were on the big screen, using their natural accents, and it was finally being accepted that actors need not stick to Received Pronunciation, or BBC English, in their performances. Only a few months before, Jackie Lane had been forced to amend her accent as Dodo.

The new female companion was named Polly Wright in the character outline. This surname had already been used for school-teacher Barbara in 1963, and would never be mentioned in any of Polly's on screen appearances.

Polly was described as well-bred and trendily dressed.

The actress who won the role was Anneke Wills, who was married to Michael Gough at the time. He had enjoyed making The Celestial Toymaker, but was able to warn her about the stresses of making the technically complex show, and of working with its irascible star.

She had first come to prominence in the BBC's 1957 adaptation of The Railway Children.

The role of Ben Jackson, as Rich was renamed, went to Michael Craze. He had been acting from childhood, including stage musicals until his voice broke. An earlier brush with a Sydney Newman sci-fi series had been the juvenile lead role in 1960's Target Luna - a show which evolved into the Pathfinders series. 

His brother Peter had featured in Doctor Who the year before, playing Xeron rebel Dako in The Space Museum. Craze used to watch the series in his theatrical digs between performances. 

The new companions were contracted on 26th May. The press would be asked to hold back publicity for the new regulars until 20th June.

One major change between the draft scripts and production was the idea that people possessed by WOTAN had distinctive hands. They were to have been taken over when compelled to insert their hands into a slot on the machine, leaving them with skeletal marks - resembling an X-Ray. To conceal this, they would all wear gloves. 

Sir Charles was Sir Robert originally, and the US journalist had the surname Pails instead of Stone.

Above: Studio rehearsal for the press conference scenes, with William Hartnell out of costume. Below: the set for the Inferno Club. Note the coffin prop, which isn't clearly seen on screen.

Selected as director on the story was Michael Ferguson, whose connection to the series went back to The Daleks, on which he had been Assistant Floor Manager. It was his hand which had tapped Carole Ann Ford on the shoulder in the jungle, then waved the plunger arm from off camera at Jacqueline Hill at the cliff-hanger to The Dead Planet. Later, he had donned a joke-shop gorilla glove to act as the Dalek claw at the conclusion to The Escape.

The designer allocated the programme was Raymond London, his first Doctor Who.

Production got underway on Friday 20th May with rehearsals at the TA Drill Hall on Bulwer Street for the location filming, which was to be extensive. The same venue would be used for the studio recording rehearsals.

The filming would concentrate around central London - the Bloomsbury / Fitzrovia districts close to the Post Office Tower, and Kensington to the west.

The work commenced on Sunday 22nd May. For this episode, this included the arrival of the TARDIS in Bedford Square (see Trivia below) close to the British Museum. The high angle shot was obtained from the top of the Centre Point building.

The only location scenes for Part One are all filmed without sound, to cut down on the equipment and number of personnel Ferguson needed on location. We see the Doctor and Dodo leave the TARDIS and the approach of a policeman, and later the Doctor is seen outside the Royal Scientific Club, shot at No.41 Bedford Square. A real taxi was hired for the occasion.

Rather than the Police Box as in the story, it was the policeman extra (Peter Stewart) who was mistaken for the real thing by a member of the public, who asked him for directions.

For the opening credits a special animation was filmed. 

The title, writer and episode number appeared on screen in the style of a computer print-out, accompanied by a drum roll and ending with a cymbal clash.

With the location filming being silent, all dialogue scenes around the TARDIS were recorded in studio, with the prop against a photographic blow-up of the square.

The TARDIS had been rebuilt since the filming - leading to a continuity issue. The refurbished box was slightly smaller and had been repainted. The window surrounds were now blue instead of white and the St John's Ambulance badge had been painted over. The lock also moved from the left to the right door.

The windows were now fixed in place, having been hinged at the bottom before, and the prop overall was made slightly shallower.

The reason for the work was to make it easier to set up and dismantle on location, as it was about to be transported to Cornwall for the filming on The Smugglers.

Three recording breaks were planned - one either side of the main Inferno Club sequence to allow Lane and Wills to move sets, and one to bridge Brett's trip from his lab to the press conference. A short sequence against a photo backdrop was used to show him approaching the building, but this was deleted from the final episode.

Library music tracks were used to hold down costs, with much of the club background music coming from composer Johnny Hawksworth.

The sound effect for WOTAN had earlier been used in the BBC sci-fi serial A For Andromeda, and the hypnotic sound effect was a piece of Musique Electronique from Eric Siday.

Michael Craze was pleased that Ben wasn't expected to dance at the club as he had failed to master these skills on a recent movie.

Whilst the computer was voiced by regular extra and monster performer Gerald Taylor, who had operated Daleks amongst other creatures, trainee AFM Margot Hayhoe had to stand within the background unit to manually operate the rotating computer spools.

Ray London had anthropomorphised WOTAN by giving the main prop a stylised human face.

As well as the shot of Brett approaching the Royal Scientific Club, three other cuts were made to the episode prior to transmission. The first was in the Tower computer room where the Professor gave Dodo an example of how WOTAN could prove useful - repairing an onboard computer fault on a V-bomber in mid-flight.

The second was a discussion between Polly and Dodo about the Inferno Club, which is said to be located on Long Acre. Polly states that she is a member. Dodo asks the Doctor's permission to visit the new discotheque and he agrees as she will probably be bored at the press conference - telling her he will meet her later at "this infernal club".

The final cut was in the closing seconds as Dodo was to be seen to leave the computer room to fetch the Doctor.

The episode marks the first significant visit to contemporary Britain, other than brief stopovers in Dalek chase episodes, since Planet of Giants. In his last story, Black wrote the Doctor as though he were a well-known celebrity, even on distant planets in the far future. Here, he is accepted into Brett's top-security lab without question, accesses the press event and is later invited to spend the night at the home of Sir Charles. No doubt the Quatermass serials were being discussed in the Doctor Who production office at this time, and Black may be modelling his Doctor on the head of the British Rocket Group rather than the wandering alien outsider.

We also have the issue of a computer knowing what "TARDIS" stands for, and that its owner is known as "Dr Who". 

Black's novelisation has some of this derive from WOTAN tapping Ian Chesterton's phone. He is now a noted scientist rather than a secondary school teacher.

A more satisfying explanation is the obvious fact that WOTAN can mesmerise and control human minds. Presumably it can read them as well as influence them, so it may well have found the TARDIS definition in Dodo's mind (or the Doctor's when he first sensed its malign presence). Searching for his name in Dodo's mind and finding only a question about his identity may have led to it calling him "Dr Who" as well.

Trivia:

• The ratings pick up considerably (almost one million on the previous week) whilst the appreciation figure remains consistent with The Savages.
• Wotan is another name for Odin, chief of the Norse pantheon. This suggests that Brett may have been influenced subconsciously by the self-aggrandising computer from the outset.
• The audition piece for Polly involved her telephoning the Doctor who was in Dundee, to talk to him about the kidnapping of her Uncle Charles.
• Lloyd asked that Kit Pedler be invited to appear on Late Night Line-Up to promote this serial, but the request was turned down.
• Debbie Watling was another of those who auditioned for the role of Polly.
• The Post Office Tower can't actually be seen from Fitzroy Square. We only discover that this is the location of the TARDIS's arrival from later dialogue by Ben and Polly.
• It is they who also give the date for this story, when it proves to be the same as the closing events of The Faceless Ones. However, there was no Monday 16th July in 1966. It fell on a Saturday that year - broadcast date for the final episode of this story. There was a Monday 16th July in 1973, perhaps suggesting a near-future date was intended.
• The Doctor believes that it is WOTAN which has given him goosebumps, such as whenever the Daleks are near - but we will later find out that they are nearby at this time, a few miles away in Chelsea.
• William Mervyn was the father of the late Michael Pickwoad - the designer who worked on Steven Moffat's Doctor Who from The Snowmen to Twice Upon A Time.
• Sandra Bryant would return to the programme as Chicki in The Macra Terror.
• Ric Felgate, who plays US journalist Roy Stone, was the director's brother-in-law. He was then married to Cynthia Felgate, producer of classic BBC2 children's programme Play School. Felgate would feature in many of Ferguson's productions, including The Seeds of Death and The Ambassadors of Death.
• For this introductory episode, Radio Times dispensed with the usual photograph to present instead a stylised illustration featuring the Post Office Tower with the Doctor and TARDIS at its foot: