Dodo arrives at the Post Office Tower to join Brett, Krimpton and Major Green. WOTAN announces that "Dr Who is required...".
She is sent off to locate the Doctor and ensure that he is recruited to their cause.
Brett informs the others that WOTAN has decided that the human race has been a failure, and it must take control. Some may be permitted to serve the machines, whilst the rest will be eliminated. London will be the first city to come under WOTAN's control, followed by Washington and Moscow. To aid them, War Machines must be constructed. The telephone system will be used to recruit scientists and technicians who can help with this project, to be carried out at secret locations around the city.
Priority, however, must be given to the recruitment of the Doctor.
At the Inferno Club, the Doctor is conferring with Ben and Polly about the missing Dodo. She then walks in, claiming to have gone off to visit some friends in the area.
Outside, two men wait in the shadows as the Doctor and his friends look for a taxi. Dodo tries to lure him towards the men, but Ben spots a cab which then pulls up in front of them. A tramp gets out.
After the others have left, he tells Ben that he plans to bed down in one of the Covent Garden warehouses.
The men report back to Brett what has happened.
The warehouse which the tramp has selected turns out not to be as deserted as he thought. It has been selected by WOTAN as location for the construction of one of its War Machines.
Professor Brett has already arrived to supervise this.
The tramp witnesses a completed Machine and is detected by WOTAN. The man attempts to flee but is killed.
The following morning, Polly arrives at Sir Charles' home, claiming that the professor sent her to work here instead of at the Post Office Tower.
The Doctor spots a newspaper item about the death of the tramp, whose body was found near the nightclub. Sir Charles reports to the Doctor that there has been a spate of resignations by a number of computer experts from his department. He has been unable to contact them.
The Doctor then receives a phone call from Brett.
As he answers, the professor switches the call through to WOTAN.
The Doctor comes under a mental attack, but manages to break free.
Dodo, who has been acting coldly since the previous evening, believes that WOTAN has now taken control of the Doctor. Realising that she is under some form of hypnotic influence, he uses his signet ring and his own hypnotic abilities to overcome her conditioning. She passes out and he explains that she will sleep for some time.
Sir Charles agrees to send her to his house in the country to recuperate, whilst Polly leaves for the Tower. On arrival, she falls under WOTAN's influence.
Major Green is now at the Covent Garden warehouse, where he is testing the War Machine. A mobile armoured computer, it is armed with toxic gas jets and powerful hammers.
Ben arrives at Sir Charles' home, as he had a lunch appointment with Polly. The Doctor shows him the newspaper article about the tramp's death. He agrees to go back to Covent Garden and look around.
There, he overhears activity coming from the warehouse and sneaks in. Hiding behind some crates, he is soon detected.
He sees the War Machine bearing down on him...
Written by Ian Stuart Black
Recorded: Friday 17th June 1966 - Riverside Studio 1
First broadcast: 6:55pm, Saturday 2nd July 1966
Ratings: 4.7 million / AI 45
Designer: Raymond London
Director: Michael Ferguson
Additional cast: Roy Godfrey (Tramp)
And so we bid farewell to Jackie Lane, in her final episode as Dodo Chaplet.
Of course, viewers would not have realised this at the time - only that this was to be her final story. That she might be quietly written out, off screen, would not have been known. It will be one of the least satisfying companion departures in the history of the programme...
Innes Lloyd had disliked both of the companions he inherited, thinking they lacked dimension and narrative possibility. They did not provide good audience identification figures, and Lane was deemed to be too old for the teenager she was supposed to be playing. The producer decided that he wanted a more mature female companion, at the same time bringing the series more into the present day.
The initial draft script had Dodo fleeing the home of Sir Charles after the failure to hypnotise the Doctor and going to report this to Brett. The tramp was simply an unnamed Australian.
Dodo was not written out in this first version.
The episode sees the debut of the War Machines themselves. As originally scripted, they were supposed to be more humanoid in shape, with mention of a box-like head and it having glowing eyes.
One of their weapons was going to be a machine-gun. The body was composed of computer panels, on a wheeled base.
The actual War Machine would be a large box-like affair, big enough to have two people operating it from within. These were Gerald Taylor, who was also providing the voice of WOTAN, and Ron Oates of the BBC visual effects department.
It was built by Shawcraft Models of Uxbridge. Only a single Machine would be constructed, made to look more numerous on screen by simply having its identifying number replaced. This would lead to continuity problems, however...
Moving parts included computer tape spools and a revolving radar dish on the top, as well as a light behind a lens which acted as an eye, which could be made to swivel.
A fire extinguisher was employed for a gun, and its huge hammer-like arms could be raised and lowered.
The size of the prop was also determined by the fact that it would only ever be needed in the TV studio very briefly - it being mainly operated at Ealing and on location on the streets of London.
Filming commenced at Ealing on Monday 23rd May. It made use of the studio's large water tank which was only ever filled when needed. This provided the sunken area in which were seen the "Morok freezing machine" prop - first seen in Doctor Who in The Space Museum. This had its glass dome removed. Also visible is the black circular "Rel Counter", seen in Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150AD.
The only other filming required for this episode took place on Thursday 26th, when Michael Craze was seen walking through Covent Garden. This took place outside the Royal Opera House.
In studio, a big new set was the exterior of the Inferno nightclub and the entrance to the warehouse. This set had to be large enough to allow a London taxi to enter and exit. The vehicle was driven by Michael Rathborne.
Two pieces of stock footage were employed in the episode - a clip of someone welding, taken from a health & safety film about eye protection, and some shots of cargo being handled at an airport. A close-up cutaway shot was introduced to the latter to show boxes with the distinctive "W" logo for WOTAN.
The closing credits were shown over a shot of Craze hiding behind some crates, with a searchlight trained on his face.
This episode exhibits some plotting issues with the story, mainly to do with timescales.
Brett seems to move very rapidly between the warehouse and the Post Office Tower and back again.
The first of the War Machines is built incredibly quickly. WOTAN only announces their construction as the episode opens on the first evening, and the Machine is already operational by the time the tramp enters the warehouse - which is supposed to be later that same night.
We also have crates of War Machine parts at Heathrow Airport, all clearly marked, only a few hours later.
There is also the issue of the tramp. Not only is his death able to make it to the newspaper within hours of being found, but it is on the front page, and with a photograph! Some sort of celebrity tramp? He has obviously just been released from prison, so may well have been well-known for some crime, but the newspaper simply has him an unknown man.
As mentioned above, having the War Machines identified by a removable number caused a continuity problem in this instalment. When first seen, the Machine at the Warehouse is No.9, but then becomes No.3 when the tramp is killed. It is back to being No.9 when it confronts Ben.
According to the script this was supposed to be No.3 throughout.
On completion of her work on this episode, Jackie Lane's contract as Dodo expired. Lloyd wrote to her to thank her for her work and apologised to her for having been "a victim of circumstance" - a reference to the fact that her creators had left the programme soon after her arrival.
Subject to type-casting, she gave up acting to concentrate on an antiques business. Lane also become an actors' agent, specialising in voice work. She had Tom Baker on her books for a time. and also managed Janet Fielding and Nicholas Courtney.
Later living in France for a number of years, she declined to participate in the growing convention circuit and rarely gave interviews about her time on the programme - mainly because she didn't want to repeat herself, rather than due to any hostility towards the show. It came as a great surprise when she appeared on the Afterparty programme, following the 50th Anniversary Special in 2013.
She died in London in June 2021, aged 79.
- After a strong start, the ratings take a dip, as does the appreciation figure. This may have been due to the later start time and the fact that we were well into summer and school holidays now. Opposite this episode were Bonanza and the hugely popular Batman.
- The later broadcast time was due to the BBC's coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
- One of the warehouse workers is extra Mike Reid. He will be seen much more clearly later in the story as a soldier. He would later become a stand-up comic, act as the grumpy host of children's game show Runaround, and finally find greater fame as Frank Butcher in EastEnders. He had previously featured as an extra in The Myth Makers.
- Also evident is background artist Hugh Cecil. The bald-headed performer - the result of alopecia - had featured as one of the Technix in The Daleks' Master Plan, and would go on to become well known as a regular non-speaking member of the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard platoon in Dad's Army.
- On Monday 20th June Blue Peter had hosted a feature on the story, with one of the War Machines appearing in studio prior to their first appearance in Doctor Who. A clip from the location filming was also screened. The item was presented by Christopher Trace, joined by co-presenter Valerie Singleton at the conclusion. The item can be seen as an extra on the story's DVD release, and it was also included at the beginning of the VHS version. A week later, the series featured homemade Daleks, presented once again by Trace.
- Character notes for Polly claimed that she was the daughter of a doctor from Devon and loved activities like skiing and motorsports. She had previously worked as a model and travel courier, and had three brothers. It was deliberately intended that she be more mature than Dodo and other teenagers like Susan and Vicki. Julie Christie and Marianne Faithful were inspirations. None of this background made it to the screen.
- Ben's notes are mainly about his loyalty and bravery, though they also include his dislike of people using nautical language in a jokey fashion as he doesn't like being made fun of. He also thinks Polly looks down her nose at him due to his Cockney accent, of which he is self-conscious. A little of this comes across in his first encounter with Polly in the first episode.
- One of two retro-style posters created by Oliver Arkinstall-Jones for this story, retitled as the attention-grabbing "WOTAN":
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