The War Machines

027 – The War Machines
Doctor Who serial
A War Machine
Cast
Doctor William Hartnell (First Doctor)
Companions Jackie Lane (Dodo Chaplet) Anneke Wills (Polly) Michael Craze (Ben Jackson)
Others John Harvey — Professor Brett John Cater — Professor Krimpton William Mervyn — Sir Charles Summer Alan Curtis — Major Green Gerald Taylor — War Machine Operator Sandra Bryant — Kitty Ewan Proctor — Flash customer George Cross — The Minister Kenneth Kendall — Himself Ric Felgate, Carl Conway — American Journalists John Doye — Interviewer Dwight Whylie — Radio Announcer Desmond Cullum-Jones, Eddie Davis — Workers Roy Godfrey — Tramp Michael Rathborne — Taxi Driver Edward Colliver — Mechanic John Rolfe, John Boyd-Brent, Frank Jarvis, Robin Dawson — Soldiers John Slavid — Man in Telephone Box Gerald Taylor - The Voice of Wotan (Credited as "Wotan")
Production
Directed by	Michael Ferguson
Written by	Ian Stuart Black Kit Pedler (idea)
Script editor	Gerry Davis
Produced by	Innes Lloyd
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer
Production code	BB
Series	Season 3
Length	4 episodes, 25 minutes each (material missing from parts 3-4)
Date started	25 June 1966
Date ended	16 July 1966
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Savages The Smugglers

The War Machines

Author	Ian Stuart Black
Cover artist	Alister Pearson and Graeme Wey
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	136
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	16 February 1989
ISBN

The War Machines is the ninth and final serial of the third season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in 4 weekly parts from 25 June to 16 July 1966. This serial marks the departure of Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet and also the first appearance of Michael Craze and Anneke Wills as new companions Ben Jackson and Polly. It is also the only complete serial to feature Anneke Wills and Michael Craze, and the final complete serial from the William Hartnell era.

The TARDIS lands in London, near the Post Office Tower. The Doctor is unsettled by a sensation of a strange energy nearby. Visiting the newly completed Tower, the Doctor and Dodo meet Professor Brett, the creator of WOTAN (Will Operating Thought ANalogue), an advanced problem-solving computer that thinks for itself. Curiously, WOTAN even knows what the word 'TARDIS' stands for. In four days time, on C-Day, WOTAN will be linked to other major computers to take them over, including those of the White House, Cape Kennedy and the Royal Navy.

Dodo goes with Polly, Brett's secretary, to the local Inferno nightclub, where they meet Able Seaman Ben Jackson, while the Doctor attends a Royal Scientific Club meeting about WOTAN, led by Sir Charles Summer. Before Brett can depart the GPO Tower for the meeting, he is hypnotised by a humming noise emitted by WOTAN. He then fetches Krimpton, an electronics colleague, from the meeting and takes him to WOTAN, who is likewise possessed by the computer. Major Green, the chief of security in the Tower, is also taken over, and sends WOTAN's control signals to Dodo at the nightclub via telephone. Going to the tower, WOTAN tells her "Doctor Who is required. Bring him here."

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Wikipedia