Customer Reviews
Interesting but not that good - By: Mist of Time, 23 Sep 2008 
Generally this adventure has much to recommend it & does, indeed provide an interesting record of the timein which it was made. I came away glad to have watched it but not clear I would watch it again any time soon. Many things grated with me,in no particular order:
* WOTAN uses the name Doctor Who explicitly several times which I found grating
* The change of companions is abrupt & the story ends just as the new companions enter the TARDIS meaning you miss the trademark 'bigger on the inside' line
* The TARDIS prop is looking very tatty (though the last time I saw the Tennant TARDIS it had a hole in!)
* The last episode has a huge battle scene with War Machines vs. soldiers which is much too long & somewhat too staged
* The handling of events is not credible, WOTAN takes over a couple of people & by the morning 1000s of boxes are turning up all over London to build War Machines. This is most annoying as it would have taken very little scripting to factorin a slower build up to WOTAN's campaign of attack
* Hartnell is often waiting around for the script to cue him into action & he seems to play cat & mouse games with Polly when she is taken over by WOTAN - does he know she is under mind control?
HARTNELL'L FIX IT! - By: J. M. Eccles, 20 Sep 2008 
Doctor Who
The War Machines
Starring William Hartnell
* New BBC DVD Release * Latest Triumph of the Restoration Team *
4 Episode Adventure
Feature Length: 95 minutes.
First broadcast 25h June - 16th July, 1966.
Written by Ian Stuart Black, based on an idea by
Kit Pedler.
A marvellous romp through the Swinging Sixties with the original Doctorin all his grumpy, cloak-twirling, chuckling glory.
The TARDIS materialisesin Bedford Square, near to the base of the then new Post Office Tower, where the Doctor senses evil at workin the form of a megalomaniac super computer called WOTAN.
Mesmerised humans are soon obeying WOTAN's will & building the trundling War Machines, which the BBC were clearly hoping would rival the Daleksin popularity.
As with many Doctor Who scripts, this story was quite prophetic, as the idea of machines overtaking human intelligence & building robot soldiers is now a mainstay of science fiction. It's been used recentlyin the Terminator & I Robot films.
There are some great shots of Londonin the 60s, along with an insight into the groovy fashions & some cringe-worthy nightclub dancing, which should have you all rolling aroundin hysterics.
Yes, they even had flared trousers way back then.
In The War Machines we see how the Doctor authoratively commands both military generals & government ministers alike; a talent which will comein useful later onin his career & a nice forerunner of his dealings with UNIT.
The Doctor also gets a change of companion, as the BBC unceremoniously dump poor Dodoin favour of blonde dollybird Polly (Anneke Wills) & jaunty sailorboy Ben (Michael Craze).
These two companions would go on to join Patrick Troughton, when he takes over the role of The Doctor, at the end of The Tenth Planet.
I love this DVD, if only for some of the infamous continuity errors. You get to see the TARDIS door lock fly from the left door to the right one & the window frames change from white to dark (blue) - & back again.
Then there's the single War Machine prop playing its own numbers game...oh, & keep a close eye on the Doctor's trendy astrakhan hat...
Extras include commentary by Anneke Wills & Director Michael Ferguson, a Now & Then look at the London locations, Blue Peter presenters meeting the War Machine, the plans to build one & the Radio Times listings from 1966 on PDF.
Tremendous fun & well worth adding to your collection.
10/10
WOTAN to take over the world - By: Badwolf, 07 Sep 2008 Well after many months of waiting one of favourite William Hartnell stories has been released onto DVD.
This is without doubt a brilliant story which even today still has that same fear, of computers trying to take over humans & for them to rule mankind, its donein a very effective but simplistic way & so just becareful next time you answer your telephone
The departure of Dodo was rather sudden & i think not very well thought through,one minute she is recuperating, the next she is no longer wanting to travel with the Doctor & thats that, all though it does introudce i believe one of the top travelling companions that have travelled with the Doctor, Ben (Michael Craze)& Polly (Anneke Wilks) they have a brilliant chemistry on screen & throughout this story, the only sad fact is that most of the stories featuring Ben & Polly now only exist on Audio Recordings as the cretins & BBC junked all the existing reels.
The extras on this DVD are also worth mentioning, the Blue Peter clips from where the BT tower (now telecom tower) first openened were brilliant & too see how different it looks now to when it did backin the 60's is brilliant & also a little bonus at the start & end of this section, the Now & Then featurette which shows scenes where it was filmed was also a fascinating insight to how things have changedin 40 years
"I dig your fab gear!" - By: Hector Lerbioz, 31 Aug 2008 
Hartnell's travels as the Doctor only rarely took him to contemporary Earth so it's the visual delight of seeing him out & aboutin 1960's London taking black cabs, admiring the newly finished Post Office Tower & strolling into nightclubs, that is the first & most immediate pleasure here. Surrounded by soldiers, assisting the establishment by fighting an invasion of robots, you could easily insert Jon Pertwee without it looking out of place. 1966's THE WAR MACHINES therefore provides a (somewhat shakey) template for what DR WHO would start to be with later Troughton entries like THE WEB OF FEAR & THE INVASION, & would become virtually full time from 1970-74.
Later forays by the show into the "here & now" such as 1967's THE FACELESS ONES would be a little more assured when it came to the details of the plot, but almost no other DR WHO story from the '60's evokes such a delicious sense of the culture & ambience of the time. From youngstersin suits & ties grooving uncomfortably at the Inferno nightclub ("the hottest nightspotin town"),to an oblique reference to Hartnell's resemblance to Jimmy Saville, to the appearance of contemporary newsreader Kenneth Kendall warning viewers to stay indoors during the War Machine attack on London, this feels like an authentic look at swinging London.
This fun '60's vibe is also enhanced by the debut of 2 new companions: Anneke Wills' trendy girl-about-town, Polly, & Michael Craze's heart of gold cockney sailor, Ben. The duo look like they were at least partially inspired by Julie Christie & Michael Caine. They're both instantly likeable & are the 2 most interesting characters amongst the supporting cast. Hartnell's is a mostly commanding & dignified performance, give or take the odd fluffed line - reports of his increasing ill health towards the end of his timein the role do not seem to prevent him from giving of his best.
The plot, concerning a man-made supercomputer trying to take over the world by possessing human beings & getting them to build killer robots is let's be honest, utter nonsense. However, since this is a series about a man travelling around the universe & saving planetsin a blue police box, as DR WHO fans, most of us are not going to let this worry us. On the other hand though the details of WOTAN's schemes may be unbelievable, the story effectively taps into the fears of the time about the directionin which technology was taking us. Whilst it's unlikely that we'll have robots gassing us on the streets any time soon, it's interesting to note that firstly, the plans to link up WOTAN with computers all over the world seem to be prescientin light of the arrival of the internet. Secondly, as the disc's production subtitles note, the basis of the plot of THE WAR MACHINES bears an uncanny similarity to that of the TERMINATOR movie franchise.
By all accounts, viewersin 1966 were not impressed by this serial. Some considered the War Machines themselves to be "poor relations to the Daleks". Looking at the 4 episodes now, it seems to me that time has been kind to THE WAR MACHINES. The machines themselves have an impressive on-screen presence considerably expoited by Michael Ferguson's excellent, sometimes almost cinematic, use of low & high camera angles.
That this is a disc to savour is a feeling very much presentin the excellent package of extra features. "WOTAN ASSEMBLY" deftly chronicles the restoration of the episodes, demonstrating that the real heroes here are the boffins of the Restoration team who recreated the incomplete moments & restored the scratched or wobbly pictures. ONE FOOT IN THE PAST is a history of the GPO Tower presented by politician & ex-Postmaster General Tony Benn. Although there are no references to WOTAN or the TARDIS, this feature feels absolutelyin keeping with everything else on the DVD. When he laments the fact that the Tower is now closed to the public following the privatisation of the 1980's it's hard to disagree with him.
I defy anybody of a certain age to look at the BLUE PETER extracts from 1965 & '66 & not have a broad grin of sheer nostalgic pleasure on their face. Christopher Trace & Valerie Singleton variously chat about the Tower (Trace visits it), meet a War Machine & later introduce a viewer who has his own home made Dalek - hilariously complete with a gun that fires talcum powder!
Best of all is a superb commentary by Anneke Wills & Michael Ferguson. Wills' difficulties with Hartnell have been well documentedin the past, but here she appears to generously put all this aside & simply wallowsin the joy of re-experiencing her work from over 40 years ago. Her shriek of laughter at Hartnell's "temper,temper!" gagin episode 4 provoked a similar reaction from me. Ferguson may have forgotten one or two details about the making of the show (perfectly understandable) but has much of interest to say & also seems to enjoy himself. His admiration of Hartnell is touching & a fitting way to celebrate the many excellent qualities of this restored story.
doctor who comes down to earth - By: Paul Tapner, 30 Aug 2008 a doctor who story from 1966, featuring william hartnell as the first doctor. jackie lane as his companion dodo. & introducing two new companions, polly played by anneke wills & ben played by michael craze.
the story runs for four twenty five minute long episodes. all arein black & white. the picture quality can vary a bit from scene to scene but is generally very good & perfectly watchable.
in the mid 60's, with the post office tower having just been builtin london, one doctor who writer speculated what would happen if something took the tower over. & that was the basis for this story. a super computer built there called WOTAN brainwashes all the humans it can, & uses them to build robotic war machines that it can use to wipe out the human race. can the doctor save the day?
this is one of the best hartnell stories & it's great to get it on dvd.in many ways a template for what the show would doin the 70's, with threats to contemporary earth & the doctor working with the military to stop it. hartnell is an absolute star. watch the way he dominates the screen at the end of part three. his doctor has a great time showing off to all the humans how smart he is. the story moves at an excellent pace, has some splendid set pieces, & ben & polly are excellent new characters. highly entertaining stuff.
the extras are the usual:
english language subtitles
production subtitles, which bring up information about the story & the production whilst you watch it
PDF files [you view them when looking at the disc on a computer] showing the radio times listings for the story
a photo gallery of shots of the story & the production
andin addition, this also has some decent extra stuff:
PDF files showing the design of the war machines
a commentary from anneke wills [polly] & michael ferguson, the director of the story
now & then: a nine minute long look at the locations used for the filming as they were then & as they are now. fascinating stuff. I'd been through some of the london streets shown lots of times without realising they filmed the storyin those particular ones, so it was very interesting to watch
blue peter: roughly fifteen minutes worth of three clips from the show, showing the building of the post office tower, the war machines visiting the blue peter studio, & children who built a model dalek. charming nostalgic viewing
one footin the past: a nine minute long clip from a bbc history showin which former mp & paymaster general tony benn visits the post office tower. since it's been closed to the public since 1981 this is the only chance you'll ever get to see it, & the view is amazing. he's also a good presenter, so it's well worth watching.
as is WOTAN assembly. the tapes of the story were originally wiped by the bbc, but it was reconstructed from two different copies found overseas & lots of clips found elsewhere. very interesting to watch.
for an easter egg, watch this on a computer, go to the episode selection screen, & move the pointer to the top right corner till it lights up a doctor who logo. click on that for a short piece of footage of an effects shot not quite working out. worth watching.
there is also a coming soon trailer for the impending release of the seventh doctor story battlefield. the schedules for the dvds have changed a lot over this year & battlefield will not be the next one out, it will be out towards the end of the year. these trailers are very good, using great music & montages of clips to give the stories an epic feel. &in some cases they make them look better than they are. but we'll talk about that when battlefield comes out.
but the war machines is an excellent story. & the dvd extras are very good as well. this is a really good release & well worth getting
