Doctor Who: Series 3, Episodes 42-45 – “The War Machines” (1966)

*A few spoilers for this serial and “The Savages.”*

As a story, it’s only so-so, but I enjoy “The War Machines” for its introduction to Ben and Polly, a companion duo (and later trio, when Jamie came along) that I really enjoy.  My first time through classic Who, it was the only Ben and Polly story on DVD—I jumped from this serial all the way to “The Tomb of the Cybermen.”  Thanks to recovered episodes, animated reconstructions, and audio recordings/Telesnaps of missing serials, I’ve since seen their entire tenure, but even though they have other stories I like better, this one is still special to me for being my at-first only look at them.

The First Doctor brings Dodo back to 1960s London with the intention of sightseeing and letting Dodo catch up with friends, but of course, things are never that simple.  You always plan to just have a fun vacation, but the next thing you know, there’s a supercomputer brainwashing the guy who invented it and making plans to take over London.  The Doctor rolls up his sleeves to shut it down, with the help of a couple of new friends:  secretary Polly and sailor Ben.

Strange as it seems now, this is actually the very first story featuring an attack in present-day Earth.  Nowadays, 21^st-century London seems to be the international Zagat’s Guide’s top conquest spot of choice, but back then, the Doctor and his companions didn’t spend much time in the present.  Naturally, that changed a lot with UNIT, who dealt with a new Earth-based invasion every four-to-six weeks, and there were a fair amount of similarly-set stories afterward, but even though “The War Machines” involves an intelligent computer instead of an alien, that trend can trace its source back to this story.  Who has such a long and winding history that firsts are always special when you come across them.

The story itself is so-so.  WOTAN is pretty hokey, and the serial gives Dodo the most unceremonious companion send-off of all time; she disappears halfway through, and at the end, Polly just gives the Doctor a “BTW, Dodo says she’s staying in London” message.  I’ve never been much of a fan of her as a character, but that’s ridiculous.  The ending has a whiff of, “Oh, hey, remember her?  Me neither.”  I wonder if there was some behind-the-scenes change that brought about her abrupt departure.  After giving Steven a nice farewell in the serial immediately preceding this one, it’s weird to dispatch her so dismissively.

That said, Ben and Polly are immediately great fun.  It’s a different duo dynamic than Ian and Barbara, since these are very little acquainted with each other before the start of the story.  They meet properly at a club when Polly and Dodo are hanging out together, and they just wind up thrown into the same sci-fi adventure.  Polly doesn’t get a chance to contribute as much here, although it’s clear that she’s winning and personable, but Ben has the opportunity to get in on the action pretty quickly, and I like how, through all the craziness happening with WOTAN, his chief concern is making sure Polly is all right.  Theirs is a quickly made connection, but it’s a strong one.  Both bring a new energy to interactions with One, who of course is in his element fighting a supercomputer (it’s interesting how anti-computer the old Doctors, especially One through Three, are, although it’s definitely warranted in this case.)