Doctor Who: The War Machines [1966]

See Larger Image	List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £5.98 Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video Starring: William Hartnell, Jackie Lane, Anneke Wills, Michael Craze Directed By: Michael Ferguson Average Customer Rating:


Audience Rating: To Be Announced Binding: DVD EAN: 5014503244125 Format: PAL Label: 2 Entertain Video Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: 2 Entertain Video Region Code: 2 Release Date: 2008-08-25 Running Time: 95 Studio: 2 Entertain Video Theatrical Release Date: 1966
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Editorial Reviews: A hugely enjoyable Doctor Who adventure from the very infancy of the show, The War Machines finds William Hartnell in charge of the Tardis, and naturally enough there’s an impending crisis facing the Earth. Set in the era in which the story was made, The War Machines sees the Doctor and Dodo heading off to the Post Office Tower, where they find out all about Professor Brett’s new computer, WONTAN. And setting the scene for many science fiction films and television shows that would explore similar themes, WONTAN soon becomes a computer that believes machines should be in charge, and hence introduces the war machines of the story’s title. Really well realised, and making the most of the resources at its disposal, The War Machines is visually impressive, but also a well-constructed story. It clearly works within many of the television conventions of the time, but Hartnell was always a strong Doctor, and the story explores its themes confidently too. It’s good to have it on disc. Backed up by a substantive extras list, with a healthy slice of archive material, The War Games is a welcome DVD release, and a very good story from the archives of Doctor Who. --Jon Foster
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Interesting but not that good Comment: Generally this adventure has much to recommend it and does, indeed provide an interesting record of the time in 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 and 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 and somewhat too staged * The handling of events is not credible, WOTAN takes over a couple of people and 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 factor in a slower build up to WOTAN's campaign of attack * Hartnell is often waiting around for the script to cue him into action and he seems to play cat & mouse games with Polly when she is taken over by WOTAN - does he know she is under mind control? Customer Rating: Summary: HARTNELL'L FIX IT! Comment: 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 Doctor in all his grumpy, cloak-twirling, chuckling glory. The TARDIS materialises in Bedford Square, near to the base of the then new Post Office Tower, where the Doctor senses evil at work in the form of a megalomaniac super computer called WOTAN. Mesmerised humans are soon obeying WOTAN's will and building the trundling War Machines, which the BBC were clearly hoping would rival the Daleks in popularity. As with many Doctor Who scripts, this story was quite prophetic, as the idea of machines overtaking human intelligence and building robot soldiers is now a mainstay of science fiction. It's been used recently in the Terminator and I Robot films. There are some great shots of London in the 60s, along with an insight into the groovy fashions and some cringe-worthy nightclub dancing, which should have you all rolling around in hysterics. Yes, they even had flared trousers way back then. In The War Machines we see how the Doctor authoratively commands both military generals and government ministers alike; a talent which will come in useful later on in his career and a nice forerunner of his dealings with UNIT. The Doctor also gets a change of companion, as the BBC unceremoniously dump poor Dodo in favour of blonde dollybird Polly (Anneke Wills) and 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 and the window frames change from white to dark (blue) - and back again. Then there's the single War Machine prop playing its own numbers game...oh, and keep a close eye on the Doctor's trendy astrakhan hat... Extras include commentary by Anneke Wills and Director Michael Ferguson, a Now and Then look at the London locations, Blue Peter presenters meeting the War Machine, the plans to build one and the Radio Times listings from 1966 on PDF. Tremendous fun and well worth adding to your collection. 10/10 Customer Rating: Summary: WOTAN to take over the world Comment: 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 and for them to rule mankind, its done in a very effective but simplistic way and so just becareful next time you answer your telephone The departure of Dodo was rather sudden and i think not very well thought through,one minute she is recuperating, the next she is no longer wanting to travel with the Doctor and 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 and 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 and 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 and too see how different it looks now to when it did back in the 60's is brilliant and also a little bonus at the start and end of this section, the Now & Then featurette which shows scenes where it was filmed was also a fascinating insight to how things have changed in 40 years Customer Rating: Summary: "I dig your fab gear!" Comment: Hartnell's travels as the Doctor only rarely took him to contemporary Earth so it's the visual delight of seeing him out and about in 1960's London taking black cabs, admiring the newly finished Post Office Tower and strolling into nightclubs, that is the first and 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 and THE INVASION, and would become virtually full time from 1970-74. Later forays by the show into the "here and 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 and ambience of the time. From youngsters in suits and ties grooving uncomfortably at the Inferno nightclub ("the hottest nightspot in 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, and Michael Craze's heart of gold cockney sailor, Ben. The duo look like they were at least partially inspired by Julie Christie and Michael Caine. They're both instantly likeable and are the 2 most interesting characters amongst the supporting cast. Hartnell's is a mostly commanding and dignified performance, give or take the odd fluffed line - reports of his increasing ill health towards the end of his time in 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 and 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 and saving planets in 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 direction in 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 prescient in 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, viewers in 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 and high camera angles. That this is a disc to savour is a feeling very much present in 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 and restored the scratched or wobbly pictures. ONE FOOT IN THE PAST is a history of the GPO Tower presented by politician and ex-Postmaster General Tony Benn. Although there are no references to WOTAN or the TARDIS, this feature feels absolutely in 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 and '66 and not have a broad grin of sheer nostalgic pleasure on their face. Christopher Trace and Valerie Singleton variously chat about the Tower (Trace visits it), meet a War Machine and 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 and Michael Ferguson. Wills' difficulties with Hartnell have been well documented in the past, but here she appears to generously put all this aside and simply wallows in the joy of re-experiencing her work from over 40 years ago. Her shriek of laughter at Hartnell's "temper,temper!" gag in 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 and also seems to enjoy himself. His admiration of Hartnell is touching and a fitting way to celebrate the many excellent qualities of this restored story. Customer Rating: Summary: doctor who comes down to earth Comment: a doctor who story from 1966, featuring william hartnell as the first doctor. jackie lane as his companion dodo. and introducing two new companions, polly played by anneke wills and ben played by michael craze. the story runs for four twenty five minute long episodes. all are in black and white. the picture quality can vary a bit from scene to scene but is generally very good and perfectly watchable. in the mid 60's, with the post office tower having just been built in london, one doctor who writer speculated what would happen if something took the tower over. and that was the basis for this story. a super computer built there called WOTAN brainwashes all the humans it can, and 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 and it's great to get it on dvd. in many ways a template for what the show would do in the 70's, with threats to contemporary earth and 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, and ben and 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 and 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 and the production and in addition, this also has some decent extra stuff: PDF files showing the design of the war machines a commentary from anneke wills [polly] and michael ferguson, the director of the story now and then: a nine minute long look at the locations used for the filming as they were then and as they are now. fascinating stuff. I'd been through some of the london streets shown lots of times without realising they filmed the story in 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, and children who built a model dalek. charming nostalgic viewing one foot in the past: a nine minute long clip from a bbc history show in which former mp and 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, and 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 and lots of clips found elsewhere. very interesting to watch. for an easter egg, watch this on a computer, go to the episode selection screen, and 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 and 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 and montages of clips to give the stories an epic feel. and 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. and the dvd extras are very good as well. this is a really good release and well worth getting More Reviews