Companion departures in Doctor Who are more often that not a very tricky thing to get right as the you have to make the audience both feel sad for the old companion leaving the show and yet at the same time excited for the new companion or companions that are joining the show. With the episode that i'm going to be reviewing for you all today being one such an episode and so then join me as I review the episode that sees The Doctor loose one companion but gain two more with the episode in question being called simply just "The War Machines" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is The Doctor and Dodo arrive in sixties London where the pair uncover a scheme to take over the world via a bunch of machines. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad but at the same time it's not a plot that's all that good either with this episodes plot being nothing more then OK at best as while the premise does lend itself a good and fun plot it's in the execution where the plot fails as what could have been a fun plot is now suddenly dull and boring with there not really being anything that makes this episodes plot stand out from alot of other Doctor Who plots at the same and heck even the hook of seeing a companion leave the show isn't really woven into the plot of the episode all that well thus making it feel more like an afterthought when it's something that should have been the emotional hook of the episode and while the idea for the episode is a fine and idea and one that could have worked really well in a better episode this is a plot that really did need to be more fully developed and have alot more time given to it in order to make it work and be the best that it could have been with the plot of this episode not really being really rather entertaining and nor is it really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is William Hartnell as The Doctor , Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet and Anneke Wills as Polly. Also starring in this episode is Michael Craze as Ben Jackson , John Harvey as Professor Brett , John Cater as Professor Krimpton , William Mervyn as Sir Charles Summer , Alan Curtis as Major Green , Sandra Bryant as Kitty , George Cross as The Minister , Kenneth Kendall as Himself and Gerald Taylor as A Machine Operator and The Voice Of WOTAN.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in al honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As it's clear as day that all of this episodes actors really do know how to turn in a really good performance in this episode as it's something that we see all over this episode with really the only bad acting coming from Gerald Taylor who really doesn't give WOTAN much of a voice outside of just saying characters names and that's really it and because of that the character's voice isn't that threatening as it oddly sounds a bit to robotic which would be fine if he was voicing a Cyberman but here there should have been more of an effort into giving WOTAN a more threatening and commanding voice with the best actor in this whole episode being William Hartnell which is something that does make sense he's been in the show for close to three years at this point in time and it's his acting that really does carry the episode not that alot of the other actors in this episode are bad because there really not it's just that he was truly phenomenal in this episode with the acting that's in this very episode not really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so bad as it gives none f this episodes actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does effect the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
As was mentioned at the start of this review this is the episode that sees The Doctor gain two new companions in this episode. With them being Ben and Polly with the two characters not really being the best characters in this episode as Polly spends the first half of the story being Dodo's friend and then the other half being under hypnosis which means that we don't really get to see why she belongs in the TARDIS outside of the fact that she's a deeply caring woman and that's really it with Ben being the action man type character which given the fact that William Hartnell isn't as spry as he once was does make some sort of sense to bring him on board from the point of view of the show but from a storyline point of view we don't really get to find out all that much about him other then the fact that he's a sailor and that's really it which is fine as it's typical of the show to do something like that at this point in time but given that William Hartnell was due to be leaving the show in just a few episodes time in the first place and that Ben and Polly leave not long in the second doctors era it would have been nice if we got to find out more about there characters and what there hobbies are as even tho those seem like things that would get in the way of the plot of any given episode of the show they are also things that would go along way into making us the audience care about there characters and want to see them make it out of each and every episode alive and well and yet because of the fact that we don't get to find out all that much about them in this episode it does make it hard for us the audience to find a reason to cheer for them when they do join the TARDIS full time.
There have been many companions leave the show with this episode perhaps being one pf the worst examples of how to handle a companion departure. As not only does it happen OFF SCREEN it's also something that's not even build up at all and actor Jackie Lane doesn't even appear in episodes three and four of this story with her final on screen appearance being near the end of this stories second episode and while there was a logistical reason for this as the production team were caught of guard by the fact that her contract for the show ran out during the production of this stories second episode there really should have been someone checking this sort of thing out as she was a co-lead in the show and that way they could gave given her a proper send off instead of just having Polly mention it at the end of the second episode but given the fact that Dodo was never really that well written as a character giving her this weak send off does oddly fit with how the show treated her as a character with her departure being something that very easily could have been fixed by having her say at the start of the episode she longs t leave The Doctor but won't do so until she knows that he's in good hands something that she can see is the case along the episode with Ben and Polly only for her to discover that she actually doesn't want to go because she does genuinely care for him with The Doctor rather begrudgingly telling her to go because he knows that staying with him isn't what's best her with this being something that is true to both characters.
With one of the many things that really does let this episode being the fact that from a technology point of view just isn't that good. As there is some really bad looking projection shots in episode three which might have looked good back in the sixties but now just look laughable at best and while this episode does get alot of credit for actually being the final William Hartnell serial to fully exist in it's entirety there should be alot of effort into making this episode look as good as it could be for it's various home media releases and if that means getting rid of the bad looking projection shots then so be it as all they do is make the scene that there in look cheap and while yes granted the BBC wasn't really used to using projection in the sixties as it was still a fairly new thing in it's own right the fact that they went that route and chose to use it does say that they at least had some knowledge of how to do it on a budget and yet they just chose a way that makes it look cheap and really dated and it's something that should this whole series of the show ever see a Blu-Ray release should be improved upon as while yes Doctor Who was always on a wish and prayer alot of the times you couldn't really see just how cheap the show was to make alot of the time where as here despite the fact that there is some really impressive looking location shots alot of the stuff that was clearly done in the studio does look cheap and yes that does include alot of the projection shots as well but to be fair tho it was still a bold move for the makers of this dhow to try some ne technology on the shows very tiny budget it's just one that really didn't pay off all that well for them.
As you can all no doubt work out by the above image the main villain of this episode is the super computer WOTAN with WOTAN standing for Will Operating Thought ANalogue. While it is a good idea for the main villain of the episode to be a super computer as computers themselves were just starting to become more of a thing back in the sixties as a villain it's not all that interesting as we never really get to find out why it wants to take over the world and nor do we find out why it needs The Doctor's help to do so both of which would have gone a really long way into making the character a really good villain as then we could have had some really good scenes with WOTAN trying to convince The Doctor to join it and hep it out thus giving The Doctor a sort of moral crisis and you can have WOTAN threaten to have Dodo killed should The Doctor fail him thus forcing The Doctor to have t think on his feet but because of alot of the time we don't get to actually see WOTAN in action we also don't get to see why it's meant to be taken seriously as a villain and as the villain just isn't that interesting it also means that The Doctor himself isn't that interesting as he's not being forced to outwit WOTAN and while the idea of having a super computer be the main villain for this episode it's not one that's fully developed enough to the point where the character is believable as the villain with the episode not even taking that full advantage of the fact that it's main villain is a super computer which is something that does make sense as we didn't really know just wat it was that computers could do in the first place but at the same time it is something that really does make WOTAN seem like a really weak villain.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember what ever this episodes grand total running time even was I do know for a fact that this episode really does have an exact grand total running time of roughly one hour and thirty minuets. With this episode being four episodes which is something that really does effect the plot of this episode as this episode not only have more the enough plot there to really cover it's current episode count and running time but it's also something that could have done with a being a few episodes longer as it's current form the episode really can't use it's running time all that wisely as none of the character get any form of character development whatsoever and both Ben and Polly who are characters that are meant to be replacing Dodo in the TARDIS and yet there not really being given all that much of a personality and Polly isn't given a reason as to why she should be allowed on the TARDIS in the first place where as Ben is and all of which are things that would be fixed if this story was say five or six episodes long as by giving this episode even just those extra two episodes it would mean that the characters and the plot as a whole could be come alot more fleshed out which is something that really would make the episode be whole lot better then what it currently is because as things stand those things really just aren't that well done in this episode because of the fact that this episode is as short as it is but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is ana action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presenetd to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With this episode having two action scenes in the story with the first one being a small fight scene between Ben and random person a club and the second one being a huge scale action scene between members of an army unit and a war machine with that episode not only being the best action scene in the whole episode it's also one that's wrongly placed as it happend near the end of episode three when an action scene that's this good and this well done should have been placed in the fourth and final episode and it's also an action that's really well done as we get to see a small group of army people plus Ben try to take on one of WOTAN's war machines in a warehouse only for alot of them to be very easily defeated and heck it even has The Doctor standing up to one of these war machines which really is just such a cool thing to include in an action scene but because it was placed in the third episode it means that anything that comes after it is really just going to fail in comparison where as if it was placed in the fourth episode it would have been a really cool way to end the threat of the war machines as it's just a really well done action scene and something that really does work well within the context of the episode as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall while this might not be all that good an episode and it's certainly not all of that good a departure episode there is some good things to be found in this episode but you do have to sit through alot of the bad things to find them tho but when you do find them they do make this episode really worth watching in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly 6 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies ad gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.