The War Machines

] [cite web
url= http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_2b.htm
title= subst:PAGENAME
publisher = Doctor Who Reference Guide
author =
date =
accessdate = 2008-08-30] cite web
url= http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/bb.html
title= subst:PAGENAME
publisher = A Brief History of Time Travel
last = Sullivan
first = Shannon
date = 2007-07-05
accessdate = 2008-08-30] Working titles for this story included "The Computers".

The idea for this story came about when Kit Pedler was being interviewed for a position as science advisor to the series. The producers asked all of the interviewees what would happen if the recently-built Post Office Tower somehow took over. Pedler suggested that it would be the work of a rogue computer that communicated with the outside world by means of the telephone system. The producers liked this suggestion and not only offered Pedler the job but developed the idea into a script (one of the few to feature a 'Story Idea by' credit).

Only one War Machine prop was actually constructed; the production team changed the numbers, to represent the different machines.

The titling style of each episode in this serial differs from the standard titles of other serials. Instead of a title overlay, after the "Doctor Who" logo has faded, the screen shifts to a solid background containing four inversely-coloured rectangles aligned down the left-hand side (reminiscent to an old-style computer punch card). The title, one word at a time, scrolls upwards - "THE", "WAR", "MACH", "INES" - with a final flash displaying the complete title on two lines. Another flash reveals the writer, the next flash reveals the word "EPISODE", and the final flash shows the actual episode number. All of the lettering displayed in this titling sequence is shown in a retro-computer font. Each of the four episodes' title sequences have slight variations to them.

Casting

* Michael Craze provided the voice of a policeman heard in Episode four.
* WOTAN received a credit as "And WOTAN" at the end of the first three episodes, the only time a fictional character was credited as itself in the series.
* Jackie Lane's contract expired midway through production of this story. She does not appear again after episode two; Dodo's off-screen departure is relayed to the Doctor by Polly.
* This is the last William Hartnell era serial, and the only serial featuring Anneke Wills and Michael Craze, to exist in its entirety.

Missing episodes

Aside from its soundtrack (recorded off-air by fans), this serial was lost in the junk of episodes in the 1970s. The master videotapes for the story were the last of those starring William Hartnell to be junked, surviving until 1974.cite journal|title=No Further Interest|first=Andrew|last=Pixley|journal=Nothing at the End of the Lane — The Magazine of Doctor Who Research and Restoration|month=June | year=2005|issue=2|pages=pp. 38–43] The 16mm film telerecording copies held by BBC Enterprises were also the last of their kind to be destroyed, surviving until 1978, shortly before the junking of material was halted by the intervention of fan Ian Levine.cite journal|title=Withdrawn, De-accessioned and Junked|first=Richard|last=Bignell|journal=Nothing at the End of the Lane — The Magazine of Doctor Who Research and Restoration|month=June | year=2005|issue=2|pages=pp. 44–49]

In 1978, a collector in Australia provided a copy of episode 2. Later in 1984 copies of all four episodes were returned from Nigeria. Episodes 2, 3 and 4 all had cuts to them, but most have been restored due to a combination of the other copy of episode 2, material used in a promotional item on the BBC's "Blue Peter" and censored clips from Australia. Some of the restored footage did not have its accompanying soundtrack, and so the missing sound was restored from the off-air recordings.

To date, only episodes 3 and 4 do not exist in their entirety as was originally intended. Episode 3 is missing a visual brief bit of dialogue with Krimpton talking. This was replaced in the VHS release with a combination of a shot of WOTAN with the accompanied dialogue from the off-air recordings. Episode 3 is also missing around 59 seconds worth of the battle in the warehouse. Episode 4 is missing only a small amount of material. The first instance occurs with the man in the telephone box. Part of the continuing closeup of the man talking on the telephone is missing, but this was compensated on the VHS release by continuing in audio-only over the top of the beginning of the high shot of the phone box. There are also two lines of dialogue missing when Polly reports back to WOTAN. This scene, however, has not been re-instated for the VHS release as it was felt that there wouldn't be enough visual material to drop into the gap.

The DVD release has all of the episodes recreated and restored to their original length.

Doctorwhobook
title=The War Machines
series=Target novelisations
number=136
featuring=


writer=Ian Stuart Black
publisher=Target Books
coverartist=Alister Pearson and Graeme Wey
isbn=0 426 20332 1
set_between=
pages=
date=16 February 1989
preceding=Delta and the Bannermen
following=Dragonfire|

Commercial releases

The serial was released on VHS in 1997, with an item from "Blue Peter" and a BBC1 "globe ident" (from the first part of the story) as extras. A DVD issue was released in August 25th 2008. With the advance in technology since the original VHS release, the sections which were missing from it have been reinstated using the audio and appropriate visual material. It features a commentary by Anneke Wills & the director Michael Ferguson.

Also, in 2007, an audio CD of the serial's soundtrack, with linking narration by and bonus interview with Anneke Wills, was released.

In print

A novelisation of this serial, written by Ian Stuart Black, was published by Target Books in February 1989.

References

External links

*BBCCDW | id=warmachine | title=The War Machines
*Brief |id=bb | title=The War Machines
*Doctor Who RG | id=who_2b | title=The War Machines
*OG | id=bb | title=The War Machines
* [http://www.doctorwholocations.net/stories/warmachines Doctor Who Locations] - The War Machines

Reviews

*DWRG | id=warm | title=The War Machines
*OG review | id=bb | title=The War Machines

Target novelisation

* [http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~ecl6nb/OnTarget/1989/war/89war.htm On Target — "The War Machines"]