Doctor Who: The War Machines

I think I just found the design for the last sonic screw driver...
The War Machines is the tenth and final serial of Season Three of Doctor Who. It is also the first episode since the Doctor volunteered Steven off of the TARDIS crew and expressed complete faith that he would see Steven Taylor again and the poor guy would do a fine job as a peace keeper... all because the Doctor was too lazy to stick around a little while longer and help some people out. Not that I'm complaining or anything. This serial aired in four weekly parts between June 25 and July 16, 1966. This episode also includes Dodo Chaplet leaving the TARDIS crew so that Ben Jackson and Polly can be the new companions.

Because three is too many companions for the Doctor... Oh wait...

Well, I don't really know the circumstances behind why Dodo leaves and Ben Jackson and Polly NoLastName start travelling with the Doctor. I won't know until I watch the episode. Maybe I'm just being too hard on poor First Doctor, but he has gone through an awful lot of companions this season: Vicky, Katarina, Sara Kingdom, Steven, Dodo,and now these two show up?

Well, let's see what we're in for!

Two Hours Later...

So... Dodo's good-bye was pretty much the worst so far of the good-byes on the show. Everyone else got a pretty good send-off or sacrificed their lives for the Doctor who proceeded to wax poetic about them. Dodo gets hypnotized into following the villain, and after she has recovered, she decides she wants to stay in England 1966 and she gives Polly and Ben her key to the TARDIS.

This brings me to another huge complaint about the old series: for an interdimensional time machine that is bigger on the inside, it is stunningly easy to break into! Steven did it. Dodo did it. Susan claimed that it was supposed to be extremely difficult to unlock, but Polly and Ben get it open with no trouble at all. The only way to prevent unwanted people from getting into the TARDIS is to break the lock... which keeps EVERYONE out.

Okay! Rants done! On with the show!

The Doctor and Dodo arrive in modern-day (at the time) England and the Doctor is unsettled by a strange energy nearby.  There's also a newly completed Tower which they visit where they meet WOTON (sounded like VOTE-on to me), a new computer with artificial intelligence. It's name is actually an acronym for Will Operating Through ANalogue. Either way, it decides humanity sucks and it's going to enslave us all through hypnotism and take over the world. However, it wants to absorb the Doctor's mind first; so it gives Dodo a call and hypnotizes her.  She tries to deliver the Doctor to WOTON, but the Doctor's mind is too badass to be absorbed.

Obviously.

Then the Doctor catches onto what has happened to Dodo and fixes her and sends her off to the countryside to recover. That is the last time you will ever see Dodo Chaplet.

Anyhow, the Doctor quickly realizes that a lot of people are being brainwashed into making War Machines that are set to attack at noon the next day. He gets the same person taking care of Dodo to call the authorities, makes new friends with Polly and Ben and eventually reprograms a War Machine to destroy WOTON. This cures everyone else of their extreme case of hypnotism and they go back to their ordinary lives.

Well, except Polly and Ben to break into the TARDIS using Dodo's key just before the Doctor materializes away...

Next post: Season Three Overview... and then something completely unrelated... and then  I'll start Season Four with The Smugglers. 

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