The War Machines - Episode 3

It dawned on me after finishing the last episode that despite some positives in this story, I don’t quite know why I have a soft spot for this story. It’s not because it writes Dodo out of the series or that it introduces Ben and Polly. Remarkably its exactly two minutes before a single word of dialogue is spoken we get the reprise of Ben being targeted by WOTAN. Polly has apparently been taken over though I must admit that I don’t find it terribly convincing. It’s hard to tell whether she’s just pretending or whether she is genuinely under WOTAN’s control though its revealed that she was under WOTAN’s control eventually.

I think that Michael Craze really stands up in this episode. The scene where he raises his voice at Sir Charles after he escapes is one of the best scenes in the episode. It’s clear that he’s going to be a great addition to the show and is the one to take over the strong male role after Peter Purves’ departure. Even though she spent the whole episode playing hypnotised, Anneke Wills gave a good performance and its clear from the previous two episodes that she’s going to another great addition to the cast. William Hartnell’s involvement in the story has been consistant in the last few episodes as he’s in it but its enough to let Craze and Wills do all the energetic stuff.

When the action moves to Covent Garden, there is an awful sense of the inevitable. It’s clear that the army aren’t taking things as serious as they should.  This section isn’t helped by the slowest killing of soldiers in TV history. The War Machines move so slowly and don’t really do anything that its amazing they lost one person. This whole section last for and its only because of how the episode ends that its worth enduring. The sight of the War Machine approaching the Doctor who stands in front of it in defiance is one of the best cliffhangers ever. It’s such a great way to end the episode that it makes me want to watch the final episode now. The final episode is one that I am looking forward to and I’ve decided that this story is one of my guilty pleasures.