The Faceless Ones

A strangely-titled beast, ‘The Faceless Ones’ returns us to a story in six parts after another string of four part adventures. After a story that was a bit ‘weird’ in ‘The Macra Terror’, we find the Doctor and his companions returned to Earth in present day England for this one. It’s played pretty straight, and involves a fair bit of filming at Gatwick airport, a departure (pun unintended I swear) from any sort of location shoot Doctor Who had enjoyed previously.

Doctor and Jamie behind the tyres of a 'flying beastie'.

I was impressed that Episode One in fact starts off with the Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie running around the runway under planes. There’s a chilling and mysterious murder to kick start the saga, oh and the episode exists! However, four of the six episodes of ‘The Faceless Ones’ do not exist.

Polly, avec long hair. Compare please to her pic in 'The Macra Terror'

The strangest thing about this story is Polly’s hair. In episode one of the Macra Terror her hair is cut very short, but suddenly it’s back to full length in the opening episode of ‘The Faceless Ones’. The only guess I could make was that pre-filming for ‘The Faceless Ones’ took place before ‘The Macra Terror’, an entirely studio-bound story, began shooting. Anneke Wills had not had her hair cut yet, and then had it cut just before shooting started for ‘The Macra Terror’. Then they realised they had all this film shot with long-haired Anneke, and had to get her a wig for the studio scenes in ‘The Faceless Ones’. As conspiracy theories go, it’s not one of the most interesting, but it’s the best I could come up with.

This story features pens that freeze people, doppelgangers aplenty and the writing out of Ben and Polly. It is sad to see them go. Michael Craze had been told his contracted wouldn’t be renewed, and Anneke decided to leave with him. In all fairness, they had taken on Frazer Hines (the production team) back in ‘The Highlanders’ almost on a whim, and the three companions did appear to be one too many. It would have been nice if we’d had more adventures with Polly. As it stands for Michael Craze and Anneke Wills, only one story exists complete in the archives, and it’s their first – ‘The War Machines’.

They were apparently contracted for all six episodes plus two of the next story. It’s a bit odd then that they were written out of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’, as well as episodes four and five of ‘The Faceless Ones’. They just reappear at the hanger at the end of episode six to say goodbye! Bit unfair on both that they couldn’t have a decent send-off, but at least they go to say ‘goodbye’, which is more than poor Jackie Lane got with Dodo.

Pauline Collins guest stars are Samantha Briggs in this story, and they hoped she would agree to become the next companion. A lot of the action centres around her and Jamie, and that may be why Ben and Polly disappear for so long, however she decided not to sign a contract and only features in this story. Samantha and Jamie did make a nice pair doing their investigating, there was good chemistry between them and it would have been interesting to watch that relationship develop. Frazer Hines’ role as Jamie had been limited up to this point, and it’s the first time Jamie gets to hold a fair strand of the plotline.

Another notable cast member is Bernard Kay, back again for his third (I think) role in Doctor Who. This time he plays Police Inspector Crossland, who in the end becomes the director of the Chameleons, a faceless race of aliens wanting to replace young people and take over the Earth. He plays the two roles very differently and very well. And we have Donald Pickering, the perfect villain, cast in the role of Captain Blade.

 The plot, written by first-time Who writer Malcolm Hulke and David Ellis, struggles to hold up for six episodes – it was originally planned as a four part adventure. There is an awful lot of investigating going on through the middle of the story. The Doctor has trouble convincing anyone that he’s not a lunatic, people escape, get captured again, evidence disappears, classic stuff to pad things out.

Pauline Collins, Bernard Kay and Frazer Hines.

Donald Pickering

Speaking of Patrick Troughton, he is very strong in ‘The Faceless Ones’, and in this story the Doctor really takes the lead. He plays the straight and serious stuff – which he is getting more of now – brilliantly and his Doctor is warm and honest and basically fantastic! Troughton may have taken a little while to sort out what would be the main characteristics of his Doctor, but now that he has he has quickly overtaken Hartnell as ‘my favourite Doctor’. Well, he only had one Doctor to overtake as they’d only been one!

The final part and a bit sees some of the action taking place up in space. The cgi in the reconstruction may have been better than what was originally done – the satellite that the Chameleons are based apparently frustrated the director, Gerry Mill, a lot. A bit slow in places, poor treatment of Ben and Polly, but Troughton, Hines and Pauline Collins make this story quite good.

7/10

The Moonbase

No rest for the wicked! I moved onto this tale, ‘The Moonbase’, which saw the return of the Cybermen in a plot that was rather similar to that of ‘The Tenth Planet’ – your basic base under siege tale.

Naturally enough, ‘The Moonbase’ takes place on the moon. Kudos for the team for attempting to do ‘the moon’ in the first place! They had to create a set for the moon, and they did that pretty well. The actors then had to mimic weightlessness, which they also did a decent job of. It was story where they attempted a lot of different and difficult things for the time and budget, and although some things didn't really work, all in all it was a pretty good stab.

Cybermen on the surface of the moon!

The gravitron, far from being a ride in an amusement park, was a device used to control the Earth’s weather through gravity. It keeps hurricane out in the ocean and things like that. Actually not that big a device considering what it does, it was still as big as they could afford to make it in the studio space they had. It is manned by another international crew, the commander thankfully not being a maniac like General Cutler of ‘The Tenth Planet’ was.

The Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie arrive on the moon, whilst aiming for Mars. They go for a walk out on the Moon in space suits that don’t look particularly effective or realistic. The people of the Moonbase have almost identical suits as well, with oxygen being supplied seemingly from a small plastic bottle. I rather liked the odd shape of the plastic helmets, but otherwise the suit was pretty rubbish – a miss for the production team there!

The model shots of the moon base are ok, but don’t quite match up with the interior shots, mainly because the gravitron appears to connected to the control area which can’t be seen on the model shots, or indeed the humans! The Cybermen are using flying saucers which are honestly crap. But hey, they had a lot to create on a very limited budget! Thus budget didn’t extend, clearly, to reinforcing the walls. Some of them certainly did shake, especially when Ben was trying to keep the cyber-controlled patients out in episode four!

As for the story-line, it’s ok but certainly no prize-winner. Cybermen infect the base with a virus, reveal themselves, get kicked out, attack the base, the Doctor cleverly turns the gravitron on the surface of the moon and they all drift off into space. There is some doubt about who the Doctor and his friends are initially, but that’s all sorted out by episode three.

The Cybermen have also had a redesign, and for the better. Gone is the ‘stocking’ element to their costumes, their heads are now fully ‘metal’. That certainly is an improvement. The voices are now more electronic, and whilst the idea is good, the realisation makes it very hard to understand exactly what they are saying. Their weapons are more efficient, and they can zap people from a hole on the top of their foreheads which is kinda neat.

It’s much better than ‘The Tenth Planet’. It’s not as confusing, not as silly. I mean sure, the Cybermen sneaking into the moon base regularly to poison the sugar is a bit on the silly side, as is the scene where they are flung into space, but it’s all good fun. Unlike ‘The Tenth Planet’, none of the guest characters are in the slightest way interesting. They whole guest cast is functional. Patrick Barr plays the controller of Moonbase, Hobson, and is very strong, and Andre Marrane is Benoit, his French offsider. The cast is solid, but no-one is given an interesting character to portray.

Ben and Polly (Michael Craze and Anneke Wills) do there bit, and poor Jamie (Frazer Hines) is delirious in bed for much of the first half, and does little after that. I believe he wasn't originally in the story though, so had to be added. Patrick Troughton's Doctor is growing all the time now, and plays the role of investigator well. It suits his Doctor well.

Robson in control.

It was nice to have a couple of episodes to watch, as I head into the next story which is completely missing. I believe there is a DVD release on the way, possibly with animation. A good choice!

7/10

The Underwater Menace

And so I moved onto this story. As hard as I try I can’t steer the TARDIS to Atlantic, but the good Doctor, Jamie and co got there alright. Down a lift shaft naturally! Finally, we see Troughton take on the persona of one who seeks what’s right and to save people from grisly fates and all that. The back drop is the most bizarrely camp story so far!

Things area fishy with the fish people!

I hear that episode two turned up and year and a half ago now, but still hasn’t been released anywhere sadly, so I had three episodes of reconstructions to watch along with the one surviving episode – episode three. It’s probably the best episode to survive too, full of chases and over the top characters which showcase what this story is all about.

Joseph Furth as Zaroff

Let’s start with the cast. Jospeh Furth is Professor Zaroff. What are your expectations for a crazy European scientist? He’s got them all covered –the accent, the shouting, the hair and the moustache! He’s given people plastic gills to become fish people. But I was confused. I think there are also real fish people as well. Some of them are wearing stockings and strange masks/makeup, where as other just have goggles. Anyways, like all good Professor Who villains, he is wearing a chemist’s top, supplemented with a cape. Perfect.

Peter Stephens confronts Zaroff

BUT he is not the only camp crazy dude in the story. Special mention goes to Peter Stephens who played the high Priest Lolem. He is without a doubt the campest character I have seen in Doctor Who, and unless they give a role in Doctor to who to someone like, I dunno, Paul Darrow for example, he may be the campest character throughout the series. Will have to wait and see. Graham Crowden and Richard Briers are guys who are pretty camp too, but it’s unlikely any of them will be in future ‘Who’ I expect.

The regulars are good, and I think Patrick Troughton really starts to show how good his Doctor can be, playing the confrontational serious man, the clever clown and all between when necessary. He’s magical in his own way. New companion Jamie shadows Ben for a lot of the story, with not a lot to do. Polly’s costume – the Altantan girl costume – works really well for her. Some of the costuming is very good, some is very bad.

Anneke Wills in her Atlantan gear whilst Patrick Troughton is disguised as a gypsy.

The start of the recently recover Episode Two. Which I couldn't see.

The fish people. Sigh. I imagine that this is a sore point amongst Doctor Who fans. They aren’t realised very well. Their costumes are basically stockings with bits stuck on. The faces look okay, but the bodies are clearly not wet. Dry as a bone. Some shooting took place on location in caves, and is thusly more convincing. As a viewer, I looked at the fish people and thought ‘some poor soul had to wear that costume and pretend to be part fish/part man’. I imagine when doing their CVs, all fish people may have neglected to mention this role.

The design team had to recreate a whole under-ground city, a tall ask on any budget, so I guess we can forgive them to some extent. There is a temple, a market-square, two laboratories, corridors, rock-hewn passageways, they had a lot on their plate in a small studio. The question has to be asked though, is it a bad SCRIPT?

I ask this because, well, I personally believe most bad productions are because, primarily, of the scripts. I can forgive tackiness if there’s a great story under it. Here, there isn’t. It’s not a dreadful script, it has some nice ideas, but the story is so full of stereotypes and a lot of escapes and getting captured agains. The fourth episode, after the third episode revealing to all and sundry just what a nutter Zaroff is as he declares ‘Nothing in ze vorld can shtop me now!’ is basically everyone escaping, and not a big exciting end it might had been.

Still, it’s fun to watch. It’s bad, but enjoyable bad. Episodes two and three especially are filled with hilarious over the top characters and embarrassing costumes. What more could you ask for?

4/10

The Highlanders

The Highlanders, so I am told, is to be the last historical story for a long time. Innes Lloyd the producer and script editor Gerry Davis had decided to shelve historical stories as they didn’t seem to be as popular as the science fiction stories – meaning they didn’t rate as well as stories with the Daleks or Cybermen or the like.

It’s a bit of a pity, because I can’t think of a single historical story that I didn’t like. The last couple had been crackers – ‘The Gunfighters’ was a very funny well written enjoyable tale, and ‘The Smugglers’ was a cracking story involving pirates and the like. So this tale by Elwyn Jones and Gerry Davis would see historical adventures fade into the distance like forgotten memories.

The Doctor, Ben and Polly find a cannon in episode one.

‘The Highlanders’ is very similar to ‘The Smugglers’, it’s more of an adventure tale, rather than some of the earlier historical stories which were trying to inform their audience and be factual. This seems to be a clear move after ‘The Massacre’, which was highly accurate in its events. ‘The Highlanders’ in contrast features purely fictional characters in an historical setting (I may be wrong, but as far as I know most if not all of the characters in ‘The Highlanders’ are not based on real people).

Hoots! Patrick Troughton adds a comic turn to the Doctor

The tone is rather comical throughout, and these four parts seem to serve as a piece for Patrick Troughton to get stuck in, flex his character acting muscles and show what he’s got in his bag of tricks. He plays a German Doctor, a washer woman and other characters as he changes disguises several times throughout the piece.

The story is about a crooked Solicitor who is shipping off rebel Highlanders in 1746 to the Caribbean as slaves. Not strictly legal, he makes them sign a contract to say they agree to it. It’s the time of King George, when the Scots are fighting for Bonnie Prince Charles. But very little is made of the historical setting other than as a backdrop for being captured, taking to a ship, and rescued by the Doctor and is making disguises.

Anneke Wills with Hannah Gordon (Kirsty)

I don’t mean that as a criticism. It’s really a lot of fun and a great little tale. Anneke Wills has a great time as Polly in her best story by far (thus far) as she has to convince Kirsty (Hannah Gordon) to stand up and fight the English. They capture Algernon Ffinch, making fun of his name and stealing all his money. It’s all good craic! Ooops, no, that’s the Irish! But she gets to be the strong woman here – Kirsty is the weaker girl – probably not something the audience would expect for a Scot!

Frazer Hines (right) as Jamie

Ben, the Laird (an old man near death at the start of the story who strangely gets to survive the tale) and Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) are taken to a ship about to leave with its prisoners to the Caribbean. This is where the big fight scene takes place in episode four, and where it at times feels like ‘The Smugglers’. Frazer Hines brings the likeable Jamie to life, and although he doesn’t have a huge role in the story, it seems a good fit that they invite him aboard the TARDIS at the end of the four parts.

Patrick Troughton, although he still uses the recorder and stove-pipe hat, at least has his Doctor mentally present in the story this time – in ‘Power of the Daleks’ he seemed very distant at times. He is the ‘man with the plan’ in this story, and provides much of the humour in this amusing tale. He’s still a bit too silly for me though.

Sydney Arnold as Perkins

Anneke Wills, although Polly does go missing here and there, has a good story as Polly. Polly is the stronger of her and Kirsty, whom she is partnered with for much of the tale. Michael Craze is again a bit agro and gunho, mostly because of the limitations written into the character. As for the guest cast, it’s all very solid indeed, without anyone really standing out. Sydney Arnold deserves a credit for his portrayal of the slightly greasy solicitor’s assistant Perkins, who changes sides to save his own life once the boat has been taken over and is heading for France. David Garth as Solicitor Grey provides the real villain of the piece. It is an ensemble piece though, and the cast is excellent as a whole.

Not much else to make of this one. I think it’s rather good overall. Nice to see the English putting themselves in the dubious camp for once!

8/10

Power of the Daleks

And so the Doctor Who world was changed forever, as William Hartnell said goodbye to the role he’d play for over three years, his face melted on screen into Patrick Troughton, and to start the new Doctor off they brought in the Daleks. Quite a logical step really.

Patrick Troughton in the stove-pipe hat.

Patrick Troughton’s first story saw a big jump in the ratings, mostly thanks to the Daleks. I am not convinced by his Doctor though, it was all a bit bizarre. There’s an entire scene in the first episode where he speaks with his recorder (which gets a fair work out in this story) and quite frankly it’s all a bit wobbly. This does mimic regeneration I guess, and the story itself is excellent. As good as any William Hartnell story.

The plot is well-layered with many different subplots going on, with interesting characters that develop and change throughout the story. It’s not just a Dalek story, it’s the story of an Earth colony on the planet Vulcan (with Mr Spock nowhere to be seen) who are living in a place full of mercury swamps. Quite a different sort of world.

Robert James and Bernard Archard

There is a rebel group ready to rise up and take power, whilst the rather neurotic scientist Lesterson – play by Robert James – is only concerned with this giant capsule that has been dug up and what might be inside it. Yes, it’s very Quatermass the Pit, and a great springing off point for a Dalek story. As the Daleks inside the capsule are revived they make promises to Lesterson they don’t intend on keeping. Lesterson’s assistant Janley (Pamela Ann Davies) decides to use the Daleks to help the rebels take over.

Meanwhile, Bragen (Bernard Archard) has manoeuvred himself the role of Acting Governor. The Daleks have fooled everyone and have been constructing a Dalek army that turns on everyone and only the Doctor can stop them in the end.

There are a host of themes running through the story – the main message being ‘when you fight among yourselves you leave yourself vulnerable.’ An so the colony was almost wiped out by the Daleks. It’s a nicely intricate plot that is different from most of the stories in the Hartnell era. It’s got plenty of action and Daleks – with huge destruction and fights in the final episode, so the kiddies would have been kept happy. The only bad thing about this tale is that it no longer exists, although there are a surprising number of clips existing from episodes four and five.

The Doctor introduces Polly and Ben to the Daleks.

The recon is well done, but lacks the animated Daleks of early Dalek recons. Still, it’s better than nothing, and the story can be quite easily followed which is the main thing. The script was written by David Whitaker, the original script editor, but then changed by the man who replaced him in that role, Dennis Spooner. Spooner is not credited with this story however apparently a lot of the story is his. Having said that, it feels very different to any Hartnell story.

Ben (Michael Craze) and Polly (Anneke Wills) are serviceably but have very quickly become one-dimensional characters. Perhaps it was bound to happen but Ben is always angry and Polly, well, is caring and screaming most of the time. The new Doctor, as I mentioned, makes a shaky start, but saves the day in the end to great peril to himself. I understand the look is slowly going to change a bit losing the tall stove-pipe hat and the recorder won’t feature as prominently as it did in this story. He’s a bit like a kid in a sweet shop at times, and there was a feel or experimentation in the air. Hard for the audience to relate or connect with the Doctor in this story I feel.

The Daleks are very sly and clever, making a departure from them invading Earth, or as they appeared in their previous two stories, doing a lot of Doctor chasing. It’s nice that the Doctor knows how evil they are but no one is really willing to believe him. There’s an inevitability with that too which works nicely. You KNOW the Daleks are going to show their true colours at some point, and you wait with baited breath to see when it will happen.

Interestingly enough, this is the first story which is not four parts for a long time, since ‘The Daleks’ Masterplan’ in fact. This six-part adventure is the only one of more than four parts in a long sequence, as the next four stories are again all four parts.

Bernard Archard and Robert James deserve special mention for fine supporting roles, as does Nicholas Hawtrey as Quinn and Peter Bathurst as Hensell. The entire supporting cast did a find job on this one. In summary, although the new character of the Doctor is extremely questionable in this story, the story itself is a fine piece of 60s television indeed, and starts the first NEW Doctor off on the right foot. I regret that this blog doesn’t really explain why I think this was such a good story. Hence I give it only my second (I think) 9/10.

PS Apparently some of MY stories have been televisualised. Please come and watch one or two -
The Adventures of Professor Who

The Smugglers

Well, both Andrew and myself sat down to watch another full four-part reconstruction with little idea about this story. Andrew told me he had never watched the full reconstruction and didn’t know a lot about the story. So it began.

Hartnell, Craze and Wills in episode one of 'The Smugglers'

And what followed was quite a cracking tale. Yes, there are smugglers in the story, but it’s not about smuggling. It’s about pirates and treasure. A great subject for a historical Doctor Who story! And it’s quite enjoyable too. It’s  nicely paced, especially after the first episode which is mostly about Ben and Polly, recently joined companions, realising what’s going on. It’s a very different dynamic than we’ve had before, mainly because Ben is a very different sort of male companion. He’s much younger than Ian or Steven and a little more niave, and indeed probably more head strong.

The idea appears to have been to give William Hartnell a couple of younger, more ‘hip’ companions. Polly as well – it’s a totally different relationship. With Susan and Vicki, and to a lesser extent Dodo, the Doctor was quite paternalistic. Polly is a little older than those three, presumably early twenties, so a very different feel is created.

Michael Godfrey as Captain Pike.

Back to the story though. It’s a hunt for Every’s treasure, a pirate back in the 17^th century. The Doctor and his companions head to a church to get their bearings and discover when and where they are (Cornwall, 17^th century). The priest, Longfoot (Terence De Marney) directs them to the inn, but not before he has left a baffling clue with the doctor – four people’s names.

Longfoot is then killed by a bald-headed chap called Cherub, played by George A. Cooper. The Doctor and his companions are soon embroiled in the whole plot involving Captain Pike, very well played by Michael Godfrey, the Squire (Paul Whitsun-Jones) and other ruffians, all after the treasure. It’s a very bloody story, which may be my only major critiscm of it. For kids, I think they probably did go a bit far. There’s plenty of blood and violence though if it takes your fancy. A few clips exist because they were censored for the content.

Cherub threatens the Doctor. His bald cap is showing!

Pike and Jamaica

The finale is extremely bloody indeed, with most people dying, including Pike and all the pirates. The cast is good, with Paul Whitsun-Jones giving perhaps a somewhat predictable performance as the squire (just see some his other work and you’ll understand) however, the character mellows by the final episode, and unlike most character he plays, he sees the error of his ways. John Ringham returns to Doctor Who (he previously appeared in ‘The Aztecs’) as Josiah Blake, on the side of good this time. He is forced to wear one of the worst wigs ever to appear on television. This is rivalled by George A. Cooper’s bald cap, as he plays Cherub.

John Righam acts well despite the worst wig in TV history.

I enjoyed the story, written by Brian Hayles, who came up with the original idea for ‘The Celestial Toymaker before it was totally changed. Twice. It’s got good pace, a bit of action, and a fair bit of fun until the bloodbath occurs. There could have been a tendency to go very silly and ramp up the humour, but unlike ‘The Gunfighters’ and ‘The Romans’, they didn’t go down this path. The story is probably the stronger for it.

All in all, a nice little piece. William Hartnell was very good in this, Craze and Wills were good foils. I look forward to many more William Hartnell adventures after this one!

8/10

PS. My friend Andrew, who watches all the episodes with me, also writes a blog. A travel blog. Still, he hasn't been to half the places I have! However, today he wrote a blog about a Doctor Who convention. Whatever that might be. He also mentioned his friend Rob Lloyd who does a Doctor Who show called 'Who, Me.' A one-man stage show. I hear he is very good. So here are the links for ye:

Geeking out at a professional level - Andrew's latest blog post

Rob Lloyd's website - info about his show and the man himself.

Next time you join me, I will be talking about what has turned out to be William Hartnell's final Doctor Who story - 'The Tenth Planet'. Expect it up in the next 24-48 hours!

The War Machines

Looking forward this appears to be the last complete story for quite a while. I have two seasons that follow with only one complete story I see. It’s going to be difficult that’s for sure. This is the last story of the third season as it aired but there wasn’t a record break after it – I am unsure when that occurred.

It’s strange to think that Doctor Who went through its first three years and the final story of those three years was the only story to be set in the present (1966). I understand that future adventures may well return to the present more often, or the very near future. Again this was penned by Ian Stuart Black, who wrote two stories in a row, something quite rare. It’s a very different beast to ‘The Savages’ and not blessed with the political thoughtfulness of the previous story. The ideas were passed to Black from Davis as the person originally down to write this story wasn't able.

A War Machine on the London streets.

However, it’s a pretty enjoyable tale, nicely paced with again a lot of location shooting. It features the London Post Office Tower, which had just been completed around the time of filming, as central to the plot. A nice touch, in a story with ideas that resonate today, in a plot line that has been done so many times. What if computers developed a mind of their own and turned on humanity? Of course, in 1966 this was probably a very new and scary concept.

Polly and Dodo at the 'Inferno' disco.

We see a disco in this story which feels very out of place in Doctor Who, at least at this time. There’s something very ‘clunky’ about the production. Maybe it’s because the War Machines themselves, tools and weapons of the evil computer WOTAN, are clunky. They appear to be large cardboard boxes with a couple of pipes and lights added. There are slow and very easy to outrun. The dialogue is clunky too and not delivered with precision at times. William Hartnell struggles at points and is rather marvellous at others.

The Doctor gets serious!

He is the focus of the show this time and has a tough workload – they had almost given him a holiday in ‘The Savages’, where he was unconscious for most of episode three. He’d had two weeks off a couple of stories earlier as well in ‘The Celestial Toymaker’. The strain and workload is really starting to show.

As for clunky dialogue, well lines like ‘C-Day, that’s computer Day’ is an example. WOTAN hisses out lines such as ‘Doctor Who is required’, but despite that faux pas, the biggest issue is the lines being very hard to understand, especially in the final episode.

Ben and Polly follow the Doctor into the TARDIS.

The rest of the cast is an interesting mix. Professor Brent is played by John Harvey and I have to say, as a key player he was poorly cast. He struggles to remember his lines and always looks as if he’s searching his mind for them. They get delivered in a very stilted way and I just don’t believe the performance sadly. We are introduced to Ben (Michael Craze) and Polly (Anneke Wills) in this story, who end up leaving in the TARDIS.

Polly meets Ben when she takes Dodo (Jackie Lane) to the ‘Inferno Nightclub’, the hottest spot in town. Lane has a very clunky line when she says ‘what I’d really like is to go to the hottest nightclub in town’. It is not to be a happy story for Dodo. She was written in at the end of one episode, and written out after only half a story. Why the producer didn’t have the decency to extend the contract for 2 more episodes I don’t know. Dodo was a decent, bubbly companion who suffered for little back story and the production team not caring much about the character. I think she was very hard done by.

In the background, Dodo in on of her last scenes.

‘The War Machines’ features a lot of different locations both exterior and in the studio. They even managed to get a taxi in the studio. There is a very bizarre sequence featuring a tramp (again given some clunky lines: ‘it’s bloomin’ paradise to what I’ve been used to!’) who is killed by the War Machines in a somewhat shocking sequence. I liked the pacing of the story, the use of locations and other elements, yet on the other hand it almost felt like a pilot episode for a new series and everyone didn’t quite know what they were supposed to be doing or where to pitch their performances.

Announcing 'C' day.

6.5/10