Season 3, Episode 9 | 4 parts | First broadcast: 25 June – 16 July 1966 | Writer: Ian Stuart Black | Director: Michael Ferguson
Cast
- William Hartnell as the Doctor
- Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet
- Anneke Wills as Polly
- Michael Craze as Ben Jackson
Summary
The TARDIS arrives in contemporary London, where the Doctor senses something amiss at the newly built Post Office Tower, home to WOTAN, an advanced computer intended to link the world’s machines together. WOTAN has instead become malevolently self-aware, hypnotising key personnel and constructing an army of mobile War Machines with which it intends to subjugate humanity, forcing the Doctor into a race to stop it before London falls under its control.
Interesting Facts
- This serial is the first Doctor Who story set in a fully contemporary, present-day Britain since the series began, establishing “UNIT-style” earthbound science-fiction stories later associated with later Doctors.
- It introduces companions Polly and Ben Jackson, played by Anneke Wills and Michael Craze, who join the TARDIS crew after Dodo Chaplet’s abrupt departure partway through the story.
- The malevolent computer WOTAN utters the ominous line “Doctor Who is required,” one of the rare instances the series’ title is used as the character’s actual name on screen.
- All four episodes survive in the BBC archive.
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