 There are special 'computer lettering' opening title graphics for each episode – The first time special captions have been used at the beginning of each episode. 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.
Two new actors join the cast: Anneke Wills, as secretary Polly Wright, and Michael Craze, as seaman Ben Jackson. Michael Craze also provides the voice of a policeman heard in episode four.
As Jackie Lane's contract expired midway through the production of this story she does not appear again after episode two; Dodo's off-screen departure, at the end of the story, is relayed to The Doctor by Polly.
Comedian and actor Mike Reid, perhaps best known for his role in EastEnders, in an early television appearance as an uncredited army soldier, is waiting beside the electrical trap for the War Machine in episode four.
Newsreader Kenneth Kendall and radio announcer Dwight Whylie appear as themselves. This is the first time that actual newsreaders appear as themselves in the show. Since the shows revival in 2005 this has become a regular occurrence during any contemporary stories.
WOTAN is given its own credit in the closing titles for the first three episodes. This is the only time in the show's history that a fictional creation receives a cast credit.
WOTAN is pronounced "Votan" – as, it is explained, the Norse god sometimes was. WOTAN though is an acronym for Will Operating Thought ANalogue, which is indicative of its ability to connect to the human brain.
WOTAN refers to The Doctor throughout as 'Doctor Who'. This is the only time that The Doctor is ever referred to in dialogue in this way (although he is credited as such on almost every episode up to and including those in Season Eighteen, adopts the alias 'Doctor von Wer' - a rough German approximation of 'Doctor Who' - in "The Highlanders" and signs himself 'Dr. W' in "The Underwater Menace"). While there is nothing in the show that directly contradicts it, many fans see WOTAN calling The Doctor this way as an error and several theories have tried to account for it, one noting that WOTAN may have been misinformed, since it also described The Doctor as ‘human’.
Only one War Machine prop was actually constructed; the production team changed the numbers, to represent the different machines.
This story is the first in Doctor Who to be completely set on a contemporary Earth. The previous landings of the TARDIS in the 1960s were either brief (the Empire State Building sequence from "The Chase", several landings during "The Daleks' Master Plan", the stop over on Wimbledon Common in "The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve") or exceptional ("Planet of Giants", where the TARDIS crew were shrunk down to the size of insects and could not fully interact with present day humans). Here, for the first time, we see The Doctor take a leading role in the protection of the planet, which becomes a regular theme for the show from here on.
The decision to set more episodes on present-day Earth was taken because the producers felt that the audience was becoming bored with the purely historical episodes that had been a major element of the show to date. As a result, this story marks the beginning of the turn away from historical stories. The next two historical stories, "The Smugglers" (which immediately follows "The War Machines") and Season Four's "The Highlanders", were to be the last historical stories until Season Nineteen's "Black Orchid".
Despite being set in a contemporary Earth there has been some confusion and debate as to exactly when this story occurs. The story appears to end on 20 July 1966 - the date given in dialogue for the Second Doctor story "The Faceless Ones", also set in London, where Ben states that that is the same date as when he and Polly joined the TARDIS. However, it appears to start on 12 July 1966 as Sir Charles Summer says that ‘Computer Day, will be next Monday, July 16th, that is in four days time’. (Though the days of the week mentioned in "The War Machines" mean it cannot be in 1966 if they're the same in Doctor Who continuity as in the 'real' world, where 12 July 1966 was a Saturday.) As Sir Charles talks of Monday 16 July, this would set the story in either 1962 or 1973!
If the end of this story was on the 20th July 1966 then this would make this the busiest day for The Doctor in his time on Earth. As well as defeating the War Machines and WOTAN and gaining two new companions Polly and Ben. The Second Doctor would defeat the Chameleons and Polly and Ben would decide to leave the TARDIS ("The Faceless Ones"). It is also when the TARDIS is stolen and so is the beginning of the Second Doctor and Jamie McCrimmon's adventure against the Daleks ("The Evil of the Daleks").
The Past Doctors Stories novel "The Time Travellers" by Simon Guerrier is set in an alternative reality where The Doctor had not been around to stop WOTAN. The villain is never referred to by name, only as ‘The Machine’, and while he was overthrown thousands were left insane by his mind-control and Britain was reduced to a technologically backward dictatorship.
This is the last complete William Hartnell era story, and the only story featuring Anneke Wills and Michael Craze, to exist in its entirety. All four episodes were reported missing, aside from its soundtrack (recorded off-air by fans), from the BBC Film and Videotape Library following an audit in 1978. The master videotapes for the story were the last of those starring William Hartnell to be junked, surviving until 1974. 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.
Then in 1978 an ex-ABC print of the second episode was located in a private film collection in Australia, and a copy was made available to the BBC via collector Ian Levine. Later in October 1984 copies of all four episodes were returned from Midwest TV in Nigeria. However, it was discovered that episodes two, three and four all had cuts to them. Most have been restored due to a combination of the other copy of the second episode, material used in a promotional item on the BBC's children programme Blue Peter, censored clips recovered from Australia in 1996 and off-air soundtrack recordings. To date, only episodes three and four do not exist in their entirety as was originally intended.
The VHS release (released in 1997) only contained a partial restoration of the missing clips. The DVD release has all of the episodes recreated and restored to their original lengths.
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The Firsts:
The introduction of new companion Polly played by Anneke Wills.
The introduction of new companion Ben Jackson played by Michael Craze.
The first time special captions have been used at the beginning of each episode.
The first Doctor Who story to be completely set on a contemporary Earth.
For the first time we see The Doctor take a leading role in the protection of Earth.
The first time The Doctor is refered to, by a character in an actual story, as 'Doctor Who'.
The first time that actual newsreaders appear as themselves in a story.
The first time a fictional creation receives a cast credit.
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Michael Ferguson.
The first occasion of a writer composing consecutive stories.
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(Position = 56 out of 159)
(Position = 108 out of 200)
(Position = 133 out of 241)
