Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The War Machines

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The War Machines doesn't fit well with other DWU narratives. You can also talk about the plot holes that render its own, internal narrative confusing.

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• This is the story in which the Doctor is infamously referred to as "Doctor Who" by WOTAN. This is the only time on television that the Doctor is directly called this in dialogue.

WOTAN perhaps refers to the Doctor in this way due to not knowing who he is. The Doctor may have given a false name at some point.

I have a great theory to explain it and even make it an awesome foreshadowing (but I have no idea if it might go against the "Spoiler-Free" rule or the "Not yet released" thing or something) Anyway, I personally believe that in The Time of the Doctor, when the message (Doctor Who?) was send to all of space and time, becoming the oldest question in the universe, it was received by WOTAN. Confronted by a question of which he didn't know the answer, he just went crazy, planned to wipeout mankind with killing War Machines and, because he was't able to identify the Doctor, started calling him "Doctor Who" and requiring him in order to absorb his intelligence, his knowledge AND to know the Answer to the question! Like he said : "DOCTOR WHO is required!"

'Who' in this context may very well in fact be WOTAN's version of "Insert Name Here". The computer's intended role was as a co-ordinator to increase efficiency- with that in mind it likely already had a large number of sub-routines dealing with "Analysis of the needs of project Y, and cross referencing with personnel records indicates that Person X is required for project Y: notify the user of this so that they may be dispatched.

Ordinarily, these personnel records would probably be of a format "Title, Identifier" etc- e.g. Professor Krimpton, Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart, etc etc. While the Doctor very likely does have personnel records on file, at this point- as he hasn't infamously given the "John Smith" alias to the Brigadier yet - those records would have an anomalous blank where the name should be. The syntax for issuing a personnel request is probably something along the lines of "WHAT-WHO is required; DISPATCH/BRING to LOCATION"- in this instance 'WHO' remains in the final statement, like a string of programming syntax in HTML when an error has occurred, because the embedded request to substitute this for name data comes up with a Null Pointer Exception. The mind controlled slaves have been programmed to think as WOTAN does, and as such follow the same process.

As to why WOTAN wants his Doctor Who, WOTAN is given the problem of identifying the derivation and meaning of the word 'TARDIS'. From its database of Earth records, it can identify that the word is an acronym - Time and Relative Dimension[s] in Space- the first part of the answer, which prints out immediately before WOTAN begins to act unusually, but its database doesn't contain sufficient information to correctly define what a TARDIS is, what it does, the theory by which it operates.  Therefore, in order to answer the task set for it by Dodo, it has to increase the information available to its database, which requires a significant restructuring and upgrading of its data acquisition peripherals (i.e. the human race and the government of planet Earth).  Its files do, however, indicate that the Doctor is closely interrelated with the TARDIS, making the Doctor required personnel for this project.

Finally, in the aftermath, the Doctor presumably learns about this slip up on WOTAN's part, and is sufficiently amused by it- and the idea of the literal minded being blindsided by him simply not having a name he uses, that he uses it as a joke on occasion- Doctor Von Ver, Doctor W in the early Troughton era, a number of occasions in the Smith era, and so on.

WOTAN was referring to the human inventor Doctor Who, who constructed a time machine called TARDIS and had a couple of adventures against machine creatures called Daleks. Dodo hadn't heard of him, and assumed it meant the Doctor she knew. Given the extraordinary similarities between the two Doctors, WOTAN decided he was just as good.

• Why does WOTAN stamp a big "W" on the boxes containing the bits of War Machine? Isn't it a bit of a giveaway?

Perhaps so the otherwise anonymous looking boxes can be identified as belonging to WOTAN.

A giveaway to who?

• In Episode 3, the War Machine that is ordered to kill the worker misses him completely, but he obligingly drops dead anyway.

This depends on how the guns work. He could have copped a lethal backwash of radiation (in the same way a Dalek's gun in this period is rather diffuse but lethal).

• Why do Ben and Polly go into the TARDIS at the end? If they think it's just a police box then surely they would wonder how they were going to fit inside.

One pushed or pulled the other.

Perhaps Dodo had told them enough to pique their curiosity. Otherwise Ben's protests about "only having a couple of minutes" would be nonsensical.

Real police boxes were obviously smaller on the inside than the TARDIS, but they weren't that small. Three adults could squeeze into one if for some reason they wanted or had to. It wouldn't be incredibly comfortable, but you could manage it on a temporary basis if you wanted to sate your curiosity about what was inside, as Ben and Polly likely presumed and intended.

• It seems strange that WOTAN can divine the meaning of "TARDIS".

Dodo is shown to be influenced by WOTAN almost immediately she sees it, so it likely could have read the definition in her mind. Also, WOTAN can sense the Doctor's "special" mind (hence WOTAN's determination to recruit him), so WOTAN might have got the definition from the Doctor. Additionally, WOTAN had access to various computers and their records, which likely included references to the Doctor and/or the TARDIS.

Actually WOTAN didn't yet have access to other computers, this was only intended to be activated on C-Day.

It did however have some well-populated data banks, which may very well have contained the information. In addition, as mentioned above, it gathered information from the minds of those around it.

• The man giving the presentation contradicts himself, saying WOTAN is controlled by no one, but going on to say the Professor and his team have it well under control.

If you've never seen someone holding a press conference contradict himself, you haven't seen many press conferences... He was trying in both cases to be reassuring, first that they would not be surrendering control to any one person by their involvement with WOTAN, next by indicating that the WOTAN project was being properly supervised.

• In Episode 4, the Doctor knocks off the end of a War Machine's gun arm with his cloak. Later, examining the machine, the Doctor stands up and whacks his head against it.

The First Doctor was often clumsy; there's nothing out of character (much less against continuity) in him whacking his head on something.

• How does the War Machine get up to the top floor of the Post Office Tower?

It presumably uses the large elevators or perhaps WOTAN even has a short range teleport concealed in the tower.

• Sir Charles talks of Monday 16 July, which would set the story in 1962 or 1973!

It's possible at some point before this episode a calender change, similar to the loss of 11 days in 1752, occurred.

Or more likely, he could also have got his days muddled up, as genuine human beings often do.

Perhaps this is a clue that the story was actually set in 1973. I didn't see anything to indicate the story was set in 1966. When Dodo commented that the Post Office Tower tower had been finished; her statement would have been equally valid in 1973.

The adventures of the Doctor take place in an alternative Earth. Not the one we live in.

Everything in the episode - the clothes, the hairstyles, the Inferno Nightclub - suggests Swinging London in the swinging Sixties.

• Why would the guard let the Doctor go up to see WOTAN?

Psychic paper? Bluff? The guard was asleep?

He called Sir Charles and convinced him to listen to him fairly quickly; the Doctor has some pull in the scientific community even now.

Either that, or Torchwood was watching and knew not to get in his way.

• WOTAN's plans kick into high gear with incredibly unrealistic speed. It seemingly takes control of its first 4 humans on 12 July. It hasn't yet been linked up to other computers. Yet in less than 12 hours: Secret factories/bases have been set up in various places in London. Weapons and electronic components are being flown in. Complex war machines are being manufactured by hand in a few hours.

Some of those aspects may well have pre-existed WOTAN taking control of the humans. The factories/bases may have had other purpose before.