Dawn of the AIpocalypse (Deprogramming “The War Machines”)

About this episode

The episode revisits 'The War Machines', exploring its themes of technology and AI in the context of Doctor Who.

Long before Skynet, the British Post Office built its own murderbot. In The War Machines , a supercomputer called WOTAN tries to conquer the world by... hypnotizing secretaries and constructing clunky Dalek knockoffs in a warehouse. And honestly? It almost works. Join us as we revisit the First Doctor’s most tech-forward outing, featuring the debut of companions Ben and Polly, the Inferno Club (not that one), face-sucking elevators, and a press conference for the ages. Is this the beginning of UNIT-era vibes? Did the GPO invent AGI? And wait, did they seriously name-check Jimmy Savile?! Tune in for evil acronym discourse, war machine shenanigans, and the shocking origin of the Cybermen. Give your own rating for The War Machines on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ! Subscribe to our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and become a True Companion of the podcast to get new episodes before everyone else! Subscribe to our newsletter at…

People in this episode

Hosts: Pete Pachal, Chris Taylor

Topics covered

• AI
• Doctor Who
• The War Machines
• technology
• companions
• UNIT

Keywords

• WOTAN
• Dalek
• hypnotizing
• AGI
• war machine
• Cybermen
• First Doctor

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: British Post Office

Books & works: The War Machines, Cybermen

Places: Inferno Club

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