Terror of the Autons: Episode One

Review of all 4 episodes:

The most notable aspect of this story is the arrival of The Master as an arch nemesis for The Doctor. This fellow renegade Time Lord is like Moriarty is to Sherlock Holmes, an equally brilliant, intelligent regular adversary who is a bit like 'the other side of the same coin' with The Doctor. The idea of this character and the performance by Roger Delgado is absolutely fantastic. The Master and his plan to bring back to Nestenes, with their ability to turn plastic items into deadly living plastic Autons to attack humanity, provides terrific entertainment.

There is a level of terror and horror in this adventure, similar to its predecessor featuring the Nestenes, Spearhead From Space. Attacks by an inflatable chair, a telephone wire, plastic daffodils and especially a creepy child's doll are sinister and thrilling, creating some very memorable 'hide behind the sofa' moments that have lived in the minds of viewers ever since. Also the Auton dummies disguised as people have some great moments. In particular there is a great, spectacular stunt when an Auton is knocked down and falls dramatically, careering down a huge slope, apparently to its death, only to just get straight back up.

Jon Pertwee remains on top form along with an excellent guest cast and all the regulars do well although it is sad that the character of The Doctor's 'assistant' Liz Shaw is replaced. Her replacement character Jo Grant goes on to be a very endearing character but Liz Shaw was the better companion for The Doctor in my opinion with a strong intellect as well as bravery. The addition of Captain Mike Yates is great but perhaps they transferred the strength and intelligence of Liz Shaw onto Yates and passed the glamour and warmth of Liz onto Jo Grant. That is an unfortunate decision for gender equality. I liked having all those aspects combined within the one female companion. In saying that I do really like Katy Manning as Jo.

The story is not necessarily perfect, if you nitpick you can find a few minor faults in a scene here and there but even then it still stands up against any TV show of any era. The great new villain added to top class thrills, excellent acting, cracking dialogue and good amounts of action make this a classic. Written by Doctor Who legend Robert Holmes and well directed by admirable showrunner/producer Barry Letts, this is a must watch for all fans.

My Ratings: All 4 episodes - 10/10

Review for all four episodes.

This would shape many future episodes, The Doctor and Jo, aided by UNIT on Earth battling The Master, a very strong era of the show. I liked Liz Shaw, as a companion for The Doctor she was up to him, The Doctor was definitely not an avuncular figure to Liz, he was to Jo, throughout this episode she's constantly asking who, what and why. Manning is a total joy though, innocent and fun, my favourite companion.

Delgado is terrific as The Master, together with the accompanying music, the fate that befell the poor technicians was very nasty, miniaturised and placed inside a sandwich box, who said there was no horror element in this era.

The Autons and Nestene had been wonderful in the last series, great they returned so quickly, it's only a shame it took until Rose for us to see them again. They are menacing, particularly as Police.

It's such an important four part story.

The Doctor receives a warning from a Timelord, The Master is at large on Earth, and has stolen a vital part of The Nestene consciousness.

It's a brilliant first part to this four part story, not only has one legend joined, in the form of Roger Delgado, but a second also has, Jo Grant, wonderfully portrayed by Katy Manning. The Master would become a huge part of the show, we've had him and her in various incarnations, but there's nothing quite like the original.

It feels very different to the previous series, there's more of a horror vibe, some very nasty acts, with plenty more to follow. It is very grainy in quality, it doesn't look so sharp as say Inferno.

Pertwee is now very much installed as an ambassador and saviour of Earth, he would battle The Master many times with the help of UNIT, just a shame he couldn't travel to other world's.

An excellent start. 9/10

For me this four part Doctor Who serial, is not one of the worst Doctor Who's made but its certainly is not one of the best.

Everything that I myself saw in this four part serial, which was made in the autumn of 1970 looks artificial. There is no style in it whatsoever.

The way it was directed by Barry Letts, with the help of his production team, makes this serial look like it was made by a bunch of amateurs.

The story written by Robert Holmes is good, and it is a good sequel to Spearhead From Space. Unfortunately it falls apart visually by both the actors and the production team.

On the acting side there is only one good performance, and that comes from Roger Delgado making his debut as The Master. His introduction in episode one is excellent.

The rest of the cast are so overconfident with their performances, it makes there characters look artificial.

Having parts of the story centre around a circus, a radio telescope at a research centre, a space museum, a plastics factory, UNIT HQ and the debut of Jo Grant, it sadly falls apart at every level of the story.

Unfortunately there is no realism in it.

Review of the Complete Story:

TERROR OF THE AUTONS is a prime piece of Dr Who, made during the tenure of the late, great, Jon Pertwee. As a bonus it co-stars Nicholas Courtney as the beloved Brigadier, features the excellent Roger Delgado in his first appearance as the Master, and also stars companion Jo Grant (aka Katy Manning) in her first screen appearance. If all of that greatness wasn't enough, it's also a sequel to my personal favourite of all Dr Who stories, SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE.

A shame, then, that the BBC really dropped the ball on this one. They erased the colour tapes of the production back in the 1970s, leaving them with only a 16mm black and white print. Decades later they got hold of a colour NTSC version and combined the two sources, leading to this colour version we get today. I first saw this on VHS back in the day and thought it was simply a horrid transfer, but it turns out TERROR OF THE AUTONS just looks rubbish.

It looks like one of those old 1930s colourised films they did, but one in which the process went wrong somewhere. Every scene looks fake and like it was done on a green screen. The special effects bits are particularly bad. Even so, this is an enjoyable adventure, although it's both choppier in terms of story and sillier in terms of menace than its predecessor. Here, the Master is using the Nestene Consciousness to attack mankind with all manner of plastic madness. There are killer daffodils, miniature people, creepy Frank Sidebottom lookalikes, plus the oddest (and daftest) doll you'll ever see. It's all great fun, of course, and just a shame the BBC ruined the quality and took the shine off it.