Spearhead from Space Episode 2

The one where the Doctor enters the adventure proper...

There's some great film editing at work in Spearhead from Space courtesy of William Simon and Adam Dawson (under the direction of Derek Martinus, obviously). For example, the way the first scene of episode 2 is literally answered by the second, when Corporal Forbes asks "Is he dead, sir?", and then we switch to the hospital ward, where Dr Henderson responds: "No... he's more unconscious than anyone I've ever seen!". There's also the genius use of crash zooms to reveal the Autons in the woods, seen at first from a distance, then in rapid close-up.

The first reveal of an Auton (not yet named on screen) is a classic Doctor Who WTF moment. I mean, what is that thing? A shop window dummy dressed in a boiler suit, scarf and silver boots wading its way through the undergrowth like an escaped convict. Except, it's not quite a shop window dummy, it's like a pressure-moulded plastic face mask, and the fact you can see another layer of lumpen flesh-coloured something beneath (the actor's gauzed face?) just adds to the unheimlich quality of these creatures. Brrrr...

The scene where the Auton strides into the oncoming path of the UNIT jeep and causes it to swerve off course, and ultimately roll over and crash, is pure horror movie material. And then Martinus finishes it off with one of the most horrific camera shots in Doctor Who's entire canon, where the blank-faced mannequin approaches the crashed jeep, a dead UNIT driver slumped over the wheel and his crimson blood trickling down the smashed windscreen. That's a pretty strong image for Saturday at 5.30pm, more suited to a slasher flick than Doctor Who! The Autons are basically Halloween's Michael Myers eight years early!

Blank-faced Doctor Who monsters are always effective, whether they be Cybermen, Peg Dolls or Clockwork Droids. The Autons are the ultimate type of this monster, as their plastic flesh faces are trying to emulate real human faces, rather than just stylised versions. The Autons are a gift to direct, and the scene right at the end where one comes alive behind Ransome, and he slowly turns to see what's there, is classic cliffhanger material.

Ah, prissy John Ransome. Isn't he great? And don't you feel sorry for him? I mean, he's come back from a business trip to the United States, having secured a major manufacturing contract for his new dollies, only to find a redundancy letter on his doormat. When he goes to see his boss Hibbert about it, he sees that the entire staff and shop floor have changed (it's odd how so much is made of seeing the dolls being manufactured, but we never see them used). He's told to go away and never return, not to go near his old workshop, and that his equipment will be forwarded on to him. Ransome refuses to go quietly, however, which rather begs the question how the new regime managed to get rid of all the other staff so easily and swiftly. Whatever happened to industrial relations? Surely Ransome isn't the only one fighting to keep his job?

Ransome returns later on, determined to get answers, like a stand-in companion figure. Mind you, I'm sure the Doctor Who production team wouldn't dream of asking an actor to clamber over rusty barbed wire in the name of art these days! Derek Smee is great as Ransome, saying and doing all the things that a real person would.

Elsewhere, Elizabeth Shaw is winding the Brigadier up no end as she reluctantly carries out experiments on the plastic meteorite fragment. The two characters have not hit it off at all, with Liz obviously very unhappy to have been carted away from her work at Cambridge to play Quatermass for the military. Actually, the chronology of events suggests she was called in by UNIT before they'd even recovered any meteorite material, which was doubly presumptuous of them. No wonder she's annoyed. It's good to have some tension between main characters for a change (after years of cosy chumminess in the Troughton era). "No need to get tetchy," smirks Liz, to which the Brig replies: "Well sometimes you can be very aggravating!" And he's right, she can, such as when she teases him about it being the "wrong key" to the TARDIS, or that there might be a policeman locked inside!

It's a delight to have the Seeleys too, with Neil Wilson and Betty Bowden bouncing off one another beautifully as the snappy married couple. Of course, we know it's not a good thing that Sam has this energy unit hidden in his shed because the Autons are searching for it (and they don't mess about), but the repartee between Sam and Meg is a joy. "Go get me some grub, woman, I'm hungry!" snaps Sam; "You watch your tongue!" she replies. The scene where she comes back out of the cottage to try and see what he's up to is great: "What you staring at, woman?"

At 12mins 28secs Robert Holmes finally remembers that this is Doctor Who and Jon Pertwee gets his first scene at last. The first two episodes of Spearhead from Space are particularly Doctor-lite, so it's a relief to finally get our hero up on his feet and getting involved. The scene in the changing room is both hilarious and bizarre - Doctor Who fans aren't really used to seeing their hero starkers - and although Martinus is careful in framing the shower scene shots, he's not strict. We still get to see the top of Pertwee's posterior, and even a glimpse of him giving his undercarriage a good scrub!

We do get the very first "wardrobe scene" with the Doctor choosing his new outfit, although to be fair, he only has a few garments to choose from - principally the brusque Dr Beavis's red-lined cloak and trilby (the flat cap really doesn't match!). These wardrobe scenes would get increasingly silly as time went on (although Robot's is probably the silliest of all), but the Doctor discovering his new clothes in a hospital has become something of a tradition (see also: the TV movie and The Eleventh Hour).

By the time the Doctor gets to UNIT HQ (look out for a cameo by producer Derrick Sherwin), our hero is in full flow, and the Third Doctor is almost fully formed. The Doctor is very definitely in the house, and although he's claiming amnesia, he shows what a winning presence he exudes, especially when he meets Liz Shaw, who seems easily wooed by his charms ("That's Delphon for 'how do you do'!"). The Delphon eyebrow scene is perhaps the last time that Pertwee is this silly, tipping his trilby to his comedic past, but concentrating much more on being a serious, believable Doctor Who.

The Brigadier confuses me right now. In episode 1 he was adamant that the man found with the police box was a stranger, and not the Doctor he knew or expected to see. In episode 2 he's already wavering, and in one scene with Munro he refers to the stranger as the Doctor, as if he's now convinced that he is. A bit later he tells Liz that he's not sure, but in truth, there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that this is the same man, and as the Brigadier slowly comes to accept that it is, he doesn't bother to question how or why his face has changed. This Doctor has done nothing at all to suggest this is the same little man who helped defeat the Great Intelligence and the Cybermen, so why the Brigadier is coming to accept it is a mystery. The fact he looks different, acts differently, and that the key he was clutching does not open the TARDIS should tell him that this man is an imposter, if anything!

A side note... The red "proto-Bessie" that the Doctor steals from Dr Beavis here is a 1927 Vauxhall 14/40 Princeton Tourer (still in use today), and can also be seen in other TV programmes such as Dad's Army, The Benny Hill Show and Reilly: Ace of Spies, as well as the Hammer film The Ghoul. The neighbouring car, the red MG GT, was manufactured in 1967, but has not been roadworthy for 36 years...

First broadcast: January 10th, 1970

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The Auton causing the UNIT jeep to crash is 100% horror movie.
The Bad: The Brigadier really shouldn't believe that this stranger is the Doctor he knows. Yes, he might have alien physiology, but that doesn't mean he's the same alien.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

NEXT TIME: Episode 3...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 3; Episode 4

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/04/spearhead-from-space.html

Spearhead from Space is available on BBC DVD as part of the Mannequin Mania box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Mannequin-Mania-Spearhead/dp/B004P9MROY/.