Terror of the Autons Episode One

The one where the Doctor gets a new assistant, UNIT gets a new captain, and the world gets a new enemy...

Season 8 explodes onto the screen with some gorgeous bright pink graphics in the title sequence, which seems to change in subtle ways with every passing serial. This new adventure opens at a circus, complete with elephants, lions and clowns, as well as a rotund proprietor called Luigi Rossini (or should that be Lew Russell?) who is astonished when he witnesses a horsebox materialise out of thin air. Rather intriguingly, it materialises with that familiar sound of a TARDIS arriving...

"I am usually referred to as the Master... universally," purrs the black-clad occupant. Yes, it's the Master, making his official debut (it's debatable whether we've already seen earlier iterations of him). Roger Delgado makes an impressive debut: still and confident, those steely brown eyes boring into his victims with utter contempt. He can even click his fingers while wearing black leather gloves!

Truth be told, the Master gets an awful lot done in these 25 minutes while the Doctor stumbles about like an amateur late to the party. The Master arrives, subjugates Rossini, steals the Nestene meteorite, powers it up using the Beacon Hill radio telescope, miniaturises a scientist, sets a deadly trap for anybody who follows him, steals Phillips's car, sets a second trap for anybody who might have survived the first trap, subjugates Rex Farrel, and activates numerous Auton creatures using Farrel Plastics' computer. Now that is a bad guy who means business!

Meanwhile, we are reunited with the Doctor as he continues to tinker with his TARDIS's dematerialisation circuit (it's amusingly poor taste that he's singing I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire in light of his preceding adventure!). In turn, he is introduced to Miss Josephine Grant, his "new assistant", who makes a pretty poor first impression by firing an extinguisher at the Doctor's welding apparatus (the line "You ham-fisted bun vendor" qualifies as one of the very worst in Doctor Who history). Mind you, I can't blame her, because that apparatus gets in the way of almost every single camera shot during this scene. Jo seems a very sweet and well-meaning girl, but although she is apparently qualified in safe-breaking, explosives and cryptology, it's hard to disagree with the Doctor that what he really needs is a fully-qualified scientist like Liz Shaw (who's apparently gone back to Cambridge University). The Doctor - who is in a particularly grumpy mood this week - doesn't take to Miss Grant straightaway, and it's not hard to understand why.

The miniaturisation of poor Goodge is a nice, memorable image and certainly a refreshing way of dispatching your enemies. Leaving Goodge's little body inside his lunchbox, just inches away from his dreaded boiled eggs, shows that the Master has quite a black sense of humour.

I love, love, love the crazy Time Lord who travels 29,000 light years to materialise in mid-air above the radio telescope dressed in stereotypical business suit, bowler and brolly (because he's "incognito"!). David Garth is fun as the Time Lord who has come to warn the Doctor about the arrival on Earth of the Master, but isn't all that fussed about giving any practical help. He's a jolly gent quite unlike the fearsome Time Lords we met in The War Games (more Butterworth than Horsfall), and he takes a private pleasure in reminding the Doctor that the Master is better qualified academically than he. For his part, the Doctor labels the Master an "unimaginative plodder", and a "jackanapes" (definition: "a cheeky or impertinent person". Hmmm, I think the Doctor's got a lot to learn about his new foe!). After pointing out the potentially catastrophic explosive "volatiser" trap left by the Master, the Time Lord promptly pops off with a carefree "Good luck!".

Another new face in this episode is Captain Yates (played with prissy charm by Richard Franklin), who has apparently been working for UNIT at least since Spearhead from Space. He appears to be an attempt to make the role of UNIT captain - the Brigadier's right-hand man - a permanent fixture, rather than the revolving door policy of old. I'm not sure about the Brig's new uniform though, I preferred the beige style worn in previous years. This new look just makes UNIT seem like the British Army, when they're supposed to be a branch of an international organisation.

Instead of making lists, Jo Grant secretly begins to scout out the local plastics factories (the Brigadier's not got the gumption to think to do that himself without being told!) and coincidentally happens across the right one when she finds the Master taking over at Farrel's factory. The Master promptly hypnotises her to do his bidding, so then he can get on with his master plan with the Nestenes. In a room of terribly ill-advised Colour Separation Overlay (CSO) he has already managed to revive several Auton creatures (they're even eerier than the Spearhead versions, and look much more like the Cybernauts from The Avengers, even going so far as to almost karate chop Rex).

Back at the Doctor's lab, the hypnotised Jo somehow manages to overpower Captain Yates (some use he is!) and open the sealed box recovered from Phillips' abandoned car. At the last moment the Doctor warns that the box is actually a bomb, although I have no idea how he can possibly know that.

This is an uneven episode, with a lot to do. It has to reintroduce the Doctor's situation, introduce Jo Grant, Mike Yates and the Master, set up the story by reminding us what the Nestenes are, slip in a(nother) member of the Doctor's own race, and establish the setting. It's not successful at all of these - at the start of the episode we're introduced to a circus and its owner, who don't feature at all after that - but it's pretty fast-moving and engaging, even if the Doctor could do with cheering up a bit! Where's the latent screen charisma of Spearhead from Space gone?

First broadcast: January 2nd, 1971

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: I love David Garth's jolly Time Lord businessman.
The Bad: The use of Colour Separation Overlay is so jarring. Putting people into CSO environments against blue screen is a nice, cost-cutting idea, but in practice, never looks good (30 years later George Lucas was still trying to make it look convincing in his Star Wars prequels. He failed).
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 8
Neck-rub tally: 0

NEXT TIME: Episode Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode Two; Episode Three; Episode Four

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/terror-of-autons.html

Terror of the Autons 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