Terror of the Autons Episode Two

The one where the Doctor gets mobbed at the circus...

Colour Separation Overlay - or CSO, or Chromakey, or blue/ yellow/ green screen - was an exciting new toy in the early 1970s, and producer Barry Letts was determined to capitalise on its benefits. For instance, you had the advantage of placing your characters into any scene or situation imaginable, without needing the budget to film at the real location or build an entire set. It was the CGI of the 70s.

Sadly, CSO hasn't aged well, and when it's not done particularly well, the effect is simply awful. You get that distracting halo effect around people's hair, or what's called "fringing", like you'd see in the old TV adverts for Ready Brek. The jarring effect of CSO would have been greatly reduced on the black and white TV sets of the early 1970s, which is what the majority of British households had at the time, but 50 years later, when cleaned up and presented on sparkling DVD, the effect remains poor.

Letts was a great advocate of CSO, and that is very obvious from his work as (uncredited) director of Terror of the Autons, because it's absolutely everywhere. In episode 1 we had a CSO museum and a CSO computer room, and in this episode alone we have two CSO cars, a CSO kitchen, and a CSO phone box. The most acceptable use of CSO is for the animation of the "troll doll", which is a fantastic little creation. The Farrels call it "disgusting" and "horrible", but I think he's quite sweet. Why hasn't the BBC merchandised it yet?

But there really was little need to have a CSO phone box (a simple sprig of greenery in studio would have sufficed), and no need at all for the Farrels' CSO kitchen (it's on screen for so little time, all they really needed was a blank wall - especially after all the trouble they went to to dress the Farrels' living room set).

So, I'm not a fan of CSO, particularly when over-used. But I shall move on, having made my point...

The Master continues to demonstrate his sadistic side with the death of poor McDermott, who dares to question the sudden arrival of this "Colonel Masters". I like McDermott. He said the Auton chair looked like a "black pud'n". Sadly, it looks a little more dangerous than a black pud'n when he sits in it and it appears to melt into him, smothering him to death in its plastic embrace. Although mildly comical when we see Harry Towb wobbling about to create movement in the chair, it's a sobering coda when his hand wavers and drops as the life is squeezed out of him. The black plastic chair looks like melting tar.

Even darker is Rex Farrel's subsequent page to his secretary Sylvia: "Will you check Mr McDermott's entitlement on termination of employment?" It's classic Robert Holmes, very Bondian, as is the Master's later explanation to Farrel Sr that McDermott "sat down in this chair here and just slipped away". What a bastard! This evil Time Lord has quite the temper too, and has to be stopped from striking Mr Farrel in rage.

The whole Master/ Farrel subplot is merely retreading old ground from Spearhead from Space, with the villain having to infiltrate and take over a plastics factory and overcome awkward questions and resistance from within. It would have been nice for Holmes to have come up with a different way for the Autons to reproduce - can they not build their own plastic-making equipment? Can they only invade planets that have plastics factories?

Meanwhile, the Doctor doesn't seem to be taking the Master at all seriously and is back to tinkering with his dematerialisation circuit, despite all the Master has done so far. The fact the Doctor referred to the Master in episode 1 as a mere "jackanapes" suggests that he really doesn't comprehend just how malicious and troublesome the Master can be (the visiting Time Lord did hint that the Master had "learned a lot" since the Doctor last met him). If somebody tried to blow me up not once, but twice, I'd sit up and pay attention a little more than the Doctor has so far.

The Doctor makes his way to Tarminster to visit Rossini's Circus, hoping to find the missing Beacon Hill radio telescope scientist Professor Phillips. The ever-resourceful Jo Grant hides away in the back of Bessie, despite being told to stay at UNIT HQ, and it's a good job she does, as she witnesses the Doctor being ambushed and imprisoned by Rossini and his mute strongman, Tony (or should that be Toberman?). I like how the Doctor "senses" the presence of the Master's TARDIS, and also manages to break in quite easily to steal the dematerialisation circuit (he really is obsessed with getting away from Earth, isn't he?).

Jo rescues the Doctor by rendering the 6ft 4in Tony unconscious by smashing a small red vase over his head. This girl may be more of an asset than first thought, because she has displayed some impressive feats of strength so far, overpowering both Tony and Captain Yates. The duo then find out what became of Professor Phillips when he barges in with a hand grenade threatening to explode it, but he is sadly killed while trying to dispose of it in a moment of sanity. The shot of blood trickling down his wrist is a rare demonstration of raw mortality in Doctor Who.

The Doctor and Jo are accosted by cudgel-wielding circus folk (and quite violent ones at that) and then abducted by two policemen who are not what they seem. The cliffhanger is a real corker, with the Doctor pulling the "human" mask from the Auton's face to reveal a baleful blank visage beneath. The brief glimpse we get of the human-faced Auton is scary enough (bulging glassy eyes!), but the blank face beneath is truly terrifying, and a dangerous final image to leave children with (I'm really not surprised there was a complaint from Scotland Yard).

First broadcast: January 8th, 1971

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The Auton policeman in the cliffhanger is terrifying.
The Bad: The proliferation of CSO.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 11 - we have a whopping three examples in this one episode. The Doctor says "Now listen to me" to Rossini, then to Phillips, and there's then a bumper "Now wait a minute, now listen to me, listen to me, all of you" to the circus mob.
Neck-rub tally: 0

NEXT TIME: Episode Three...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; 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