Spearhead from Space Episode 4

The one where the shop window dummies come to life...

There's something I can't get my head around. Why all the shenanigans around the Madame Tussauds Waxworks? It's pretty unlikely that a commercial enterprise like Tussauds would feature an entire tableau of "top civil servants", but I can get over that by rationalising that they have a special exhibition on or something (it still won't do much for visitor numbers, though!).

What I can't fathom is why General Scobie - the real General Scobie - is positioned in the waxworks while his plastic facsimile goes about his business in the outside world. All of the other plastic dummies are just that - plastic facsimiles - so why has Channing chosen to put Scobie on display at Madame Tussauds? And how is he made to stay that still and plasticky, apparently alive but not conscious? Where are all the other "top civil servants" who have had plastic facsimiles made of them? Will they be placed in the waxworks display too?

Spearhead from Space Episode 3

The one where the Auton smashes up Brook Cottage...

The Autons really are bloody terrifying, aren't they? They were never as viscerally effective again as they are in their debut, in their mundane boiler suits and silver boots. In the cliffhanger reprise we discover they have guns secreted inside their wrists, and when Ransome makes a dash for it, the Auton chases him - yes, it runs after him! No lumbering in lukewarm pursuit for these chaps!

By far the best sequence in episode 3 is the Auton attack on the Seeley home, Brook Cottage. Derek Martinus continues to direct like he's auditioning for a Hammer horror film, and it all makes for chilling footage. Betty Bowden is magnificent as the scared but brave Meg Seeley, whose initial discovery of the energy unit in the shed brings the Auton to her door. Martinus makes the connection between the Auton and the energy unit signal by giving us an establishing shot of Brook Cottage, then panning rapidly left to the woods, then crash-zooming in on the emerging Auton as it approaches the dwelling. This is edge-of-the-seat stuff!

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...

Spearhead from Space Episode 1

The one where Doctor Who goes COLOUR...

Doctor Who had only been gone six months, but the change was seismic. I don't think there has ever been as comprehensive a change for Doctor Who in its 55-year history as that which came in Spearhead from Space. The jolting improvement in picture quality by going from black and white to colour is startling and thrilling; the move from studio-bound videotape to location-heavy film is amazing (although sadly not permanent); and the change in lead actor from a little craggy-faced character actor to a tall, craggy-faced comedy actor was a step into brave new territory.

Then there's the stunning new opening titles which assault the eyes with a flood of kaleidoscopic colour - the swirling, fizzing, spinning graphics melt from vivid red to icy blue to verdant green in quick succession, and although very few viewers in 1970 would have actually seen all this in colour (in 1970, there were 15.6 million black and white TV licences issued, compared to just 273,000 colour licences), the impact is certainly not lost almost 50 years later. I amuse myself that in the green swirl I always see a subliminal outline of Darth Vader's helmet!