Well there has been quite a few Doctor Who posts on this blog so why not add another, which was originally on my tennis blog, and was based on the Mannequin mania boxset, which featured the two auton stories from the Jon Pertwee era, Speahead from space and Terror of the autons. So might as well gie it a look...
Starting off with Spearhead from Space, its a
classic story, which begins with the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) landing in the TARDIS on Earth in late 20th century having newly regenerated. The Doctor is taken to Asbridge cottage hospital, where the medical staff are surprised at his alien phsyiology, and one of the hospital porters overhears a doctor speaking about it on the telephone. Meanwhile Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) recruits scientist, Elizabeth Shaw (Caroline John) to help with the investigation of a shower meteorites that have landed nearby. The Brigadier on hearing the description of the Doctor who was found next to his police box, intruiges to go to the hospital to see him, but he does not recognise him, but the Doctor regains consciousness long enough to speak to him as he recognises who he is. After this a strange man named Channing (Hugh Burden) and some of his men attempt to kidnap the Doctor, who escapes them, but is shot by a UNIT tropper.
The Doctor is then taken back to hospital where the doctor there suggests that the Doctor is in a self-induced coma. The Doctor eventually recovers and this time successfully escapes and drives over to the Brigadier at UNIT HQ where he explains that he has changed appearance but has lost his memory, and on seeing the shard of recovered meteorite he agrees to help Liz and the Brigadier with their investigations. Meanwhile the man Channing turns out to be an alien from a race called the Nestenes and he uses plastic based sentient life forms, the Autons to recover the meteorites, which are in fact energy units wich will be used to create the ultimate life form that will conquer the Earth. Channing also operates from a toy plastics factory where he has a mental hold over the owner, Hibbert (John Woodnutt). The Doctor meanwhile back at the UNIT HQ, who has had his TARDIS transported there by the Brig's men, persuades Liz to get the key from the Brigadier, and the Doctor tries to take off in the TARDIS only to find it doesn't work as the Time Lords have changed the dematerialisation codes. The Doctor afterwards agrees to carry on helping the Brig and Liz in fighting the Auton attacks which soon leads them to the plastics factory where they must stop Channing and the Autons from conqeruing the Earth.
There is little doubt that Speahead from space is a really good
opener for the Pertwee era, and it features a fine cast, and introduces of
course Liz Shaw as played by Caroline John, his companion who is a
highly intelligent and capable scientist. Unlike most companions Liz
hadn't as much need as the others to continually ask what was going on,
and this did cause a bit of concern for Barry Letts (who at this stage
was still to take over as producer of the show) as he felt it left less
explanation to the viewers. Nevertheless Liz is a strong companion and
makes a welcome change from the screamers that the Doctor would have
over the years. On the supporting cast, it also features a fine
performance from John Woodnutt as the weak minded Hibbert who allows the
Nestenes to control his mind, and of course a very creepy and eeiry
performance from Hugh Burden as the icy cold and calculating Channing.
Another
couple of great successes of the story were that for a start the story
was the only one to be shot entirely on film, which helped give the show
a far more cinematic feel, not to mention it didn't look so low budget
either. The other is of course the autons themselves, they make for
great baddies, and their window shop dummy masks are very creepy and
effective, they are also complimented well by Brian Hodgson's eeiry
sound effects, as they signal in on their prey. The story also features a really good score from the show's regular composer Dudley Simpson, which is more orchestral based than previous scores. As for the story's flaws were there aren't too many, but one big niggle I have of the story is the ridiculous looking octopus that comes out of the tank at the end which nearly throttles the doctor, with its big rubbery tentacles!
As for Spearhead
from Space's documentary on the DVD it is quite interesting although
it deals morely with the transition of the show from black and white
days into colour, as well as the show being under threat of
cancellation. The commentaries are also fine, with the late Nicholas
Courtney and also now late Caroline John bantering away nicely and fondly remembering
the shooting of the story. The other commentary (more recently
recorded) with Terrance Dicks and the then producer Derrick Sherwin is
no less interesting, although Sherwin does come across as being quite
bitter at times over his treatment at the BBC. And just this year the story was re-released on Blu-ray which marked the first ever story to remastered in HD from the original series. The transfer itself stacks up fairly well although I don't think its a massive upgrade from the DVD version, which looked pretty good anyway, and it is also in the bordered 4:3 format, as you get horizontal borders either side of the screen, which is a bit annoying but what can you could do. However the Blu-ray does feature a couple of new featurettes covering the careers of the late Jon Pertwee and Caroline John, who sadly passed away just last year (which features her husband and fellow performer, Geoffrey Beevers, her sister, brother and her hot daughter!).
Moving
onto Terror of the Autons, this story was another landmark in Doctor
Who's history as it introduced as well as the UNIT family of Captain
Mike Yates, the Brig and Sergeant Benton, it also introduced his new
companion Jo Grant, and his arch enermy The Master. And the story begins with the Master (Roger Delgado) landing on Earth where he steals the only existing Nestene energy unit and uses it to transmit a signal into space from a radio telescope. The Doctor and his new assistant Jo Grant (Katy Manning) investigate the theft of the energy unit and soon arrive at the radio telescope where the Doctor receives a warning from a Time Lord that the Master has arrived on Earth. The Master meanwhile has taken over a plastics factory, run by Rex Farrel (Michael Wisher) who he uses his powers of hypnosis to control him, and creates Autons at the factory. The Master makes several attempts to kill the Doctor and Jo all of which fail, firstly by hypnotising Jo into carriyng a bomb back to UNIT HQ, and then also by trying to strangle him by using a radio controlled signal to cause the telephone flex wrap around the Doctor's neck. The Doctor also dedcues that the Master who has been using the Autons to distribute plastic daffodils around the country, plans to set off a radio signal, one of which shoots out a plastic cover which nearly suffocates Jo but he saves her, and there are reports of deaths around the country. The Doctor then travels back to the radio telescope where the Master is intent on re-opening the signal to let the Auton invasion through, and its up to the Doc to stop him and put an end to it once and for all.
It has to be said that Terror of the autons isn't quite as impressive as Spearhead from space, and there are are certain less successful
aspects to the story, for starters the autons themselves aren't as
impressive and their masks are pretty naff in comparison as they just
look like silver or marble based. The Master is of course one of the best
enemies to come out of the programme in a long time, but despite
spending most of the story aiding to help the Nestenes invade Earth, he
changes his allegiances to help the Doctor prevent them coming with the
snap of one sentence from the Doctor when he says "do you really think that thing will distinguish between us and them??". And it seems a bit of a copout way
of finsihing out the story in order to stop the baddies from coming
through. But ultimately perhaps the Master was doing what he felt he
needed to do in order to save his own skin. Another dodgy aspect of the
story is the overuse of CSO (Colour Separartion Overlay) which was
heavily used in the 1970s to superimpose backgrounds or to create
background effects with people in shot. OK to use it for certain
background shots is fine, such as the Master climbing up the research
centre tower, but he even goes as far as to use it to for a CSO
kitchen! I mean surely they could have built a kitchen set!!
However despite it flaws, Terror of the autons still has alot going for it, and it saw changes in Doctor Who for the better, and if the series had
continued on in the similar vein as it did in the previous season with
alot of Quartermass styled doom and gloom it would have ended the show.
So Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks realised the show needed a change of
tone and pace, and they did the right thing. Terror also featured again
some nice performances from the new cast, Richard Franklin does well as
Captain Yates, as he plays him with a smooth charm. Franklin has a funny line when saves the Doctor from being strangled by the flex of the telephone, and he says "sorry I cut off your connection!". And yeah ok Katy
Manning isn't the best actress in the world, but she made Jo Grant her
own and a fairly endearing character, despite some cheesy corny moments
in her peformance in this story, especially when the Doctor tells her
not to go anywhere near the ugly puppet that they took from one of the
Master's victims, "I won't go near it, yuughhh" she says. Coh!
But
of course one of Terror of the Autons main successes is the Master
played by Roger Delgado, who is terrific as the Doctor's nemesis.
Delgado brought a great deal of sly and sinsiter charm to the character
while at the same time ensuring he displayed the Master's undefitigably
evil nature. Although perhaps one of the weaknesses of the Season 8 of
Doctor Who, which Terror is the first story of, is that they overused
the Master a little too much as he appears in every story, which leaves
less room for predictability in anticipating the real villain. Mind you
one talent the Master had for sure was his make-up artist skills as he
must have spent plenty of time making up latex masks for his disguises! Score wise, the regular composer Dudley Simpson provides a spooky music score, which is all done on syntheizers, and the Master's themes are very effective. In fact the whole of the 8th season of the show was done using synthesizers, all scored by Dudley Simpson, who later complained to Barry Letts that he founded it exhausting having to perform the music that way, and in future seasons he resorted to using other musicians and more traditional instruments.
On the DVD side of things there is a pleasant and
informative commentary from Barry Letts, Terrance Dicks, Nick Courtney
and of course Katy Manning. However I have to say that Katy Manning
does grate on your nerves after a while, I'm sure she is a nice person,
but her continual use of her comical stupid helium type voice in between
discussion is just irritating (and I wonder if she was making a feeble impersonation of Jon Pertwee in those moments!). If only they had a silence button on
her it would make things more easy!! Anyway there is also a very good
documentary on the DVD too about the making of Terror of the Autons,
which features some cast interviews and Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks (marbled
mouthed Terry!).
So that's it for my double bill look at Speahead and Terror, both of which are solid and entertaining stories which are well worth watching if you are a fan of the originals show.
Till the next time, bye for now.
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