| TERROR OF THE AUTONS by Robert Holmes |
| Story 55 Synopsis: A horsebox materialises in the grounds of the Circus Rossini, and a black-clad stranger, calling himself the Master, hypnotises the circus owner, Luigi, using him to steal a Nestene sphere from the Science Museum. The news of this robbery is passed on to the Doctor by his new assistant, Jo Grant. He berates the Brigadier for allowing its loan, and soon they are on the hunt for suspicion at plastics factories. Jo visits Farrel Plastics, and is suspicious, but runs afoul of the Master, who hypnotises her, and sends her back with a bomb. Luckily, the Doctor realises, and disposes of it in time. Further searches draws attention to the Circus Rossini, where the Doctor and Jo investigate, but are threatened. A police car comes to their rescue, but the Doctor is suspicious, and reveals that the 'police' are in fact Autons. UNIT help the Doctor and Jo escape. The Master than tries to kill the Doctor with an extra-long telephone cord made of plastic, but the Brigadier saves him in time. The key stage of the Nestene attack, the distribution of millions of plastic daffodils passes off almost unnoticed. By examening one, the Doctor finds it is activated by radio signals. He and Jo are kidnapped by the Master, but escape when Rex Farrel breaks free from the Master's hypnotic conditioning, and causes a diversion. The Master begins the transmission to bring the Nestene to Earth, but the Doctor convinces him that the Nestene will discard him easily. Together, they repulse the Nestene, ending the invasion, but the Master escapes, killing Rex Farrel. The Doctor has nobbled his rival's TARDIS, so he will be forced to fight him again. |
| Review:- So, after an eventful first season in exile, the Doctor seemed to have come to terms with helping UNIT out. But that's not good for drama, and so, enter two new sources of the stuff! The Master is possibly the most controversial character in the show's long history. As a deliberate nemesis causing evil to infect Earth, and a source of personal opposition for the Doctor, he is arguably the single most deadly villain ever created. The only real downside is that his plans always fail, usually in the early stories as a result of him suddenly deciding to change sides because he fears his plans will go beyond him, as here. His vendetta against the Doctor is his fatal flaw, rarely more clearly than here, where he makes repeated attempts to kill his old adversary, who escapes each time (usually after each cliffhanger). But as the Doctor is pretty much the only person capable of stopping him, he manages to elicit drama for most of the time. Indeed, here he reduces the fearsome Nestenes to second rank, and the Autons and their plastic powers are sidelined into a stream of silly gimmicks. Perhaps a good example of why bringing monsters (or indeed anyone) around for a sequel can be very unwise, the fearsome foes of Spearhead from Space are no more than fodder for an intelligence as evil as their own. Meanwhile, as if the Master wasn't enough to cope with, the Doctor has his stable helper Liz replaced by amiable ditz, Jo Grant. Katy Manning comes in as a specific creation for the viewers, who might be felt to identify more with a thick person than a clever one. One of Barry Letts' many mistakes, Jo sets feminism back twenty years, and isn't much boon to drama, either. Here, she does at least learn a valuable lesson when hypnotised by the Master with ease. Sadly, her characterisation does not improve one bit over the subsequent seasons. On the whole, this is a tale that puts the Autons up front in the title, but fritters away their value, and introduces two new characters, one of whom is endlessly valuable, the other of whom is instantly worthless. So, I'd recommend this a little bit, but it's rather average. |
| Disclaimer: I've seen the video, and read the book. |