Spearhead from Space: Episode 1

Obviously listings like this on here are for fans, so these are just personal thoughts.

I wasn't aware of this being shot on film, I just kept thinking how great it looked. Now I know of the technician strike. I'm sure they got their issues worked out, but certainly a wonderful side effect.

It appears the strike itself was referenced in the episode in this dialog:

"HIBBERT: We're turning over to automation, General. It means we can keep staff down to a minimum. SCOBIE: Splendid. Don't get machines going on strike, eh?"

I've watched a lot of Who, starting with PBS in the 80s, and rather liked Pertwee, but never saw this one. It's comical to me personally that my reaction to Tennant's intro was that he was knocked out most of his first episode. Well, there certainly was precedent-- this very serial, where Pertwee is in a coma for half of it!

Honestly go watch all 4 parts you will fall in love with Pertwee's doctor. 9/10

"Spearhead from Space" marked several firsts in "Doctor Who" history. It was the first serial to be made in colour. It introduced the Doctor's new assistant, the scientist Liz Shaw, and marked Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart becoming a regular character. (He had previously appeared in two of the Second Doctor's adventures). It was the first serial to be shot entirely on location rather than in a studio (for reasons connected with a strike by BBC staff). Most importantly from my point of view, it also marked the debut of Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor, my own favourite incarnation. Objectively speaking, I have to admit that his successor Tom Baker was just as good, but I have a special affection for Pertwee because he was the incumbent when I first started to take a serious interest in the series.

All of the serials in the seventh season of "Doctor Who", and most of those in the eighth, are set on Earth, with the Doctor acting as scientific advisor to UNIT, the international taskforce set up to combat alien threats. (Lethbridge-Stewart is the commander of UNIT's British contingent). Apparently this was done by the BBC for financial reasons, but the in-series explanation is that the Doctor has been banished to Earth by the Time Lords as a punishment, for reasons set out in the final serial of the sixth season.

The Doctor's exile was eventually to come to an end. Again in-series reasons were found for this development, but the real reason was that the scriptwriters found his earthbound existence too limiting. One complained that with the Doctor on Earth he was restricted to two basic plot lines, "alien invasions and mad scientists". "Spearhead from Space", as the title suggest, is an example of the "alien invasion" type of plot.

On this occasion, however, the invasion is not carried out by an alien race like the Daleks, Cybermen or Ice Warriors. The villain is the Nestene Consciousness, an incorporeal intelligence. Now you might wonder why an incorporeal intelligence would want to conquer Earth; surely wealth, natural resources and all the normal spoils of conquest would mean nothing to such an entity. It is, however, a recurrent science fiction trope that extra-terrestrial intelligences, be they corporeal or incorporeal, are all possessed of a Nietzschean Wille zur Macht, or Will to Power, and therefore regard conquering the Earth as a matter of principle. It is another science fiction trope, at least in Britain, that any alien invasion of Earth will start with the English Home Counties; H G Wells's Martians landed near Woking, Surrey, and the Consciousness's first target is Epping, Essex.

An incorporeal entity, however, still needs foot-soldiers to do its conquering for it, and the Nestene Consciousness has the Autons, plastic human replicas which normally masquerade as shop-window mannequins but which become lethal killers when activated. A more advanced model of Auton can duplicate the appearance and voice of any individual, and the Consciousness plans to use these to impersonate key figures in the British political and military Establishment. The Autons, however, are not autonomous individuals in the same way as, say, individual Ice Warriors, but robots remotely controlled by the Consciousness- and it is this feature which is to prove their weakness.

The main weakness of the serial is that it takes too long setting the scene and introducing the Doctor's new personality. (Some of his character traits, such as a dandyish dress sense and a love of vintage cars, were established from the beginning). The first half is rather dull and slow-moving, with all the thrills coming towards the end. This would have been more obvious in 1970 than it is now. When we watch classic "Doctor Who" serials today, whether on video or on one of their rare television outings, we treat them effectively as feature films, although they were first broadcast in several weekly parts. Normally the scriptwriters tried to introduce a note of tension from the start so that each episode could end on a cliff-hanger, but this does not seem to have been done with "Spearhead from Space".

The Television Companion opined that "It is the terrifying and well-realised concept of killer shop dummies that makes "Spearhead from Space" one of the most horrific Doctor Who stories ever". I would probably have agreed in 1970, but then I was only a young child at the time. Today the idea of murderous shop dummies seems more surreal than scary. Pertwee was to star in some excellent serials, but this is not really one of them.

(Note: This is a review of all four episodes of the story.)

January 1970 found the start of a new era of Doctor Who and the stage was set for a new beginning. Spearhead From Space, the first story of the 1970 season, proved to be just that and more. It was a story of many firsts from the first appearance of the third Doctor (played by Jon Pertwee), to the first episodes made in color to the first appearance of the Autons, Spearhead From Space set the standard for which the Pertwee era would be judged.

The story finds the Doctor exiled to late twentieth century Earth (it's hard to get much more specific but we fans do try) by his own race as punishment for interfering in the affairs of others (the final Patrick Troughton story The War Games) in the midst of a meteor shower. With the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT) investigating, the newly regenerated Doctor comes back into contact with its leader Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and the newly recruited scientist Liz Shaw. Together they investigate the meteors, the strange orbs they left behind, and their apparent connection to a factor making plastic mannequins. It all leads to an invasion by the collective mind of the Nestene.

Jon Pertwee slips in the role of the Doctor with so much ease that, like Tom Baker in 1974's Robot, it is sometimes hard to believe this is his first story. All the hallmarks of his Doctor are here from the classic combination of shirts and capes to gadgetry and classic cars. Backing him is the ever impressive Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier for the third time (having played the role in the Troughton story's The Web Of Fear and The Invasion) and Caroline John as Liz Shaw. John plays Liz well and makes a very believable scientist and it's a shame she was only in the four stories of this season. The supporting cast of Hugh Burden and John Woodnut as the men who run the factory plus Hamilton Dyce as General Scobie and Neil Wilson as a trapper make for as fine a cast as the show ever had. Robert Holmes' script plus the direction of Derek Martinus and the music of Dudley Simpson helps to create a taught and suspenseful opening for the Pertwee era. The Autons are one of the series' best creations one of the worst nightmares come true: shop window mannequins that come not just to life but kill you as well. While their controller, the Nestene creature, looks very unconvincing, the Autons and the other elements of this story make it one of the very best stories of the series.

With strong performances from the cast backed by Robert Holmes' script, the direction of Derek Martinus and the music of Dudley Simpson, Spearhead From Space is more then just Jon Pertwee's debut story. It is a taught and suspenseful science fiction yarn that nightmares are made of.

Review of all 4 episodes:

Spearhead From Space marks perhaps the biggest combination of changes in Doctor Who history:

• the change from the Patrick Troughton era to the Jon Pertwee era.

• the change from black and white to colour.

• the change from constant time and space travelling to an exile leaving The Doctor stranded in contemporary Earth.

• the change from two or three traditional companions to a whole organisation (UNIT) regularly working with The Doctor.

These changes are made even more striking by the fact that Pertwee's Doctor, having been forced to regenerate as a punishment from the Time Lords and subsequently getting injured, spends much of the early part of the story inactive in a hospital bed. Yet the story manages to be interesting enough and contains enough action, humour and thrills to make this big transition go very successfully.

The story involves the new Doctor finding himself stranded on Earth and suffering from his regeneration then having to deal with an invasion attempt by the Nestene Consciousness using their power to control plastic and creating armies of shop dummies.

The production is a peach with a superb look (recorded beautifully on film rather than the usual video), excellent direction by Derek Martinus and thrilling special effects (shop dummies coming to life and attacking through shop windows etc.) believably and excitingly executed.

The story is brilliantly written by Robert Holmes with superb plotting and dialogue. The acting from Pertwee and the whole cast is impeccable. Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart) and Caroline John (Liz Shaw) do fantastically well in their roles beginning already to get audiences to strongly sympathise and relate to them.

It is not absolutely perfect but it is perfectly entertaining and interesting with thrilling, scary moments. All 4 Episodes 10/10.