The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: Terror Of The Autons
Terror Of The Autons: Episode One (02/01/11)
Another new series, another new look! Liz has gone back to Cambridge and the Brigadier has provided the Doctor with a replacement: Jo Grant, an eager young woman training to work for UNIT who has relatives in high places and, so it seems, is a bit of a div. And instead of Industrial complexes we have circuses and radio-telescopes in the English countryside.
A renegade Time Lord called the Master has come to Earth, stolen the last Auton energy unit with the aid of a circus owner, shrunk a radio-telescope technician and recharged the unit, gone to a plastics factory, and started making new Autons. He's also intent on bumping off the Doctor; he left a bomb at the radio-telescope, but a Time Lord turned up and warned the Doctor; Jo somehow found the plastics factory but got herself caught and hypnotised, then the Master put another bomb in the UNIT box that had contained the Auton unit, and left it in a field for them to find and for Jo to open (under hypnosis) in the Doctor's lab. Cue cliffhanger.
It's quite a contrast to last year, closer to the feel of the show a few years back with Victoria. Or even further! There's much more of a family show feel; the grittiness has gone and the colours are bright! The pace is a lot faster, too, with short scenes zipping about all over the place; within about 5 minutes Jo had located the factory, been hypnotised and returned to the lab to open the box!
There's a lot of Bluescreen, too, and not all that good, either. It's not so bad, though, even if some elements seem a little contrived. The Master's introduction, for example, whilst nicely shot (his TARDIS is a horse van) did seem like the Production team were saying "Look! Here's our new villain!". And he looks very 'arch' too. Good to see the Autons back, though. And at least it's fast paced.
Terror Of The Autons: Episode Two (09/01/11)
Ooh! So this was mostly set at the circus. Jo didn't succeed in blowing the Doctor up and ended up having a mental shutdown for a bit. Sergeant Benton noticed that the field where they found the car the box had been left in had been churned up and tracked down the circus in search of one of the research scientists from the radio-telescope.
The Doctor went alone to the circus and was caught by Mr Rossini trying to break into the Master's TARDIS. Luckily, Jo had disobeyed orders and followed him and was able to free him after informing UNIT (so she's learning!). The research scientist tried to blow them up (under the Master's influence) but only killed himself, then Rossini and his circus creeps attacked the Doctor and Jo, but they were rescued by two policemen who in turn ended up being disguised Autons!
Meanwhile, the Master disposed of an interfering worker at the factory by suffocating him with an Auton inflatable plastic chair, then bumped off the factory owner's father (who'd threatened to come out of retirement if the Master didn't piss off) by having him strangled by an Auton Troll Doll. These bits were actually more entertaining than the main plot! Especially Death By Chair. Still fast paced, still brightly coloured, still a bit cheesy, and not half as gritty as last season, but fun. Quite enjoying the Master and his inventiveness, although it is a bit silly at times.
Terror Of The Autons: Episode Three (16/01/11)
Yet another packed episode from Mr Holmes!
Starting off with a great sequence in a quarry with the Doctor and Jo being chased by Auton Policemen before being rescued by the Brigadier and Captain Yates (who drove the Brigadier's Allegro at an Auton and knocked it down a steep and long rise where it immediately got back up again - great stunt!!!), the Doctor tried to use the Dematerialisation Circuit he stole from the Master's TARDIS last week to leg it (!), insulted the Brigadier and some fat bloke from the Ministry, and (this is several days later, apparently) interviewed Mrs Farrell regarding her husband's Death By Troll Doll. No-one could figure out it was heat which activated the killer doll until Mike Yates decided to make somecoco coaco caoco (cocoa?) hot chocolate with the Doctor's Bunsen burner while the doll lay beside it.
The Doctor and the Brigadier missed this because they were busy finding an Auton in a safe (?) at Farrell's factory, and a plastic daffodil conveniently left on the office floor. The Master, Rex Farrell and a group of Autons in creepy, big, yellow-hatted head have been touring the UK handing them to the public (the Doctor was told of the promotional tour early in the episode but didn't think the Master would advertise what he was doing, which was a nice touch!). The episode ended with the Doctor getting a phone call from the Master who activated an Auton phone cable (which he'd installed earlier, disguised, with Mike Yates in the room) which started strangling the Doctor.
So, loads happened, not all of it made sense (Auton in a safe? Is it still there?), but all very enjoyable. Really liking the Master's nonchalance each time the Doctor survives, and the speaking Auton was cool - in fact, they're a hell of a lot cooler looking than last year. Mike Yates and Jo Grant are developing quite well, but I doubt the former will see the end credits of the final episode. On the whole, a great contrast with the last series, but fun, fast paced and enjoyable in a friendly rather than serious action-drama way!
Terror Of The Autons: Episode Four (23/01/11)
The Doctor managed to call out to the Brigadier, who was luckily nearby and disconnected the phone line; then the Brigadier found out that the promotional tour mentioned a week or two back was handing out daffodils and tracked their bus down to the quarry where the Policeman Autons took the Doctor and Jo. He organised an air strike while the Doctor tried to establish how the daffodils were deadly. Jo used a radio transmitter which activated the daffodil which sprayed plastic over her nose and mouth but the Doctor saved her, but then the Master turned up and took them back to the bus (so the air strike had to be called off).
Then they drove to the radio-telescope station (near the quarry) and the Autons held back the UNIT soldiers while the Master activated the radio-telescope to bring the Nestene Consciousness to Earth. However, the Doctor persuaded him that the Nestenes would betray him and got him to reverse the polarity (no doubt sending them back into space). All the Autons fell down, the Master legged it back to the bus, dressed up Rex Farrell (who'd briefly broken his control) in a Master mask and sent him out to be shot dead by UNIT as a distraction while the Master escaped in the bus.
One or two things:
It looks like we're back to fun, family viewing with a good dose of silliness and a lack of grit.
The Master's a nasty piece of work and has clearly been set up to come back some time - the Doctor still has his Mark II Dematerialisation circuit (having handed over his useless Mark I when the Master turned up at the lab) meaning he's stuck on Earth, too.
Grim sequence where the Master appeared to drive the bus directly over Rex Farrell's corpse.
Fewer episodes work well as this story sped along - it did, however, seem a little rushed. Maybe if it hadn't been so convoluted... a lot seemed a little too far fetched.
However, Robert Holmes has delivered again; Jo's quite likeable (and an escapologist, so not entirely useless); Captain Yates didn't die and, therefore, the new series has got off to a good start!
Another new series, another new look! Liz has gone back to Cambridge and the Brigadier has provided the Doctor with a replacement: Jo Grant, an eager young woman training to work for UNIT who has relatives in high places and, so it seems, is a bit of a div. And instead of Industrial complexes we have circuses and radio-telescopes in the English countryside.
A renegade Time Lord called the Master has come to Earth, stolen the last Auton energy unit with the aid of a circus owner, shrunk a radio-telescope technician and recharged the unit, gone to a plastics factory, and started making new Autons. He's also intent on bumping off the Doctor; he left a bomb at the radio-telescope, but a Time Lord turned up and warned the Doctor; Jo somehow found the plastics factory but got herself caught and hypnotised, then the Master put another bomb in the UNIT box that had contained the Auton unit, and left it in a field for them to find and for Jo to open (under hypnosis) in the Doctor's lab. Cue cliffhanger.
It's quite a contrast to last year, closer to the feel of the show a few years back with Victoria. Or even further! There's much more of a family show feel; the grittiness has gone and the colours are bright! The pace is a lot faster, too, with short scenes zipping about all over the place; within about 5 minutes Jo had located the factory, been hypnotised and returned to the lab to open the box!
There's a lot of Bluescreen, too, and not all that good, either. It's not so bad, though, even if some elements seem a little contrived. The Master's introduction, for example, whilst nicely shot (his TARDIS is a horse van) did seem like the Production team were saying "Look! Here's our new villain!". And he looks very 'arch' too. Good to see the Autons back, though. And at least it's fast paced.
Terror Of The Autons: Episode Two (09/01/11)
Ooh! So this was mostly set at the circus. Jo didn't succeed in blowing the Doctor up and ended up having a mental shutdown for a bit. Sergeant Benton noticed that the field where they found the car the box had been left in had been churned up and tracked down the circus in search of one of the research scientists from the radio-telescope.
The Doctor went alone to the circus and was caught by Mr Rossini trying to break into the Master's TARDIS. Luckily, Jo had disobeyed orders and followed him and was able to free him after informing UNIT (so she's learning!). The research scientist tried to blow them up (under the Master's influence) but only killed himself, then Rossini and his circus creeps attacked the Doctor and Jo, but they were rescued by two policemen who in turn ended up being disguised Autons!
Meanwhile, the Master disposed of an interfering worker at the factory by suffocating him with an Auton inflatable plastic chair, then bumped off the factory owner's father (who'd threatened to come out of retirement if the Master didn't piss off) by having him strangled by an Auton Troll Doll. These bits were actually more entertaining than the main plot! Especially Death By Chair. Still fast paced, still brightly coloured, still a bit cheesy, and not half as gritty as last season, but fun. Quite enjoying the Master and his inventiveness, although it is a bit silly at times.
Terror Of The Autons: Episode Three (16/01/11)
Yet another packed episode from Mr Holmes!
Starting off with a great sequence in a quarry with the Doctor and Jo being chased by Auton Policemen before being rescued by the Brigadier and Captain Yates (who drove the Brigadier's Allegro at an Auton and knocked it down a steep and long rise where it immediately got back up again - great stunt!!!), the Doctor tried to use the Dematerialisation Circuit he stole from the Master's TARDIS last week to leg it (!), insulted the Brigadier and some fat bloke from the Ministry, and (this is several days later, apparently) interviewed Mrs Farrell regarding her husband's Death By Troll Doll. No-one could figure out it was heat which activated the killer doll until Mike Yates decided to make some
The Doctor and the Brigadier missed this because they were busy finding an Auton in a safe (?) at Farrell's factory, and a plastic daffodil conveniently left on the office floor. The Master, Rex Farrell and a group of Autons in creepy, big, yellow-hatted head have been touring the UK handing them to the public (the Doctor was told of the promotional tour early in the episode but didn't think the Master would advertise what he was doing, which was a nice touch!). The episode ended with the Doctor getting a phone call from the Master who activated an Auton phone cable (which he'd installed earlier, disguised, with Mike Yates in the room) which started strangling the Doctor.
So, loads happened, not all of it made sense (Auton in a safe? Is it still there?), but all very enjoyable. Really liking the Master's nonchalance each time the Doctor survives, and the speaking Auton was cool - in fact, they're a hell of a lot cooler looking than last year. Mike Yates and Jo Grant are developing quite well, but I doubt the former will see the end credits of the final episode. On the whole, a great contrast with the last series, but fun, fast paced and enjoyable in a friendly rather than serious action-drama way!
Terror Of The Autons: Episode Four (23/01/11)
The Doctor managed to call out to the Brigadier, who was luckily nearby and disconnected the phone line; then the Brigadier found out that the promotional tour mentioned a week or two back was handing out daffodils and tracked their bus down to the quarry where the Policeman Autons took the Doctor and Jo. He organised an air strike while the Doctor tried to establish how the daffodils were deadly. Jo used a radio transmitter which activated the daffodil which sprayed plastic over her nose and mouth but the Doctor saved her, but then the Master turned up and took them back to the bus (so the air strike had to be called off).
Then they drove to the radio-telescope station (near the quarry) and the Autons held back the UNIT soldiers while the Master activated the radio-telescope to bring the Nestene Consciousness to Earth. However, the Doctor persuaded him that the Nestenes would betray him and got him to reverse the polarity (no doubt sending them back into space). All the Autons fell down, the Master legged it back to the bus, dressed up Rex Farrell (who'd briefly broken his control) in a Master mask and sent him out to be shot dead by UNIT as a distraction while the Master escaped in the bus.
One or two things:
It looks like we're back to fun, family viewing with a good dose of silliness and a lack of grit.
The Master's a nasty piece of work and has clearly been set up to come back some time - the Doctor still has his Mark II Dematerialisation circuit (having handed over his useless Mark I when the Master turned up at the lab) meaning he's stuck on Earth, too.
Grim sequence where the Master appeared to drive the bus directly over Rex Farrell's corpse.
Fewer episodes work well as this story sped along - it did, however, seem a little rushed. Maybe if it hadn't been so convoluted... a lot seemed a little too far fetched.
However, Robert Holmes has delivered again; Jo's quite likeable (and an escapologist, so not entirely useless); Captain Yates didn't die and, therefore, the new series has got off to a good start!
A great introduction for Jo (and indeed for Mike Yates) and a zinging script from Robert Holmes, but by and large this is a triumph of style over substance. In that sense it dictates just about every Master story that follows, since he's basically the Time Lord equivalent of the Cybermen when it comes to convoluted plots that make little sense and often really on contrivance. (It doesn't help that he's in every story this season, either, but that's getting ahead of ourselves.) But for all that it IS enjoyable, like you say, and features lots of very memorable set pieces. I agree that the stunt with the Auton being hit by the car and tumbling all the way down the hill only to seamlessly get straight up again and start climbing is one of the best stunts and most memorable visuals in the entire series.
ReplyDeleteP.S. It's certainly all a lot brighter and more colourful, but I do wonder how much of that is down to the colourisation, which is heavy on the yellow and pink ;)
If I remember rightly, it was one of the first stories they recolourised, after The Daemons (which has since been redone), so perhaps the brightness of the yellows and reds is down to the restoration process. That said, Axos is another colourful story, so who knows - I guess only those who saw the original in colour on transmission will know for sure!
DeleteTerror Of The Autons has never really been one of my favourites, but it was a great way to open the season and felt like it condensed a six part story into four episodes (which works in its favour - I don't think a six part version would have been as good). But it's a brilliant start for Jo and Mike and a great second reboot taking the best elements of the previous season and making it more family-friendly. It isn't a surprise that this and Spearhead were such an influence on RTD when he resurrected the show!