Terror of the Autons (Story #55, 1971)
Viewed 28 Aug 2012

Doctor/Companion: Three, Jo Grant, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Stars: Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Nicholas Courtney
Preceding Story: Inferno (Three, Liz Shaw, the Brigadier)
Succeeding Story: The Mind of Evil (Three, Jo, the Brigadier)

Summer has really wreaked havoc with our quasi-regular WhoFest schedule. We even watched the first episode of this story once already, at the end of our last WhoFest. Of course, that was so long ago that I didn’t expect anyone actually to remember it, so we watched it again anyway. (Also, I’d managed to lose my notes.) And it’s good that we did, because it had pretty much completely escaped everyone’s memory (except mine, of course; I’ve seen it more times in the last year and a half since its release on DVD than is perhaps entirely healthy).

In terms of pre-Hiatus Who, it’s an Auton-rich environment around here lately, what with the Special Edition of Spearhead from Space coming out on DVD earlier in August, too. However, the Autons were just a bonus; my main reason for screening this particular story was to give the Ladies a proper introduction to the Master.

Before that could happen, though, we’re introduced to another new, and in her own way iconic, character: Jo. “What terrible clothes!” Clearly jA is not hip to the 1971 fashion scene. Putting things in perspective, jE chastised, “think of the year – that’s not a terrible outfit!”

Then we’ve seen our anti-hero, discovered that he’s made off with an important artifact (“so, he stole it from a display, but he has the original UNIT box?” – don’t try to slip continuity errors past jE; she’s sharp), and made for a radio telescope. At this point, my own snark rears its ugly head. The Master wants to help the Nestenes with their conquest of Earth, by transmitting a guiding signal to their invasion force at the appropriate time – so why exactly the f. are they using a radio telescope? Those things are not transmitters; they’re wired for reception. ~grumble~

Back to the story, though. Our quick-witted jE spots another early indicator of danger; poor Goodge is wearing a lab coat. “Lab coat = toast,” she declares. And – voop! – right she is. Clearly, lab-coats are the redshirts of the Whoniverse.

Lab-coats aren’t the only ones dying, though. Extras are dropping like flies. “There’s a lot of death in this one,” jA notes on more than one occasion. When we get to the most graphic, gruesome, and creepy death of them all – death by armchair – no one makes a peep. Forty years later, it’s still a rather horrific scene. But the Ladies just wouldn’t be the Ladies if they took anything too seriously too long. After Mr. Farrel, Sr., manages to shake off the effects of the Master’s hypnosis, jO (as the Master) intones, “would you like to have a seat and chat?”

So I guess I can’t say for certain whether or not the Ladies generally find this concept as skin-crawly as I do, but I like the universality of the Nestene threat. As the Doctor puts it, “anything made of plastic – anything at all – can be alive, in the Nestene sense.” It reminds me strongly of the reason some of Moffat’s creations – specifically the Weeping Angels and the Vashta Nerada (or, more recently, the Dalek puppets) – are so chilling. They could be anywhere, and you just never know where.

But the Autons themselves are definitely a hit. “That was pretty cool,” says jE as the Episode 2 cliffhanger (in which the police officers driving the Doctor and Jo away from the circus are revealed actually to be Autons) ends. “Can we see that again?” So we watch the episode recap instead of fast forwarding through it as we begin Episode 3. “These are a lot creepier than most of the new villains,” jA declares.

At this point, of course, I’m obligated to pause and inform them that these are the same critters as in Rose (somehow, I forgot to mention it’s also the same thing that Rory became at the end of S5/S31). Clearly, the similarities were lost in translation somewhere, as jO’s “oh, is that what they were?” reaction illustrates.

There’s another bit of fail here that really didn’t sink in for me until this time through. Remember how the Autons had this clever campaign to throw the country into disarray with a rash of unusual deaths? The suffocation mechanism is supposed to be so clever because once its job is done, it dissipates, “dissolved by CO₂ from the lungs” – after the victim has stopped breathing, of course. Umm… So how exactly does that work? Since there’s… no more… ummm… exhalation? Right. And we thought the Master was misguided.

Regardless, he’s still the highlight for me. Although the Doctor’s observation that the Master’s plan is “vicious, complicated and inefficient” is not quite a beautifully snarky as the Rani’s later epithet (“devious and overcomplicated”), it certainly sets the stage for what the character is all about. The story’s resolution also gives us our first taste of the ineptitude that tends to plague the Master. “Do you really think that thing will distinguish between you and us?” snaps the Doctor. jE replies for (and as) the Master: “I didn’t think of that…” No more will he ever after, the poor bugger.

General reactions:

• jA – “I like his goatee.”
• jE – “He’s the model for something I’ve seen before…”
• jO – The droopy, asymmetrical eyes sell the part
• mrfranklin – He had me at “universally.”

The Ladies don’t seem turned off of Delgado’s Master, so that’s a great start, in my book (though to be fair, jE was already familiar with him). Some day we may have to watch the Four/Five regeneration trilogy with Ainley’s Master for contrast. Once they’ve got more classic Master under their collective belts, we can watch The Curse of Fatal Death. I can hardly wait!

Verdict: Thumbs up

Looking ahead: TBD – We’ll be watching S7/S33 for a while.