051 – Spearhead from Space
Doctor Who serial
The Autons march towards human victims and open fire.
Cast
Doctor Jon Pertwee –Third Doctor
Companion Caroline John –Liz Shaw
Others Nicholas Courtney –Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart Hugh Burden – Channing Derek Smee – Ransome John Woodnutt – Hibbert Neil Wilson – Sam Seeley Betty Bowden – Meg Seeley Hamilton Dyce – General Scobie John Breslin – Captain Munro Clifford Cox – Sergeant George Lee – Corporal Forbes Tessa Shaw – UNIT Officer Antony Webb – Dr. Henderson Henry McCarthy – Dr. Beavis Helen Dorward – Nurse Allan Mitchell – Wagstaffe Talfryn Thomas – Mullins Prentis Hancock – 2nd Reporter ("Jimmy") Ellis Jones – Technician Edmund Bailey – Museum Attendant
Production
Directed by	Derek Martinus
Written by	Robert Holmes
Script editor	Terrance Dicks
Produced by	Derrick Sherwin
Executive producer	None
Music by	Dudley Simpson
Production code	AAA
Series	Season 7
Running time	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast	3 January 1970 (1970-01-03)
Last broadcast	24 January 1970 (1970-01-24)
Chronology
← Preceded by The War Games Followed by → Doctor Who and the Silurians
List of episodes (1963–1989)

Spearhead from Space is the first serial of theseventh season in the Britishscience fiction television seriesDoctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts onBBC1 from 3 to 24 January 1970. It was the firstDoctor Who serial to be produced in colour and the only one to be made entirely on16 mm film.^[1]

In the serial, which is set in Essex and London, the alientime travellerthe Doctor (Jon Pertwee), now freshly regenerated and exiled to Earth by theTime Lords, joinsBrigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) ofUNIT and the scientistLiz Shaw (Caroline John) to stop the incorporeal intelligence theNestenes from colonising the planet through their use of theAutons, killer plastic automatons which act as human duplicates and shop-windowmannequins.

The serial introduced Pertwee as the Doctor and was the first to feature the Autons. It also introduces Caroline John as the Doctor's new assistant, Liz. Nicholas Courtney becomes a regular cast member beginning with this serial.

Forced into exile in 20th-century Earth by theTime Lords, the newly changed Doctor collapses outside hisTARDIS and is taken to Ashbridge Cottage Hospital inEpping, where his unusual alien anatomy confuses the doctors.

Meanwhile, ameteorite shower falls on the English countryside, and a poacher discovers a mysterious plasticpolyhedron at the crash site.Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart ofUNIT is trying to recruitDr. Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw as a scientific advisor to examine any meteorites for evidence of aliens. Shaw is sceptical of the Brigadier's concerns and resents being taken away from her research atCambridge.

The plastic polyhedron is a power unit for a non-physicalalien intelligence known as theNestene Consciousness. Normally disembodied, it has an affinity for plastic, and is able to animate human replicas made from it, calledAutons. The Nestene have taken over a toy factory inEpping, and plan to replace key government and public figures with Auton duplicates. The Auton in charge of the factory sends other, less human-looking, dummy-like Autons to retrieve the power units from UNIT and the poacher.

After recovering in hospital and avoiding being kidnapped by the Autons, the Doctor discovers that the TARDIS' takeoff code has been altered by the Time Lords and he is trapped on Earth. Despite his recentchange in appearance, he convinces Lethbridge-Stewart that he is the same man who helped to defeat theYeti and theCybermen. Together with Liz, he uncovers the Nestene plot, just as the Autons activate across Britain and begin killing. The Doctor assembles an electroshock device that he believes will disable them.

UNIT attacks the plastics factory, but the Autons are impervious to gunfire. The Doctor and Liz make their way inside and encounter a tentacled plastic host created by the Nestenes as the perfect form for the invasion. While the Doctor struggles with the creature, Liz uses the electroshock device to shut the creature down, the effect cascading to all other Autons.

The Brigadier fears the Nestenes will return and asks for the Doctor's continued help. The Doctor agrees, albeit reluctantly, to join UNIT. In return, he requires facilities to help repair the TARDIS, and a car like the sporty antique roadster he commandeered during the adventure. At his insistence, Liz also stays on as his assistant.

The Doctor tells Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart that his name is Doctor John Smith, an alias first used inThe Wheel in Space.^[2]

The working title of the serial wasFacsimile, and was based on a story thatRobert Holmes wrote for the 1965 filmInvasion,^[2] which featured an alien crashing in the woods near a rural hospital, where a medical examination reveals his alien nature. The hospital is later visited by other aliens, seeking a fugitive criminal.

Due to industrial action by staff at theBBC Television Centre, this serial was filmed almost entirely on location, to circumvent union rules. As a result,Spearhead from Space is the only classic serial shot entirely on film, as was then the standard of location filming. The majority of filming was undertaken at the BBC engineering college atWood Norton near Evesham, and the pub in nearbyRadford.^[3][4]

The change to colour production also necessitated changes to the programme's opening titles. DesignerBernard Lodge, who had produced the previous sets of titles used up untilSpearhead from Space, originally intended to produce a new set using the same 'howlaround' technique that he had for the previous titles. Tests showed, however, that the technique did not produce satisfactory results when used with colour equipment and so the final set was produced in black and white before being manually tinted. These were completed in August 1969, a month before work began on the serial.^[5]

The new titles also introduced a new logo for the series. Unlike the logos used for theFirst andSecond Doctor's eras, which used a generic typeface, the new logo was an attempt at being more stylised, particularly in the presentation of the initial "D" in "Doctor" and the "H" in "Who." This logo would be used until the final episode ofThe Green Death in 1973, but (in slightly modified form) would make an unexpected return in 1996 when it was adopted as the logo for the US-produced1996 TV movie. The 1996 form subsequently became the official logo of theEighth Doctor, and of the franchise itself, being used on original novels, video releases (1996–2003) including thealternative Ninth Doctor's animatedScream of the Shalka, DVD releases, andBig Finish Productions audio plays.

The story was repeated in its entirety on Friday evenings on BBC1 in July 1971,^[8] achieving ratings of 2.9, 3.0, 3.4 & 3.9 million viewers respectively.^[9] It became the first ever broadcast ofDoctor Who outside of its typical Saturday evening slot.^[10] The story was later repeated on BBC2 in 1999.^[11]

InThe Television Companion (1998),David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker wrote that the serial was "arguably the first to really go for the viewer's jugular with a potent combination of horror and science-fiction." They continued, "It is the terrifying and well-realised concept of killer shop dummies that makesSpearhead from Space one of the most horrificDoctor Who stories ever [...] Particularly notable is the uncompromising, adult quality of the story's realisation, which sets it apart from much of sixtiesDoctor Who and contributes greatly to its success."^[2] Patrick Mulkern ofRadio Times awardedSpearhead from Space five stars out of five, describing it as an "extraordinary debut for the third Doctor" and also a good performance from Courtney; while positive towards John, Mulkern criticised the way Liz was "severely styled." He also commended the production, particularly Dudley Simpson's score. He wrote that "the only real disappointment is the lacklustre representation of the Nestene" and stated that the "boggle-eyed Pertwee" at the end, when he is strangled by the tentacles, "always warrants a snigger".^[12]

Christopher Bahn ofThe A.V. Club felt that the Autons were secondary to the serial's main goal of introducing the new cast, but commented that they "provide some effectively chilling moments". Bahn wrote that the "major flaw" was the pacing, as it spent too much time establishing "the new status quo before getting into the action".^[13]IGN's Arnold T. Blumburg rated the DVD special edition release 9 out of 10, describing the serial as "an amazing feat – a nearly complete top-to-bottom reinvigoration of the show that feels like a full-blown feature film".^[14]Den of Geek's James Peaty calledSpearhead from Space "easily the best 'new Doctor' story" untilMatt Smith's "The Eleventh Hour" (2010), and believed that Courtney and John were "so good [...] that you barely miss the Doctor from episode one".^[15]

Reviewing the original DVD release in 2002,DVD Talk's J. Doyle Wallis gave the serial three out of five stars, describing it as a "nice exploit" with "pretty neat villains", but criticising the little the Doctor had to do, despite it being his introduction.^[16] Ian Jane of the site was more positive when reviewing the serial for its 2012 re-release, giving it four stars. He praised Pertwee and John, as well as the suspense and pacing.^[17] Reviewing the serial forThe Guardian in 2013, Phelim O'Neill wrote that "Pertwee impresses, as does his short-lived partnership with apprentice Liz" and added that "the scene of the alien-powered shop display dummies is still chilling."^[1]

In 2013, Ben Lawrence ofThe Daily Telegraph namedSpearhead from Space as one of the top tenDoctor Who stories set in the contemporary time.^[18]

Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion

Author	Terrance Dicks
Cover artist	Chris Achilleos
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	6
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	17 January 1974
ISBN	0-426-10313-0

Anovelisation of this serial, written byTerrance Dicks, was published byTarget Books in January 1974, entitledDoctor Who and the Auton Invasion. This was the first novelisation commissioned by Target following the successful republishing of three books originally published in the mid-1960s. The Target Books novelisation series would run for the next twenty years and see all but sixDoctor Who serials adapted. In the seventies, this book was translated intoFinnish asTohtori KUKA ja autonien hyökkäys, althoughDoctor Who never appeared on Finnish television until the broadcast of the 2005 revival series. There were alsoDutch,Turkish, Japanese andPortuguese editions.

An unabridged reading of the novelisation by actorCaroline John was released as four CDs in June 2008 by BBC Audiobooks. The original Target books artwork byChris Achilleos is featured on the cover.

This serial was released in an omnibus format onVHS in 1988; it was re-released in 1995 as an unedited episodic version, remaining in omnibus format for the United States, Canada, and Australia markets.

The DVD was first released in January 2001,^[19] followed by a re-release (with new outer packaging) in July 2007. There was aSpecial Edition DVD release in May 2011 as part of theMannequin Mania box set, along withTerror of the Autons; it boasts additional special features and improved remastering. All four episodes have been offered for sale oniTunes.

It was re-released on DVD in 2013 as part of theDoctor Who: The Doctors Revisited 1–4 box set, together withThe Aztecs,The Tomb of the Cybermen, andPyramids of Mars. The disc presents the serial as originally broadcast, a single feature inwidescreen format, introduced by former show runnerSteven Moffat; it includes a documentary on theThird Doctor.

The serial was released onBlu-ray in July 2013. Due to the serial being shot entirely on film, this is the onlyDoctor Who story from the classic series where a complete high-definition release (with noupconversion) is feasible. Reviewing this release, Phelim O'Neill ofThe Guardian praised the film look ofSpearhead From Space, writing, "It sounds like a small thing but it made an incredible difference; this is the only one of the vintage stories to have the picture quality worthy of a HD transfer. The Blu-ray looks superb, as if they shot a (very) low-budgetDoctor Who movie late in 1969, which is pretty much what they did. The sets look sturdier, more colourful, and far better than their usual overlit, studio-bound video camerawork".^[1]

In the original broadcast of episode two, the first fifteen seconds ofFleetwood Mac's"Oh Well (Part One)" can be heard during scenes in the Auto Plastics factory. This was removed from some video and DVD releases because of copyright issues. It is present on the 1995 VHS release, the 2011Special Edition DVD and the 2013Blu-ray release as the track is now covered by thePPL agreement.

Wikiquote has quotations related toThird Doctor.

• Spearhead from Space atBBC Online
• Doctor Who Locations – Spearhead from Space

• Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion title listing at theInternet Speculative Fiction Database

• Third Doctor serials
• Doctor Who serials novelised by Terrance Dicks
• 1970 British television episodes
• Television episodes set in London

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