Spearhead from Space (TV story)

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Spearhead from Space was the first story to be featured in colour. Jon Pertwee makes his first regular appearance as the Third Doctor and Caroline John also makes her debut as companion Elizabeth Shaw. This story also is the first to regularly feature U.N.I.T and Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.

Synopsis

The newly regenerated Doctor arrives on Earth and swiftly discovers a plot by the Nestene Consciousness to invade the Earth through their ability to control plastic.

Plot

The TARDIS arrives on Earth in the middle of a meteorite shower and the Doctor is found by UNIT troops and taken to a nearby hospital. The Brigadier is faced with having to cope not only with the mysterious meteorites but also with Ransome, an ex-employee of a local plastics factory, who claims he has seen a walking mannequin.

The meteorites turn out to be hollow globes containing the Nestene consciousness, a disembodied alien intelligence with an affinity for plastic. A Nestene agent, Channing, has infiltrated the plastics factory and is using energy from the globes to animate Autons - mannequin-like figures and realistic replicas of senior establishment figures - with the aim of colonising the Earth.

Aided by newly-recruited UNIT scientist Dr Elizabeth Shaw, the Doctor thwarts this scheme by repelling the Nestene consciousness into space and thereby neutralising the Autons and the monstrous tentacled form that it has been creating for itself in a tank within the factory. Channing, revealed to be no more than a sophisticated Auton, is likewise deactivated.

Cast

Crew

References

  • The Doctor can communicate with his eyebrows in the language of the planet Delphon.
  • The Time Lords have changed the dematerialization codes for the TARDIS
  • UNIT have monitoring stations and a London HQ.
  • The Doctor uses the alias John Smith

Story Notes

  • This is the first story featuring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, as well as the first appearance of companion Liz Shaw and villains the Nestene Consciousness and its servants the Autons.
  • There is a new title sequence designed by Bernard Lodge (who designed the previous title sequence).
  • There are scenes featuring real waxworks shot at Madame Tussaud's in London.
  • This story had the working title of; Facsimile.
  • This story is completely shot on film.
  • The Doctor is credited for the first time as 'Doctor Who' in the closing credits as opposed to 'Dr. Who'.
  • This is the first time that we find out about the Doctor's two hearts

Ratings

  • Episode 1 - 8.4 million viewers
  • Episode 2 - 8.1 million viewers
  • Episode 3 - 8.3 million viewers
  • Episode 4 - 8.1 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming Locations

  • Location filming took pace at the BBC facility of Wood Norton near Evesham and in the nearby pub in Radford.
  • Madame Tussaud's in London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

  • If UNIT is a top secret organisation, how does the media know about it? (Perhaps UNIT is an "open secret" as MI5 and MI6 used to be i.e. people knew about the intelligence organisations but the government did not officially acknowledge their existence. Or perhaps it is a secret organisation in the vein of the CIA, in which the existence of the group is not secret, but its activities.)
  • If the Nestenes needed to take control of a plastics factory to create Autons, and they gained control of said factory through Channing, an advanced Auton, then who created Channing?
  • The freshly regenerated Doctor sports a visible tattoo on one arm (which can be seen during the shower sequence), even though he hasn't been "alive" long enough to get one. NA: Christmas on a Rational Planet suggests that this tattoo was applied to the Doctor by the Time Lords to mark him as an exile or criminal.
  • At the beginning of the story, the Brigadier says that since UNIT was formed there have been two attempts to invade the Earth and that the Doctor helped on both occasions. The only invasion attempt between the time UNIT was formed and the beginning of this story was during The Invasion.

Continuity

DVD, Video and Other Releases

DVD Releases

File:3a-dvd.jpg
3a-dvd2.jpg

Released as Doctor Who: Spearhead from Space, this release was slipped into the DVD schedule by BBC Worldwide so that a second DVD could be released in 2000. In the event, the DVD was delayed till the following year.

Released:

PAL - BBC DVD BBCDVD1012
NTSC - Warner Video E1120

Contents:

  • UNIT Recruitment Film
  • Trailer
  • Photo Gallery
  • Production Subtitles
  • Easter Egg (Test Footage for the titles sequence.)
  • Commentary: Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John

Rear Credits:

Notes: The Fleetwood Mac song Oh Well - Part One has been removed from the DVD.

Video Releases

3a-video3.jpg
File:3a-video2.jpg

Released as Doctor Who: Spearhead from Space.

Released:

  • First Release:
PAL - BBC Video BBCV4107
NTSC - Warner Video E1163

Notes: Released in an edited movie-format, with the Fleetwood Mac song Oh Well - Part One removed.

  • Second Release:
PAL - BBC Video BBCV5509

Notes: Released unedited.

Novelisation

Auton Invasion novel.jpg
Main article: Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion

External Links

Template:Season 7

TVStub.png
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