Spearhead from Space (TV story)

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Is this someone's idea of a joke?Doctor Henderson


Spearhead From Space was the first story of Season 7 of Doctor Who, and was the first story to feature Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor. The story also introduced new companion Liz Shaw (Caroline John), and launched a multi-year story arc that saw the Doctor exiled on Earth and working for UNIT as its scientific advisor. Nicholas Courtney, as The Brigadier, becomes a regular -- the first time the series had introduced a character who was not (immediately, at least) considered a companion (although he would come to be considered thus in the future).

Spearhead from Space was the first Doctor Who story of the 1970s (although it was produced in 1969), was the first Doctor Who story to be produced in colour, and has the distinction of being the only Doctor Who story (the 1996 TV movie notwithstanding) to be entirely shot on film (the 2005-present revival series is videotaped, with the tapes processed to simulate film).

Synopsis

Exiled to Earth in the late 20th Century by his own people, the Time Lords, the newly regenerated Doctor arrives in Oxley Woods alongside a shower of mysterious meteorites. Investigating these unusual occurrences is the newly-formed United Nations Intelligence Taskforce UNIT for short.

Led by Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, UNIT are soon called into action when people and meteorites start going missing.

Most puzzling of all is the attempted kidnapping of a strange hospital patient a man with two hearts, who insists that he knows the Brigadier. 

The new Doctor soon joins forces with his old friend, UNIT and the recently recruited Doctor Elizabeth Shaw, but time is running out. Irregular things are happening at a nearby plastics factory, while faceless creatures lurk in the woods. The Nestenes have arrived, and want to conquer the Earth...

Plot

Episode One

It is the late 20th century, and on Earth at a nearby control tower, a man is scanning the screen and calls for his friend quickly. She comes in, and he shows her what looks like a meterorite storm. The meteorites appear to be flying in formation. In Oxley Woods, a local poacher, Sam Seeley, sees the meterorites falling to the ground, and runs for shelter. As he comes out, he finds one of the meteorites pulsing with energy. The TARDIS materializes in Oxley Woods, and the newly regenerated Doctor emerges and collapses to the ground. Meanwhile at UNIT, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart interviews Dr. Elizabeth Shaw of Cambridge University for the position of UNIT scientific advisor. She is rather dubious at the prospect, and openly derisive of the Brigadier's claim that Earth has interacted with alien races. The Brigadier mentions a mysterious man known only as "the Doctor" who had aided UNIT in the past, but is now nowhere to be found. The Doctor is discovered by a UNIT patrol and brought to Ashbridge Cottage Hospital.

Words soon leak out about the hospital's mysterious patient who appears to have two hearts, and soon the lobby is overrun with press -- and a mysterious man named Channing. The Brigadier is alerted to the Doctor's presence, but having changed his apperance, he doesn't recognize him. The Doctor awakens and recognizes the Brigadier, however. After the Brigadier leaves, the Doctor finds the TARDIS key in his boot, and attempts to leave. On the way, Channing and his associates kidnap him. He escapes in a wheelchair, but then leaves it and returns to the TARDIS on foot. As the Doctor crashes through the trees he is shot down by a UNIT soldier guarding the police box. The Doctor collapses once again.

Episode Two

The soldiers go over to where the Doctor collapsed. The Doctor is returned to the hospital, and the Brigadier questions Doctor Henderson about how the Doctor fell unconusious, and Doctor Henderson says the Doctor could have been shot. Before the Brigadier leaves the hospital, Doctor Henderson shows him the TARDIS key, and says the Doctor must have been really hanging onto it. The Brigadier tells a soldier to take the police box to UNIT Headquarters. The soldier shows him the broken up meterorite and says it was destroyed when it hit the ground. He then shows him a picture of Channing. At a nearby plastics factory, John Ransome an ex employee of auto plastics is visiting the manager, Hibbert. Ransome argues with Hibbert and asks him what is inside his workshop, but Hibbert tells he would be better to stay away from the factory. Just then, Channing appears in the room, and watches Ransome leave the factory. He then encounters Hibbert and hypnotises him. Meanwhile, Sam Seeley is taking a look at the meteroite. Just then, his wife Meg Seeley comes into the garden. She tells Sam he must not have the meterorite in the house. At UNIT, Liz Shaw tells the Brigadier that he will be able to open the police box with the key. The Brigadier welcomes General Scobie inside and introduces him to Liz. He asks what the police box is doing inside the labororty, and Liz tells him it is a spaceship.

At the hospital, the Doctor heads into the bathroom to have a shower. He then finds a black hat and coat and escapes from the hospital in a car. Meanwhile, 3 soldiers have found another meterorite. In Oxley Woods, a plastic creature known as an Auton tracks down the meterorite. At UNIT, the Brigadier tries to open the TARDIS again, but Liz tells him he has the wrong key. As the soldiers drive off to UNIT, one of them is distracted by the Auton and the UNIT truck crashes into a tree. The Auton takes the meterorite back to UNIT. At Ransome's old workshop, Hibbert tells Channing that General Scobie will soon be on his way. Meanwhile, the Doctor reaches UNIT and meets the Brigadier. He shows him a magic watch that controls the TARDIS. The Doctor says that he will try testing on the TARDIS, but the Brigadier tells him to stay where he is, as he has a lot of questions to ask the Doctor, but the Doctor tells him he has lost his memory. He then tells him he is the same person who helped him defeat the Yeti and the Cybermen, despite the fact he has changed his apperance. The Brigadier tells the Doctor hows he knows he is not an imposter, but the Doctor tells him that only he knows that. The Doctor looks at himself in a mirror and thinks he looks very smart. He then introduces himself to Liz Shaw, and the Brigadier tells him he was involved in the meterorite show that took place just yesterday.

The Doctor investigates the broken bits of the meterorite, and finds them rather intresting. The Brigadier asks the Doctor if he would enjoy helping UNIT out, and the Doctor asks him that if he does will he give him the key to the TARDIS, and the Brigadier replies: "Possibly". The Doctor then asks him how many meterorites came down and the Brigadier says there were 50 of them. The Doctor then asks him if there were any fragments, and the Brigadier says there was one which caused an accident and dissapered. The Doctor finds the Brigadier's question obvious, and tells him that when the soldiers went to look for them, they had been collected and taken somewhere. But the question is: where? Meanwhile, Ransome has returned to the plastics factory. He climbs over a high wall, and enters the factory grounds. Meanwhile, General Scobie is with Hibbert and Channing who are showing him a plastic dummy, and kindly offfer him the way out. Meanwhile, Ransome enters the factory. He clmbs up the staircase and breaks into his old workshop to find it full of new equipment. As he inspects a strange computer-like device, an Auton steps down from a plinth behind him and advances towards him.

Episode Three

The Auton tries to shoot Ransome but he escapes and goes to UNIT. Outside the factory, General Scobie is saying goodbye to Channing and Hibbert. Ransome rans out into Oxley Woods, and collapses. Inside a tent, he tells the soldiers about the Auton that he encountered in his workshop. The leader Auton is sent to retrive the meteorite that Sam Seely found. A soldier questions Sam Seely about the meteroites and he tells him that he calls them: " thunderballs." Channing discovers the Auton lost Ransome. Hibbert says there is one meteroite missing, but Channing tells him the leader of the Autons will find it. In the Brigadier's office, Ransome is telling him about the Auton as well. In the laborotory, the Doctor tries a test take off on the TARDIS, but he only produces a lot of smoke before realizing that his TARDIS has been disabled by the Time Lords, and he is trapped on earth. Back in the UNIT tent, the soldier orders Sam Seely to find the meteorite at once.

At Brook Cottage, Meg Seely is opening a trunk and inside is the meterorite. Suddenly, she hears a strange noise coming from inside the house. She enters the house and encounters the leader Auton. She runs outside into the garden, and tries to destroy the creature, but it shoots her. It breaks into the house, and knocks things over, looking for the meteorite. Liz puts a blanket over Meg Seeley while the Doctor investigates the meteroite. He says the signal for the meterorite must have been muffled by the metal from the trunk it was in. Liz tells him to be careful with it as it might explode, but the Doctor tells her it will be alright as long as they treat it gently. Liz is worried that the leader Auton will return for it. Meanwhile, the Auton finds Ransome in the UNIT tent, and kills him.

The Brigadier wonders where Ransome is, and asks a soldier, but the Doctor says Ransome must be at the plastics factory. The Doctor meets Hibbert in his office, and tells him about Ransome and the Autons. Afterwards, Hibbert kindly offers them out. At UNIT, the Brigadier telephones his regular army contact General Scobie to ask for support in investigating Auto Plastics. Scobie agrees to meet the Brigadier but hangs up as there is a knock at his front door. Scobie opens the door to reveal an exact duplicate of himself, who advances towards him.

Episode Four

At UNIT, the Doctor is investigating the meterorite, and says that inside it, it contains a brain. Just then the buzzer sounds and the Brigadier picks up the telephone. It is General Scobie's repilca. He tells the Brigadier the factory is locked and that he has some important work to do at the moment. The Brigadier crossly puts the phone down. He tells the Doctor the replica of General Scobie must have been made by Madame Tussauds, a waxworks in London. The next morning, the Doctor and Liz visit Madame Tussauds, and discover hundreds of dummy replicas of important people replicas. The Doctor discovers that all the replicas are made of plastic. He investigates a model of General Scobie and discovers a watch on his wrist. He realizes it is the real General Scobie, because the Autons have turned him into a dummy. The Doctor telephones the Brigadier, but a soldier tells him he is not in. The Doctor then tells the soldier he willl call him later.

In the factory workshop, Channing shows Hibbert a tank containing a body of an alien called the Nestene Consciousness. He tells Hibbert that the meterorites have created a body for the creature. Hibbert says the swarm leader has vanished, but Channing tells him they have the help of General Scobie's replica. He also says that tonight, the Autons will be activated. In the Doctor's lab, General Scobies' replica is with a soldier, and orders him to give him the last meterorite. Meanwhile at the waxworks, Hibbert cuts the power and leaves the room. The Doctor enters the dark room with a torch. Liz is frightened, but the Doctor tells her there is nothing to be scared of. Just then, the Doctor and Liz hide behind a curtain, and Channing and Hibbert enter the room. From behind the curtain, the Doctor and Liz watch as the dummies leave the room. The Doctor meets Hibbert and hypnotises him to believe that Channing is controling his mind and that he is Hibbert's enemy. The Doctor tells Hibbert he has to escape from Channing and asks him to come to UNIT so he can help him. Just then, Channing enters the room again and finds Hibbert standing around, so Hibbert leaves the room.

The Doctor and Liz tell the Brigadier that Channing and Hibbert have left the waxworks, and tell him he has to move against the factory quickly. In Channing's workshop, General Scobie's replica tells Channing that if the Doctor and UNIT move against him, he will stop them. Channing takes the meterorite and puts it under a pipe. It sucks the meterorite into the Nestene's body. Channing tells Scobie's replica that in the morning, the Autons will be activated. In the lab, the Doctor is building a device to destroy the Autons. At dawn the Autons are activated. They break out of a shopping centre and kill lots of people. Back in the lab, the Brigadier tells the Doctor that the invasion of the Autons has started. The Doctor shows him the weapon that will destroy the Autons. The Brigadier tells the Doctor his headquarter staff can help the Doctor destroy the Autons. In Channing's workshop, Hibbert use a metal pipe to open the tank containing the Nestene, but destroys the small control panel on the tank.

Channing enters and stops Hibbert but Hibbert tells him that he has been controling his mind. Channing tells him that the Nestenes have conanising other planets for 1000,000 years, and now they will conanise Earth. Meanwhile, the Doctor and the soldiers leave UNIT and head for the factory. Channing tells Hibbert there is nothing he can do. Hibbert attempts to kill Channing and the Autons by hitting the tank with the pipe, but an Auton shoots him and he dies. The Doctor and the soldiers reach the plastics factory. The Doctor manages to open the door, and everyone enters the factory ground. Just then, General Scobie's replica arrives with his men, and tells the Brigadier that he and his men are under arrest. The Doctor points his device at General Scobies' replica and kills him. A soldier tells the Doctor he has killed General Scobie, but the Doctor tells him he was never really alive. Meanwhile, the real General Scobie finds himself in the waxworks. The Doctor and Liz enter the factory and the Doctor attacks a passing Auton. An army of Autons enter the grounds. The soldiers attack them but they discover the Autons can not be destroyed by gunfire. The Doctor and Liz enter Channing's workshop. The Doctor discovers the Nestene's body and tells Channing he can destroy him and the Autons, but Channing says that: "No one can destroy the Nestenes!" and turns up the power on the tank. To his horror, the Doctor discovers that the Nestene Consciousness has created a monstrous tentacled body for itself. The Doctor tries to destroy it with his weapon, but discovers it is not working. The creature roars in anger, and wraps it's tentacles around the Doctor.

As the Doctor struggles with the creature, Liz presses a button on the Doctor's machine, and repels the Nestene Consciousness into space. Without the motive power of the Consciousness, the Autons will have no more power, and they collapse. The Consciouness screams in pain as it dies. The Doctor tells Liz to turn the device off. Liz then discovers that Channing, revealed to be no more than a sophisticated Auton, is likewise deactivated. Back at UNIT, the Brigadier floats the offer to the Doctor to let him work on a means to escape Earth while meanwhile helping UNIT stop future alien invasions. The Doctor, with misgivings, agrees, and Liz also agrees to become his new assistant. The Brigadier goes to prepare the paperwork and asks the Doctor what his name is. "Smith", says the Doctor. "Doctor John Smith".

Cast

Uncredited

  • UNIT Commissionaire - Derrick Sherwin
  • UNIT Soldiers- Roy Brent, Alan Cooper, Victoria Croxford, Trevor Cuff, Antonio De Maggio, Dave Dewhurst, Rachel Hipwood, Michael Horsburgh, John Hughes, Marie Johnson, June Johnson, Arthur Judd, Vicky Maxine, Patrick Milner, Dave Mobley, Robert Needham, Iain Smith, Hugh Wood
  • Auto Plastics- Constance Carling, Christine Bradley, Denis MacTighe, Brian Nolan, Lindy Russell, Rosemary Turner, Robert Windman
  • Extras - Barry Ashton, Keith Ashley, Bernadette Barry, David Billa, Joy Burnett, Arnold Chazen, Alan Clements, Diana Collins, Fred Davis, Gary Dean, Grace Dola, Michael Earl, Walter Goodman, Alan Granville, June Gray, Michael Harrison, Denis Haywood, Roger Houghton, Derek Hunt, Alfred Hurst, Brian Justice, Vi Kane, Peter Kaukus, Barry Kennington, Leonard Kingston, Sheila Knight, Gideon Kolb, Doris Lang, Kenneth Lindford, Norman Littlejohn, Reg Lloyd, Anthony Maine, Claire Maine. Bill Matthews, David Melbourne, Roger Minnis, Lola Morrice, Robert Murphy, Lesley Pates, Maurice Quick, Henry Rainer, Laurence Ross, Christopher Rushton, Tom Segal, Maurice Selwin, Keith Simon, John Spradbury, Sandy Stel, Cara Stevens, Cy Town, Hein Viljoen, Sonny Willis

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 his first name, John Smith.
  • This episode contains a lot of new information about the Doctor's physiology. We discover the Doctor has a binary vascular system, that his blood type isn't comparable to any human one, and that he can willfully go into a coma. This is also the first time that we see regeneration as a difficult physical process, with lingering effects.
  • Unlike the Fourth, Fifth and Seventh Doctors (DW: Robot, Castrovalva, Time and the Rani), the Third Doctor immediately recognizes people he's known in his previous body. In this instance, he recognizes Lethbridge-Stewart the first time he sees him. On the whole, the Third Doctor endures the effects of regeneration in much the same way that the Tenth Doctor did (DW: The Christmas Invasion).
  • The rationale the Brigadier gives Liz for aliens suddenly being interested in Earth is used, almost word-for-word, by the Tenth Doctor, when he tries to explain to Prime Minster Harriet Jones why the Sycorax won't be the last aliens to visit Earth. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)

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.
  • Due to a scene-shifters' strike, this story is completely shot on film and almost completely on location.
  • The actor playing the Doctor is credited for the first time as 'Doctor Who' in the closing credits as opposed to 'Dr. Who' which had been the norm since 1963. This form of credit would continue until the end of the Tom Baker era in 1981, after which the credit became the correct form, 'The Doctor'.
  • Among the props seen on the Doctor's workbench is the Morok freezing machine from The Space Museum (which was recycled previously as an x-ray laser in The Wheel in Space), and a control panel form one of Tobias Vaughn's machines, from The Invasion.
  • This was the first of two times a new incarnation fought The Autons; also, this was the first of three times The Autons appeared in a season opener. The Daleks are the only other adversary to have started three seasons/series'.

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.
  • In the cliffhanger of part 1, why would the UNIT soldiers open fire on someone they don't know? Even if it is a secure area wouldn't shooting someone be a bit unprofessional for UNIT? With white clothes and erattic movements, the doctor could have been mistaken for another alien by an inexperienced soldier.
  • 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? Perhaps Channing was a Scout Auton and fell to Earth with the first Energy Unit
  • 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.
  • Why don't the Nestenes kill the General, one duplicated, instead of leaving him in a wax museum?
  • The Doctor is gurning as he's attacked by tentacles.
  • At the start of episode two the Doctor clutches his head before being shot.
  • 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 Most likely there is an undocumented adventure that pits UNIT and the Doctor against an threat. 'The simplest explanation (and undoubtedly the real world one) is that the Brigadier was including DW:The Web of Fear. Even though it was not technically a UNIT operation, it did lay the groundwork for the forming of the operation. Another possibility is that UNIT was formed before the events of The Web of Fear, but the British branch was only established after the events of that story.

Continuity

Timeline

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:


Video Releases

Released as Doctor Who: Spearhead from Space.

Released:

  • First Release:
PAL - BBC Video BBCV4107
  • 1987 release (BBCV 4073)

    1987 release (BBCV 4073)

  • 1987 Cover

    1987 Cover

  • 3a-video2.jpg

    1995 Cover

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

Unofficial prequel

In the mid-1990s, production began on a fan film entitled Devious, which takes place prior to Spearhead from Space and featured Jon Pertwee as the Doctor. Pertwee died soon after filming his scenes and as of 2009 the film remains a work in progress. Although not authorised by the BBC, a 12-minute excerpt from the film was included on the BBC Video DVD release of DW: The War Games in 2009.

External Links


Template:Season 7

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