Spearhead From Space - Episode 2

The beginning of the episode deals with the cliffhanger rather quickly. The Doctor isn’t dead just in a self-induced coma. I like it when they make random things up about the Doctor, if anyone can do this then its Robert Holmes. It’s quite lucky that the UNIT soldier was such a rubbish shot that all he managed to do was graze the scalp.

This episode sees the introduction of a different part of the plot. Ransome is working in a factory and gets the push and is a bit cross. The only reason why we should care is that its Channing is also a fixture of the factory. I don’t really like Ransome, I find him a bit whiney and just his whole character annoys me. I was happier when Seeley appeared. We got to see Mrs Seeley and the way they were together was very much of its time and it wouldn’t have worked in 2014.

I do like the scene where the UNIT soldier is killed transporting the sphere. It was quite different to anything that we would have seen during the Troughton era. The effect of crashing the truck was simply done but you don’t need to go over the top in order to achieve something effective.

Seeing the Doctor try on his new outfit is something that has become a part of the regeneration process and the fact that the Doctor gets changed in a hospital would be mirrored during Matt Smith’s opening episode. In fact that whole scene is rather strange. It’s the first time that we had seen the Doctor take a shower in seven years on the show. When the Doctor eventually makes it out of the hospital its clear which car he’s going to end up in (I prefer the red version to the yellow Bessie we see).

The second scene between the Doctor and the Brigadier is a lot better than the first. It’s better because Pertwee has quickly got to grips with the character and the whole scene is a lot of fun. I like how he instantly gets on with Liz Shaw and its clear that two scientists are always going to get on far better than with a member of the military. Even one like the Brigadier. The cliffhanger is another good one with Ransome about to become a victim of the Autons. It’s good more because of Ransome’s face and the way that the Auton just slowly moved towards him. On one hand I don’t think that it was as much fun as the opening episode but then it did what it needed to do and as a result it’s a perfectly fine episode. The feel of the episode is strange due to the outside filming and as a four part adventure its moving along nicely and it seems like Pertwee is going to have an easier time settling into the role and making it his own than Troughton did.