Terror of the Autons - Episode 1

Terror of the Autons is the first story of the eighth season of Doctor Who. Thankfully we are past the seven part stories although six parters will become the norm throughout the seventies. This story also sees the first to feature Katy Manning as Jo Grant and Roger Delgado as the definitive version of the Master. It takes less than 90 seconds for Roger Delgado appear as the Master. From the moment he starts to speak I know why he is the best Master. The way that he talks to Rossini is brilliant and we get the first example of the Master’s Hypnosis. Within 10 minutes he’s already killed someone and in a way that is quite unusual but becomes his trademark for most of his time on the show. By the latter stages of the episode he has hypnotised Farrell so that he can control the plastics factory.

Jo Grant’s first scene is the best way for a companion to be introduced as she gets on the wrong side of the Doctor. She is introduced as the Doctor’s new assistant to replace Liz. There is a brief reference as to where Liz has gone which doesn’t detract from the fact that I feel she deserved a goodbye scene but that’s the last time that I will mention that (I bet your relieved). I think that Jo is a more suitable companion for the show than Liz was because Jo isn’t too smart and gets into silly situations which she does here. She manages to get hypnotised by the Master and is about to blow UNIT HQ and the Doctor. She’s going to fit in well to the show.

This story as the title suggests, sees the return of the Autons who opened the previous season and it’s quite intriguing in the early stages of to see why the Master wants the only sphere that wasn’t destroyed. It’s quite funny to think that nothing was really mentioned in ‘Spearhead from Space’ about their being a surviving sphere. The Autons don’t come across as particularly menacing as the Master appears to be in control. Cant say I really noticed it like this before but the Autons will have lost some of their menace that they had in the previous year. Don’t know whether it was Robert Holmes’ intention when he wrote this story that we would get this but it is what it is.

There is a slightly strange scene where a Timelord appears in mid-air to talk to the Doctor. This is visually achieved by using CSO but what I find strange is why he’s dressed up like a civil servant. There was a purpose to it and that’s just to alert the Doctor to the Master’s presence on earth.

I thought that this opening episode was quite good. It introduced Roger Delgado in a brilliant way and showed that he managed to get quite involved in the story in quite a short space of time. Delgado is a brilliant piece of casting and Katy Manning has a promising debut episode so this shows that the Letts/Dicks run programme is going to get on its feet and take the show in a new direction.