Review: Doctor Who Classic: Spearhead from Space

Jon Pertwee makes his entrance.

In the past I've discussed something in Doctor Who that I call, "Spearhead Syndrome". This is a condition by which the protagonist of the story (in this case The Doctor) spends the majority of the episode unconscious. From what I can see, three stories have this condition in Doctor Who, and they're all post-regeneration stories. David Tennant had The Christmas Invasion, Peter Davison had Castrovalva and today we're looking at the namer of the trope, Jon Pertwee's Spearhead From Space.
     There are several things that make this story unique from a production standpoint. It was the first story to be broadcast in colour, and although not all people had a colour television, this was a huge step for the BBC. Also, all of the people working on the show changed at once - the producers, the script editors and every last member of the main cast. Furthermore, the production was affected by a strike, and so the entire 100 minute story was shot using film on location.
     The story, written by Robert Holmes, begins as plastic meteorites collide with Earth. These meteorites are being tracked by UNIT, led by The Brigadier. As the Brig interviews a woman called Liz Shaw, a body is brought in with the description of having fallen out of a police box. Hearing the news, The Brig heads over immediately with an armed guard as the doctors at the Hospital begin to discover this stranger's alien nature. The Brigadier doesn't recognise the unconscious man, but The Doctor happens to wake up and recognises him, expressing disdain at what the Time Lords have done to him. As the Brig leaves, the reporters at the hospital discover a strange, plastic looking man.

The Doctor has been exiled and regenerated.

     The Doctor expresses worry over his shoes - which contain the TARDIS key. The Doctor is kenapped by two plastic-looking wardens, led by the first strange man. The Doctor manages to escape them in which weheelchair, but The Doctor stumbles into the line of fire of the UNIT guards covering the TARDIS, sending him back to hospital with a wound.
     An engineer returns to the company that he left a few years prior, discovering slightly plastic looking stafff. His office has been rendered Out Of Bounds and his followed by the Strange Looking Plastic Man. The head of the factory is being controlled by the SLPM. Back at UNIT, Liz Shaw's experiments discover that the meteorite is manufactured. The SLPM tells the factory boss that the meteorites they haven't recovered yet will find their way to them - and that they are alive. They're seen to be controlling shop window dummies - the Autons.
     The Doctor is up and out of bed once more, and has a shower before stealing clothes. He jumps into a car (later to be christened Bessie) and drives off. UNIT recover another asteroid, but the soldiers are killed by an Auton. The Doctor makes his way to UNIT and everyone is fine and dandy - the story really begins, The man from before sneaks into the room that used to be his laboratory, and discovers a range of plastic shop window dummies - one of which moves to kill him.

An Auton.

      At this halfway point I'd just like to talk about the Autons. They're a decent enough horror idea - shop window dummies are a common enough feature of our lives that making them into aliens can scare a generation of children. I'm biased, of course - I was there when RTD did the same thing with the Autons. I actually think that Spearhead does it better, because they're actually treated like threats instead of jokes.
     SPLM (Channing) notices when the man (called John) escapes from the factory. John runs to UNIT, telling them about the Autons in basic terms. A farmer who had discovered one of the meteorites goes to UNIT as well. Liz steals the TARDIS key from the Brig for The Doctor, who tries to make his getaway. Unfortunately the TARDIS refuses to set off, setting the stage for the Third Doctor's exile on Earth. The Autons find the last meteorite at the house of the farmer, but UNIT arrive at the house, shooting the Auton and making it run away  - and then kill Ransome.
     UNIT arrive at the plastics factory, and are unsettled by Channing. Back at the Lab, The Doctor discovers that the sphere is alive. Army captain General Scobie, in charge of UNIT's army, is found by his Auton replica, who tells the Brig to stay away from the factory. Visiting Madame Tussauds, The Doctor discovers that the "replica" of Scobie is in fact the real General, solidified in plastic.

Channing

     Exploring further, The Doctor and Liz break into the factory, watching as Channing explains to the Factory Boss how the Autons work (they're living things) and they interrogate the factory boss once Channing leaves. Eventually they escape, warning UNIT and preparing for the next day's deployment - having received the last meteorite from General Scobie. The Autons prowl the streets, as The Doctor and Liz invade the factor with one of the Doctor's inventions, destroying the aliens and preventing the invasion.
     One of the best things about Spearhead is its acting roster. The Strange Plastic Looking Man, known as Channing, is played wonderfully by Hugh Burden, who imbues his character with a sense of otherworldlyness that doesn't just come off as wooden acting. I'm glad he's here really, as he provides fluency throughout a story that is slip very clearly into two distinct parts; the first half, in which The Doctor recovers from his regeneration and discovers his exile, and the second half, which focuses more on the Auton storyline. Jon Pertwee definitely gets to stretch his acting muscles, going from amnesiac to debonaire with incredible fluency, and his incarnation is almost instantly likeable. Caroline John is also very good as assistant Liz Shaw, although like a few other companions, her adaptation to this wonderful new concept of alien life isn't covered in the depths I'd like it to be. At the beginning she's an outright skeptic, and yet as these things happen she just seems to... accept it all.

     A big problem that I found stemmed from the production issues - the editing. The shot cuts were very clever - a character mentions Madame Tussauds' and suddenly we're there, cutting out all unnecessary traveltime. The problem as I see it is that in a lot of these transitions, the edit is obvious (a shot of the previous scene flashing for a second) and dialogue is cut off. For example; the cliffhanger to the first episode has a guard shouting, "Who told you to shoot, you stupid...", and the beginning of the next retcons this to, "No one told you to shoot, you fool!". It didn't overshadow the story, but it did distract me and ruined the immersion that the filmic tone of the story was trying to give.

"You really believe in a man that can change his appearance?"

     Overall Spearhead from Space is one of the better Post Regeneration stories. It does suffer from the fact that the two halves of the story keep trying to outdo each other and often distract from the main goal, but a lot of that just adds to its charm and the only real let down for me is shoddy editing. Jon Pertwee's entrance into Doctor Who was a sign of what was to come, and heralded the beginning of the program's golden era.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: We say goodbye in The Caves of Androzani