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| Spearhead from Space | |
| Series: | Doctor Who - TV Stories |
| Season Number: | Season 7 |
| Story Number: | 51 |
| Doctor: | Third Doctor (introduction) |
| Companions: | Liz Shaw (introduction) |
| Enemy: | |
| Setting: | |
| Writer: | Robert Holmes |
| Director: | Derek Martinus |
| Broadcast: | 3rd January - 24th January 1970 |
| Format: | 4 25-minute episodes |
| Previous Story: | The War Games |
| Following Story: | Doctor Who and the Silurians |
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).
Contents |
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 Dr Liz 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...
UNIT soldiers monitor a curious meteorite shower over Oxley Woods. The meteorites appear to be flying in formation. Meanwhile, 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. A local farmer, Sam Seeley, 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. He 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 regenerated 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 wakes up and heads into a shower to clean up. He then puts on a smart coat and a black hat. The press, hearing about a "man from space" at the hospital, explain that the meteorites turn out to be hollow globes containing the Nestene Consciousness, a disembodied alien intelligence which can inhabit and animate plastic and create robot-like plastic slaves which can appear either as mannequins or replica Humans. The plastic polyhedron is actually a power unit for a non-physical Alien intelligence known as the Nestene Consciousness. Normally disembodied, it has an affinity for plastic, and is able to animate humanoid facsimiles made from that material, known as Autons.
The Nestene Consciousness have taken over a toy factory in London, and plan to replace key government and public figures with Auton duplicates. The Auton in charge of the factory sends other, less human-looking Autons to retrieve the power units from UNIT and the poacher. Channing, who is a Nestene agent has taken over Auto Plastics to facilitate the invasion. A gentleman named Hibbert is working at the factory. Channing encounters Hibbert and hypnotises him so he can work for Channing.
Later, John Ransome an ex-employee of a local plastics returns to the plastics factory and breaks into his old workshop to find it full of new equipment. As he inspects a strange computer-like device, a plastic shop dummy steps down from a plinth behind him and advances towards him.
Ransome escapes and goes to UNIT. He tells the soldiers about the Auton that he encountered in his workshop. The Auton is sent to retrive the meteorite that Sam Seely found. It escapes UNIT and kills Ransome by shooting him in a UNIT tent. Meanwhile, several other Autons have started a war in the streets of London. They have broken out of a shopping centre, and have shot lots of people, including a policeman. Back at UNIT Headquarters, the Doctor discovers that his TARDIS has been disabled by the Time Lords and he is trapped on Earth.
The Doctor convinces Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart that he is the same man who aided him before to defeat the Yeti and the Cybermen, despite his change in appearance. The Doctor creates an electroshock device that he believes will disable the Autons. 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 on him.
Scobie phones the Brigadier again and tells him the factory is locked. The Doctor and Liz visit Madame Tussauds, a museum in London, and discover hundreds of dummy replicas of important people replicas. The Doctor meets Hibbert and hypnotises him to believe Channing is his enemy. Hibbert attempts to kill Channing but he is killed instead by an Auton. At dawn the Autons are activated, and they attack some police stations. The UNIT soldiers reach the plastics factory and attack it, but they discover the Autons can not be destroyed by gunfire. The Doctor and Liz break into the factory, where the Doctor finds that the Nestene Consciousness has created a monstrous tentacled body for itself inside a tank.
As the Doctor struggles with the creature, Liz presses a button on the little 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. Channing, revealed to be no more than a sophisticated Auton, is likewise deactivated. 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", replies the Doctor. "Doctor John Smith".
to be added
DVD Releases
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:
Contents:
Rear Credits:
Notes:
Video Releases
Released as Doctor Who: Spearhead from Space.
Released:
Notes: Released in an edited movie-format, with the Fleetwood Mac song Oh Well - Part One removed.
Notes: Released unedited.
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.
| Season 7 |
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| Spearhead from Space • Doctor Who and the Silurians • The Ambassadors of Death • Inferno |
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