Something plastic this way comes, as Jon Pertwee kicks off Season 8 of Doctor Who in dour mood...

Terror Of The Autons has a hell of a lot to achieve in its four episodes. It kicks off the series’ eighth season, introduces a whole load of new characters and in between this, it has a story to tell. That it manages to do so with so much going on is something of a miracle.

It’s the start of Season Eight, a start of stability in a way, but in another, it’s as unusual as the preceding batch of stories. Season Eight is something of a crossroads in that it’s a mix of the gritty storytelling that hallmarked Season Seven and the lighter stories that were to come. Brand new characters are introduced, but by contrast, we have a Doctor who’s even more foul tempered and abrasive than usual. It’s also unique in that all five stories pit The Doctor against one main opponent - but more on him in a minute.

Terror Of The Autons represents this tug of war in styles. There’s the setting up of the cosy UNIT family, as Jo Grant and Mike Yates make their debuts. There’s more jokes on show this time, and a more colourful look to the show rather than industrial workplaces and offices. In Terror Of The Autons, we get circuses, carnival Autons and more CSO than your average episode of The Tomorrow People. But by contrast, Terror is still designed to get kiddies quaking in fear, as bug-eyed troll dolls, killer chairs and a more brutal-than-usual Master jostle for attention.

Mention of The Master brings me on to the new characters waving hello for the first time. So let’s meet ‘n’ greet the newbies:

1. The Master

The Doctor’s arch nemesis. A baddie by trade, and yet, seems to have been more of a girly swot at the Time Lord Academy than The Doctor. The Master was probably one of those closet swots, the ones that pretended to be cool and joke around, while reading up on the concept of relative dimensions in secret.

Terror Of The Autons shows us a more dangerous Master than usual. Robert Holmes wastes no time in telling everyone that he’s a bastard. He shrinks baldy bores and puts them in a lunchbox next to boiled eggs. He kills two key factory staff when they don’t march in time to his drumbeat. He even viciously karate-chops an innocent telescope worker who plummets to his doom with an almighty roar. The last one is especially brutal, since the man didn’t do anything to deserve such a fate - it’s just The Master killing for kicks.

"The Master's combination of charm and evil is perfectly brought to life by Roger Delgado, who would prove to be one of the most successful elements of the Pertwee years"

And yet despite this ruthlessness, on paper, The Master’s a bit of a laughing stock. He’s forever coming up with schemes to kill The Doctor, and yet, every single one of these dastardly plans comes to nothing. Hypnotising companions and bombs don’t work. Neither do Auton policemen. Or killer telephone cords. Or killer flowers. At one point, The Master pathetically passes off these blunders as an excuse to prolong the satisfaction of eventually killing his newly-bouffant-headed nemesis. Which never rings true, quite frankly. It all smacks of Dastardly And Muttley, when they failed to capture the pigeon for the millionth time, despite the best efforts of Klunk the inventor.

And then there’s The Master’s plan with the Autons, which ultimately turns out to be a bit rubbish. He’s spent all that time establishing himself as the new Auton commander, taking over plastic factories and using the Radio Telescope Tower as a bridgehead for invasion. Yet it takes just one comment by The Doctor for him to change his mind and close the bridgehead, deactivating the Autons in the process. It all seems a bit far-fetched, and in the end, just shows up The Master to be a bit of a wet fish.

All of these negatives prove to be irrelevant though, since the casting of Roger Delgado papers over any shortcomings. Delgado is an inspired choice to portray The Master. It’s always been said that The Master mirrors The Doctor of the time, and sure enough, this incarnation gives off an air of dignified, suave superiority. Delgado pulls off the near-impossible. Not only does he successfully bring out the malevolence of The Master (his near-hit of Farrel Sr or his detached reaction to McDermott’s death), he also adds a lot of wry, understated humour to the part. This combination of charm and evil is perfectly brought to life by Delgado, who would prove to be one of the most successful elements of the Pertwee years.

2. Jo Grant

Talking of successful, Jo, too would be just as fondly remembered. The dizzy, scatter-brained new assistant admittedly gets off on the wrong foot with The Doctor. Not only does she wreck The Doctor’s experiment, she apparently can’t understand what the hell he’s going on about, but then if you were confronted with a load of puff about a thing with nine opposable digits, I doubt if you’d be able to comprehend.

Jo actually has quite an unhappy time in Terror Of The Autons. She’s hypnotised by The Master, sidelined by The Brig, patronised by The Doctor, and on top of all this, nearly blows everyone to kingdom come. Like The Master, on paper, Jo doesn’t sound very promising. But the casting of Katy Manning meant that Jo becomes a hugely likeable and endearing companion. Manning adds a lot of warmth and chirpy charm to Jo, and it’s easy to see why even The Doctor starts to take a shine to her by the time the story’s through.

"While Jo Grant isn’t exactly a poster girl for bra-burning feminism, she does at least get a hugely satisfying character development over the next three seasons"

While Jo isn’t exactly a poster girl for bra-burning feminism, she does at least get a hugely satisfying character development over the next three seasons. She is shown to mature from the inexperienced, ditzy girl through to a mature, capable young woman. As we’ll also see, the relationship between Jo and The Doctor will prove to be one of the highlights of Doctor Who’s long history - even if it ends in tears.

3. Mike Yates

Poor old Mike Yates. While The Master and Jo have received their fair share of plaudits, Mike has received the odd snigger or two. How can such a fey wet blanket be the captain of the UNIT squad? In truth, I can’t really see Mike heading down the pub with Benton and the lads. Instead, he probably retreats back to his bedsit to light some joss sticks, sip some cocoa and blub over a picture of his beloved Jo while listening to a copy of Tea For The Tillerman by Cat Stevens.

But like Jo, Mike gets a great character arc that’s still both unusual and brave to this day. From the dependable soldier of Season Eight through to the misguided idealist, the story of Mike is another reason why Barry Letts is one of the most revered producers of Doctor Who. Letts genuinely cared about his characters and steered them through a narrative arc that was both bold and logical at the same time. Richard Franklin, too, adds much to the character of Mike, and becomes an important part of the now-established UNIT family.

"Rex Farrel, the most prominent of the guest characters is a stereotypical Big Girl’s Blouse, the sort of spineless goon that Rory from the new series presumably worships"

So that’s a lot of regulars to introduce. The story of Terror Of The Autons does suffer a bit as a result. It’s certainly not as creepy as Spearhead From Space, and the ending is a total washout. And all of the characters are really just cannon fodder for The Master. Luigi Rossini, Phillips, McDermott and Farrel Sr aren’t really given enough depth or background. Rex Farrel, the most prominent of the guest characters is a stereotypical Big Girl’s Blouse, the sort of spineless goon that Rory from the new series presumably worships. He’s well played by Michael Wisher though, one of the most versatile character actors in Who, who could go from playing a beardy journo through to wimp through to sarcastic dictator through to the one and only Davros.

Even The Doctor’s starting on his momentary phase of behaving like a complete arse at any given opportunity. While he was angry and moody in Season Seven, it was counterpointed by equal measures of humour and compassion. In Season Eight though, for the most part, it’s just one bad mood after another (reaching its nadir in The Mind Of Evil and The Daemons). He starts on at Jo, making her feel unwelcome (oh, how he’ll come to regret that), chides The Brigadier for his usual plan to blow the enemy up, and takes pompous fool Brownrose apart bit by bit. Brownrose may be an insufferable old bore but at the end of the day, he’s really just trying to do his job. What’s a bit jarring though is that The Doctor now likes to spend a bit of downtime at the local club. Whether or not he means the local gentleman’s club or the local nightclub is anyone’s guess - I imagine The Doctor could hog the dance floor with a couple of Venutian moves that would leave even John Travolta reeling in jealousy.

"At least Terror shows that Who could still shock like hell when it wanted to"

What Terror Of The Autons does provide is a string of moments. Ask any 40-something to name a scary Doctor Who moment, and it’s probable that they’ll say one of the following: “The troll doll with the bug eyes killing the old man.” “The plastic chair eating the workshop man.” “The policeman being unmasked to reveal an Auton.” “The telephone cord strangling The Doctor.” All of these are strikingly macabre images, and in the case of pushing the envelope for kids, Terror Of The Autons inevitably met the wrath of Whitehouse and the blue rinse brigade. But they’re still incredibly effective threats. The troll doll is still pretty freaky today, the bug eyes and the jerky motion adding to the creepiness. The killer chair, too, is a memorably scary threat - McDermott’s death is quite gruesome, and it’s quite daring to have the camera linger for so long on his unmoving corpse. Given that all these scares were so close to home, you can understand why Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks wanted to lower the horror content for the next few years - but at least Terror shows that Who could still shock like hell when it wanted to.

Fresh from his work on Inferno, Barry Letts is back in the director’s chair for Terror Of The Autons. On the whole, he does a decent job, with some good location filming and some well-shot action sequences. The downside though is that he uses too much CSO, or as it’s known these days, blue screen. Or green screen. Or yellow screen? Anyway, the problem with CSO is that the end results look too artificial. The tell-tale blue fringing round characters and objects never looked realistic, even when the process was still in its infancy. And what’s worse is that there are so many things represented by CSO. I can totally understand from a budget point of view that mocking up a kitchen, telephone box and workshop for one scene was just a waste of money - but the visuals in Terror do look a bit raggedy from time to time.

"Never did a Doctor Who story live up to its name quite so much"

And don’t get me started on the incidental music. Regrettably, Season Eight’s music would solely be made up of dated keyboard noodling, which detracts from instead of punctuating the action. Don’t get me wrong, if they were performed on normal instruments, then Dudley Simpson’s music would still sound great. But the keyboards sound so clunky and awkward - it’s like listening to a classroom of seven-year-olds performing the works of Dudley Simpson on a set of Bontempi organs that desperately need new batteries.

Despite these problems, Terror Of The Autons stands up reasonably well. It’s entertaining and easy to follow, while paving the way for things to come with its three lynchpins of the Pertwee era. And even if Whitehouse didn’t agree, you can’t deny that Terror contains some of the most iconic images for giving 1971 kids vivid nightmares. Never did a Doctor Who story live up to its name quite so much.

John Bensalhia limbered up for this mammoth task with a full four-series review of Blake's 7, and writes professionally and recreationally all over the web. Check out his portfolio of work at Wordprofectors.

Check out John's previous Doctor Who review, Inferno