Doctor Who Terror of the Autons: Episode One (1963–1989) watch online HD

Review of all 4 episodes:

The most notable aspect of this story is the arrival of The Master as an arch nemesis for The Doctor. This fellow renegade Time Lord is like Moriarty is to Sherlock Holmes, an equally brilliant, intelligent regular adversary who is a bit like 'the other side of the same coin' with The Doctor. The idea of this character and the performance by Roger Delgado is absolutely fantastic. The Master and his plan to bring back to Nestenes, with their ability to turn plastic items into deadly living plastic Autons to attack humanity, provides terrific entertainment.

There is a level of terror and horror in this adventure, similar to its predecessor featuring the Nestenes, Spearhead From Space. Attacks by an inflatable chair, a telephone wire, plastic daffodils and especially a creepy child's doll are sinister and thrilling, creating some very memorable 'hide behind the sofa' moments that have lived in the minds of viewers ever since. Also the Auton dummies disguised as people have some great moments. In particular there is a great, spectacular stunt when an Auton is knocked down and falls dramatically, careering down a huge slope, apparently to its death, only to just get straight back up.

Jon Pertwee remains on top form along with an excellent guest cast and all the regulars do well although it is sad that the character of The Doctor's 'assistant' Liz Shaw is replaced. Her replacement character Jo Grant goes on to be a very endearing character but Liz Shaw was the better companion for The Doctor in my opinion with a strong intellect as well as bravery. The addition of Captain Mike Yates is great but perhaps they transferred the strength and intelligence of Liz Shaw onto Yates and passed the glamour and warmth of Liz onto Jo Grant. That is an unfortunate decision for gender equality. I liked having all those aspects combined within the one female companion. In saying that I do really like Katy Manning as Jo.

The story is not necessarily perfect, if you nitpick you can find a few minor faults in a scene here and there but even then it still stands up against any TV show of any era. The great new villain added to top class thrills, excellent acting, cracking dialogue and good amounts of action make this a classic. Written by Doctor Who legend Robert Holmes and well directed by admirable showrunner/producer Barry Letts, this is a must watch for all fans.

My Ratings: All 4 episodes - 10/10

Doctor Who: Terror of the Autons: Part 1 (refered to 'Episode One' on screen) starts as an evil renegade Timelord known as the Master (Roger Delgado) arrives in England in his TARDIS, he then hypnotises a circus owner named Rossini (John Baskcomb) to help him steal the last remaining Nestene energy meteorite where is is on display at a museum. Meanwhile the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) has been assigned a new assistant Jo Grant (Katy Manning) who informs the Doctor that the Nestene meteorite has been stolen. The Master then energises the Nestene meteorite by breaking into & using a large radio telescope, he then uses his hypnotic powers to gain control of a local plastics factory run by Rex Farrel (Michael Wisher) to produce killer plastic Autons for his evil scheme...

Episode 1 from season 8 this Doctor Who adventure was originally aired here in the UK during January 1971, the first story in Jon Pertwee's second season as the Doctor this four part story was directed by Barry Letts although there was no on screen credit as he was also the producer, I'm not sure why though. Originally called 'The Spray of Death' the script by Robert Holmes has started out well enough although this initial episode is pretty much all about scene setting & not that much has actually happened, the Doctor hasn't really done anything although it's interesting enough so far & it has potential to become a great story. I must admit though why did that other Timelord in the bowler hat not need a TARDIS to travel through time & space? The Master and the Doctor both need one so why not him? Also if the Master set that trap with the bomb rigged to the door so it would go off when opened how did he get out of the room himself? Sorry but they are just things which bugged me. Still I liked this as far it went & am looking forward to Episode Two.

Terror of the Autons is a notable story for two firsts, the first of those firsts as it were was the introduction of the Master who would appear in every story during season 8 & sporadically through the rest of the series up to the present day. Played by Roger Delgado whose birth name was in fact Roger Caesar Marius Bernard de Delgado Torres Castillo Roberto he's portrayal of the Master is in my humble opinion the best, he just has a great ominous on screen presence & he was a fine actor. The second of the firsts was also the introduction of a new assistant Jo Grant who would stay for three seasons. I must mention the awkward use of CSO here as it looks awful, it just stands out so much it becomes extremely distracting & off-putting. There aren't any monsters in this one I'm afraid apart from some brief shots of killer mannequins at the end as the Nestenes make a return from the season 7 story Spearhead from Space (1970).

Terror of the Autons: Part 1 is a solid if unspectacular start to a classic Doctor Who story, definitely worth a watch but on it's own I wouldn't call it anything special.

I love Robert Holmes, I love the Autons, I love The Master, I like Jo Grant, and I quite like this story, though it really could have been a lot better. "Terror of the Autons" is a very good story but not a flawless one, this is a story which suffers from a rushed ending, silly plot devices, and even some inexcusable Scooby Doo-like moments in which masks are pulled off to reveal the *yawn* unexpected.

The best part of this story, which is surprisingly light on any of the Auton-induced terror which its title promises (nothing here even comes close to the Autons attacking London in "Spearhead from Space", other than maybe that doll *shudder*), is undoubtedly the first appearance of The Master. Now, The Master may have been remembered by much of the mainstream as a pantomime villain (and apparently Russel T. Davies, who wrote John Simm as an annoyingly flamboyant and silly villain), but that is due to future interpretations of the character. Roger Delgado is nothing short of BRILLIANT as The Master. Cold, menacing, charming, deceptive, and intelligent, this is a proper VILLAIN. Delgado's death was a major loss for Doctor Who.

The Autons and Nestenes are fairly disappointing in this story as they are not really the villains. It would be their last appearance in Doctor Who right until the first story of the revived series "Rose". "Terror of the Autons" is well-written overall although not among Holmes' absolute best. The direction by the uncredited Barry Letts is okay. Katy Manning gets a good start in this story playing Jo Grant, an underrated companion in my opinion.

Episode Ratings:

Episode 1: 8/10 Episode 2: 9/10 Episode 3: 8/10 Episode 4: 7/10

Overall: Average rating amounts to 8/10 and I will stick with that rating for this story across its four episodes

The 7th season probably got as far away from "classic" WHO as possible. Season 8 began moving back the other way. "TERROR OF THE AUTONS" was a bit of a shock the first time I saw it. FAST-paced, much more light in tone, and with a definite effort made to make The Doctor more likable again (though still as arrogant and egotistical as he'd been the year before).

Jo Grant, I must admit, took a while to grow on me. I'd gotten to like Liz Shaw, and this "new assistant" was a bit jarring. I suppose my taste in women has evolved over the years, for while I was initially as put off as The Doctor ("I'm your new assistant." "Oh, NO!") I eventually came to feel very warmly toward her (even as he did). While accused of being a clumsy half-wit, what I see even in her first episode is a real go-getter, someone smart (in her own way) who is determined to be useful and helpful any way she can, in spite of what other people mistakenly think of her. How can anyone not admire that?

After the rather adversarial relationship The Doctor had with The Brigadier for most of Season 7, they seem to have gotten a lot more relaxed around each other here. It's funny how when Jo's "relative in high places" managed to push her onto the Brig, HE in turned foisted her onto The Doctor-- then shamed The Doctor into either telling her she wasn't wanted himself, or accepting her! A rather warm-hearted, caring side of him showed itself there-- albeit reluctantly, at this stage.

Not seeing "SPEARHEAD" back in the 70's probably made it a bit more difficult to appreciate some of the finer points of this sequel. It's probably just as well that so much of this story did not focus on them, as watching both stories back-to-back, the "plastics factory" angle becomes repetitive in this one.

THE high point of the entire story, of course, is the introduction of The Master. Until now, Jon Pertwee's villains consisted of entire alien races, or political or military types gone wrong. Here we have a very "pulp magazine" type bad guy, whose motivations are never quite clear, and who often seems to be doing rotten things simply because it's his nature.

In a twisted sort of a way, actor Roger Delgado became one of my heroes watching this series. Although he starts out VERY serious, at one point, when failing to hypnotize the elder owner of the factory, he suddenly becomes much more charming. In many ways, for most of this season, he was far MORE charming and likable than the show's hero-- except for all those uncalled-for murders. (It always makes me want to beat the guy with a baseball bat, while yelling, "What's WRONG with you???")

No less than 3 "Time Lords" are on display in this story, and what a contrast they are. With The Doctor, you have a guy who's time machine is disabled, trapping him on Earth. When The Master arrives, it's clear HIS time machine is not only working, but the "chameleon circuit" is as well, allowing it to be perfectly camouflaged. And then there's the guy from "The Tribunal", presumably one of the ones who put The Doctor on trial and exiled him to Earth. This guy arrives WITHOUT any visible time machine, floating in mid-air, and dressed as a London businessman. ("We prefer to be inconspicuous-- well, SOME of us do.", he says sarcastically.) He's like one of those annoying MI-6 agents who would occasionally stop Simon Templar at an airport and interrupt a planned vacation by telling him, "Your country needs you." It's interesting to compare these 3 characters, to see how the one at the bottom of the totem pole (so to speak), the one with the most going against him, is the one who has to SAVE everybody from whatever menace is on the loose this week.

As a minor aside, it's fun, in retrospect, to see The Master lording it over "Farrell", played by actor Michael Wisher, who, 4 years later, would portray perhaps the SICKEST, and most EVIL villains in the show's entire long history-- "Davros", creator of The Daleks.

When the Pertwee era turned up for the 2nd time in America, in the 80's, on PBS, initially, they only ran stories they had color copies of. "TERROR OF THE AUTONS" and "THE MIND OF EVIL" were only available by then as B&W film prints, returned from overseas rentals. Trust me, "THE CLAWS OF AXOS" is NO place to come in on The Master's "story". Fortunately, a year or so later, they decided to add the B&W stories to the syndication package. I've been watching this ever since. Of course, when I saw it in the 70's, it WAS in color.

I once dug this story out to show to someone who'd never seen DOCTOR WHO. Part of the reason was that the friend I ran it for somewhat reminded me of Roger Delgado (although I'm not sure he picked up on that while we were watching). The one thing he noted was how Jo Grant seemed a "typical helpless female". (I suppose HE would have preferred Liz Shaw, too.) In any case, along than "SPEARHEAD", I feel this would be a good place to introduce the Pertwee era to anyone who's only familiar with later, and younger, Doctors. With it being a 4-parter, the pacing really does put it on more of an even level with the more widely-known Tom Baker stories.

After the superb season seven Barry Letts was given carte blanche to make DOCTOR WHO how he saw fit . Most of the credit for season seven belongs to previous producer Derrick Sherwin who wanted to make the show gritty and adult similar to the QUATERMASS serials of the 1950s . You have to admire Sherwin's ambition and despite being a dramatic success even 40 years later the stories themselves weren't a massive ratings hit with the public

It's immediately obvious the differences between Sherwin's stewardship and that of Letts . The show has become a much more obvious comic strip family adventure with imagery and melodrama replacing straight drama . The story introduces several new characters who would become fondly remembered in the Petwee era , namely The Master , Jo Grant and Captain Yates whilst reintroducing the Autons from the previous season . Though they're somewhat under-used until the final episode with The Master played by Roger Delgado being the main focus as the villain of the story

The Master is very much a mirror image of The Doctor . Both are renegade timelords who have known each other since childhood but where as the Doctor is an explorer through time and space and with a strong sense of morality the Master is very much a power crazed baddie . In the Target novelizations there's more scope to give the Master motives and a back-story but unfortunately on screen he does become somewhat one dimensional no matter how hard Delgado tries . Richard Franklin as Captain Yates is also rather one dimensional and is mainly a cypher to spout lines and occasionally act heroically and interestingly in episode three there's a trick played on the audience where it looks like he's abandoning everyone by jumping in a car during a battle with an Auton . Katy Manning is very much a fondly remembered companion from the classic series even though some harsher critics claim she's a archetypal type bimbo

Where this story succeeds is through its imagery , something the Pertwee era was brilliant at . People may not remember the titles of the individual stories but they'll remember certain scenes like " The one with the monsters coming out of the sea " and " The one with the giant maggots " This story will be remembered as the one where the man gets engulfed by a plastic chair or the one where the doll comes to life and strangles the man . Terror Of The Autons caused great controversy when it was broadcast due to its frightening scenes and I remember as a 5 year old being terrified by the doll . Watching it as an adult everything seems very silly , especially compared to the previous dramatic season and it's not a story with a very cohesive storyline or convincing effects but it was a story I remembered for years after seeing it

Review of the Complete Story:

TERROR OF THE AUTONS is a prime piece of Dr Who, made during the tenure of the late, great, Jon Pertwee. As a bonus it co-stars Nicholas Courtney as the beloved Brigadier, features the excellent Roger Delgado in his first appearance as the Master, and also stars companion Jo Grant (aka Katy Manning) in her first screen appearance. If all of that greatness wasn't enough, it's also a sequel to my personal favourite of all Dr Who stories, SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE.

A shame, then, that the BBC really dropped the ball on this one. They erased the colour tapes of the production back in the 1970s, leaving them with only a 16mm black and white print. Decades later they got hold of a colour NTSC version and combined the two sources, leading to this colour version we get today. I first saw this on VHS back in the day and thought it was simply a horrid transfer, but it turns out TERROR OF THE AUTONS just looks rubbish.

It looks like one of those old 1930s colourised films they did, but one in which the process went wrong somewhere. Every scene looks fake and like it was done on a green screen. The special effects bits are particularly bad. Even so, this is an enjoyable adventure, although it's both choppier in terms of story and sillier in terms of menace than its predecessor. Here, the Master is using the Nestene Consciousness to attack mankind with all manner of plastic madness. There are killer daffodils, miniature people, creepy Frank Sidebottom lookalikes, plus the oddest (and daftest) doll you'll ever see. It's all great fun, of course, and just a shame the BBC ruined the quality and took the shine off it.