When Doctor Who was revived for its modern day adventures back in 2005, its interesting choice of first monsters to bring back was the Autons. These mannequin-like beasts have since returned again, yet their pedigree goes right back to the 1970s, when they first did battle with Jon Pertwee’s incarnation of the Doctor. And it’s those encounters that the Mannequin Mania box set brings together.
You get two stories for your money, here. Terror Of The Autons also throws The Master into the mix, and it’s a cracking yarn, with plenty of imagination and some significant attempts to scare. But Spearhead From Space is better. Pertwee’s first story, it’s an alien invasion story of real skill, and the Autons from the off make compelling monsters. Pertwee was, inevitably, still finding his feet in the role here, and the effects don’t date well, but it’s a smashing adventure nonetheless. Do note that it’s already been released as a standalone disc, though.
What you also get, of course, is a smashing collection of extras, as is usually the case with the BBC’s classic Doctor Who releases. The love and care put into the added features is an example to many, and it’s an exhaustive package you get for your money. As such, Mannequin Mania is, rightly, really quite hard to resist. —Jon Foster
The Doctor and the Autons Spearhead from Space““““““““““1970’s Spearhead From Space has always been one of the truly great moments in Doctor Who, and for me this is one of my top 10 favorites. From the start of 1970 to the end of 1979 Doctor Who reached its zenith and became the classic show we all love today. Patrick Troughton’s last serial “The War Games” is no doubt a timeless classic but recorded very low viewing figures for the time, so the producers had quite a rough time getting the 900 year old chap on his feet again. I agree with Terrance Dicks in that Doctor Who was granted a stay of execution because the BBC were starting to broadcast in colour for the first time and the money that was coming in from the television licenses was clouding their evil judgement on possible cancellation. Thankfully, the BBC did not cancel the show and its still going strong over 48 years later.Jon Pertwee gets a great first story here and probably the best debut ever for a Doctor. Firstly, the colour really helps, I know some people love black & white but you must admit that colour is luxurious. Furthermore, the location filming is fantastic, basically the whole 100 minute feature was filmed on location because of some BBC strikes that were going on. The filmic look really adds to the atmosphere of the serial and sells it better than videotape ever could. Furthermore, Dudley Simpson’s incidental music for Spearhead from Space is some of his greatest, the atmosphere he induces from the score is impressive to say the least and really adds to the overall enjoyment of the story.Nicholas Courtney’s first appearance since 1968’s “Invasion” is brilliant, I always loved the Third Doctor / UNIT era of the programme and Nick is one of the main parts of that fantastic nostalgic time. His performance here is truly something special and he and Jon bounce off one another superbly. Nick would go on to star in Doctor Who intermittently for the next 20 years and so what we have here is the proper beginning to the whole concept of the Doctor’s UNIT family. Caroline John’s first “Who” is very high standard stuff, I have always loved Liz and thought she was always one of the Doctor’s best 70’s companions. Although she was to only appear in one series on Who, she will always be fondly remembered, {mostly for the short skirts though};)The Autons provide a chilling monster for the newly regenerated Doctor, their faceless-ness was always going to be quite chilling and so they make a very effective debut here. The quest cast are all on top form with special praise going to Hugh Burden’s Channing.This has been a truly gratifying review of what I think is one of the greatest serials Doctor Who ever made. The introduction of the Autons and UNIT was a masterstroke, this story for me stands out as Robert Holmes best work on the series. A wonderful start to a fantastic era of the show.Terror of the Autons“““““““““Robert Holmes, by now a familiar figure on the writing side of Doctor Who pulls “Terror of the Autons” out the bag, a story that is considered his greatest work on Who. I will say though that I much prefer Robert’s earlier script “Spearhead from Space” to Terror of the Autons as noted above. Still, Terror of the Autons is a terrific story, we have the return of the Autons, the introduction of the Doctor’s new assistant Jo Grant and more importantly, the introduction of one of the best remembered villains from classic Who, Roger Delgado’s Master. Roger Delgado steals the show as the suave and insanely evil “Master”. His performance here is electrifying and can only be matched by Jon Pertwee’s Doctor. Both actors have such fantastic scenes together over the next few years that it makes me wonder why these two never won BAFTA’s.Jo Grant, as played brilliantly by Katy Manning makes her debut here also. I always felt that Jo Grant was the best companion of the 70’s, she just worked so well with Jon, much the same as Liz Sladen’s Sarah Jane Smith gelled with Tom Baker’s 4th Doctor. Here, little dolly bird Jo gets the most action packed start for a companion ever, blowing up UNIT buildings, hanging around on telescopes and trying to keep up with the Doctor and the Master. This story also marks the first appearance of Captain Mike Yates, meant as a sort of potential love interest for Jo. I always liked Mike and thought that near the end of his reign, he got such a brilliant storyline.Also, this story marks the first time we have the complete UNIT family together, consisting of The Doctor, Jo, The Brig, The Master, Yates and Benton. The start of a fantastic on-screen and off-screen batch of relationships. The Autons also put in an appearance as the story’s monsters, although much more of a limited appearance than in “Spearhead”. I always liked the Autons and thought that they were genuinely a scary creation. The faceless automatons were a clever…
“You precious little planet is finished!” Doctor Who was in a perilous state at the end of Patrick Troughton’s tenure. Ratings had been in decline – so much so that few of Troughton’s stories even survive intact – and there was a strong possibility that if a new series didn’t improve matters, there wouldn’t be another.Spearhead from Space is in many ways quite a unique story in the original series history, not only introducing the Third Doctor but also tweaking the format of the show remarkably successfully, with producer Derrick Sherwin using the more Earthbound Quatermass as his model while adding more action to turn it into more of an adventure series. It also has a unique look, and not just because the show made the leap from black and white to colour for the first time. While TV shows were traditionally shot largely on tape for studio interiors and 16mm film for exteriors, a BBC strike meant that Spearhead was shot entirely on film and on location. As well as giving the show a much more cinematic and adventurous look, this also ensured that after proper restoration this probably looks the best of any story from that era, with pin-sharp definition and superb colour on the remastered DVD that is a visible improvement on the previous release.The Quatermass influence is particularly noticeable in the first half of the story. Like Quatermass II, it begins with meteorites being guided to a specific part of the English countryside where they are collected for a sinister purpose in a secret establishment, although it largely drops the government conspiracy angle that saw Nigel Kneale’s invaders taking over the halls of power and using the Official Secrets Act to keep prying human eyes away. There is a half-hearted attempt to gain access to the corridors of power, but here the military is in a more heroic light as the story introduces UNIT and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (previously seen in The Invasion) as series regulars for the now exiled on Earth Doctor. UNIT almost take centre-stage for much of the early running: after a brief appearance in long shot falling out of the TARDIS we don’t actually meet Jon Pertwee’s new Doctor until halfway through the first episode. Introducing the troubled regeneration theme that the series would consistently return to and which allowed each new Doctor to gradually find his unique character, it set the template for each new Doctor’s introduction. Indeed, elements of it would turn up in Paul McGann and Matt Smith’s introductions while the Autons would be used as the villains in for Christopher Eccleston’s first story in the revamped NuWho. And the Autons prove to be particularly memorable villains, the sequence where shop window dummies come to life and embarking on a killing spree on Ealing high street one of the series seminal images.Documentary Down to Earth offers a concise and surprisingly frank account of the reinvention of the show, which had only been given a new series because the BBC couldn’t come up with a replacement. UNIT’s introduction was as much a practical as an aesthetic decision, designed to take some of the narrative strain and limit the amount of lengthy speeches Pertwee had to deal with, since the crippling 44-episode a year schedule and dialogue-heavy scripts had played a big part in an increasingly overworked and cantankerous Patrick Troughton’s decision to leave (the length of the run was also drastically reduced to keep the workload manageable). The accompanying featurette on the BBC’s conversion from black and white to colour is more technical, especially when detailing the creation of the new title sequence.The Nestine and their Autons returned the following year in Terror of the Autons, which also saw the introduction of Roger Delgado’s the Master, then the diabolical Moriarty to the Doctor’s Holmes rather than a tiresome Joker wannabe. The script makes much of their similarities: both trapped on Earth, each thinks the other is almost as brilliant as they are, and each enjoys the other’s escapes because it prolongs their duel and sweetens the anticipation of their ultimate victory. The Master wasn’t the only new arrival, with Katy Manning making her debut as one of the Doctor’s most popular and long-serving assistants. Her job description may boil down to handing the Doctor his test tubes and telling him how brilliant he is, but her enthusiastic personality works wonderfully well in tandem with Pertwee’s Doctor and the pair have genuine screen chemistry without ever a hint of the romantic complications of the NuWho seasons.Offering one of the more surreal images of the series in the form of a Time Lord, dressed as a civil servant complete with bowler and brolly, suspended mid-air outside a radio telescope, it downplays the Autons in favour of the menacing possibilities of a potential enemy to be found all over every home in the country: plastic. The influence is early horror films like Devil Doll and Dr Cyclops (alongside a nod…
Mannequin Mania in a nutshell Spearhead from Space – excellent story, the first Dr.Who in the classic series to be in colour and Pertwee’s first story. I always prefer stories set on Earth, in our beautiful country. The autons are scary and probably one of the finest aspects of this story is the suspense.Terror of the Autons – my favourite of the two, great story, very scary and probably one of the most bizarre Dr.Who’s ever. This story introduces Jo Grant, Captain Yates and the Master, portrayed in best form by Roger Delgado. Michael Wisher is fantastic as the deranged Farrell. The story uses an interesting variety of locations e.g the town, the circus and the radio telescope station. Amazing story, bizarre use of everyday items becoming lethal e.g the doll, daffidols and the telephone. The carnival autons are freaky as anything and there is a great climatic action sequence.