Day 130 — May 10th 2021
Spearhead From Space Episodes Three and Four
Spearhead From Space — Episode Three
As much as I’m enjoying this one, I’ll admit that I’m struggling a little to keep straight where all the locations are in relation to each other. You’ve got the main woodland where the spheres and the TARDIS crash down (In Episode One this is described as being in Essex). UNIT have set up a cordon around this, which seems to also include at least part of a nearby village, and certainly includes Mr Seeley’s house.
But Seeley and his wife are played as though we’re supposed to be somewhere in the West Country, with some of the broadest accents this side of The Smugglers. It means that every time we cut back to them I find myself thinking we’re much further away from London that we are.
Then there’s the cottage hospital which appears to be right on the edge of the woodland, given that Doctor Who is able to stumble back through the trees after his escape in Episode One. We’ve also got the plastics factory which looks to be somewhere pretty urban… but again, Ransome manages to stagger from there to the UNIT camp pretty quickly in Episode Two.
And then there’s Lethbridge-Stewart, Liz, Doctor Who and Ransome who seem to flit back and forth between the woodland and the centre of London (the location for the UNIT car park was opposite St. Pancras, so pretty central) as easy as they like. I don’t know if it’s just that I’m struggling to connect the dots, or if the locations simply don’t bear much relation to each other.
And it’s not only the locations I’m struggling to do this with. I’m really loving the Autons in this one. They look really rough around the edges, and that’s all part of the (sinister) charm. In this episode we get a nice clear description from Ransome that the factory has shifted from making children’s dolls to these new creatures, and Hibbert confirms that they’re manufactured as mannequins for display and ‘we send them all over the country’. But when one first shows up in the woodland in Episode Two it feels out of place and not in a good way. I know what’s going on because I’ve seen the story before, but I don’t think I’d be following as well if this was my first viewing.
Oh, I’m being nitpicky, though, because there’s still a lot to enjoy in this one. As I say, the Autons themselves are superbly creepy, and as much as they look out of place in the woods it is a striking image when we pull back sharply to see one framed by all the foliage. The standoff between Mrs Seeley and an Auton in her home is also brilliant — and the idea that this creature just keeps coming despite several shots to the chest works far better than when they pulled a similar trick with the Cybermen last season.
It also feels surprisingly bleak. This is a show where we see a lot of guns and a lot of death, but there’s something about seeing a real person with a shotgun firing at near-enough point blank range which feels far more hard hitting. It’s a world away from sci-fi guns and explosions, and it feels totally unlike anything we’ve had in the show before — even compared to the ‘regular soldiers fighting monsters’ action we’ve had in several stories now.
I much prefer the Autons when they’re a bit creaky and clumsy — stumbling through the house as here, or making its’ way across the tent to strike down Ransome — to when we see one running. Somehow that’s the one thing that spoils the effect for me and makes me remember that there’s some actor wedged into that costume. It’s certainly a lesson they learnt before Rose, but I’ll be interested to see if they realise it before we get to Terror of the Autons in a couple of weeks.
Elsewhere Doctor Who continues to be a fun watch. I really like the way he tricks Liz into stealing back the TARDIS key for him, and the stalling effect on the usual TARDIS noise is really effective. There’s something about Pertwee’s face when he emerges from the box, and in the lines afterwards, where he feels closer in performance to many of his comedic radio characters, and that’s no bad thing. I always think of the Third Doctor Who as being a bit serious and up tight, but in these episodes so far — at least — he’s much closer to Troughton than I recalled.
It’s also perhaps ironic that at the start of a season which won’t really feature the TARDIS — and certainly not to travel through time and space — we get some of the best dialogue about the box that we’ve had in ages;
Doctor Who: ‘I think I have one in the Tardis.’
Liz: ‘In there?’
Doctor Who: ‘Yes. I’m sure I have one somewhere. But I’m sure I used one some time in the past, or was it the future?’
Liz: ‘Doctor, you really do have scientific equipment in there?’
Doctor Who: ‘My dear Liz, I have an entire laboratory.’
Liz: ‘Yes, yes, I’m sure you have.’
Doctor Who: ‘No, no, no, it’s true. Well, you think that the Tardis isn’t big enough, don’t you? That’s because you keep looking at it simply as a police box.’
Liz: ‘Well, it is only a police box.’
Doctor Who: ‘Oh no, not once you get inside it, it isn’t. You see, Liz, the Tardis is dimensionally transcendental.’
Liz: ‘Oh. I see.’
Doctor Who: ‘Yes, it would take far too long to try and explain that to you.’
I think this is also probably the best version of costume that Pertwee ever wears in the role. He goes through more variations than, I think, pretty much any other incarnation. Different colours of jacket and cloak, different shirts and ties, various fabrics and combinations. The Third Doctor Who’s costume has never been my favourite ‘look’, but the one seen in this story is actually pretty gorgeous.
The thinner kind of tie helps to lighten the whole thing, and the black and red of the coat really pops. The Blu-ray transfer helps to show up the deep blue of the jacket which also suits him nicely. I like a bit of variation in the costumes, but I could quite happily have seen him keep this exact outfit for the duration of his tenure.
Another 7/10.
Spearhead From Space — Episode Four
We all have our own little head canons, don’t we? Those little bits of narrative that we choose to take as fact even though there’s nothing to directly confirm it on screen. For me it’s that the Auto Plastics factory is based on the same site where International Electromatics had their compound. There’s nothing to suggest that’s the case on screen, but UNIT’s big fight against the Autons here is staged in the same location as their battle with the Cybermen (Victoria Road, a former BBC facility), and I think that’s justification enough.
So in my head after the Cyberman invasion International Electromatics is shut down pretty swiftly with the help of UNIT. Other companies buy up the old factories and warehouses, including Auto Plastics. I also like to think that’s what draws the Nestene to this precise location; maybe there’s still a bit of Cyberman tech operating in the factory and the Consciousness homed in on it.
And it means I get to imagine that every now and then, Mr Seeley would bump into Tobias Vaughn and deeply irritate the man by being humorously provincial.
Anyway, let’s talk about what we actually do get on screen. This story is certainly the most polished of Robert Holmes’ efforts so far, although I remembered it as being really solid stuff, and I’m a little let down to discover that it’s not as brilliant as I’d hoped. There’s certainly lots of great ideas, but I think the story is bolstered by the visuals, and the prestige of being the ‘all-film’ story.
This final episode introduces a number of ideas which are really interesting… but then discards them pretty quick because time is up and we’ve got to move on. I’d totally forgotten the subplot about the Auton Facsimiles infiltrating the top tiers of the British Government. That’s a brilliant idea! I also think there’s something inherently creepy about suggesting that the figures at Madame Tussauds are really alive. But it all gets a bit lost here.
Why are the figures being hidden at the museum? Presumably it’s so that the factory has a cover for why they’re modelling the figures, but I think it would be just as effective to have Doctor Who — or Ransome — discover them in a cupboard at the factory. Open the door and there’s the Prime Minister! It would certainly leave me with fewer questions.
Especially as they choose to start using the Facsimile of Scobie right away, and instead put the real person in the museum. I’ll confess that this left me stumped for a minute or two — I couldn’t work out if there were two Facsimiles; one at Tussauds and one with UNIT. Surely it would have been simpler just to kill the original?
I think this is the issue I’ve had with Spearhead From Space this time around. There’s loads of great ideas, but I keep finding myself questioning things. ‘But how come…’. ‘If that’s the case then why…’. It’s taken me out of the story a little. Like so many of the stories over the last couple of months this feels like it’s another draft or two away from being really perfect.
I’m also surprised that the Autons didn’t make an appearance in The Sarah Jane Adventures, because they’d have been brilliant for it! A sinister plastics factory making replicas of prominent figures to take over the world? Brilliant! I can almost picture the version they’d have done for CBBC, and I think I’d enjoy it just as much as I’ve enjoyed this!
Of course, any discussion of this episode would be incomplete without mentioning the big set piece of the Auton mannequins coming to life and launching their attack on Britain. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s one of the most iconic moments the programme has ever produced. The slow panning shots of the empty streets which give way to the mannequins slowly jerking to life is brilliant, and genuinely creepy. Shop window dummies haven’t ever really unsettled me, but I bet some kids had trouble sleeping after this!
Much was made of the fact that when they restaged this sequence for the New Testament in Rose they were able to show the glass breaking, but I think the sequence here in 1970 is all the more effective. The cut away to the policeman and the sound of the glass in the distance sells the idea more than well enough, and it’s surprising how effectively the entire thing works, even on a fraction of the budget they used 35 years later.
Something I’ve not really talked about for a while is photography, but Spearhead is a good place to bring it back up, because this story is the source of some of my absolute favourite Doctor Whophotos. There’s some great shots of Pertwee on location looking more like an action hero than anywhere else, and there’s some gorgeous behind the scenes images which have come to light in recent years which feel like they should be pride of place in some big coffee table book.
And yet, bizarrely, we don’t have any actual photographs of the Autons from this one! None of the boiler-suited drones, none of the mannequins on the attack. There’s some shots of Doctor Who and Liz inspecting the Facsimiles in Tussauds but that’s it. In a recent Doctor Who book I’ve been doing the layout for I’ve used a frame from the Blu-ray just because I was determined to include a shot somewhere!
I think I’m bumping this one up to an 8/10. Lots of really great ideas, but not the almost perfect story I was vaguely remembering to launch a new era. If nothing else, I’ve come out of this one having taken a real shine to Pertwee’s Doctor Who, which bodes well as I’ll be with him now right through until July…
