Day 142 — May 22nd 2021
Terror of the Autons Episodes One and Two
Terror of the Autons — Episode One
I’ve been picking up the Doctor Who Blu-ray sets on day of release since they started with Season Twelve back in 2018, but aside from 10 minutes of The Ark in Space to have a look at the new effects and a single episode of Castrovalva to have a look at the film scan, they’ve just been sat in the cupboard unwatched. Most of them are still in the shrink wrap! It’s not that I’ve been saving them in the hope they’ll serve as my retirement, I’ve just never found the time to sit down with them. I’m awful at watching things — I’d wager that more than half of my shelves are still on my ‘one day’list.
So I was really pleased when Season Eight showed up on Blu-ray earlier this year because I knew the time would be coming very soon when I’d have an excuse to sit down and watch the episodes properly! And as luck would have it, my reaching Terror of the Autons has coincided perfectly with my wife being away for a few days, so I’ve not even got to talk her into letting me watch it. Perfect!
Full disclosure; I’m watching this one with the new effects on the Blu-ray. I don’t know which effects have been altered (although I’m fairly sure that kitchen will be one of them), but I want to get the maximum enjoyment out of both the story and the Blu-ray. And heck, I’ve never been about authenticity in this marathon or I wouldn’t have skipped out on an episode of Doctor Who and the Silurians to listen to the Narrated Soundtrack.
Anyway, Terror of the Autons. Hoo boy, it’s not a great episode is it? I’ve been genuinely curious about how Season Eight will feel to me. I enjoyed Season Seven so much — it’s my highest rated season on average with no episode dropping lower than a six — and that one has such a distinct tone which Doctor Who never really captures elsewhere. By that same token there were times during that season where I longed for it to be a little more like the series I’d loved so much from the 1960s stuff, and I had a suspicion that this is where we’d start to head back that way.
I think I’m mostly put off by how much this episode is trying to set up. We’re introduced to the Master in the very first scene (and fair play, I’ll give them points for hitting the ground running), but then in quick succession we’re treated to the introduction of Jo Grant, a description of what happened to Liz, and then a Time Lord showing up to fill us in on the backstory for the Master. We even get a run down of what the Nestene were in case viewers have forgotten — it’s been a whole year, after all.
It all just felt a bit too much like they were trying to get everything in place ready for the story to begin, rather than simply getting on with it. I’m hoping that now all this stuff is out of the way the next three episodes can be a little more enjoyable. And I can’t complain totally, because that description of what the Nestenes are is brilliant, and includes a couple of really rather lovely character touches;
Doctor Who: ‘A Nestene is a ruthlessly aggressive intelligent alien life form.’
Jo: ‘Well, what do they look like?’
Doctor Who: ‘Well I expect myself their basic form is analogous to a cephalopod.’
Jo: ‘What’s a cephalopod?’
Doctor Who: ‘An octopus. I thought you took an A-Level in science?’
Jo: ‘I didn’t say I passed.’
The same can’t be said for the arrival of the bowler-hatted Time Lord which I’ll confess here that I absolutely despise. Oh, I know, I’m trying to keep broadly positive about things, and I like to think I usually manage it, but for some reason I’m really put off by the whole sequence. It feels silly, but not in a good way. I’m usually a fan of my Doctor Who being a bit ridiculous, but this seems oddly out of place.
I think one of the aspects I dislike is that it feels lazy. We don’t learn anything from the Time Lord which couldn’t have been discovered by Doctor Who himself, and this is the first example of those incredible all-powerful beings we saw in The War Games having all the mystery and intrigue being stripped away from them.
And when I say I dislike this bit of the episode, just know that the score would likely be a couple of points higher had this scene been cut out.
I’ll reserve judgement on all our new regulars for now — we get three additions to the UNIT set up in the form of the Master, Jo and Mike Yates — and instead focus on something a little more trivial for my final note on this episode… the title sequence is pink! Pink! Instead of red! I’ve never noticed that before. So much so that I wondered if something was wrong with the Blu-ray. I’m not complaining — I think it looks brilliant! — I’m just surprised it’s taken me this long to spot it!
A disappointing start to the season — 4/10.
Terror of the Autons — Episode Two
Sometimes you can be really thrown by a story. It might start well and then go sharply off a cliff, or the reverse may be true and it might get better and better as it goes along. I always try to go into each story with an open mind — after all there’s plenty of them which I didn’t enjoy last time around but have found new appreciation for in this marathon.
But there’s some stories which, I’m sorry to say, you can just tell are a total write off for me. I thought my issue with Terror of the Autons was all the exposition crammed into that opening episode, and hoped that things would pick up once we got deeper into the story. But I’m watching this second episode and realising that I’m really not enjoying it all that much more than the last.
Don’t get me wrong, things could still turn around in the second half, but I’m getting that sinking feeling that this one is a bit of a let down and I can feel my attention already turning to the upcoming Mind of Evil.
Part of my problem today feels like the same issue I had with parts of Spearhead From Space; there’s just that bit too much going on, and I’m struggling to keep up. The Master has taken control of a man who runs a circus and also a scientist from a radio telescope and the owner of a plastics factory. But I’m struggling to keep track of how it all fits together.
I think the circus sections are the weakest of the bunch, and largely because it’s just not a frame of reference I really have, 50 years later. Even when I was a kid in the 90s they’d largely done away with this kind of circus, and I was never a fan of the ones which replaced them. Every time we cut back to this strand of the narrative I can feel myself zoning out again. Even the return of Roy Stewart for the first time since The Tomb of the Cybermen isn’t enough to keep me engaged.
I’ll tell you the one thing that’s really worked for me in this episode — the CGI replacement for the troll doll. I’d completely forgotten about the ugly little thing until the Master presented him to Farrell Sr at which point I realised just why this story had been chosen for replacement effects. It looks brilliant, and they’ve done a great job of integrating the thing into the rest of the episode.
The attention to detail which has gone into replicating the back seat of the car, or the mantlepiece in their home is incredible, and the entire team should be really proud of the finished result. It’s this kind of thing which I think can really benefit the stories — it fits in well with the rest of the episode and enhances the enjoyment of watching.
On the whole, though, I’m sorry to say that I’m just not enjoying this one. 4/10.
