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.
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.