As the newly regenerated Doctor arrives on Earth, so does the Nestene.As the newly regenerated Doctor arrives on Earth, so does the Nestene.As the newly regenerated Doctor arrives on Earth, so does the Nestene.
Roy Brent
- Auton Hospital Porter
- (uncredited)
Joy Burnett
- Extra
- (uncredited)
Victor Croxford
- Auton Hospital Porter
- (uncredited)
Antonio De Maggio
- UNIT Soldier
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- Robert Holmes
- Sydney Newman(uncredited)
- Donald Wilson(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBecause of a BBC strike, this story was shot entirely on location with no studio scenes. This made it the first Doctor Who (1963) serial to be made entirely on location and the only serial that was ever made entirely on film. The serial came close to the brink of being canceled after the first week of filming, but producer Derrick Sherwin persuaded the BBC to complete it on location. As a result, this serial was shot in about six weeks between September and November 1969 rather like a low-budget movie. Director Derek Martinus said Sherwin was "a very energetic and determined bloke. He had a tremendous fight to get the go-ahead, but he did and for a while, we all had this wonderful fantasy of doing Doctor Who all on film and selling it to America."
- GoofsLiz Shaw states that most meteorites don't reach the Earth's surface. However, by definition, all "meteorites" reach the surface of the Earth.
- Quotes
Lethbridge-Stewart: In the last decade, we've been sending probes deeper and deeper into space. We've drawn attention to ourselves, Miss Shaw.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Chronic Rift: Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Featured review
Der Wille Zur Macht
"Spearhead from Space" marked several firsts in "Doctor Who" history. It was the first serial to be made in colour. It introduced the Doctor's new assistant, the scientist Liz Shaw, and marked Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart becoming a regular character. (He had previously appeared in two of the Second Doctor's adventures). It was the first serial to be shot entirely on location rather than in a studio (for reasons connected with a strike by BBC staff). Most importantly from my point of view, it also marked the debut of Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor, my own favourite incarnation. Objectively speaking, I have to admit that his successor Tom Baker was just as good, but I have a special affection for Pertwee because he was the incumbent when I first started to take a serious interest in the series.
All of the serials in the seventh season of "Doctor Who", and most of those in the eighth, are set on Earth, with the Doctor acting as scientific advisor to UNIT, the international taskforce set up to combat alien threats. (Lethbridge-Stewart is the commander of UNIT's British contingent). Apparently this was done by the BBC for financial reasons, but the in-series explanation is that the Doctor has been banished to Earth by the Time Lords as a punishment, for reasons set out in the final serial of the sixth season.
The Doctor's exile was eventually to come to an end. Again in-series reasons were found for this development, but the real reason was that the scriptwriters found his earthbound existence too limiting. One complained that with the Doctor on Earth he was restricted to two basic plot lines, "alien invasions and mad scientists". "Spearhead from Space", as the title suggest, is an example of the "alien invasion" type of plot.
On this occasion, however, the invasion is not carried out by an alien race like the Daleks, Cybermen or Ice Warriors. The villain is the Nestene Consciousness, an incorporeal intelligence. Now you might wonder why an incorporeal intelligence would want to conquer Earth; surely wealth, natural resources and all the normal spoils of conquest would mean nothing to such an entity. It is, however, a recurrent science fiction trope that extra-terrestrial intelligences, be they corporeal or incorporeal, are all possessed of a Nietzschean Wille zur Macht, or Will to Power, and therefore regard conquering the Earth as a matter of principle. It is another science fiction trope, at least in Britain, that any alien invasion of Earth will start with the English Home Counties; H G Wells's Martians landed near Woking, Surrey, and the Consciousness's first target is Epping, Essex.
An incorporeal entity, however, still needs foot-soldiers to do its conquering for it, and the Nestene Consciousness has the Autons, plastic human replicas which normally masquerade as shop-window mannequins but which become lethal killers when activated. A more advanced model of Auton can duplicate the appearance and voice of any individual, and the Consciousness plans to use these to impersonate key figures in the British political and military Establishment. The Autons, however, are not autonomous individuals in the same way as, say, individual Ice Warriors, but robots remotely controlled by the Consciousness- and it is this feature which is to prove their weakness.
The main weakness of the serial is that it takes too long setting the scene and introducing the Doctor's new personality. (Some of his character traits, such as a dandyish dress sense and a love of vintage cars, were established from the beginning). The first half is rather dull and slow-moving, with all the thrills coming towards the end. This would have been more obvious in 1970 than it is now. When we watch classic "Doctor Who" serials today, whether on video or on one of their rare television outings, we treat them effectively as feature films, although they were first broadcast in several weekly parts. Normally the scriptwriters tried to introduce a note of tension from the start so that each episode could end on a cliff-hanger, but this does not seem to have been done with "Spearhead from Space".
The Television Companion opined that "It is the terrifying and well-realised concept of killer shop dummies that makes "Spearhead from Space" one of the most horrific Doctor Who stories ever". I would probably have agreed in 1970, but then I was only a young child at the time. Today the idea of murderous shop dummies seems more surreal than scary. Pertwee was to star in some excellent serials, but this is not really one of them.
All of the serials in the seventh season of "Doctor Who", and most of those in the eighth, are set on Earth, with the Doctor acting as scientific advisor to UNIT, the international taskforce set up to combat alien threats. (Lethbridge-Stewart is the commander of UNIT's British contingent). Apparently this was done by the BBC for financial reasons, but the in-series explanation is that the Doctor has been banished to Earth by the Time Lords as a punishment, for reasons set out in the final serial of the sixth season.
The Doctor's exile was eventually to come to an end. Again in-series reasons were found for this development, but the real reason was that the scriptwriters found his earthbound existence too limiting. One complained that with the Doctor on Earth he was restricted to two basic plot lines, "alien invasions and mad scientists". "Spearhead from Space", as the title suggest, is an example of the "alien invasion" type of plot.
On this occasion, however, the invasion is not carried out by an alien race like the Daleks, Cybermen or Ice Warriors. The villain is the Nestene Consciousness, an incorporeal intelligence. Now you might wonder why an incorporeal intelligence would want to conquer Earth; surely wealth, natural resources and all the normal spoils of conquest would mean nothing to such an entity. It is, however, a recurrent science fiction trope that extra-terrestrial intelligences, be they corporeal or incorporeal, are all possessed of a Nietzschean Wille zur Macht, or Will to Power, and therefore regard conquering the Earth as a matter of principle. It is another science fiction trope, at least in Britain, that any alien invasion of Earth will start with the English Home Counties; H G Wells's Martians landed near Woking, Surrey, and the Consciousness's first target is Epping, Essex.
An incorporeal entity, however, still needs foot-soldiers to do its conquering for it, and the Nestene Consciousness has the Autons, plastic human replicas which normally masquerade as shop-window mannequins but which become lethal killers when activated. A more advanced model of Auton can duplicate the appearance and voice of any individual, and the Consciousness plans to use these to impersonate key figures in the British political and military Establishment. The Autons, however, are not autonomous individuals in the same way as, say, individual Ice Warriors, but robots remotely controlled by the Consciousness- and it is this feature which is to prove their weakness.
The main weakness of the serial is that it takes too long setting the scene and introducing the Doctor's new personality. (Some of his character traits, such as a dandyish dress sense and a love of vintage cars, were established from the beginning). The first half is rather dull and slow-moving, with all the thrills coming towards the end. This would have been more obvious in 1970 than it is now. When we watch classic "Doctor Who" serials today, whether on video or on one of their rare television outings, we treat them effectively as feature films, although they were first broadcast in several weekly parts. Normally the scriptwriters tried to introduce a note of tension from the start so that each episode could end on a cliff-hanger, but this does not seem to have been done with "Spearhead from Space".
The Television Companion opined that "It is the terrifying and well-realised concept of killer shop dummies that makes "Spearhead from Space" one of the most horrific Doctor Who stories ever". I would probably have agreed in 1970, but then I was only a young child at the time. Today the idea of murderous shop dummies seems more surreal than scary. Pertwee was to star in some excellent serials, but this is not really one of them.
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- JamesHitchcock
- Jan 28, 2022
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