Yesterday after a fairly long wait I got the Doctor Who boxset Mannequin Mania, which came out last Monday, but play.com took a week to delivery it, but in retrospect I could have just went out to HMV and probably got it quicker for only a couple more quid!
But anyway I was quite pleased with the boxset as it includes two of Jon Pertwee's most enjoyable stories, his debut Spearhead from Space and his fifth story Terror of the Autons which introduce the UNIT family and Jo Grant.
Starting off with Spearhead from Space, its a classic story, which introduces Jon Pertwee as the Doctor in style, as at this point he is exiled to Earth by the Time Lords for tinkering about in the TARDIS too much and interferring with history. During the story the Doctor gets involved in fighting off an alien invasion from the plastic baddies the Autons, who are controlled by a collective intelligence called the Nestenes.
This is a really good opener for the Pertwee era, it features a fine cast, and introduces of course Liz Shaw as played by Caroline John, his companion who is a highly intelligent and capable scientist. Unlike most companions Liz hadn't as much need as the others to continually ask what was going on, and this did cause a bit of concern for Barry Letts (who at this stage was still to take over as producer of the show) as he felt it left less explanation to the viewers. Nevertheless Liz is a strong companion and makes a welcome change from the screamers that the Doctor would have over the years. On the supporting cast, it also features a fine performance from John Woodnutt as the weak minded Hibbert who allows the Nestenes to control his mind, and of course a very creepy and eeiry performance from Hugh Burden as the icy cold and calculating Channing.
Another couple of great successes of the story were that for a start the story was the only one to be shot entirely on film, which helped give the show a far more cinematic feel, not to mention it didn't look so low budget either. The other is of course the autons themselves, they make for great baddies, and their window shop dummy masks are very creepy and effective, they are also complimented well by Brian Hodgson's eeiry sound effects, as they signal in on their prey.
Spearhead from Space's documentary on the DVD is also quite interesting although it deals morely with the transition of the show from black and white days into colour, as well as the show being under threat of cancellation. The commentaries are also fine, with the late Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John bantering away nicely and fondly remembering the shooting of the story. The other commentary (more recently recorded) with Terrance Dicks and the then producer Derrick Sherwin is no less interesting, although Sherwin does come across as being quite bitter at times over his treatment at the BBC.
Moving onto Terror of the Autons, this story was another landmark in Doctor Who's history as it introduced as well as the UNIT family of Captain Mike Yates, the Brig and Sergeant Benton, it also introduced his new companion Jo Grant, and his arch enermy The Master. The story is similar to Spearhead in that the Master arrives on Earth and steals the nestene energy from a museum and uses to revive and create more autons in an attempt to destroy Earth. The Doctor of course joins up with UNIT and Jo to stop him.
Terror of the Autons is certainly just as good as Spearhead, although there are certain less successful aspects to the story, for starters the autons themselves aren't as impressive and their masks are pretty naff in comparison as they just look like silver or marble based. The Master is of course on the best enemies to come out of the programme in a long time, but despite spending most of the story aiding to help the Nestenes invade Earth, he changes his allegiances to help the Doctor prevent them coming with the snap of one sentence from the Doctor. It seemed a bit of a copout way of finsihing out the story in order to stop the baddies from coming through. But ultimately perhaps the Master was doing what he felt he needed to do in order to save his own skin. Another dodgy aspect of the story is the overuse of CSO (Colour Separartion Overlay) which was heavily used in the 1970s to superimpose backgrounds or to create background effects with people in shot. OK to use it for certain background shots is fine, such as the Master climbing up the research centre tower, but he even goes as far as to use it to for a CSO kitchen! I mean surely they could have built a kitchen set!!
However Terror saw changes in Doctor Who for the better, if the series had continued on in the similar vein as it did in the previous season with alot of Quartermass styled doom and gloom it would have ended the show. So Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks realised the show needed a change of tone and pace, and they did the right thing. Terror also featured again some nice performances from the new cast, Richard Franklin does well as Captain Yates, as he plays him with a smooth charm. And yeah ok Katy Manning isn't the best actress in the world, but she made Jo Grant her own and a fairly endearing character, despite some cheesy corny moments in her peformance in this story, especially when the Doctor tells her not to go anywhere near the ugly puppet that they took from one of the Master's victims, "I won't go near it, yuughhh" she says. Coh!
But of course one of Terror of the Autons main successes is the Master played by Roger Delgado, who is terrific as the Doctor's nemesis. Delgado brought a great deal of sly and sinsiter charm to the character while at the same time ensuring he displayed the Master's undefitigably evil nature. Although perhaps one of the weaknesses of the Season 8 of Doctor Who, which Terror is the first story of, is that they overused the Master a little too much as he appears in every story, which leaves less room for predictability in anticipating the real villain. Mind you one talent the Master had for sure was his make-up artist skills as he must have spent plenty of time making up latex masks for his disguises!
On the DVD side of things there is a pleasant and informative commentary from Barry Letts, Terrance Dicks, Nick Courtney and of course Katy Manning. However I have to say that Katy Manning does grate on your nerves after a while, I'm sure she is a nice person, but her continual use of her comical stupid helium type voice in between discussion is just irritating. If only they had a silence button on her it would make things more easy!! Anyway there is also a very good documentary on the DVD too about the making of Terror of the Autons, which features some cast interviews and Barry and Terrance (marbled mouthed Terry!).
So that's a lengthy one (that's what she said! OK enough of that!).
More posts to follow no doubtttt.
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