Doctor Who Logo Terror of the Autons
(4 Parts)
Story Code 'EEE'

by Robert Holmes
The Doctor

The Doctor’s old nemesis, the renegade Time Lord known as the Master, materialises his TARDIS on Earth at a travelling circus. After hypnotising the owner into obeying his will, the Master breaks into a museum and steals a Nestene energy unit on loan from UNIT; he then seizes control the Ministry of Technology’s research station, using the station’s radio dish and the energy unit to contact the Nestenes and draw them to Earth. At UNIT headquarters, the Doctor meets his new assistant, Jo Grant, Liz Shaw having returned to Cambridge. Investigating the disruption at the research station, the Doctor narrowly avoids a trap left by the Master thanks to a timely warning from another Time Lord. Meanwhile, the Master takes over a plastics factory run by businessman Rex Farrel, and oversees the manufacturing of several deadly products; he tries to kill the Doctor by despatching a hypnotised, bomb-wielding Jo, but the attempt fails when the Doctor sees through Jo’s conditioning. The Doctor tracks the Master’s operation back to the circus, but when he and Jo investigate, they are taken captive by the carnival folk; they are saved by two policemen in a patrol car, only to discover that their rescuers are in fact killer Auton duplicates. Managing to escape from the plastic assassins, the Doctor and Jo rejoin the Brigadier and learn of a number of suspicious deaths across the Home Counties; the Doctor discovers that the deaths are caused by plastic daffodils that are being given away by a group of garishly dressed Autons operating from a tour bus, the deadly flowers spraying a suffocating film of plastic over the faces of each of their victims after receiving a given radio signal. While the UNIT forces attempt pinpoint the location of the bus, the Master gains access to UNIT headquarters and captures the Doctor and Jo; returning to the bus, he then begins preparations to use the radio telescope to send the activation signal for the daffodils. However, when the Doctor convinces the Master that the Autons will never acknowledge his control over them, the two Time Lords team up and use the telescope to repel the Nestene Consciouness back into space. In the confusion, the Master escapes, but the Doctor reveals that he has stolen a vital component from his rival’s TARDIS, stranding him on Earth.

Jon Pertwee (Doctor Who), Roger Delgado (The Master), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Michael Wisher (Rex Farrel), Harry Towb (McDermott), David Garth (Time Lord), Frank Mills (Radio Telescope Director) , Christopher Burgess (Professor Philips), Andrew Staines (Goodge) , John Baskcomb (Rossini), Dave Carter (Museum Attendant) , Stephen Jack (Farrel Senior), Barbara Leake (Mrs. Farrel), Roy Stewart (Strong Man), Dermot Tuohy (Brownrose), Norman Stanley (Telephone Mechanic), Bill McGuirk (Policeman), Terry Walsh (Auton Policeman), Pat Gorman (Auton Leader), Haydn Jones (Auton Voice)
Directed by Douglas Camfield

TX:
Part 1 - 2nd January, 1971 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm
Part 2 - 9th January, 1971 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm
Part 3 - 16th January, 1971 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm
Part 4 - 23rd January, 1971 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Third Doctor, the Brigadier and UNIT, and introducing Jo Grant and Captain Mike Yates

*First appearance of the Master

*Working title: 'The Spray of Death'