Terror Of The Autons (1971) Review

Yeaaaah, really terrifying...

Terror Of The Autons is silly and awful. It makes little sense, its' effects are crap(and not the enjoyable kind), it's played as a farce and it's just stupid. Definitely the worst season opener yet.

PLOT

After avoiding Time Lord punishment in The War Games, the Master has found his way to Earth and makes a deal with the Nestenes(who've upgraded from octopus to lightning) to help them invade via some technobabble surrounding a radio tower.
Until he decides: "Nah, screw it." because the Doctor said so and literally reverses everything.

CHARACTERS

Jon Pertwee is practically Peter Capaldi without the accent in this story, spouting nonsensical venom towards UNIT with every other line.

His new assistant is the childish Jo Grant(imagine yourself playing with a baby, going all goo-goo, gaa-gaa, wow! Now imagine that as an actual character), who does not make a very good impression on me.

Of course, there's Roger Delgado, who practically drips class and sophistication. It's a little overwhelming, to be honest. I prefer the more feral John Simm. It doesn't help that his character isn't explained at all. He's just suddenly the Doctor's archenemy.
They also don't treat each other as ancient childhood friends(yes, that was written later, but it worked with the Second Doctor and the War Chief), instead it's rather played like the Meddler got a real big ego after regenerating.

The Autons themselves aren't nearly as threatening, ironically since now they have all plastic on their side. But as I said, it feels like a pantomime.

The only redeeming aspects are Michael Wisher's Rex Farrell(plus parents), who felt like a real person and whom I felt sympathy for, and the Bowler Hat Time Lord(who was also treated as if we were supposed to know who he was), who was just awesome.

NOTES

*The CSO is something I haven't yet had to bring up, but by god, the rumours were true. It's hideous, it really is.

*Why does UNIT need the RAF to bomb something? Don't they have their own helicopters and stuff?

*What's with the tension between the Brigadier and Yates(he's even hammier than Benton)? Again, I feel like I've missed a season or two.

*So now the Doctor just needs a new Mark I dematerialisation circuit? Soon he'll be telling us he's stuck on Earth because his TARDIS can't get the latest Adobe Flash Player update.

*I did like the way the Brigadier forced Jo and the Doctor together, just because he could.

BEST LINE

"Not, particularly, no... in fact I'm looking quite forward to it." SUBTLE!!!

CONCLUSION

Rubbish.