7.1: Spearhead from Space
- Doctor: Jon Pertwee
- Companions: Liz Shaw
- Creators: Robert Holmes (Writer), Derek Martinus (Director), Derrick Sherwin (Producer)
What's the rating?
Must See. New Doctor, new recurring monster, how could you not?
What's interesting about it?
Jon Pertwee's first story, in color, on film. On film because various folks at the BBC were on strike, preventing the production crew from using internal sets, thereby forcing them to use mostly outdoor locations, requiring film. This is not the only time strikes would impact the show (it was 70s Britain after all) but this is probably the only time where strikes resulted in something better than we'd have had otherwise. And we still feel the impact today, as being on film allowed the BBC to release this episode on Blu-ray.
So suddenly The Doctor lives in a very colorful world. It's a bit of a shock coming off of years of the show being defined by black and white, and it's not entirely welcome, at least for the first couple of episodes.
Overall things do feel a bit different, a bit “hmm I don't think it's been done that way before”. There seems to be more sudden cuts between people in different locations; we no longer always follow one character until their particular story beat is resolved, instead we might cut between multiple locations, following each thread simultaneously.
Liz Shaw is the delightful new companion, a scientist and smart as a whip, not taking a bit of guff from The Doctor. Alas, in all too short a time the producers will “fix” that.
The new monsters, the Autons, will come to provide a special place in the New Series, as an homage to this episode (though this isn't as good as their next appearance).
The Doctor, based on the events of Patrick Troughton's final story, is now exiled to Earth. Which was really a way for the producers to save money on sets for alien worlds, much to the chagrin of the new story editor, Terrance Dicks, who was saddled with the decision of the outgoing producers. Earth-centeredness meant no TARDIS action and resulted in “Monster of the week” stories. So get ready for an awful lot of stories with an awful lot of scenes of monsters advancing on U.N.I.T. soldiers while they fire endlessly and uselessly.
It's also worth watching both of the documentaries that come with this, one about Jon Pertwee's career and the other about Caroline John.