"I couldn't bear the thought of being tied to one planet and one time."
Doctor Who loves a new beginning and Spearhead from Space is one of its best. There's a breezy verve and a fresh-off-the-line sense right from the get go. We've got colour, check; new Doctor (Jon Pertwee), check; new companion (Caroline John as Liz Shaw, check); Nicholas Courtenay is back as the Brigadier, check; the Doctor is exiled on Earth, check. Now let's dig into the story.
--The Third Doctor
With the recent death of Terrance Dicks and the marking of Jon Pertwee's 100th birthday in July, I've begun to hear a ticking that can only be a timey-wimey call from the future to finally commence my Third Doctor rewatch.
Doctor Who loves a new beginning and Spearhead from Space is one of its best. There's a breezy verve and a fresh-off-the-line sense right from the get go. We've got colour, check; new Doctor (Jon Pertwee), check; new companion (Caroline John as Liz Shaw, check); Nicholas Courtenay is back as the Brigadier, check; the Doctor is exiled on Earth, check. Now let's dig into the story.
Here we're treated to the only Doctor Who story in the original run of the program to be presented entirely on film (and location) owing to industrial action at the BBC. It's the love child of BBC modesty and ITV shine. This leads to some great directorial touches like Liz's Shaw's arrival in a car at UNIT headquarters, complete with jazzy flute and trumpet solo, the barrage of photographers descending on the Brigadier, the 'walk and talks' through the hospital corridors (with staff scurrying around in the background) and through the hospital grounds. And who can forget the sight of the Doctor lathering up in the shower while humming an opera tune.
Who can forget Liz Shaw's ample mascara, the cosy feel of the cottage hospital with its funky mod curtains, and smart nurses' uniforms, the fact that the Autons wear scarves, and plucky Meg Seeley standing up to her home invader with her trusty double barrel shotgun.
But god don't I just love all the wonderful, character-filled faces too: John Woodnutt with his chunky, awkward glasses purring his lines (Hibbert), Derek Smee, all pasty, wide-eyed and perpetually bewildered (Ransome), Neil Wilson, always looking like the kid caught in the act (Sam Seeley) and of course Talfryn Thomas as Mullins the porter.
There are also some deeply unsettling deaths that remain a touchstone of season 7 Doctor Who: the two UNIT soldiers who we get to know interrogating Sam Sealey are gruesomely and bloodily acquainted with a windscreen when their jeep swerves off the road; and poor Ransome who is vapourize utterly in a cloud of of orange smoke. Total destruction indeed.
Call Forwards: The Autons and the Nestene would return 35 years later to launch the modern era of Doctor Who in "Rose", with a similar attack by shop dummies. You would never see a bloody face smashed against a vehicle screen on modern Who. Oh and I once saw Tessa Shaw, the actor who played the UNIT officer at the start of the story, years ago at GallifreyOne in autograph alley. She looked to me with her coiffed hair and twin set like Rita Sullivan from Coronation Street.
Hammer Horror or I, Claudius? Hugh Burden (Channing) played Geoffrey Dandridge in Blood From the Mummy's Tomb (1971); Neil Wilson (Sam Sealey) played a policeman in Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971) and a schoolmaster in The Horror of Frankenstein (1971) and a guard in The Damned (1962);
Cheese Please: A strong 5-year aged cheddar with some bite.
Next Up: Doctor Who and Some Cave Monsters
Hammer Horror or I, Claudius? Hugh Burden (Channing) played Geoffrey Dandridge in Blood From the Mummy's Tomb (1971); Neil Wilson (Sam Sealey) played a policeman in Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971) and a schoolmaster in The Horror of Frankenstein (1971) and a guard in The Damned (1962);
Cheese Please: A strong 5-year aged cheddar with some bite.
Next Up: Doctor Who and Some Cave Monsters
