Doctor Who/Spearhead from Space

Spearhead from Space
Season 7, Episode 1
Airdate	January 3, 1970
Production Number	AAA
Written by	Robert Holmes
Directed by	Derek Martinus
← 6x07 The War Games	7x02 → Doctor Who and the Silurians
Doctor Who — Season Seven

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Spearhead From Space is the first serial of the seventh season of Doctor Who, and the fifty-first serial overall.

Guest Stars: Derek Smee (Ransome), Hamilton Dyce (General Scobie), Hugh Burden (Channing), Neil Wilson (Sam Seeley), Prentis Hancock (2nd Reporter), John Woodnutt (Hibbert), John Breslin (Munro), Antony Webb (Henderson), Talfryn Thomas (Mullins), George Lee (Forbes), Betty Bowden (Meg Seeley), Tessa Shaw (UNIT Officer), Clifford Cox (Sergeant)

Plot Overview

The TARDIS takes the newly regenerated Doctor to Earth to begin his exile. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart leads a UNIT investigation into a mysterious meteorite shower. A recovered Doctor escapes the hospital and joins UNIT in their investigation. Meanwhile, Channing directs one of his Auton servants to recover a meteorite. Sam Seeley has found one of the meteorites but the Autons want it back and are closing in. General Scobie visits Auto Plastics, playing into the hands of Channing. The invasion begins as Auton shop dummies come to life and attack the public. The Doctor and UNIT infiltrate Auto Plastics where the Doctor faces the Nestene consciousness.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• The Doctor arrives on Earth to begin an indefinite sentence of exile for meddling. Ironically, the Time Lords have placed him in a time and place where his meddling instincts are most needed -- when Earth is starting to be visited by alien menaces.

• The Nestene Consciousness and its Auton avatars are introduced in this story. They would appear again in Terror of the Autons and Rose.

Characters

Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart is reintroduced and becomes a regular.

Doctor Elizabeth Shaw makes her first appearance, becoming the Doctor's assistant for the rest of the season.

The Doctor accepts his temporarily Earth-bound life by taking a job with UNIT as their chief scientific advisor -- a job originally created for Liz Shaw, which she was on the verge of turning down. The Doctor makes Liz's help a precondition for his employment, and she allows herself to be pursuaded.

Referbacks

The Web of Fear, The Invasion: The character of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart becomes a regular character. UNIT was introduced in The Invasion, with Lethbridge-Stewart having been promoted and tapped to lead it after the events in The Web of Fear.

The War Games: The Doctor has been sentenced to exile and forcibly regenerated by the Time Lords.

Trivia

The Show

• This story was filmed (stress: filmed, not taped) entirely on location due to a strike at the studios. The result is a unique look, made all the more striking when you remember this was the first story to be shot and broadcast in colour.