Greetings, students, and welcome to the John Maxwell Film School. Class is in session, so let's get to it. As you can see, it's time for "Dispatches From TV Land", where we take a look at the things from television that aren't sitcoms. This week, on "Dispatches From TV Land", we make our way back to 1970, the furthest we've been so far at the Film School, to see how a Doctor gets his start. Yes, it's a look at probably the most-famous sci-fi show in the world (next to "Star Trek"). It's "Doctor Who" and the debut story of my favorite Doctor in the series' run, Jon Pertwee. Why is he my favorite?
First, a little reason behind this. Last weekend, the BBC made a grand gesture and put on a internationally-televised show to reveal the name of the twelfth person to play the Doctor. It was Peter Capaldi, a man who once was in a punk band with Craig Ferguson. It was nice to finally see a old face running the TARDIS after all the years of young bucks. Hard to believe that back when Jon Pertwee got announced, all he got was his face on the six o'clock news. Seeing how the world is still got that new Doctor glow, I thought it would be nice to see how the show was a long time ago.
January 4, 1970: the show has been off the air for six months since Patrick Troughton had finished his time as the Doctor in the last episode of "The War Games". Excitement had been building for Pertwee over that time frame. Then, as the opening titles roll, some people notice a change. The show is now in color and suddenly, it has entered a new era. Indeed, the Doctor had been exiled by his people the Time Lords and the TARDIS rendered non-functional. He was now trapped on a world with a new face and new enemies. However, our story doesn't start with where we left off. Where do we? Follow me and find out where Jon Pertwee's era begins.
The story opens with a swarm of meteorites entering Earth's atmosphere, coming down over a specific area of Britain. This gets the notice of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, or UNIT. In the midst of the swarm, the TARDIS materializes in the middle of the forest. Out steps the Doctor, fresh from his forced regeneration... and down he goes into the grass. Boy, being suddenly turned into a different person can take a lot out of you. Back with UNIT, we meet Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, of Cambridge, who is being hired by UNIT as a scientific advisor. As she arrives at UNIT HQ, she meets with a familiar face: Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, formerly of the British Army.
Naturally, he tells Dr. Shaw, or Liz, as we all know her as, about the recent influx of alien invaders and how UNIT was formed to fight them. Of course, she doesn't believe it at first and needs some proof, which the Brigadier has in his desk. However, the meeting is interrupted by the news of the discovery of the TARDIS by meteorite-seeking troops. Quickly, the Brigadier and Liz head off to a country hospital, where the press is there after a attention-seeking janitor alerted them to the strange goings-on. This being the fact that their new patient has two hearts and blood that isn't human in the least. It's as if he wasn't from here... Maybe call in an expert on these things... he's already here.
The Brigadier and Liz breeze pass the press and into the room where our new Doctor is being kept. Of course, the Brigadier knows the Doctor. He looks like Patrick Trou... Oh, wait, this man doesn't like that in the least. The Doctor knows who he is and tells the Brigadier that. He also gets a good look at his new face with help from Liz's compact. Biggest complain? The nose is too big. Back to the story, it turns out there's a strange man among the reporters, who don't get their big scoop. Back with the Doctor, he searches for his shoes and finds them... just to get the TARDIS key in them. However, before he can enjoy his key, two men come in and kidnap him. I know UNIT likes him but this is too far.
Of course, it's not UNIT but as they try to load the Doctor into a van, he makes his escape by wheelchair. Fact: Pertwee did the stunt himself. His escape leads him, after ditching the wheelchair, back to the TARDIS. Part One ends as the Doctor gets close but is shot by a trigger-happy UNIT soldier. Part Two starts with the news that the bullet only grazed him but he's put himself in a self-induced coma. I don't blame him, he's had a rough day. Back at UNIT HQ, Liz has been given a lab space and pieces of one of those meteorites that fell to Earth. Meanwhile, we cut to a plastics factory, where we see dolls of all sorts being made. Eventually, we see a secretary leading a man to the offices of the boss man.
It turns out that this man, named Ransom, has been getting a lot of help from the company in producing a doll for the American market... only to be fired without a reason, just a notice. Naturally, he wants to know why. The boss gives some silly excuse and Ransom is shown out, with him wondering what happened to his office space, now termed off-limits. Back with the Doctor, he's had enough of the hospital and he makes another escape. Here, he does something he'll do again: borrowing some clothes from the hospital. He even takes the car belonging to a bigwig doctor and off to the TARDIS he goes. It turns out the TARDIS has been moved into Liz's lab space.
The Doctor, with the help of his TARDIS-locator watch, finds his way to UNIT HQ. He meets up with the Brigadier and meets Liz for the first time. He, right away, inserts himself into the meteorite investigation. He informs them that the pieces infer that the meteorites were hollow and that what was inside was taken somewhere. Cut to the plastics factory, where Ransom breaks into his old office space. There, he see mannequins on display and some large thing in the middle of the room. Before he can really see what it is, one of the mannequins comes to life and springs on him the end of Part Two. Part Three starts with Ransom escaping death. We then learn that the strange man and the boss are in league together and learn Ransom was there.
Back with the Doctor, he and Liz are running test after test and getting nowhere. After complaining that the latest in Earth tech is no good, he says he has a piece of tech that might help in the TARDIS. However, the Brigadier has the key, so Liz decides to get the key when the Brigadier is interviewing Ransom about what he saw. However, it turns out that the Doctor played a trick, as he tries to leave once inside the TARDIS. He then learns that when the Time Lords ground you, they mean it. Unable to leave, he goes back to the testing. The Brigadier then decides to involve the Doctor and Liz as they visit the plastics factory. Naturally, the company denies anything Ransom says but the Doctor thinks that what he said was the truth.
Meanwhile, the plastic factory is busy producing a new kind of mannequin: life-sized versions of real people. One of the people chosen is General Scobie, the Brigadier's superior and connection to the Army. In the midst of all this, we have seen scenes of a commoner hiding one of the meteorites in a trunk as one of the moving mannequins, called Autons, tries to locate it. The commoner decides to tell UNIT about it, in the hopes of reward money. They go to his house, where the Auton has arrived. After a fight which shows UNIT is unable to kill a non-living thing, the Auton retreats. The meteorite is taken back to UNIT HQ, where tests by the Doctor and Liz show it to have part of a life-form inside. I was hoping for a chocolate center.
In quick order, the Auton makes its way to a UNIT tent and dispatches Ransom and heads off to... somewhere. With this turn of events, the Brigadier decides to ask Scobie for some troops to guard the plastics factory. However, before the order is made, an Auton replica of Scobie arrives at the real one's place to end Part Three. Part Four has the Doctor and Liz decide that it's time to come up with a defense to the Autons. Their work includes a visit to Madame Tussuad's, where they come across the real Scobie, subbing for his Auton replica. They also meet up with Ransom's boss when he and the strange man come to collect the other Autons in the place. They tell him that he needs to overcome the Autons' mind-control over him.
Back at HQ, our duo work the rest of the night on a weapon against the Autons. However, as the sun rises, mannequins come to life in store windows in one of the show's most famous scenes. Autons then starts blowing people away without care. The country is under attack and UNIT is quick to move. However, Auton Scobie won't hand over any troops. Indeed, as the Brigadier, the Doctor, Liz, and a select group of soldiers descend on the factory, Auton Scobie tries to stop them. Meanwhile, he has taken the remaining meteorite from HQ and taken it to the factor, where whatever's inside it join its friends in the giant box.
The Doctor, outside, tries his new weapon on Auton Scobie and it works. The assembled groups of soldiers then must fight off Autons. Of course, it's like shooting air but they give it a try anyway. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Liz make their way into the Autons' own HQ. There, they meet the strange man, who has done away with Ransom's boss. He reveals that the box contains the Nestene, a living consciousness who like to take over worlds. Not wanting to let them add Earth to their collection, the Doctor gives a good fight while he tries to activate his weapon. Finally, he does, the Nestene dies, the Autons follow, and the Doctor decides to join UNIT as their scientific advisor... I hope he told Liz about that.
This story began the seventh year of the show's life. Over the last six years, the show had gone through tons of story and two lead actors. With this opening story, the tone changed from the days of old to a new start. A few things about this story. Until the series was revived in 2005, this was the only story to be done totally on film. The reason was that there was a techicians' strike and the decision was made to take the production elsewhere in the meantime. To me, that give it a movie-like quality. I'm surprised that the BBC didn't edit the four parts together and release it as a film. That's also one reason I love this story. It looks nothing like "Doctor Who" of the time.
The Autons are a superb villain, in the level of modern-day foes. The scene where the mannequins come to life and have a rampage is forever etched into the minds of British television viewers. If you want the moment "Doctor Who" evolved past being a kid's show, it's that moment. The Autons and the Nestene were so good that Russell T. Davies used them in the first episode of the revived series back in 2005. Out of all the foes the Doctor encountered in his first 26 years, those were the one chosen to begin his new adventures in the 21st century. Hopefully, Moffat might catch the hint and bring them back as Capaldi's first foes. If they were good enough for Eccleston, they're good enough for an ex-punk rocker Scotsman.
Jon Pertwee adds his own spin on the Doctor right off, by taking an outfit from the hospital that Matt Smith would be jealous of. The ruffled tie, the starched shirt, the cape, the whole thing shows that this Doctor has one heck of a fashion sense. At the same time, he has a love of gadgets and science. Most importantly to me, he will fight. He's not afraid to get down and dirty to save the day. The very fact that Pertwee was up to doing his own stunts shows that this choice was not the producers' and by the end of his first year, they managed to talk him into getting a stunt double so their star wouldn't break a bone. He's my favorite Doctor because he has all the elements I want in a hero: great fashion, love of gadgets, cool car, and a smart sidekick.
Speaking of which, Liz Shaw is my favorite companion, even though she never traveled in the TARDIS. Unlike most female companions, she has a brain. The way she instantly warms up to the Doctor shows she sees his intellect and would side with him instead of the military thugs she was hired by. Over the four stories she was part of, she see her earn a place by the Doctor's side. However, the producers felt that the Doctor didn't need a smart sidekick and replace her the next year. In this story, she shows her stuff, brain combined with beauty. The attempts they made to make her look like the average companion in the later stories would fall flat. Do me a favor, Moffat, and give me a scientist for the Doctor.
This very season gives me my two favorite "Doctor Who" stories, this one and "Inferno". They serve as bookends to the season. It's nice to see the Doctor paired with someone who isn't a frighten mouse or bone-breaking lion. She has her fun at the Doctor and his gadgets and he has his fun at taking it in stride. Jon Pertwee and Caroline John make quite a team and it's a shame that wasn't carried over into the next season. Don't get me wrong, I haven't watched much of Pertwee with Katy Manning or Elisabeth Sladen, so my opinion might change. In the meantime, I will take Liz Shaw over the others any day. The 25 episodes she was in mark the first year the show was taken seriously by people and the starting point for the modern success the show has had.
In conclusion, this story I would show to anyone wanting to watch classic "Who". If you're a fan of the current show and want to see the original, this is a good place to start. It has all the marks of Moffat and the man himself has been unabashed in his love for the story. Every time I watch, I love it ever more and I lament at an opportunity lost, to keep making the show on film out of the studio. It's how the show is made now and seeing this in 1970 makes me wish other stories were made in this fashion. Now, over the next two weeks, I'll be posting installments of "Movies I Haven't Seen" Now, what do you get when you put Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed in a film that doesn't have the word "smokey" in the title? Next week, music takes the stage here as we play host to "W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings".
Until then, this is John Maxwell, saying CLASS DISMISSED!!!!!!
Naturally, he tells Dr. Shaw, or Liz, as we all know her as, about the recent influx of alien invaders and how UNIT was formed to fight them. Of course, she doesn't believe it at first and needs some proof, which the Brigadier has in his desk. However, the meeting is interrupted by the news of the discovery of the TARDIS by meteorite-seeking troops. Quickly, the Brigadier and Liz head off to a country hospital, where the press is there after a attention-seeking janitor alerted them to the strange goings-on. This being the fact that their new patient has two hearts and blood that isn't human in the least. It's as if he wasn't from here... Maybe call in an expert on these things... he's already here.
The Brigadier and Liz breeze pass the press and into the room where our new Doctor is being kept. Of course, the Brigadier knows the Doctor. He looks like Patrick Trou... Oh, wait, this man doesn't like that in the least. The Doctor knows who he is and tells the Brigadier that. He also gets a good look at his new face with help from Liz's compact. Biggest complain? The nose is too big. Back to the story, it turns out there's a strange man among the reporters, who don't get their big scoop. Back with the Doctor, he searches for his shoes and finds them... just to get the TARDIS key in them. However, before he can enjoy his key, two men come in and kidnap him. I know UNIT likes him but this is too far.
Of course, it's not UNIT but as they try to load the Doctor into a van, he makes his escape by wheelchair. Fact: Pertwee did the stunt himself. His escape leads him, after ditching the wheelchair, back to the TARDIS. Part One ends as the Doctor gets close but is shot by a trigger-happy UNIT soldier. Part Two starts with the news that the bullet only grazed him but he's put himself in a self-induced coma. I don't blame him, he's had a rough day. Back at UNIT HQ, Liz has been given a lab space and pieces of one of those meteorites that fell to Earth. Meanwhile, we cut to a plastics factory, where we see dolls of all sorts being made. Eventually, we see a secretary leading a man to the offices of the boss man.
It turns out that this man, named Ransom, has been getting a lot of help from the company in producing a doll for the American market... only to be fired without a reason, just a notice. Naturally, he wants to know why. The boss gives some silly excuse and Ransom is shown out, with him wondering what happened to his office space, now termed off-limits. Back with the Doctor, he's had enough of the hospital and he makes another escape. Here, he does something he'll do again: borrowing some clothes from the hospital. He even takes the car belonging to a bigwig doctor and off to the TARDIS he goes. It turns out the TARDIS has been moved into Liz's lab space.
The Doctor, with the help of his TARDIS-locator watch, finds his way to UNIT HQ. He meets up with the Brigadier and meets Liz for the first time. He, right away, inserts himself into the meteorite investigation. He informs them that the pieces infer that the meteorites were hollow and that what was inside was taken somewhere. Cut to the plastics factory, where Ransom breaks into his old office space. There, he see mannequins on display and some large thing in the middle of the room. Before he can really see what it is, one of the mannequins comes to life and springs on him the end of Part Two. Part Three starts with Ransom escaping death. We then learn that the strange man and the boss are in league together and learn Ransom was there.
Back with the Doctor, he and Liz are running test after test and getting nowhere. After complaining that the latest in Earth tech is no good, he says he has a piece of tech that might help in the TARDIS. However, the Brigadier has the key, so Liz decides to get the key when the Brigadier is interviewing Ransom about what he saw. However, it turns out that the Doctor played a trick, as he tries to leave once inside the TARDIS. He then learns that when the Time Lords ground you, they mean it. Unable to leave, he goes back to the testing. The Brigadier then decides to involve the Doctor and Liz as they visit the plastics factory. Naturally, the company denies anything Ransom says but the Doctor thinks that what he said was the truth.
Meanwhile, the plastic factory is busy producing a new kind of mannequin: life-sized versions of real people. One of the people chosen is General Scobie, the Brigadier's superior and connection to the Army. In the midst of all this, we have seen scenes of a commoner hiding one of the meteorites in a trunk as one of the moving mannequins, called Autons, tries to locate it. The commoner decides to tell UNIT about it, in the hopes of reward money. They go to his house, where the Auton has arrived. After a fight which shows UNIT is unable to kill a non-living thing, the Auton retreats. The meteorite is taken back to UNIT HQ, where tests by the Doctor and Liz show it to have part of a life-form inside. I was hoping for a chocolate center.
In quick order, the Auton makes its way to a UNIT tent and dispatches Ransom and heads off to... somewhere. With this turn of events, the Brigadier decides to ask Scobie for some troops to guard the plastics factory. However, before the order is made, an Auton replica of Scobie arrives at the real one's place to end Part Three. Part Four has the Doctor and Liz decide that it's time to come up with a defense to the Autons. Their work includes a visit to Madame Tussuad's, where they come across the real Scobie, subbing for his Auton replica. They also meet up with Ransom's boss when he and the strange man come to collect the other Autons in the place. They tell him that he needs to overcome the Autons' mind-control over him.
Back at HQ, our duo work the rest of the night on a weapon against the Autons. However, as the sun rises, mannequins come to life in store windows in one of the show's most famous scenes. Autons then starts blowing people away without care. The country is under attack and UNIT is quick to move. However, Auton Scobie won't hand over any troops. Indeed, as the Brigadier, the Doctor, Liz, and a select group of soldiers descend on the factory, Auton Scobie tries to stop them. Meanwhile, he has taken the remaining meteorite from HQ and taken it to the factor, where whatever's inside it join its friends in the giant box.
The Doctor, outside, tries his new weapon on Auton Scobie and it works. The assembled groups of soldiers then must fight off Autons. Of course, it's like shooting air but they give it a try anyway. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Liz make their way into the Autons' own HQ. There, they meet the strange man, who has done away with Ransom's boss. He reveals that the box contains the Nestene, a living consciousness who like to take over worlds. Not wanting to let them add Earth to their collection, the Doctor gives a good fight while he tries to activate his weapon. Finally, he does, the Nestene dies, the Autons follow, and the Doctor decides to join UNIT as their scientific advisor... I hope he told Liz about that.
This story began the seventh year of the show's life. Over the last six years, the show had gone through tons of story and two lead actors. With this opening story, the tone changed from the days of old to a new start. A few things about this story. Until the series was revived in 2005, this was the only story to be done totally on film. The reason was that there was a techicians' strike and the decision was made to take the production elsewhere in the meantime. To me, that give it a movie-like quality. I'm surprised that the BBC didn't edit the four parts together and release it as a film. That's also one reason I love this story. It looks nothing like "Doctor Who" of the time.
The Autons are a superb villain, in the level of modern-day foes. The scene where the mannequins come to life and have a rampage is forever etched into the minds of British television viewers. If you want the moment "Doctor Who" evolved past being a kid's show, it's that moment. The Autons and the Nestene were so good that Russell T. Davies used them in the first episode of the revived series back in 2005. Out of all the foes the Doctor encountered in his first 26 years, those were the one chosen to begin his new adventures in the 21st century. Hopefully, Moffat might catch the hint and bring them back as Capaldi's first foes. If they were good enough for Eccleston, they're good enough for an ex-punk rocker Scotsman.
Jon Pertwee adds his own spin on the Doctor right off, by taking an outfit from the hospital that Matt Smith would be jealous of. The ruffled tie, the starched shirt, the cape, the whole thing shows that this Doctor has one heck of a fashion sense. At the same time, he has a love of gadgets and science. Most importantly to me, he will fight. He's not afraid to get down and dirty to save the day. The very fact that Pertwee was up to doing his own stunts shows that this choice was not the producers' and by the end of his first year, they managed to talk him into getting a stunt double so their star wouldn't break a bone. He's my favorite Doctor because he has all the elements I want in a hero: great fashion, love of gadgets, cool car, and a smart sidekick.
Speaking of which, Liz Shaw is my favorite companion, even though she never traveled in the TARDIS. Unlike most female companions, she has a brain. The way she instantly warms up to the Doctor shows she sees his intellect and would side with him instead of the military thugs she was hired by. Over the four stories she was part of, she see her earn a place by the Doctor's side. However, the producers felt that the Doctor didn't need a smart sidekick and replace her the next year. In this story, she shows her stuff, brain combined with beauty. The attempts they made to make her look like the average companion in the later stories would fall flat. Do me a favor, Moffat, and give me a scientist for the Doctor.
This very season gives me my two favorite "Doctor Who" stories, this one and "Inferno". They serve as bookends to the season. It's nice to see the Doctor paired with someone who isn't a frighten mouse or bone-breaking lion. She has her fun at the Doctor and his gadgets and he has his fun at taking it in stride. Jon Pertwee and Caroline John make quite a team and it's a shame that wasn't carried over into the next season. Don't get me wrong, I haven't watched much of Pertwee with Katy Manning or Elisabeth Sladen, so my opinion might change. In the meantime, I will take Liz Shaw over the others any day. The 25 episodes she was in mark the first year the show was taken seriously by people and the starting point for the modern success the show has had.
In conclusion, this story I would show to anyone wanting to watch classic "Who". If you're a fan of the current show and want to see the original, this is a good place to start. It has all the marks of Moffat and the man himself has been unabashed in his love for the story. Every time I watch, I love it ever more and I lament at an opportunity lost, to keep making the show on film out of the studio. It's how the show is made now and seeing this in 1970 makes me wish other stories were made in this fashion. Now, over the next two weeks, I'll be posting installments of "Movies I Haven't Seen" Now, what do you get when you put Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed in a film that doesn't have the word "smokey" in the title? Next week, music takes the stage here as we play host to "W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings".
Until then, this is John Maxwell, saying CLASS DISMISSED!!!!!!
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