Production Code: EEE
First Transmitted
1 - 02/01/1971 17:15
2 - 09/01/1971 17:15
3 - 16/01/1971 17:15
4 - 23/01/1971 17:15
Plot
The Master arrives on Earth at a circus run by a man named Rossini and steals a dormant Nestene energy unit from a museum. He reactivates it using a radio telescope and uses his hypnotic abilities to take control of a small plastics firm run by the Farrel family, where he organises the production of deadly Auton dolls, chairs and daffodils.
Humanoid Auton dummies distribute the daffodils - designed to spray a suffocating plastic film over their victim's mouth and nose - by giving them away free to members of the public in a fake promotional campaign.
The Master plans to activate the flowers with a signal from the radio telescope, which he will then use to bring the main Nestene Consciousness to Earth. The Doctor manages to persuade the Master that the Nestenes will have no further use for him once they arrive. The two Time Lords then work together to send the Consciousness back into space.
Episode Endings
Jo Grant, having been hypnotised by the Master, tries to open a metal box that has been brought into the lab at UNIT HQ. The Doctor shouts for someone to stop her - the box is a bomb!
The Doctor and Jo are investigating Rossini's circus when they are surrounded by an angry mob of carnival folk. A police car comes to their rescue and they jump in. As they are driven away, a suspicious Doctor attracts the attention of one of the policeman and reaches forward to rip away a plastic face mask, revealing an Auton beneath.
The Master, disguised as an engineer, installs in the UNIT lab a new telephone with a lengthy cord. Later, he calls the Doctor from a phone box. When the Doctor answers, the Master uses a signalling device to cause the plastic cord to come alive and start to strangle him.
The Doctor reveals that the Master is now trapped on Earth like himself and confesses that he is quite looking forward to him turning up again.
Roots
Doomwatch (The Devil's Sweets).
Adam Adamant Lives! (The Sweet Smell of Disaster).
Groucho Marx (military intelligence being a contradiction in terms).
The Power Game.
Dialogue Triumphs
The Master : "The human body has a basic weakness. One which I shall exploit to assist in the destruction of humanity."
The Doctor : "I sometimes think that military intelligence is a contradiction in terms."
The Master : "I have so few worthy opponents. When they're gone I always miss them."
The Doctor : "Death is always more frightening when it strikes invisibly."
The Master : "He sat down in this chair here and just slipped away."
The Doctor : [Replies to the statement that 'Gentlemen never talk about money'] "Gentlemen never talk about anything else."
Dialogue Disasters
The Doctor : "You ham-fisted bun vendor!"
Jo : "You're a dolly Scotsman, Mr Campbell."
Continuity
The Doctor doesn't carry cash. He can crack safes, knows Morse code [and possibly goes to the same club as Lord 'Tubby' Rowlands]. He knows details of the Civil Service. He was sentenced by a 'tribunal', who still preside over his welfare (see The War Games). A Time Lord appears with a TARDIS dematerialization noise, floating in mid air [using a Time Ring, or wearing a TARDIS?].
Jo has done courses in cryptology, safe breaking (she carries a bunch of useful keys), escapology and explosives. She failed her General Science 'A' level, and relatives in high places got her the UNIT job. Liz has returned to Cambridge, apparently deciding that the Doctor didn't need the help of a scientist.
The Master's TARDIS is disguised as a horsebox, and uses a Mark Two dematerialization circuit, as opposed to the Doctor's Mark One (cf The Time Meddler). These are non-compatible (unlike the Monk's and the Doctor's TARDIS circuits in The Daleks Masterplan', which are semi compatible).
The Master can hypnotise people silently, though a strong will can resist. He carries a device that shrinks victims, a volatiser (bomb) and grenades. He can create effective disguise masks, and fake security passes. His degree in Cosmic Science was higher than the Doctor's. [He makes the first of several references to stolen Time Lord files (see 'Colony in Space', The Sea Devils). The Time Lords seem to be unable to catch and deal with him.]
Yates cleared up after the last Auton invasion. UNIT has researchers to investigate alien finds, and agents in the field. A duty officer is in charge of security at HQ. The Brigadier's transport is a small blue car. He can order TV warnings and get the police to undertake national operations. There is a water source outside the window of the Doctor's lab (cf The Three Doctors). There is another UNIT lab [and another HQ].
The Nestenes are mutually telepathic octopoid cephalopods, and thus do have a physical existence [which flatly contradicts Spearhead from Space]. They can send themselves by radio across space, changing the structure of plastic to energise it and make it quasi organic, and exist as programs within it. Their spheres are 8½" across. [The ball of energy on the radio telescope is a sign that much more energy is being transmitted into the nearby Autons.] The Lamadines are a species with nine opposable digits who pioneered steady state micro welding.
There is a National Space Museum.
QV
Location
England, around Tarminster, [late Summer 1970 (The Doctor has been working on the circuit for about three months.)].
Untelevised
The Doctor has been to a circus. At some point, he angered the Master enough to make him want to kill his 'old acquaintance'. The Master's hypnotic skills were evident then, although he was not nearly as learned as he is now. [Their time together at the Academy wasn't very important to them (the first Doctor doesn't recognise him in The Five Doctors) so the antagonism must have arisen during unscreened later meetings.]
Trivia
The Master's TARDIS is disguised as a horse box.
The Nestene energy unit in this story is blue, whereas in Spearhead from Space they were red.
Haydn Jones was originally contracted both to provide the Auton voices and to play the telephone engineer who turns out to be the Master in disguise, but the latter part was recast when Jones was given the more substantial one of Vosper in The Mind of Evil.
Myth
The production team had initially envisioned the new regular villain for the series as a female character, possibly called the Controller, to be played by Susan Jameson. (The role was always envisioned as a male character called the Master, and Roger Delgado was the only actor considered for it.)
Goofs
Things portrayed by CSO in this story: a museum, the outside of a radio telescope, a lunchbox interior, a lab, the interior of two cars, a phonebox, a kitchen, a quarry and everywhere the killer doll goes.
Why does Yates, after checking the repair man's credentials, stare at his bottom?
How does the Master disguise himself as someone of a different height? And, indeed, why disguise himself at all?
In episode one the Doctor could have got to the volatizer by hopping in through the open window (which is how the Master must have got out having set the trap).
The Doctor intuitively leaps to the conclusion that Jo is opening a bomb at the end of episode one.
At the start of episode three, neither Auton policeman is killed, but only one returns to the Master and Farrell. What happened to the other one?
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
Captain Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
Jo Grant - Katy Manning
Sergeant Benton - John Levene
Auton Leader - Pat Gorman
Auton Policeman - Terry Walsh
Auton Voice - Haydn Jones
Brownrose - Dermot Tuohy
Farrel Senior - Stephen Jack
Goodge - Andrew Staines
McDermott - Harry Towb
Mrs. Farrel - Barbara Leake
Museum Attendant - Dave Carter
Policeman - Bill McGuirk
Professor Philips - Christopher Burgess
Radio Telescope Director - Frank Mills
Rex Farrel - Michael Wisher
Rossini - John Baskcomb
Strong Man - Roy Stewart
Telephone Mechanic - Norman Stanley
The Master - Roger Delgado
Time Lord - David Garth
Crew
Director - Barry Letts
Terror of the Autons