Doctor Who/Recap/S8/E01 Terror of the Autons
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The human body has a basic weakness. One which I shall exploit to assist in the destruction of humanity.
—The Master
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Although a theme that had been explored before, with the Meddling Monk ("The Time Meddler") and the War Chief ("The War Games"), the introduction of the Master as the main villain for every story of series 8 saw a true Evil Counterpart for the Doctor—a Moriarty to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes, as the BBC Classics website puts it.
The Master lands his TARDIS (which does have a working chameleon circuit) in a circus, and sets about his evil plan; first he steals a Nestene energy unit from a museum (see "Spearhead From Space"), then reactivates it using a radio telescope and finally takes over a small plastics firm using his powers of hypnotism. Using the firm's factory, he produces deadly chairs that engulf and kill, plastic daffodils that spray a plastic film over the mouth and nose, and deadly plastic dolls. Autons distribute the daffodils in a promotional campaign. The final phase will be to use the radio telescope to summon the Nestene Consciousness and activate the daffodils.
Meanwhile, the Doctor is investigating the mysterious deaths caused by the chairs and dolls with the help of Jo Grant, a young UNIT assistant who has been given her position thanks to a uniquely persistent relative. Jo falls under the Master's hypnotic influence and nearly blows up UNIT HQ with a bomb. Later, the Master installs a new telephone in UNIT HQ and the cord nearly strangles the Doctor.
Eventually, though, the Doctor persuades the Master that the Nestene Consciousness will have no use for him once they arrive, and they work together to repel the Consciousness into space.
After the Master pulls off a last-minute escape from UNIT troops, the Doctor notes that they are unlikely to have heard the last of him, and that actually he's quite looking forward to matching wits with him again.
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- Arm Cannon: The Autons.
- Decoy Getaway: The Master hypnotises one of his lackeys, dresses the lackey up in his clothing and a Latex Perfection Roger Delgado mask, and sends him out to do a Suicide By UNIT. While the Doctor and UNIT are distracted, the real Master slips away.
- Gonk: That troll doll.
- Latex Perfection: the Master's disguise masks. Possibly justified as Auton tech.
- Magnificent Bastard: The Master!
- The Master
- Moral Guardians: this story caused one of the biggest violence/horror controversies in the show's history. In particular, it was claimed that the episode 2 cliffhanger with the Auton policemen would make children fear and distrust the police, and that the murderous troll doll had left children scared that their cuddly toys would strangle them in their sleep. Barry Letts has said that the reaction did convince him that they'd gone overboard, and to self-censor more in later seasons.
- Not Himself
- Not My Driver
- Reverse Polarity: The Doctor does this in order to make the thingamajig do somethingsomething so that the Nestene will return to space.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections: a rare sympathetic example: Jo gets into a position she really isn't qualified for thanks to a connected relative.
- Shout-Out: The Time Lord's appearance hovering in mid-air is a Shout Out to René Magritte's painting Golconda, showing similarly-dressed men falling like rain.
- Throw It In / Leave the Camera Running: The stunt with the Auton Policeman rolling down the hill was not a stunt at all—the car had hit the stuntman just fractionally too hard and sent him flying. Since the shot was awesome and since the stuntman wasn't seriously injured in his fall into the BBC Quarry, the director decided to leave it in.
- Villain Exit Stage Left: The Master
- The X of Y: but without a "The".