With Doctor Who currently back on the air with new weekly episodes it was only right to remind you all of another important episode of the show. As this episode introduces not one not two but three new characters one of whom would go onto become one of The Doctor's greatest foes and the others becoming good allies to the third doctor and so then join me as I review the episode that sees The Doctor meet his Moriarty to his Sherlock Holmes with the episode in question being called simply just "Terror Of The Autons" enjoy.
The plot of the episode is when an old foe of The Doctor's comes to earth looking to take it over with the help of the Autons it's up to The Doctor , UNIT and his new companion to stop them before it's far to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as the plot of this episode was a good example of just how good the show could be when it's at it's best as the plot of the episode does have some really science fiction elements in it whilst at the same time not being a dumb plot as it's a plot that treats it's audience with respect something that alot of the later Doctor Who plots really do fail to do with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Jon Pertwee as The Doctor , Katy Manning as Jo Grant and Roger Delgado as The Master. Also starring in this episode is Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart , Rogue One star Richard Franklin as Captain Mike Yates , John Levene as Sergeant Benton , Michael Wisher as Rex Farrel , Stephen Jack as Farrel Snr. , Barbara Leake as Mrs. Farrel , Harry Towb as McDermott , Christopher Burgess as Professor Philips , Frank Mills as The Radio Telescope Director , Andrew Staines as Goodge , The Violent Enemy Dermot Tuohy star as Brownrose , Dad's Army star John Baskcomb as Rossini , Live And Let Die star Roy Stewart as Tony The Strong Man and Haydn Jones The Voice Of The Autons.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. Which given who us starring in this episode really isn't all that surprising as alot of the cast for this episode are a bunch of genuinely really good actors who know how to turn in a good performance in this episode with it being really hard to say who the true standout performer is in this episode as that's just how good the acting really is in this episode as all of the episodes cast are quite clearly giving it there all with even Katy Manning who does get better over time turning a really good performance in her debut episode with the acting in this episode really being helped by the fact that the script for this episode is just so good that all the episodes cast have to do is just say the lines as they written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really raise the overall quality of the acting that's really in this very episode.
As was stated at the very start of this review this is the episode that marks the first appearance of The Master. With the character being pretty much written and acted how he would be for the rest of his existence as the character was pretty much written as perfectly as you'd want this version of the character to be written with the character basically being written as Professor Moriarty to The Doctors Sherlock Holmes as they are both super smart people who know alot about each other with The Doctor always being one step behind The Master and playing catch up with the character which does make there dynamic feel fresh , new and different as The Master truly is the evil version of The Doctor in every single way possible with this version of the character being someone who is willing to use human beings to get what he wants and to do the things that he won't do something that The Doctor would never do as he would do alot of things that he wanted to do himself and not put humans in harms way and as a result of this is the fact that we get a great villain who can and in most cases does push The Doctor in alot of ways.
The over new characters that are introduced in this episode are Captain Mike Yates and of course Jo Grant. With Mike being the better of the two characters as you at least get to see why he would be chosen to work for UNIT where as with Jo there's no reason why The Doctor would want her to be his companion as she's the brightest bulb out there and she doesn't doesn't really give The Doctor any kind of support apart from coming up with one or two decent ideas in the episode and that's really it where as with Mike you get to see why he got to work at UNIT and what it was that he brought to the team with him being the kind of person who will leap into action to save his friends regardless of what it would do to him in the process with the character also getting one of the episodes more funnier moments which shows that he has a sense of humor and while Jo has the potential to be a good companion something that she would reach as he tenure on the show would go on you still have to show us why The Doctor would want to work with her and why he want her to be his companion something that this episode very sadly fails to do.
To be frank both this episode and indeed the entire classic era of Doctor Who does have there moments that are just pure goofy. With the best example of that being in this episode where a guy straight up gets smothered by a plastic chair which on paper sounds creepy and sounds scary but in reality it's just goofy and it comes across as being alot more laughable then it does scary with that part of the episode making the part in Rose where Mickey gets turned into a plastic by a wheelie bin look more scary and threatening then what it actually is as that's just how goofy the char killing scene is in this episode with another goofy moment in this episode coming at the end of the episodes third episode where The Doctor has a punch of phone wire wrapped around him which again on paper sounds cool but in reality it just looks goofy and it makes you wonder why the makers of the show thought that those moments looked good enough to be included in the final cut of the episode as all they do is make those parts of the episode seem unintentionally hilarious.
To this episodes credit the idea of having two villains team up is a good odea and while this idea isn't as fully realised just due to the fact that this is the debut episode of The Master it is still a good idea. With this idea being one that could have worked even more of it is was the second Master or even third Master story as it would then mean that us the audience would have a chance to form a connection with the character and deicide if we like the character or not and yet because it's his first episode that idea can't be fully realised as the episode has to spend alot of time setting up The Master and telling us why he's a threat to The Doctor where as if this was his second or third story then we could just get straight into the plot and and see how The Master and the Autons interact with each other with there interactions being the best part of the episode as we get to see to evil beings basically fight to be the top dog in that partnership instead of just having them get along together which is what that we kind of get in this episode as well but at the same time tho if we the audience had the chance to get to know The Master before this story then the episode would have that shock factor of seeing two of The Doctors foes teaming up to take him down.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever this episodes grand total running time even was I do that for a fact that this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly one hour and thirty minuets. With this story being four episodes long which s the absolutely perfect running time and episode count for this story to have as this episode really doesn't have alot of plot there to cover anything really longer then that both in terms of running time and interms of episode count as well and while yes the episode would have benefitted from having really at the very least two or three extra episodes which would flesh out the characters a bit more then what they already are and it would have given us the chance to see why Jo would make a good companion to The Doctor as as things stand that's not something that comes across well in the final cut of the episode but at the same time tho it would also run the risk of making the episodes plot even thinner then what it already is but I will admit that tis episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in al honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As while classic Doctor Who doesn't really have that many action scenes in them it makes it all the more impressive when they do have one because they have to put alot of effort in it to make it as good as the action in alot of other shows from around the same time something that this episode does wonderfully as while alot of this episodes action does boil down to who can shoot who the fastest that doesn't mean that it's not exciting to see as the action that we got in this episode was very exciting and when it comes to the episodes third act it really does also get very dramatic as it gives us a really great twist ending involving The Master as well which really makes the all action in that part of the episode all the more memorable as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this episode was solid introductory episode for The Master , Jo Grant and Captain Mike Yates as it gives us a good idea of why these characters would be featured all throughout The Third Doctors era of the show with this episode being a cheesy episode that could have been better if it was further down the line in this particular series order in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all f the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 out 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page , Amazon . Co . Uk and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great Google Images simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode and are really of course on Google Images are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.