Terror of the Autons part 3

[Craig @craig Emperor]

The Autons arrive like Terminators, the Doctor has trapped the calmly homicidal Master on Earth, and everything plastic could be deadly, including plastic flowers.

[stevethewhistle @steve-thorp]

Nicely paced with the comic relief stirred in with the cliff-hangers.

I don’t understand why the master had to supply a new telephone cable when I thought that all plastic-covered cables had a life of their own.

🙂

BTW Although it may be frowned on now, making hot drinks with lab equipment happened in the 1980s.

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@stevethewhistle – I thought that was the function of bunsen burners?

It was a nicely paced episode and I liked the way that Robert Holmes had the Doctor trying to escape, but kept it utterly understated. Given the unreliability of the TARDIS at that period, if he had succeeded in taking off, he’d have been leaving Earth to the tender mercies of the Master. It’s a far cry from the AG Doctors, who see the Earth as ‘under their protection’.

I agree that Holmes probably wrote in the deadly phone cable after one too many wires had come to life and tried to strangle him. 🙂

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

Yes, it is nicely paced this episode. The Doctor trying to do a bunk in this period of exile was actually repeated a few times, with Pertwee largely unrepentant (just a little embarrassed it hadn’t worked). I always quite liked the fact that, in the future, the Doctor wins his freedom and then can’t seem to leave until he regenerates. He just takes “little trips”. I’ve always felt that contrariness was central to the Doctors character in many ways.

I know it’s a weird thing, but when UNIT troll up in the average 70s looking saloon, it makes me crease with laughter. They should have had a Maxi for this one – they weighed more than a light tank for the period, I’m sure, and would have crushed those Autons. Again though, a little bit of creative genius with the telephone flex idea.

I still find those carnival heads for the Daffodils distributors pretty unnerving. Probably more than the unmasked Autons themselves.

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

stevethewhistle @bluesqueakpip

Ahhh – those were the days. I was at University when COSHH first came in and remember the outrage from an organics Professor when informed he couldn’t brew beverages in the lab AND had a number of his favourite carcinogenic chemicals withdrawn from use.

I remember him saying (or more accurately shouting) “Safety, SAFETY – they’re only undergraduates for god’s sake, nobody will miss a few!”

[Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip]

@phaseshift – I always like those translations of research paper language into what actually happened. You know, things like:
“the experiment was then left to continue for a short period…” (bugger all was happening, so I went and got a cup of tea).

[UNITgirl @unitgirl]

 I don’t understand why the master had to supply a new telephone cable when I thought that all plastic-covered cables had a life of their own.

He had to fit a new cable because old telephone cables were not covered with plastic, they had a sort of cloth-covered flex and cable. They were also ‘fixed’ into the wall, so you couldn’t just lean down and ‘unclip’ it from the socket as you can now.

[Doctor 20 @doctor20]

Why did Jo tell the Doctor to stop being childish? What’s wrong with being childish? He likes being childish.

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