Review

Season 8 starts with the return of the Autons who were the third doctor's nemesis in his first story in Season 7's "Spearhead from Space". The season 8 opener is is memorable for the introduction of Roger Delgardo as The Master and for Katy Manning as Jo Grant who replaces Liz Shaw who was just written out without any goodbye scenes.

It's a fun romp but also macabre with The Master being the epitome of evil and Katy Manning being immediately adorable! The Autons are put to good use too so it's a good return for them. There are some truly gruesome moments in this story with one person being killed by being enveloped by a plastic chair, Jo being almost suffocated by plastic stuck to her face and the evil toy killing the factory owner. The evil toy Auton is particularly badly CSO'd in to the scene but still manages to come across as completely evil!

There's a lot of green screen (CSO) backgrounds used in this serial which look terrible so it's best to watch this serial with the updated visual effects which help enormously with these technical issues and really help bring the story up to scratch

Serial Notes

One Episode 1 and 2, the Title Cards 'Terror of the Autons' and 'Episode 1/2' have a 3D effect to them. The 'usual' Title Cards are used for the remaining two episodes.

The whole serial relies a lot on chroma keyed (greenscreen) background which don't work too well. However, the clean up process for the Collection box set helps a little bit.

We get to hear the iconic words 'Greyhound to Trap 1'!

Even after the restoration of the serial, you can still see some problems with the picture at the bottom of the frame in many instances.

When the fake Master is revealed at Farrel, the bus is driven towards the Doctor. It looks as the bus actually runs over the dead Farrel!

Michael Wisher plays Farrel who will later play Davros!

Special Features

The Collection Review

View this episode with the enhanced effects on to avoid the embarrassing 'toy' effects. The new effects are a lot better.

Making of Documentary: This featurette is from 2 Entertain, so originally on the DVD for this serial. The documentary goes in to the background of how the Master was invented and also how Katy Manning got the role of Jo Grant.

The documentary also explotes the casting of Mike Yates (in place of Ian Marter) and also how this serial was important for the reboot series with the Nestine appearing in the first new Who episode Rose.

Behind The Sofa: Katy Manning is teamed with her on-screen husband Stewart Bevan (Dr Jones). Anjli Mohindra (Rani from Sarah Jane Adventures) teams up with Sacha Dhawan and Sarah Sutton with Janet Fielding.