051 – Spearhead from Space | |||
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Doctor Who serial | |||
![]() The Autons march towards human victims and open fire. | |||
Cast | |||
Others
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Production | |||
Directed by | Derek Martinus | ||
Written by | Robert Holmes | ||
Script editor | Terrance Dicks | ||
Produced by | Derrick Sherwin | ||
Executive producer(s) | None | ||
Music by | Dudley Simpson | ||
Production code | AAA | ||
Series | Season 7 | ||
Running time | 4 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||
First broadcast | 3 January 1970 | ||
Last broadcast | 24 January 1970 | ||
Chronology | |||
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Spearhead from Space is the first serial of the seventh season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 3 to 24 January 1970. It was the first Doctor Who serial to be produced in colour and the only one to be made entirely on 16 mm film.[1]
In the serial, which is set in Essex and London, the alien time traveller the Doctor (Jon Pertwee), now exiled to Earth by the Time Lords, joins Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) of UNIT and the scientist Liz Shaw (Caroline John) to stop the incorporeal intelligence the Nestenes from colonising the planet through their use of the Autons, killer plastic automatons which act as human duplicates and shop-window mannequins.
The serial introduced Pertwee as the Doctor and was the first to feature the Autons. It also introduces Caroline John as the Doctor's new assistant, Liz. Nicholas Courtney becomes a regular cast member beginning with this serial.