Spearhead from Space

051 – Spearhead from Space
Doctor Who serial
The Autons march towards human victims and open fire.
Cast
Doctor Jon Pertwee – Third Doctor
Companion Caroline John – Liz Shaw
Others Nicholas Courtney – Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart Hugh Burden – Channing Derek Smee – Ransome John Woodnutt – Hibbert Neil Wilson – Sam Seeley Betty Bowden – Meg Seeley Hamilton Dyce – General Scobie John Breslin – Captain Munro Clifford Cox – Sergeant George Lee – Corporal Forbes Tessa Shaw – UNIT Officer Antony Webb – Dr. Henderson Henry McCarthy – Dr. Beavis Helen Dorward – Nurse Allan Mitchell – Wagstaffe Talfryn Thomas – Mullins Prentis Hancock – 2nd Reporter ("Jimmy") Ellis Jones – Technician Edmund Bailey – Museum Attendant
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 (1970-01-03)
Last broadcast	24 January 1970 (1970-01-24)
Chronology
← Preceded by The War Games Followed by → Doctor Who and the Silurians
List of episodes (1963–1989)

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.