Terror of the Autons Part 3
The Doctor and UNIT race against the Master, who is using plastic daffodils and dolls controlled by the Nestene Consciousness to trigger a wave of deaths and prepare Earth for Auton invasion.
Following their escape from Auton pursuers at a quarry, the Doctor and Jo return to UNIT headquarters to find the Brigadier overwhelmed with puzzling reports. The Master's Autons failed to recover the Doctor, but he expresses admiration for his adversary. The Brigadier informs the Doctor that the Nestenes have landed a small force led by the Master, with UNIT as their primary target.
The Doctor tinkers with his TARDIS, attempting to upgrade it with a circuit stolen from the Master. However, the experiment backfires, rendering both his and the Master's TARDISes inoperable and trapping them on Earth. Meanwhile, the Master oversees the distribution of plastic daffodils by Autons disguised as carnival workers, while UNIT struggles to uncover his plans.
A Ministry official, Brownrose, arrives with news of unexplained deaths occurring across the Home Counties. The victims die from asphyxiation, heart failure, and shock, with no apparent connection except for the first two: McDermott and Farrel, the latter being a production manager at a plastics factory. The Doctor investigates Farrel's death, learning that he was concerned about his son's involvement with a "Colonel Masters."
Back at UNIT, an engineer installs a phone with an unusually long flex in the Doctor's lab. Mrs. Farrel provides the Doctor with a doll her husband brought home. The Doctor dissects the doll in the lab to find it activated by heat when Jo is busy on the telephone and Yates is making cocoa on the bunsen burner. Yates shoots it to pieces. The doll is triggered by a specific temperature.
Meanwhile, the Master and Farrel are in a coach. The Autons are ready to leave with or without the Master. The telephone engineer reveals himself to be the Master. The Doctor and Brigadier visit the plastics factory, finding it abandoned. They discover a plastic daffodil and realize the Nestenes can animate plastic. As the Brigadier investigates the office, the Doctor narrowly avoids an Auton ambush in a safe.
Back at UNIT, the destroyed doll confirms the threat. The Doctor realizes the doll was activated by heat from the nearby bunsen burner while Yates was making hot cocoa. He connects the means of Farrel's death to the dolls. He sends the others away, and then answers the ringing telephone. It is the Master who announces his goodbye.
Events in This Episode
The narrative beats that drive the story
The episode opens with the Doctor and Jo in a desperate struggle, narrowly escaping a deadly Auton ambush at a quarry. A UNIT soldier falls victim to the plastic creatures, forcing the Doctor to recognize the futility of conventional weapons against them. Captain Yates's daring maneuver with a car provides a momentary reprieve, allowing for their escape. In a chilling interlude, the Master acknowledges his Autons' failure to capture the Doctor, yet expresses a profound admiration for his adversary, solidifying their complex dynamic and the Master's unwavering resolve to destroy him. Back at UNIT headquarters, the Brigadier delivers a stark briefing: the Nestene Consciousness has established a small bridgehead force led by the Master, with UNIT itself as their primary target. Despite the gravity of the situation, the Doctor remains preoccupied, attempting to upgrade his TARDIS with a circuit stolen from the Master. This ambitious experiment, however, backfires spectacularly, rendering both his and the Master's TARDISes inoperable. This crucial failure traps both formidable opponents on Earth, raising the stakes significantly and removing the Doctor's usual means of escape, thereby intensifying the impending conflict. Jo, ever the pragmatic companion, gently chides the Doctor for his lack of gratitude towards the Brigadier, but the Doctor's focus remains fixed on the larger, evolving threat.
After the Doctor and Jo crash their car while fleeing an Auton ambush, they take cover as two Autons—one still disguised as a policeman—hunt them through the quarry. The Brigadier …
The Doctor and Jo barely escape their crashed car after an Auton ambush, taking cover as the synthetic creatures hunt them. The Brigadier and Yates arrive with a soldier, but …
In a tense UNIT briefing, the Brigadier urgently outlines the Nestene Consciousness threat—revealing their bridgehead force, the Master’s leadership, and their focus on UNIT. The Doctor, distracted and dismissive, interrupts …
After the Brigadier and Yates leave the UNIT laboratory, the Doctor—frustrated by the Brigadier’s rigid military approach and dismissive of his strategic concerns—openly mocks the Brigadier’s intelligence to Jo. He …
The Doctor, impatient with the Brigadier’s tactical briefing, dismisses UNIT’s efforts as inefficient and retreats to the TARDIS to experiment with a stolen circuit from the Master’s horsebox. He attempts …
In the quiet, grief-laden home of the late Mr. Farrel, the Doctor and Jo press Mrs. Farrel for details about her husband’s sudden death, which she initially dismisses as a …
In the quiet, grief-laden home of the late Mr. Farrel, the Doctor and Jo press Mrs. Farrel for details about her husband’s suicide, which she initially dismisses as a police …
The Master's sinister plan begins to unfold as he oversees the production and distribution of plastic daffodils by Autons disguised as carnival workers, showcasing the insidious nature of the Nestene threat. Meanwhile, at UNIT, the Doctor grows frustrated with the lack of progress in locating the Master's headquarters. A Ministry official, Brownrose, arrives with alarming news: a wave of unexplained deaths across the Home Counties, characterized by asphyxiation, heart failure, and shock, with no clear medical cause. The Doctor, initially dismissive of Brownrose, quickly realizes the gravity of the situation when he learns the first two victims, McDermott and Farrel, are connected to a plastics factory. Investigating Farrel's death, the Doctor and Jo interview Mrs. Farrel, who reveals her husband's concern about his son falling under the influence of a 'Colonel Masters,' immediately alerting the Doctor to his adversary's presence. Mrs. Farrel then provides the Doctor with a peculiar plastic doll her husband brought home, providing the first tangible link to the cause of death. Simultaneously, the Master, disguised as a telephone engineer, infiltrates UNIT headquarters to install a modified phone in the Doctor's lab, setting the stage for a direct confrontation.
The Doctor probes Mrs. Farrel about her late husband’s suspicious dealings with 'Colonel Masters' (the Master), but the focus abruptly shifts when she retrieves a grotesque novelty doll—a clear Nestene …
In the Farrel home, the Doctor presses Mrs. Farrel for details about her late husband's association with the Master (Colonel Masters). Though she initially offers little, she recalls John bringing …
The Doctor, in the UNIT laboratory, begins dissecting a plastic doll suspected of being a Nestene weapon. He methodically cuts into the doll’s neck and back, revealing its solid plastic …
The Doctor dissects a plastic doll in the UNIT lab, revealing its potential lethality as a Nestene weapon. His frustration with UNIT’s bureaucratic delays—particularly the lack of a scanning molecular …
The Doctor begins his meticulous investigation of the plastic doll, dissecting it to understand its composition, but initially finds it to be solid and inert. While the Doctor and Brigadier prepare to investigate Farrel's plastics factory, Jo is left in the lab. Unaware of the danger, Captain Yates uses a Bunsen burner to make cocoa, inadvertently activating the doll through heat, causing it to attack Jo. Yates intervenes, shooting the doll to pieces, confirming its lethal potential. At the abandoned plastics factory, the Doctor discovers a plastic daffodil, leading to the chilling realization that the Nestenes can animate any plastic object. He narrowly avoids an Auton ambush concealed within a safe, underscoring the pervasive and hidden nature of the threat. Returning to UNIT, the Doctor pieces together the puzzle: the doll was activated by the Bunsen burner's heat, directly linking the plastic objects to the mysterious asphyxiation deaths. With the mechanism of the deaths understood, the Doctor clears the lab, anticipating a crucial development. The newly installed telephone rings, and the Master, confirming his direct involvement and taunting his adversary, delivers a chilling 'goodbye' message, signaling his next move and the escalating danger.
In the UNIT laboratory, the Doctor interrogates Jo and Yates about the doll’s violent activation, piecing together that heat—specifically Yates’s cocoa preparation using the Doctor’s bunsen burner—triggered the mechanism. The …
The Doctor interrogates Jo and Yates about the Auton doll’s violent activation, piecing together that heat from Yates’s cocoa—prepared using the Doctor’s bunsen burner—triggered its deadly mechanism. This revelation links …
The Doctor dismisses the Brigadier, Yates, and Jo after deducing that the Auton doll’s heat activation triggered Farrel’s death, linking it to the Nestene Consciousness. As the lab clears, the …