Spearhead From Space is the first appearance of Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor. The 4 part serial ran January 3 to 24 1970 and it was the first in color. It's the first shot on film and it looks pretty good. More like what you'd expect to see in an episode of The Avengers. A lot of the show is shot on location so that helps make it more interesting to look at. Story wise we're back to the alien invasion theme. In the last serial the Doctor had been found guilty and as punishment he'd been sent to Earth in 1970. The Doctor arrives in England, and upon stepping outside, he falls on his face.
The Doctor is found and taken to a hospital where his two hearts bother the doctors. He escapes and gets shot in the head. Don't worry, the bullet just grazed him, he'll be ok. In a plastic factory we see a confused doll designer confronting his boss. The man had been on holiday and returned home to find a letter telling him he'd been sacked. There are changes to the factory and the boss acts oddly. We soon see why. He's being controlled by an alien who's got a plan to conqueror the earth with plastic robots. Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicolas Courtney) of UNIT is investigating some strange meteorites. The Brigadier was in the The Web Of Fear and The Invasion with the Second Doctor Patrick Troughton. The Brig has asked Dr Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw (Caroline John) to help with some science stuff. Caroline will become the Doctor's new assistant for this season.
At first the Brigadier doesn't believe that Jon Pertwee is the same man he'd meet before but eventually he's convinced. The trio work together to figure out what's going on. After some fights and driving about they put a stop to the nasty alien invasion. I rather enjoyed this new Doctor and I really liked the color. The story moved along fairly well but then I seem to prefer the shorter serials.
There weren't much by way of extras on the disc. The commentary by Nicolas Courtney and Caroline John was ok. The rest was rather uninteresting.
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