055 - Terror of the Autons

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A lot of first appearances in this one. New assistant Jo Grant, UNIT Captain Mike Yates, and the Doctor's ultimate nemesis - The Master. It also sees the return of the Nestene and the deadly Autons - even scarier than the last time.

Jo is a more conventional assistant/companion, and I'm ok with that. As much as I loved ther character of Liz for her maturity and ability as a scientist, I simply adore Jo for all her outwardly quirky goofiness. Not to say that she can't take care of herself, as we see as soon as the very next serial, but she is quite disarming with her smile and charm, in miniskirts and high boots.

Roger Delgado as The Master is a study in perfect casting. So charming, and yet so purely evil. It's all in that amazing face and that chilling voice he uses. He had me under his spell, appropriately enough, with "I am The Master and you wil OBEY ME!"

The story is kinda secondary to all this other stuff, but it is actually a pretty good one nonetheless. Great cliffhanger in the car - you know which one I mean...don't want to spoil the "jump out of your seat" moment by giving it away...


SeaDevil

Great introduction to the Master! I can only second what has already been said. He's the perfect rival for the Doctor. As for Jo, I like her a lot, and as I watch more of her stories she's growing on me even more so, but I do miss Liz. And Yates, I'm really glad to see. The UNIT family expands a little more and I'm really enjoying all of these characters interact with each other.

As for the story, I enjoyed it. Interesting that we see the Autons again only a season later. The big headed daffodil Autons would certainly have unnerved my 7 year old self, and the Master's freakish assassin doll was also creepy, too. But personally, I still much prefer 'Spearhead from Space' over this one. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it!

4 stars.