Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons by: Terrance Dicks

 

Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons was written by Terrance Dicks, based on Terror of the Autons by: Robert Holmes.  It was the 14^th story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

Terror of the Autons is one of those television stories that people either love or hate.  It’s the introduction of the companion most associated with Jon Pertwee’s tenure as the Doctor, Jo Grant, and the introduction of the Master.  It is also another story by Robert Holmes and lays the groundwork for a lot of what the next four years of the show were going to be, however, the production of the serial showed producer and director Barry Letts’ penchant for using colour separation overlay in areas where it perhaps was unnecessary.  This makes listening to the audiobook version of the story, Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons, a very different and almost more engaging experience.  Terrance Dicks provides the adaptation and while not taking the chance to expand upon much (though there is much made of the Time Lord being part of the tribunal responsible for exiling the Doctor to Earth in The War Games and there is a sense that the Time Lords were just using the Doctor as a scapegoat), but the lackluster special effects are updated through the prose.  The cover prominently displays the Nestene seen at the climax of the story, not as shimmering light with vague limbs, but as a giant octopus alien being similar to the tentacled mass from Spearhead from Space, something that Dicks delivers on as it acts more like a kaiju in this version, nearly bringing the radio telescope to the ground.  The doll which comes to life and kills Mr. Farrell is also given a much better sequence as Dicks’ prose builds upon horror tropes and the CSO kitchen is nowhere in sight.  It helps build tension and a little background to the fear and care of Farrell and his wife help bring that together.  The Master here is also interesting as he appears to have a more catty relationship with the Doctor which is what it would develop into throughout Pertwee’s run, but wasn’t actually present in the first few serials making an interesting change.  Geoffrey Beevers’ narration also gives the Master here that silky voice which isn’t Delgado, but makes him just as much as a threat.

 

Overall, Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons might actually be the superior version of an already brilliant story, taking away the poorer aspects of the production and being narrated by someone who puts evil into the Master.  10/10.