SpearHead
from space
The first John Pertwee adventure.
An enjoyable episode featuring the Nestenes, a race of beings who
travel by encasing their conciousness in shells. The Nestenes can
control plastic and use this ability to take over planets! (One assumes
that most planets have shops & that those shops have shop dummies,
the Nestenes favourite things to use as slave droids)
The Nestenes also display the ability to use mind control, though not
on a wide scale........ They feel like me to have insect qualities
& as ants make nests, use drones & mind control perhaps this is
where the writer (Robert Holmes) got the idea from. This episode runs
for 92 minutes! Just over 1 & a half hours, being a special to
introduce the new doctor.
The doctor meets with his old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, who
although doesn't recognise the doctor at first is convinced fairly
easily that the new face is the doctor, this being applauded by me, as
they let the story line move on rather than bogging it down with detail.
The doctor also meets Liz Shaw, a strident lass, smart & witty and
a cute lob-sided smile. She is frosty with Brigadier
Lethbridge-Stewart, but warms to the Doctor & we believe her to be
his new assistant.
The Doctor has been forbidden to travel through time & space; the
Time lords have removed the de-materialisation unit from the Tardis,
stranding the Doctor on Earth. We see the Doctor enter the Tardis &
try to de-materialise, the Tardis coughs & splutters ala an old car
that won't start, then we see smoke coming from the Tardis & the
Doctor steps forlornly out.
The Doctor is unconscious for a while in the begining, as he is still
re-generating, he is in hospital & is examined by a Doctor. The
doctor examining the Doctor bears a remarkable resemblance... or I
should say this the other way round that Ade Edmonson's character of
Eddie from the show Bottom, bears a remarkable likeness to the doctor
who examines the Doctor!
Suitably confused? Watch it yourself & see what ya think ;)
Me & my son saw the spare heads that the plastics factory featured
makes & we had to wonder if we'd miss-read the episode title,
perhaps it's really called spare-head from space! Ala Kryten from Red
Dwarf, but even better ala John Pertwee's former character Worzel
Gummidge (A scarecrow with spare heads!)
This Doctor Who episode was given a re-working in the new series of
Doctor Who with Christopher Eccleston & featured a wheelie bin that
tries to eat Mickey Smith!