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This is a photo I've waited a couple years to do, just because it's always special to coincide with an anniversary, and today (January 3) being the fiftieth anniversary of "Spearhead From Space"'s premiere, and thereby the premiere of Doctor Who's seventh season. As well, it was the premiere of Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor, and the beginning of the show's first golden era, where ratings were high and a plethora of classic stories seemed to spill from each script submitted.

The story itself is probably one of the best shot due to being shot on film rather than videotape, and it has a cinematic quality to it that was occasionally seen in some of the location shots in episodes following this one. One of the interesting things I'm always struck by is how much like the era's Bond films it seems to lean on, which would become a lot more prevalent following this story but can be seen partly in the clandestine way UNIT and Lethbridge-Stewart handle the threat posed by the Nestene Consciousness (for real, that first episode which re-introduces the Brigadier could've operated as its own pilot...to this day I wonder why there was never UNIT spin-off of Doctor Who, especially in the "wilderness years" of 1989-2005--barring the 1996 TV movie--and even now when a show like "Class" did not live up to its potential...but I suppose "Torchwood" served the same function as a UNIT series would have and would have been redundant). The Autons are an interesting monster for the Doctor combat, in which they're the only foe to have faced the Doctor in three season premieres: this one, 1971's Season 8 opener "Terror of the Autons", and finally 2005's Series 1 opener "Rose", a distinction which the best known of the Doctor's enemies don't have. While their threat level is mild comparatively next to say, a Sontaran or a Rutan, I suspect the fact that they can be sidelined to a significant degree allows the writers to explore the main characters a little more without all the cloak and dagger setup required of most villains, especially with how we have a good bit of time getting to know Pertwee's Doctor before we even know what the threat is he'll be up against, similarly to how Eccleston's Doctor would be handled some thirty-five years later.

And on the subject of Pertwee, I've long discussed previously: he was one of the few actors who practically begged for the role, who had had a successful career as a comedian and character actor on radio, screen, and TV prior to this and would later go on to have a spectacular second act as the scarecrow Worzel Gummidge between guest appearances as the Doctor. That it took this role to make him realize just who he was a person is interesting, and much like his successor the viewer gets the sense that they are watching the man come into his own instead of inhabiting a role. It legitimately feels like, as it would be with Tom Baker with his poetic aggrandizement, whenever Pertwee speaks about the need for tolerance and disdain for military action that it's less the script and more a belief the real man felt about war and attrition (see "Doctor Who and the Silurians" from this same season, or next season's "The Claws of Axos"). That he would usher in the show's most successful decade is a pretty huge deal, one in which he continued to pay tribute to even after he departed the role in 1974 by making the usual rounds on documentaries, cameo appearances, and even on stage in the late-80s production "The Ultimate Adventure".

All that said, I'm going to attempt and do more Third Doctor tributes this year. I won't be bound by a schedule and I think aside from having a problem with the Silurians (or lack thereof of Classic Silurians) I think I can achieve a pretty good amount of tribute photos to the Third Doctor's era across his five seasons.

Description

This is a photo I've waited a couple years to do, just because it's always special to coincide with an anniversary, and today (January 3) being the fiftieth anniversary of "Spearhead From Space"'s premiere, and thereby the premiere of Doctor Who's seventh season. As well, it was the premiere of Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor, and the beginning of the show's first golden era, where ratings were high and a plethora of classic stories seemed to spill from each script submitted.

The story itself is probably one of the best shot due to being shot on film rather than videotape, and it has a cinematic quality to it that was occasionally seen in some of the location shots in episodes following this one. One of the interesting things I'm always struck by is how much like the era's Bond films it seems to lean on, which would become a lot more prevalent following this story but can be seen partly in the clandestine way UNIT and Lethbridge-Stewart handle the threat posed by the Nestene Consciousness (for real, that first episode which re-introduces the Brigadier could've operated as its own pilot...to this day I wonder why there was never UNIT spin-off of Doctor Who, especially in the "wilderness years" of 1989-2005--barring the 1996 TV movie--and even now when a show like "Class" did not live up to its potential...but I suppose "Torchwood" served the same function as a UNIT series would have and would have been redundant). The Autons are an interesting monster for the Doctor combat, in which they're the only foe to have faced the Doctor in three season premieres: this one, 1971's Season 8 opener "Terror of the Autons", and finally 2005's Series 1 opener "Rose", a distinction which the best known of the Doctor's enemies don't have. While their threat level is mild comparatively next to say, a Sontaran or a Rutan, I suspect the fact that they can be sidelined to a significant degree allows the writers to explore the main characters a little more without all the cloak and dagger setup required of most villains, especially with how we have a good bit of time getting to know Pertwee's Doctor before we even know what the threat is he'll be up against, similarly to how Eccleston's Doctor would be handled some thirty-five years later.

And on the subject of Pertwee, I've long discussed previously: he was one of the few actors who practically begged for the role, who had had a successful career as a comedian and character actor on radio, screen, and TV prior to this and would later go on to have a spectacular second act as the scarecrow Worzel Gummidge between guest appearances as the Doctor. That it took this role to make him realize just who he was a person is interesting, and much like his successor the viewer gets the sense that they are watching the man come into his own instead of inhabiting a role. It legitimately feels like, as it would be with Tom Baker with his poetic aggrandizement, whenever Pertwee speaks about the need for tolerance and disdain for military action that it's less the script and more a belief the real man felt about war and attrition (see "Doctor Who and the Silurians" from this same season, or next season's "The Claws of Axos"). That he would usher in the show's most successful decade is a pretty huge deal, one in which he continued to pay tribute to even after he departed the role in 1974 by making the usual rounds on documentaries, cameo appearances, and even on stage in the late-80s production "The Ultimate Adventure".

All that said, I'm going to attempt and do more Third Doctor tributes this year. I won't be bound by a schedule and I think aside from having a problem with the Silurians (or lack thereof of Classic Silurians) I think I can achieve a pretty good amount of tribute photos to the Third Doctor's era across his five seasons.