Click here to go BACK to the DVD FAQ. or Click here to go BACK to VHS FAQ.

Serial: AAA  Episode Nos. 254, 255, 256, and 257.  Title: Spearhead From Space

The Doctor's exile to 20th century Earth begins when the newly regenerated Doctor arrives unconscious in the middle of a meteor shower.  While the Doctor recovers in a nearby hospital, the meteors that fell are being collected by strange mannequin-like men and being taken to a local plastics factory and an alien creature being grown in a tank.  UNIT's own investigations are falling short, but can the new Doctor recover in time to stop the aliens?

This story sees the debut of Jon Pertwee as Doctor Who and Caroline John as Liz Shaw, and marks the beginning of the
Doctor's exile on 20th century Earth where he assists UNIT as Scientific Adviser.  It also features the debut of the
Nestenes and Autons, as seen in the first episode of the new series, Rose.

starring Jon Pertwee as Doctor Who, Caroline John as Liz Shaw, and Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Written by Robert Holmes, Produced by Derrick Sherwin, Directed by Derek Martinus.

Originally transmitted from 3 January 1970 to 24 January 1970 on BBC1.

DVD features:

- Graphical menus, episode selection features, and scene selection features.

- Commentary track by Caroline John (Liz) and Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier).

- Production Notes Subtitles.

- A 5-minute "UNIT Recruitment Film" that was made as a spoof for a run of repeats in 1993.

- Photo gallery

- Three BBC2 trails from the 1999 repeats of this story.

- This is the only story produced entirely on film (16 mm), and the film prints were given restoration treatments.

- An Easter Egg (hidden feature – highlight here to see how to get to it): an unused version of the main Jon Pertwee opening title sequence.
        This is accessible as follows:  from the main menu, highlight "Scene Selection" and double click the left arrow.
        The Doctor Who logo will briefly light up and then the unused title sequence will play.

- "Who's Who" - a cast listing including what other work the actors have done

- Original 4:3 aspect ratio.

- Unfortunately, one edit had to be made to the soundtrack to remove part of a Fleetwood Mac song that had been used as background in the establishing shots

of the plastics factory.  This same edit occurred in the VHS release and is due to the too-high cost of clearance of this music.