10 Dumbest Doctor Who Controversies
9. Scotland Yard Vs. The Autons
Doctor Who's countless bug-eyed monsters have been making families hide behind the sofa for decades.
Everything from the Daleks to the Empress of the Racnoss has been dubbed "too scary for kids" by the press, and in the early 1970s, even the authorities were getting involved.
Following the broadcast of Terror of the Autons' Part 2 cliffhanger – in which the Third Doctor and Jo discover that the policemen who saved them are actually Autons – Scotland Yard wrote a letter of complaint to the BBC, lamenting this depiction of policemen as terrifying aliens.
And according to Dominic Sandbrook's retrospective on early '70s Britain in his book State of Emergency, this issue was even debated in The House of Lords.
It's certainly a spooky moment, but all the fuss seemed a bit much. Though it is telling that this was the last we saw of these Auton coppers – and the Autons themselves for that matter, at least until the revived series – so maybe Scotland Yard's feedback was taken on board.