10 Times Doctor Who Well And Truly Crossed The Line

2. Not So Plastic Fantastic

When the Third Doctor had debuted in Spearhead from Space, the Autons have proven very popular. When coming to plan their second season, Barry Letts and Terrence Dicks decided to bring them back, allied with the Master. However, Terror of the Autons got the team in trouble with their bosses after numerous complaints from parents and even the police. The team - using a script from Robert Holmes, he gets everywhere - were reprimanded for two big line crossings. First was the depiction of a toy troll that came to life and strangled a man. The team had made it as different looking to a teddy bear as they could but the youngsters still saw a toy come to life and kill someone. Many refused to go to bed with their cherished toy. Their other blunder was to have a policeman turn out to be an Auton, too. This led to the police complaining that children would be fearful of officers. Duly told off, the Letts era never went that dark again.