Doctor Who: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Autons
4. They Were An Original Enemy In The Five Doctors
In 1983, Doctor Who's 20th Anniversary was upon the show's production team. In order to celebrate the show's impressive history, writer Terrance Dicks assembled the Doctors, some classic companions, a handful of iconic monsters and the Master to battle in Gallifrey's Death Zone.
Antagonising the various Doctors in the Special were the Cybermen, a Dalek, a Yeti, and originally - the Autons. In Dicks' original script, he included these plastic baddies to attack the Third Doctor - having used them in his tenure as Doctor Who's script editor in the 70s to memorable effect.
Arriving in the Death Zone, Sarah Jane Smith would find herself in a replica of a modern-day Earth high street ravaged by time. Suddenly, the strewn shop window mannequins would come to life and attack Sarah Jane, before being interrupted by the Third Doctor's arrival in his yellow roadster 'Bessie'. The Autons would then chase the Doctor and Sarah Jane before the Master's is dispatched to help them.
This scene, which could have become instantly iconic, was ultimately cut as the BBC deemed it too expensive. Sarah Jane's arrival in the Death Zone would instead be filmed with her stumbling over a cliff face and the Third Doctor throwing her some rope to drag her back to safety - not as impressive.
No longer facing the dummies of death and still needing another obstacle in the adventure, Dicks added a scene where the Third Doctor instead faced the Raston Warrior Robot. The Robot, a perfect killing machine which could move as fast as lightning, then proceeded to massacre a whole squadron of Cybermen in one of the episode's most memorable sequences.
Another dummy was used, however, during The Five Doctor's photoshoot. A mannequin from Madame Tussaud's was used as a creepy stand-in for the absent Tom Baker - pictured above. Many have wondered if this was really an Auton plot to invade the episode after their disappointing dismissal...