Every Doctor Who Debut Story Ranked From Worst To Best
4. Spearhead From Space
This is one of those rare debut Doctor stories that contained a brilliant adventure in its own right, one that would have stood up well even without the scenes that specifically follow the ‘who is this man?’ thread.
The consolidation of UNIT as a viable, long term response to alien activity on Earth, the introduction of the now iconic Autons, and the fact that this, the first colour adventure, was entirely shot on film are enough to put it up there among the big hitters of the show.
When judged as a debut story, Spearhead is not entirely successful however. Pertwee’s performance, rather like Troughton’s before him would prove to be unrepresentative of how his Doctor would pan out, with the adoption of a more comedic approach in this one.
But that said, the Doctor’s alien nature, which ought to be highlighted by any post-regeneration story, is brought to the fore with the new revelation that the Doctor has two hearts.
Pertwee’s performance aside, it is a testimony to the effectiveness of Robert Holmes’ treatment of the regeneration that Robot, Castrovalva, The TV Movie, Rose, The Christmas Invasion and Deep Breath all incorporated elements from the 1970 classic, revisiting ambulances, x-rays, shoes, mirrors, eyebrows, aborted escape bids, and self-induced comas.