History Recap / DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace

JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here the Doctor takes a shower, and regenerated so hard he regenerated the series into colour.

'''Production code:''' AAA

Written by Creator/RobertHolmes. This four-episode serial first aired from January 3--24, 1970.

JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here the Doctor takes a shower, and regenerated so hard he regenerated in colour.

JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here the Doctor takes a shower.

The new Doctor is still suffering from amnesia (caused by both his execution and the Time Lords having removed large chunks of his memory pertaining to TARDIS operation) and tries to get used to his new personality while he investigates the strange meteorite shower. He discovers that the meteorites are in fact hollow globes containing the Nestene Consciousness, another disembodied alien intelligence (see "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E2TheAbominableSnowmen The Abominable Snowmen]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web of Fear]]"), which uses plastics to achieve its ends as opposed to Yeti balls (no, not ''those'' kinds). In one classic scene, shop dummies come to life, smashing through the shop windows (off-screen) and firing guns concealed in their hands, spreading panic-- but the Nestene Consciousness's real plan is to create plastic replicas of world leaders and take over the Earth.

The one where the Doctor takes a shower.

* {{Retool}}: A black-and-white series based on travelling throughout time and space becomes a colour series set entirely on 1970s ([[RunningGag or was it the eighties...]]) Earth with a largely new regular cast (in fact this would mark the only time in the series that the Doctor's regeneration would coincide with the replacement of all his previous companions). This season also marked the end of the show running most of the year round with a break of two months around the summer, with the show now running for half of the year instead; this decision was chiefly informed by Creator/PatrickTroughton's exhaustion with the production schedule under the old format.

* ContinuityCreep: This story marked the point where continuity became vital to understanding the show. While ''Doctor Who'' never outright ignored its past, this marked the first time where it became a central tenant, with this serial acting as a SequelEpisode to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear "The Web of Fear"]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion "The Invasion"]], ''and'' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames "The War Games"]] all at once (and in 1970, if you missed these stories when they first aired, you had no way of catching up). References to the show's past would continue to punctuate the Third Doctor's run, mostly due to both the more centralized nature of the UNIT era and the fact that said period was reliant on elements established during Creator/PatrickTroughton's tenure.

* TheNamesBondJamesBond: "Smith. Doctor John Smith." Creator/JonPertwee was after all a great [[Film/JamesBond 007]] fan, and this reference would only be the first of many during his tenure. Made awesome in hindsight by the fact that Pertwee was friends with [[Literature/JamesBond 007]] creator Creator/IanFleming, and once worked in the British Secret Service with him during WWII.

* ShoutOut:
** "Smith. Doctor John Smith." Creator/JonPertwee was after all a great [[Film/JamesBond 007]] fan, and this reference would only be the first of many during his tenure. Made awesome in hindsight by the fact that Pertwee was friends with [[Literature/JamesBond 007]] creator Creator/IanFleming, and once worked in the British Secret Service with him during WWII.
** Music/FleetwoodMac's "Oh Well" plays in the plastic doll factory in the original broadcast version; later reruns and home media releases splice it out due to rights issues.

* MrSmith: The Doctor's chosen "alias". The Brigadier is not impressed.

* {{Retool}}: A black-and-white series based on travelling throughout time and space becomes a colour series set entirely on 1970s ([[RunningGag or was it the eighties...]]) Earth with a largely new regular cast. This season also marked the end of the show running most of the year round with a break of two months around the summer, with the show now running for half of the year instead; this decision was chiefly informed by Creator/PatrickTroughton's exhaustion with the production schedule under the old format.

* ArtShift: The only serial of Doctor Who shot entirely on film. This also makes it the first Classic Who serial released on Blu-ray.

* NoodleIncident: Most likely an unintentional example, but at the start of the story the Brigadier explains to Liz Shaw that there have been two attempted alien invasions defeated by the Doctor and UNIT since UNIT formed. One is clearly meant to be the events of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion The Invasion]], however {{Fanon}} believed that [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web Of Fear]], the Brigadier's other previous encounter with the Doctor, took place ''before'' UNIT was formed (probably because that's what [[Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations the novelisations]] said), giving rise to the theory that at some point there was another unseen adventure featuring the Second Doctor and UNIT. This was {{Jossed}} by both [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors The Three Doctors]], in which the Brigadier indicated the encounters with the Yeti and Cybermen were his only prior encounters with the Second Doctor, and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS39E5FluxChapterFiveSurvivorsOfTheFlux Survivors of the Flux]], which showed UNIT already operational in 1966, prior to The Web of Fear.

** "Smith. Doctor John Smith." Creator/JonPertwee was after all a great [[Film/JamesBond 007]] fan, and this reference would only be the first of many during his tenure. Made awesome in hindsight by the fact that Pertwee was friends with [[Literature/JamesBond 007]] creator [[Creator/IanFleming Ian Fleming]], and once worked in the British Secret Service with him during WWII.

** "Smith. Doctor John Smith.". Creator/JonPertwee was after all a great [[Film/JamesBond 007]] fan, and this reference would only be the first of many during his tenure. Made awesome in hindsight by the fact that Pertwee was friends with [[Literature/JamesBond 007]] creator [[Creator/IanFleming Ian Fleming]], and once worked in the British Secret Service with him during WWII.

* {{Corpsing}}: When the Doctor turns up the charm and swaggers across the room to Liz, Creator/CarolineJohn gives a rather helpless little giggle.

* ShoutOut: "Smith. Doctor John Smith.". Creator/JonPertwee was after all a great [[Film/JamesBond 007]] fan, and this reference would only be the first of many during his tenure. Made awesome in hindsight by the fact that Pertwee was friends with [[Literature/JamesBond 007]] creator [[Creator/IanFleming Ian Fleming]], and once worked in the British Secret Service with him during WWII.

* {{Retcon}}: For the first six seasons of the show, it was heavily suggested that the Doctor was a human from the distant future, where people have colonized other planets, invented time travel, and could live to be ReallySevenHundredYearsOld by artificially prolonging their lifespans (the Second Doctor claimed that his "renewal" at the end of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet "The Tenth Planet"]] was "a part of the TARDIS"). This story however provided the first major dent in that idea, displaying the Doctor's BizarreAlienBiology in detail and setting the stage for the gradual revelation of what exactly Time Lords are throughout the rest of Creator/JonPertwee's tenure.

* {{Retcon}}: For the first six seasons of the show, it was heavily suggested that the Doctor was a human from the distant future, where people have colonized other planets, invented time travel, and could live to be ReallySevenHundredYearsOld by artificially prolonging their lifespans (the Second Doctor claimed that his "renewal" was "a part of the TARDIS"). This story however provided the first major dent in that idea, displaying his BizarreAlienBiology in detail and setting the stage for the gradual revelation of what exactly Time Lords are throughout the rest of Creator/JonPertwee's tenure.

* ReReleaseSoundtrack: This serial featured a Music/FleetwoodMac track that was edited out of the 1988 VHS and 2001 DVD releases. The licence was subsequently renegotiated, allowing the track to appear on the 2011 DVD release.

* ShoutOut: "Smith. Doctor John Smith.". [[Creator/JonPertwee Jon Pertwee]] was after all a great [[Film/JamesBond 007]] fan, and this reference would only be the first of many during his tenure. Made awesome in hindsight by the fact that Pertwee was friends with [[Literature/JamesBond 007]] creator [[Creator/IanFleming Ian Fleming]], and once worked in the British Secret Service with him during WWII.

* WhamEpisode: The series is now in colour, the entire starring cast is reset (with the sole exception being TheBrigadier, who has been promoted to main cast after previously being a OnceASeason recurring character), the Doctor is suddenly on a much more violent adventure, it's revealed that the Doctor has two hearts, and [[SocietyIsToBlame the space race suddenly has a much more chilling consequence.]] It also satisfies the "game changing" aspect of the trope by changing the format of the series, with the Doctor now exclusively Earth-based and working for UNIT, rather than travelling on his own.
* WiperStart: When the Doctor tries to drive a car, he finds the horn before the starter, and starts in forward gear when he needs to reverse. (But no funny business with the wipers, because it's a veteran model that doesn't have any.)

Written by Creator/RobertHolmes. This four-episode serial first aired from January 3 to 24, 1970.

Written by Creator/RobertHolmes. This serial first aired January 3-24, 1970.

* NoodleIncident: Most likely an unintentional example, but at the start of the story the Brigadier explains to Liz Shaw that there have been two attempted alien invasions defeated by the Doctor and UNIT since UNIT formed. One is clearly meant to be the events of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion The Invasion]], however the other, likely meant to be [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web Of Fear]], actually takes place ''before'' UNIT was formed, giving rise to the possibility that at some point there was another unseen adventure featuring the Second Doctor and UNIT.