As the seventh series of Doctor Who began in 1970 the public were after a long time introduced to the new Doctor in the form of Jon Pertwee, an actor associated with low budget movies. Slightly opinionated off screen Pertwee had his own views on how a Earth bound Timelord should be played, a fan of 60's series The Avengers and the now popular James Bond movies, Pertwee wanted to be a more action based Doctor Who. The risk was presumably the reason why Series Seven was to that date the shortest since the shows conception with just four stories filling the series.
Pertwee's first story in which for one of the episodes the Timelord was in a weakened state was the first time the Auton's appeared in the show. The Auton's were an alien race that could manipulate plastic, and were most popularly seen as mannequins.
Although featured in previous stories the Brigadier played by Nicholas Courtney became a pretty much permanent addition to Pertwee's era, as did the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce AKA UNIT. Although she never got to travel like other companions Pertwee was joined by Liz Shaw, a character I found a little too knowing and stern for you to warm too.
The second story The Silurans featured another enemy destined for a return, although these relatives to The Sea Devils (who appear in a later series) did not return again for over 10 years.
Series Stories:- Spearhead From Space, The Silurans, The Ambassadors Of Death, Inferno.
I was not best impressed with this series, though if I had to pick a story through force it would probably have been Spearhead From Space simply because of the Autons.
1971's Series eight was better rounded than the previous year, Liz Shaw's obvious disapproval with the public saw her suspiciously missing from the series replaced by student Jo Grant (Katy Manning) who became the shows first ever sex symbol.
The first story saw the return of the Autons, in terror of the Autons; while another return and this time in name was The Master a rogue Timelord played by Roger Delgado; the Master appeared in every story of series eight.
There were some real strong stories in the series in Claws Of Axos, we saw a weed based creature and gold coloured humanoid aliens, the impact of these villains was so strong that every few years their return is heavily betted upon, though at the time of writing they have yet to make a return appearance. While the story The Daemons which was initially lost in its colour form, gave the show series a good conclusion mixing horror and the occult.
Series eight stories: Terror Of The Autons, The Mind Of Evil, The Claws Of Axos, Colony In Space, The Daemons.
I very much enjoyed The Daemons, it was the first quite adult episode of Doctor Who I had seen, it really was a strong horror mix with lots of great deaths and a stream of complaint phone calls to the BBC.
1972 saw the return of the Daleks, in the story Day Of The Daleks; in which the Daleks and Planet Of The Apes lookalikes the Ogrons have a series political agenda.
In The Curse Of Peladon cult who character Alphacenturi made an appearance as a typically rubber Who monster resembling an octopus. Also back were Troughton villain favourites the Ice Warriors, this time in a search for peace. Curse Of Peladon was a classic castle based whodunit story, that became a popular story from Pertwee's time as the Doctor, despite the horrific special effects.
The following story saw The Sea Devils an incredibly popular villain who came from the Sea in a twisted tale that saw the return of The Master. The screaming sounds of the Sea Devils, and some incredibly sinister music made The Sea Devils one of the fans favourite stories.
Series nine stories: Day Of The Daleks, The Curse Of Peladon, The Sea Devils, The Mutants, The Time Monster.
Rather like the fans in general I think that The Devils was the strongest story of the series seeing two great villains in an action packed 6 parts story.
Straight after Christmas 1972 and Doctor Who returned for the second time that year, the first story being a special story to celebrate the shows tenth year, The Three Doctors. As I guess you might not be surprised to hear in the Three Doctors you get not one Doctor but three, namely William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and of course Jon Pertwee. Still in appalling health Hartnell's appearance was limited leaving Pertwee and Troughton to face the terror of rogue Timelord Omega alone. The conclusion of this story saw Pertwee's Doctor rewarded, the return of his Tardis.
