Plot
The Master arrives on Earth and steals the sole surviving Nestene energy unit and uses a radio telescope facility to broadcast its signal into space.
Reports of the theft of the Nestene unit and sabotage at the radio telescope facility lead the Doctor, his new assistant Jo Grant and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart to investigate. At the facility, the Doctor encounters a fellow Time Lord who warns him that his old enemy, the Master, is here and will try to kill him.
The Master takes over a local plastic factory's production to build Autons. Jo, while investigating the factory, is discovered by the Master, who hypnotises her and wipes her memory of meeting him. He sends her back to UNIT with a booby-trapped container, ostensibly containing the stolen energy unit. The Doctor realises she has been hypnotised and disposes of the powerful bomb out of the window.
The Doctor visits Rossini's circus where he is captured by Rossini just as he is about to open the Master's TARDIS. He is freed by Jo, who had followed the Doctor there against orders. The Doctor removes something from the Master's TARDIS but is attacked by Rossini and his men. Seemingly rescued by two policemen but the Doctor is suspicious and unmasks one of the officers as an Auton.
Escaping from the vehicle, the Doctor and Jo hide as the Brigadier and Captain Mike Yates arrive. A firefight breaks out between them and the Autons from which they manage to escape.
Autons dressed in carnival costumes hand out plastic daffodils to the public. Soon deaths from asphyxiation, shock, and heart failure are being reported across the country.
The Master, meanwhile, has infiltrated UNIT headquarters disguised as a telephone technician and installs a long, plastic telephone cable in the Doctor's lab. At the now empty plastics factory, the Brigadier and the Doctor discover that Farrel, the factory manager, has chartered a bus. They also find a plastic daffodil, providing the connection between the factory and the Master.
As the Doctor tries to decode the Nestene instructions imprinted in the plastic flower, a radio signal from a walkie-talkie accidentally activates it. The daffodil sprays a plastic film over Jo's face, nearly suffocating her until the Doctor removes the film with a spray.
The Master arrives at UNIT to confront the Doctor having found the dematerialization circuit missing from his TARDIS. The Master decides to take Jo and the Doctor with him to the radio telescope as hostages forcing the Brigadier to abort the planned airstrike. Farrel, regaining his mental independence at last, tries to crash the bus in a field, but the Master hits him on the back, and the Doctor and Jo escape.
UNIT troops engage the Autons while the Doctor and the Brigadier pursue the Master into the facility's control room. The Doctor convinces the Master that the Nestenes will not distinguish between ally or foe once they arrive. Together, they close the channel for the invasion, driving the Nestenes back and causing the Autons to collapse.
At the bus, the Master emerges, apparently surrendering, but when he pulls out a gun, Yates shoots him. The Doctor peels back the disguise on the corpse to reveal that it is Farrel masked to look like the Master. The real Master escapes in the bus. However, with the dematerialisation circuit in the Doctor's hands, the Master is still trapped on Earth.
Read more about this topic: Terror Of The Autons
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