Auton-Matic For The People...

The idea of a warehouse for storing recovered alien or supernatural artifacts is a simple one and ripe with storytelling possibilities.

It has featured in the Indiana Jones movies, is the central raison d'etre of television's new Warehouse 13 and even made it into the Whoniverse at the end of Season Two of The Sarah Jane Adventures - with UNIT's Black Archive.

In the cracking little 1997 adventure Auton, from independent film makers BBV, it is another UNIT warehouse (possibly even an antecedent of the Black Archive) that becomes the focus of the action when a bunch of stored Autons are accidentally reactivated and begin killing.

UNIT scientist Dr Sally Arnold (Bryonie Pritchard) is experimenting with an inert Nestene energy unit, when she unfortunately reactivates it; one colleague is killed in the subsequent explosion and, unknowingly, another is duplicated and becomes the "voice" of the Nestene Consciousness.

Dr Arnold calls in the UNIT Containment Team, but it's not long before they realise they are not dealing with an alien infection outbreak, but a gang of reawakened Auton dummies, brought back to life by the re-energised Consciousness.

The Containment Team is led by the enigmatic, but excellent, Bill Nighy-like Lockwood (Michael Wade) and his assistant, Dr Daniel Matthews (Reece Shearsmith, of The League of Gentleman).

Written and directed by Nicholas Briggs, now the voice of the daleks in the new Doctor Who and main man at Big Finish, Auton follows a very straight-forward plot that utilises two strong elements from the Doctor Who mythos (UNIT and the Autons) in a Thing/Alien pastiche of people trapped in a confined area with a monster.

Barring establishing shots at the beginning and end of the piece, the entirety of the action takes place within the claustrophobic confines of the warehouse.

A kind of sequel to Spearhead From Space, the hour-long film even manages a sly reference to 'the man' himself, when an important device is being discussed that was designed by "John Smith" (The Doctor's most common pseudonym).

The character of Lockwood was created by Nicholas Briggs as a last-minute replacement for Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, as actor Nicholas Courtney was unavailable.

As much as I like The Brig, Lockwood is a fascinating character because - unlike The Brigadier - there's no automatic sense of bonhomie and trust. There's also something obviously out-of-the-ordinary about him as he demonstrates some kind of telepathy; the Nestene posing as warehouse archivist Winslet (George Telfer) even says Lockwood is "connected to something".

The first part of a trilogy, the resolution of Auton is not about UNIT's temporary triumph, but about Lockwood gaining a new 'recruit' on his team and opening the door for the next part of the tale.