Chosen One of the Day: Autons in Doctor Who

SYFY WIRE Chosen One of The Day

Chosen One of the Day: Autons in Doctor Who

By Preeti Chhibber

Gosh, remember going to malls? In the first episode of Russell T Davies’ wildly successful Doctor Who reboot, we get to go to a mall. Rose Tyler works at one, and we follow her to work, and through the crowds of London, and then along with her as the store closes and she walks into the creepiest??? Space?? Ever??? 

Places I would never walk into voluntarily: 

Because of course the mannequins move! And move creepily!! Because they’re not mannequins, they’re autons. Plastic villains. Our own hubris come back to haunt us. 

Also, they have guns in their hands. Finger guns are already a menace, do we really need to add actual bullets to them? 

It turns out that our planet is a perfect host for this plastic menace because of, you know, toxins, pollution, etc. Autons, though first introduced in Classic Who, have never quite achieved the same level of notoriety as your average Dalek or Cyberman or even the painfully adorable Adipose, but that doesn’t make them any less horrible. 

Mickey’s Auton face will honestly haunt me for the rest of my life.