The Autons are an artificial life form from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and adversaries of the Doctor. First appearing in Jon Pertwee's first serial as the Doctor, Spearhead from Space in 1970, they were the first monsters on the show to be presented in colour.

Autons are essentially life sized plastic dummies, animated by the Nestene Consciousness, an extraterrestrial, disembodied gestalt intelligence which first arrived on Earth in hollow plastic meteorites. The name comes from "Auto Plastics", the company that was infiltrated by the Nestenes and subsequently manufactured their Auton shells in Spearhead.

Autons conceal deadly weapons within their hands, which can kill or vaporize their targets. The typical Auton does not look particularly realistic, resembling a mannequin, being robotic in its movements and mute. However, more sophisticated Autons can be created, which look and act human except for a slight sheen to the skin and a flat sounding voice.

The Nestenes' first attempt to invade the Earth, using these more human-looking Autons to replace key government figures, was thwarted by UNIT with the help of the Doctor, who also destroyed their invasion form, a multi-tentacled cephalopod.

The Nestenes subsequently returned in the first serial of Pertwee's second year as the Doctor, Terror of the Autons, which also featured the introduction of the Master. In this attempt, the Nestenes also made use of more mundane objects, animating plastic toys, inflatable chairs and artificial flowers in addition to their Auton servants. The Doctor convinced the Master that the Nestenes were too dangerous to be reliable allies, and they reversed the radio beam the invasion force was coming in on, sending it back into space.

A third appearance was planned for the aborted 1985 season during Colin Baker's tenure as the Doctor, but never materialized. Titled Yellow Fever and How to Cure It, it was supposed to be set in Singapore, with appearances by the Rani and the Master. The story, which was to be written by veteran scribe Robert Holmes, only exists in outline form.

The Nestenes infiltrated Earth once more, using warp shunt technology, in the opening episode of the 2005 series. In Rose, it was revealed that the Nestenes lost their food supply in a war when their protein planets rotted. Their intent was to overthrow and destroy the human race, as Earth was ideal for their consumption needs, being filled with smoke, oil and various pollutants. Rose also showed Auton facsimiles that could change the shape of their features and limbs, and established that the Nestenes animate the Autons by means of telepathic projection. When duplicated, the originals are kept alive to maintain the copy. It is not yet clear if the war was also the motivation behind their earlier invasions or a recent development, but it is likely the same war that is mentioned in subsequent episodes of the 2005 series.

The Nestenes also appeared in the BBC spin off novels, most notably the Sixth Doctor novels Business Unusual by Gary Russell (which gave Melanie Bush a belated introduction story), which had the Nestenes using computer games and plastic toys in another bid for world conquest and Synthespians by Craig Hinton , in which a far-future television station's artificial actors are not what they seem.

Appearances

• Spearhead from Space - January 3 - January 24, 1970
• Terror of the Autons - January 2 - January 23, 1971
• Rose - March 26, 2005