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Autons
Alien Race
First Appearance	Spearhead from Space
Homeworld	Polymos
Native Era	1 billion BC to the 11th millennium AD
Notable Members	Channing

The Autons are plastic foot soldiers of the Nestene Consciousness. Some Autons appear to have a high level of autonomy, whereas others are mere automatons.

Description

Although the Nestene Consciousness is able to animate anything made of plastic, the Autons are its standard troopers, at least when attacking human worlds. Standard Autons look like mannequins. They are stronger than human beings and immune to bullets. They are armed with a gun which is hidden in the hand of the mannequin. It is activated by dropping the right hand. The gun has two settings. One can kill a human, the other can completely disintegrate a victim. They can track a human being by sensing his or her brain pattern, although the range of this is limited.^[1] They are controlled by the Nestene via the astral plane. This communication can be disrupted by sub-etheric beams.^[2]

Auton facsimiles are perfect replicas of human beings, apart from a waxy sheen to the skin.^[3] Although a Nestene Swarm Leader can either duplicate the brain patterns of an enslaved being or create a new one from scratch, other Auton facsimiles require the original human to be kept alive.^[4] Facsimiles retain the original human's memories. When one is destroyed, its face becomes a blank plastic mask, whilst the original human awakens from a trance state.^[5]

Autons can survive having their heads or hands being pulled off, and the severed body parts can actually function independently. Some models of Auton duplicates can morph their hands into melee weapons.^[6]

History

It is not known how long the Nestene Consciousness has been using Autons, however they were certainly in use by the first time the Nestene tried to invade Earth. This first invasion was co-ordinated by a Swarm Leader known as Channing. Taking over a plastics factory, Channing arranged for standard Autons to be mass-manufactured and placed in shops across Britain. Channing also obtained a contract from Madame Tussaud's to make plastic "waxworks" of key members of government and the military. The attack was co-ordinated first thing in the morning, when the Autons broke out of shops to attack key strategic positions whilst the facsimiles helped soften resistance. Unfortunately for the Autons, the Third Doctor and the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce had detected their base and rigged a device capable of destroying both Autons and the Nestene.

Some months later, the Nestene made an alliance with the Master. Although the Nestene did use standard Autons for this operation, the assault relied on deadly plastic daffodils, but was again foiled by the third Doctor and UNIT.^[7]

The Nestene also used Autons when they attempted to take over the New Earth Republic in the 12th Millennium AD. They used both standard and facsimile versions.^[8]

After the Nestene's protein planets had been destroyed, arrived in 21st Century London and used standard Autons to attempt to conquer the planet. It was opposed by the ninth Doctor. The Nestene created a facsimile in order to try to track down its opponent, but that facsimile was ultimately defeated, and the Doctor killed the Nestene using Anti-plastic, after which the Autons ceased to operate.^[9]

References