I had no idea what to expect from this, and went in with a lot of reservations because of modern BBV content. That said, I did love 90's PROBE. Wow. This was so good? The acting, dialogue, and character work was really solid and I found myself invested in the story almost instantly. Can't wait for the other two, hope they live up to this standard.

Some excrement has hit the fan and you, Dr Sal, were the idiot who turned it on.

I'll be honest here, I was really not expecting something of this quality to come out of BBV, but somehow the first of the Auton trilogy really goes above and beyond their other catalogue of work. I suppose that's what happens when you get the mega fan that is Nicholas Briggs to write and direct.

The United Nations Intelligence Taskforce was set up to tackle human contact with the extraterrestrial and paranormal — especially when that contact proved dangerous. But when the battles were over, when the top-secret "clean-ups" were completed, where was all the alien technology taken? The Warehouse... UNIT's highly classified storage and research establishment. Here lie the dead, forgotten relics of past battles and encounters. But what happens when one of these relics is reactivated? UNIT has only one way of dealing with its mistakes. The Containment Team has been summoned... and the outcome is far from certain...

Set thirty years after their last appearance, the titular monsters of the production are brought back a full 7 years before their debut in the NuWho opener, Rose. Despite the clear lack of budget, with most of the production taking place in a single location, its strength lies in both a rather excellent story and likeable characters. Originally, Nicholas Courtney was to reprise his iconic role of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, but Courtney had to drop out at the last minute due to health issues. Although a tragic loss, the newly created character of Lockwood is played wonderfully by Michael Wade who sails through this film with relative suave. Reece Shearsmith gets to take on a great villain role as Dr Daniel Matthews and the titular Autons themselves are played with some great menace and horror.

Nicholas Briggs' tight and witty writing and claustrophobic direction really tighten the terror of the Autons trapped in the warehouse with our characters. Alastair Lock's music is really rather good as well, although he does end up recycling some cues, it's not nearly as bad as Cyberon. I'll also give him some credit for utilising some of the old sound effects as well.

Overall, needless to say, I'm surprised how good this was, tense, witty and brilliantly directed, Auton gives BBV some due credibility that it desperately wanted and needed.

How does it look? It feels like I've just had a shave with a cheese grater.

A slow burn in only fifty-seven minutes seems silly. There's very little Auton action in this one, but makes for a great depiction of UNIT as an SCP-style task force.