The Auton trilogy is a series of direct-to-video spin-off productions based on the long running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who. The three films in the series are Auton (1997), Auton 2: Sentinel (1998; working title, Auton 2: The Rapture) and Auton 3 (1999; working title, Auton 3: Awakening). They were produced by the independent BBV company and are sequels to the Third Doctor stories Spearhead from Space and Terror of the Autons. All three films have been reissued on DVD. All story elements relating to Doctor Who were licensed from their respective authors. Synopses When a Nestene energy unit and several Autons are reactivated at a UNIT facility, a plot for world domination that predates mankind is set in motion. Plot Auton At a top secret UNIT facility known only as "the Warehouse", Dr Sally Arnold has been studying a Nestene energy unit with no results. As a last resort, she subjects the artifact to cosmic signals from UNIT's most powerful deep space scanning satellite. This causes a violent energy release that kills her assistant, Janice. The energy unit has disappeared. A containment team, led by a psychic UNIT operative named Lockwood, has been dispatched. Among Lockwood's abilities is the ability to access all information from any computer mainframe in the world with his mind. They soon learn that the Nestene energy unity has taken on a mobile form, and that there is an Auton copy of senior archivist Graham Winslet. The real Winslet is still alive, his mind being used by the Autons as a resource of information. The energy unit then merges with the Auton Winslet. Several dormant Autons in the Warehouse come back to life and the building becomes a battlefield. They are eventually defeated with the weapon created by the Doctor and Liz Shaw in Spearhead from Space. The Auton Winslet then liquefies and escapes through a ventilation shaft. Reception Karen Davies wrote in the fanzine Celestial Toyroom that the story was "an enjoyable, but undemanding 57 minutes". In particular, Karen felt that the direction paused too often and the dialogue was not realistic enough. In Doctor Who Magazine, Dave Owen would heavily praise Michael Wade's performance, stating that he was "so superciliously smug and patronizing that he demands your attention". Modern criticism has remained mostly positive. In the book Downtime - The Lost Years of Doctor Who, Dylan Rees stated that the film was