Auton The Autons were robots that resembled plastic shop - window mannequins , animated by the Nestene Consciousness as soldiers . Though they were not the only creations of the Nestenes , they were the most easily identifiable and were utilised during every Earth invasion . Appearance and abilities . Every Auton was a fragment of the Consciousness , since it existed in everything it controlled , with Autons actually containing a sliver of Nestene intelligence ( AUDIO : " Brave New Town " , PROSE : " Autonomy " ) to animate them , albeit still controlled by a central Nestene brain . Larger fragments were given to replicas to allow copying of brain patterns and memories , and in some cases like the Swarm Leader Channing a large portion of the Consciousness could be given to an Auton so that it could almost be individual , having something akin to feelings and being able to directly control other Autons . ( PROSE : " Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion " ) Although usually directed by the Consciousness , if its manifestation was damaged or disoriented , Autons units could become rogue and act independent . This could also occur with Autons left over from invasions that were randomly activated . ( AUDIO : " Brave New Town " , PROSE : " Autonomy " ) The typical Auton did not look particularly lifelike . It resembled a mannequin , was robotic in its movements and mute , although the Nestenes might speak through an Auton leader , generating a robotic voice . ( TV : " Terror of the Autons " ) Autons were primarily noted for the concealed wrist - gun within their hand s , which could kill or vaporise their targets using psychic projections . ( PROSE : " Synthespians™ " ) These were powerful enough to temporarily disable a weakened Dalek . ( TV : " The Big Bang " ) Some could also shoot a tranquillising gas from their hands . ( COMIC : " Plastic Millenium " ) Despite their solid appearance , some Autons were metamorph ic and could change the shape of their features and limbs . ( TV : " Rose " ) They were also excellent trackers , able to find other creatures by their brain - wave patterns , ( PROSE : " Synthespians™ " ) and collected the energy unit s of a swarm after it landed . One Auton actually absorbed two energy units and Nestene blood into itself . ( HOMEVID : " Auton " ) Some Autons , if not all of them , also had superior hearing to that of humans . ( TV : " The Big Bang " ) Autons were extremely long - lived , with one unit existing for almost two thousand years with no visible signs of wear , even with the link to the Consciousness broken . While bullets had almost no effect on them , ( TV : " Spearhead from Space " ) they could be affected by radio signals ( TV : " The Big Bang " ) and disrupted by sub - etheric beams , which travelled through the telepathy dimension and interfered with the Nestene / Auton communication on the astral plane . ( PROSE : " Synthespians™ " ) They were vulnerable to intense heat , as this caused them to melt , and they would also be deactivated if the controlling Nestene manifestation on a planet was destroyed . ( TV : " Spearhead from Space " , " Terror of the Autons " ) Duplicates . In addition to the basic Auton , more agile and manoeuvrable models were made as duplicates of humans . The Swarm Leader was able to create the body of a planet ' s native life - form from scratch ; ( PROSE : " Synthespians™ " ) the first Auton created , Channing ' s human appearance allowed him to infiltrate Auto Plastics and organise the Nestene invasion . ( TV : " Spearhead from Space " ) More sophisticated Autons could be created to copy and impersonate specific individuals . The originals needed to be kept alive to maintain the copy , although these were sometimes imperfect , looking and acting human except for a slight yellowing sheen or glint to the skin and a flat - sounding voice . When destroyed , the duplicates reverted to the appearance of a basic Auton , sometimes leaking Nestene blood . ( TV : " Spearhead from Space " ) One Auton copied Graham Winslet before reverting back to its basic form ; however , it later appeared as Winslet with no apparent connection to the real man , although it may have only required a human appearance rather than Winslet ' s mind . ( HOMEVID : " Auton Trilogy " ) Occasionally if a copy wasn ' t necessary and an Auton simply needed to appear human , it could wear a plastic mask . ( TV : " Terror of the Autons " ) Even more accurate Autons could be made , identical in appearance and actions to the originals . These units were implanted with false memories and actually believed themselves to be the real subjects they duplicated , being indistinguishable . The Auton copy of Rory Williams was even able to remember being erased from existence in the time field . ( TV : " The Pandorica Opens " ) A number of famous figures were duplicated and displayed at Madame Tussauds , including General Scobie whose duplicate was intended to take his place and command the British Army . ( TV : " Spearhead from Space " ) Mickey Smith was copied to gather information on the Ninth Doctor . ( TV : " Rose " ) Roman Auton duplicates taken from a memory print of Amy Pond mimicked humans perfectly and were used as sleeper agents until the Nestenes later asserted their influence , although the Rory Auton partially resisted this control . ( TV : " The Pandorica Opens " ) History . 2nd century . When the Nestene Consciousness joined the Alliance , they produced Autons disguised as Roman soldiers in 102 . These , believing themselves to be genuine Roman soldiers , tricked the Eleventh Doctor , who realised too late what they were . They imprisoned him in the Pandorica . One of these Autons , fashioned after the late and time - erased Rory Williams using the memories of Amy Pond , did not want to fire on her and tried to resist the call to arms . However he was unable to prevent himself shooting her fatally . ( TV : " The Pandorica Opens " ) Afterwards , the Auton helped the Doctor resurrect Amy with the Pandorica and save the universe . After the Doctor reset the universe and time , the Alliance Autons were erased from existence . The real Rory Williams , though , recalled the life of his Auton copy . ( TV : " The Big Bang " ) 20th century . In 1903 , after receiving a wealth of information from the future , Grigori Rasputin foresaw , among other things , men made out of plastic . ( AUDIO : " The Wanderer " ) The late 20th century development of plastics by human s created opportunities for invasions of Earth . One invasion was coordinated by a Swarm Leader known as Channing . Channing took over Auto Plastics and arranged for standard Autons to be mass produced and placed in shops across Britain . Channing also obtained a contract from Madame Tussaud ' s to make plastic " waxworks " of key government and military leaders . The attack was coordinated first thing in the morning . 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 found their base and rigged a device to destroy Autons and the Nestene . ( TV : " Spearhead from Space " ) Some months later , the Nestene made an alliance with renegade Time Lord known as . Although the Nestene used standard Autons for this operation , the assault relied on deadly plastic daffodils . The Third Doctor convinced the Master to stop his alliance with the Nestene , as the Nestene would not distinguish between the Master and anyone else in their takeover , and the two worked together to fling the Nestenes back into space by " chang [ ing ] the polarity " whilst the transfer shift of the radio telescope that summoned the Nestene invasion force was still open . This caused the Autons to stop functioning . ( TV : " Terror of the Autons " ) In the 1980s , at Christmas , the Autons attacked again , but were defeated by the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond . ( GAME : " The Christmas Trap " ) In 1989 , the Nestene took control of Winston Blunt . He formed the Galaxy Plastics Inc and then killed himself . In his place , an Auton named Mr Dolman controlled the company . When an industrial spy , Max Fisher , disrupted operations , Dolman attacked and later killed him . An Auton copy of Max was later created . ( COMIC : " Business as Usual " ) Circa the 1990s a group of Autons were re - activated and attempted to colonise Earth . ( HOMEVID : " Auton Trilogy " ) Also in the ' 90s , an Auton replica known as Alisha Hammerson set up the Hammerson Plastic PLC company . On New Year ' s Eve , 1999 , she planned to replace several key figures in the plastic industry with Auton replicas so the Earth could be dominated and absorbed . The Seventh Doctor and Mel gate - crashed the party and broke the Nestene link , which deactivated her . ( COMIC : " Plastic Millenium " ) 21st century . After the Nestene ' s protein planet s were destroyed in the early days of the Last Great Time War by a Time Destructor , ( PROSE : " Natural Regression " ) it arrived in early 21st century London to use standard Autons to conquer the planet . When the Ninth Doctor came to investigate , it sent Autons to try to stop him . When Rose Tyler got in the way , it also sent an Auton duplicate of her boyfriend , Mickey Smith , to try to find out more . The Doctor removed the Auton Mickey ' s head to track down and confront the Nestene Consciousness . When the Nestene thought it was in danger , it activated the Autons to go on a rampage . When the Nestene was killed with anti - plastic , the Autons were deactivated . ( TV : " Rose " ) Shortly afterwards , an Auton head was salvaged from the Queens Arcade Shopping Centre and stored in the Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum . ( GAME : " Security Bot " ) In 2010 , UNIT Underbase contained an Auton salvaged from a past alien invasion of Earth . ( COMIC : " The Age of Ice " ) In 2013 , Autons placed in Hyperville by Miss Devonshire and the Nestene helped with the attempted takeover of Earth . Among the normal Autons , there were several varieties , such as Autons which could stretch their heads about a metre , an incredibly strong Auton , known as B - 4 , which could strangle victims and Auton replicas . All the Autons were destroyed by the Doctor and Kate . ( PROSE : " Autonomy " ) In the same year , with the absence of the Doctor , the Autons almost conquered Earth with the help of businessman Simon Devlin . However , with the full global force of UNIT , the Autons failed . ( AUDIO : " Vanguard " , " Earthfall " , " Bridgehead " , " Armageddon " ) Post 21st century . In 7214 , Autons were used by the Master to set a trap for the Sixth Doctor in Antarctopolis . The Doctor was able to destroy them by melting the plastic inside them . ( COMIC : " Façades " ) The Nestene used Autons when they attempted to take over the New Earth Republic in the 101st century . They used both standard and facsimile versions . ( PROSE : " Synthespians™ " ) Undated events . When every Doctor gathered to stop Adam Mitchell and the Master , the two unleashed an army of Autons , who attacked but left the Time Lords alive . After Adam Mitchell sabotaged the controls , the Autons shut down . ( COMIC : " Endgame " ) The Eleventh Doctor speculated that the Nestene housed itself inside one of the spaceships orbiting Trenzalore by sending Autons to hijack the ships . The Autons later parachute d into Trenzalore — their weapons being removed to get past the Papal Mainframe ' s technology barrier — initially trying grab the Doctor from his home in Christmas and taking him to his death , but they were blown off course by the crosswinds . The Nestene came up with a new plan , and tried leading the Doctor into a trap in the Devil ' s Elbows Canyon in the Outland , but the Doctor blew up the " Lifeboat " with boronite , and the " Lifeboat " sunk to the bottom of Lake Lagda while the Autons were still on board . One Auton was able to escape , but when it grabbed the Doctor ' s wood en leg in a struggle to hold on to a slab of ice , the Doctor forcibly unbuckled the leg from his body , and the Auton fell to the bottom of the lake as well . ( PROSE : " Strangers in the Outland " ) A surviving Auton tryed to blend in as a real window shop dummy . ( COMIC : " Untitled " ) Other references . When Es ' Cartrss tried to take over the Tenth Doctor ' s mind via the TARDIS matrix , he used his memories of the Autons to attack him . ( COMIC : " The Forgotten " ) River Song claimed to have once dated an Auton with a removable / replaceable head . ( TV : " The Big Bang " ) The Autons were filed in the Fourth Doctor ' s memory files . ( COMIC : " Doctor Who and the Iron Legion " ) Behind the scenes . Although Autons have appeared several times in the 21st century incarnation of " Doctor Who " , since 2005 the word " Auton " has only been used in the credits in " Rose " , and never within a story until " Under the Lake " in 2015 ; instead they are called " Nestenes " or " Nestene duplicates " . According to DWM 467 ' s " The Fact of Fiction " article , the Autons were originally set to appear in " The Five Doctors " , but their scene was cut .