Book excerpt: A mysterious shower of meteorites lands in Essex, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT has reason to believe that they have been deliberately aimed at the Earth's surface. The Doctor joins forces with the Brigadier and Liz Shaw in a desperate bid to prevent the nightmarish invasion of the sinister Autons. Living models of human beings, like waxwork dummies, their murderous behaviour is controlled and directed by the Nestene Consciousness, a malignant, squid-like monster of cosmic proportions and indescribably hideous appearance.