The Android Invasion - Episode 1

I watch todays episode at the end of a very warm day and it looks like this episode could have been filmed today. The story is written by Terry Nation and its weird that there isn’t a Dalek in sight. The only other time he has contributed to the show where a Dalek didn’t feature was the 1964 adventure ‘The Keys of Marinus’ and so it does show that can he write a good solid story without his famous creations involved. The episode starts with quite a shocking opening. Someone who appears to be a UNIT soldier is staggering through the woods. After a few minute it appears that he jumps to his death. It’s this sort of thing that got Mary Whitehouse all annoyed. As much as I enjoy the fact that she got annoyed, I do wonder quite why it was there. Surely there was another method for him to be killed. Of course the beauty of this story is that he’s back to his usual self just a few minutes later.

This is the only story that the Doctor shows a fondness for Ginger Pop. There is a brief mention at the beginning of this episode and its something that’s fairly common in tv and film where if something or someone gets mentioned then it will crop up again at some point in the story.

The story has a weird intrigue about it because it starts with the UNIT soldier jumping to his death and coming back alive and then it continues with the Doctor and Sarah arriving at the pub just as people walk in acting like zombies and at the turn of the hour start acting normal. There are a good number of close ups in the pub scenes which would have been ok if not for the fact that some of the locals do look like they have just come off the set of ‘The Wicker Man’. Barry Letts is the director for this story which explains why there are some very good moments in this episode.

It doesn’t take long for it to become apparent that Robots are behind things and are the one dressed in white shooting at the Doctor and Sarah. The title has androids in it so at some point it was going to feature in the episode at some point. Nation has gone to the trouble of only featuring it briefly.

Crayford is the first human that we encounter who doesn’t seem to be a robot He does however have an eye patch which means that he is a baddie. He’s sitting in the Brigadier’s office. It’s a shame that we don’t see the Brigadier in this story as I think it would have made this story even better.

The cliffhanger is a good one because we finally see an alien face though its through a small hole in the wall. It’s been an interesting opening episode with a lot of action to keep me entertained and intrigued enough to watch the next episode.