The Invasion - Episode 8

After seven episodes we get to see the action and the thing that UNIT were introduced for. The story has to achieve the tricky thing of making sure this story ends properly and it ends at just the right time.  

At the end of the previous episode, Vaughn finally twigged that he wasn’t going to get things his own way. Vaughn decides that he's going to destroy the Cybermen which is probably the first sensible thing that he has done in the entire story. He starts off with the Cyber Controller and the explosion was a nice pre-filmed effect. That's about as good as it gets for Vaughn because things go downhill pretty quickly. 

 

The shot of the Cyberman appearing on the video screen was a great moment. I remember the first time I saw that and it was a moment that made me jump. There arent many instances in Doctor Who that did this to me. Packer's death was as surprising as it was quick. I've grown to like the character and even though he was a badie it doesn’t meen that he wasn’t likeable. Vaughn's death was disappointing as I think that he deserved much better than what he got. It seemed like he was shot and then that was it. He was the best thing in the entire story and he was treated a bit rubbishly. The Doctor and Vaughn working together is a nice thing to see and it forms part of a nice group of scenes. They went from being at odds to working together for the same cause and the scenes at the IE building were the highlight of the episode. The 'battle' scenes with the UNIT soldiers shooting the Cybermen was perhaps a sign of things to come as it hasn’t been seen on Doctor Who before this.  

 

The plot point about destroying the Cyber ship that’s in space seemed to be dragging the story on for a few minutes. Thankfully its only a few minutes but it did feel like it could have been dealt with earlier in the story and not right at the end.  

 

The performances from Patrick Troughton, Wendy Padbury and un-official companion Nicholas Courtney were all really good and its clear why Courtney would become part of the show in a way that no other non-companion would be able to do. Troughton's performances have been consistantly good throughout this story and seems to step up a gear when he's against Kevin Stoney. Speaking of Stoney, I loved his performance as Mavic Chen and he managed to beat that with Tobias Vaughn. One of the best villains in Doctor Who. 

 

The final scene sees Jamie return and leads to a nice bit of comedy at the end of a comedy-free episode. I must say that I had forgotten the TARDIS was invisible and so was amazed again with the effect. Overall I thought that the episode was what I thought that a final episode should be. It had plenty of action and all the plot points were tied up nicely. I think that this was a much better Cyberman story than 'The Wheel in Space'. Not sure eight episodes was the right length but it was an enjoyable story but the good times are about to end because next up 'THE KROTONS'. 

The Invasion - Episode 7

It's the penultimate episode of this story that has quickly got good and made up for the rather feeble 'The Wheel in Space'. At the end of the last episode the Cybermen were seen walking through the streets of London but whats rather curious is how that’s about all that we get. At least in this episode Patrick Troughton gets out of the lab set. Frazer Hines has a brief involvement in the episode as he is shot. He is due to have a holiday in the next episode (more of that in episode 8). From the next scene with the Doctor, Jamie is not seen so that means that Zoe gets more to do. She gets to use her intelligence by working how to destroy all the ships. It's the first time since her debut story that she gets to show us how brainy she is and it’s a very good moment though its sadly becoming a rare thing. 

 

I only noticed quite late in the episode that Isobel seems to have a bit of a disappearing act along with Jamie. The fact that it took me so long to notice her lack of presence shows just how ineffective the character has been. I might be being harsh on Sally Faulkner but its not her fault but more the writing as she's not been given much to do. 

 

We get another first in this episode as we get to see the Doctor driving a car. This would be the norm during the Pertwee era but this was something special at the time. Sadly despite the fact that this story is called The Invasion there isn't any sign of an invasion apart from the very beginning. The Cybermen don’t really have much of an impact in the episode and it feels like we've gone back a step and gone back to 'The Wheel in Space'. It's rather frustrating.  

 

It feels like the dynamic between Vaughn and Packer was starting to change. Vaughn does seem to be losing control as without Watkins, they cant make more machines to control the Cybermen. Packer seems to be more unsure about the plan. I think that its good how their relationship has developed and they have both been very good from their first appearances.  

 

I do like the Doctor/Vaughn scenes towards the end of the episode. It's always great when two fine actors are working in the same scene and it leads to the moment that Vaughn realizes that he's out of his depth and is reluctant to stop his plans after five years in the making. It makes for a great ending when the Doctor asks Vaughn if he wants to be ruler of a dead world and then there is a close up of Vaughns face. I did feel like there was a slight feel of padding in this episode but not as noticeable as the first four episodes. At least there was development as far as the Cyberman's plan was concerned and the final episode should have the fitting end that this story deserves. 

The Invasion - Episode 6

The sixth episode is probably where the story would run into padding but that isn’t the case because we had four episode of padding really before we got to this point. The opening three or four minutes sees Jamie, Zoe and Isobel trying to dodgy the Cybermen in the sewer. It’s quite a good opening scene and it pretty much sums up the pace of the episode. The Doctor starts the episode working in a lab and spends the entire episode in the lab set. I don’t know whether it was a deliberate thing but its odd that he is relatively inactive during this episode which is a weird thing but it is what it is.

The Packer/Vaughn relationship is more friendly in this episode. They seem to be more on the same page in this episode which is nice to see. Even though we know that his body is robotic it takes Watkins shooting Vaughn him to show us this fact. I am still a big fan of Kevin Stoney because there was a sneaky menace to his performance and it was wonderful to watch. Edward Burnham as Watkins is on good form as he does what most people would probably want to do and that’s kill the bad guy.

It’s strange that we don’t get to see the rescue of Watkins by the UNIT soldiers. It’s also strange how Gregory is quickly killed off due to Watkins’ rescue. From the moment that Captain Munro starts talking on the radio about launching the rescue to Gregory being killed off less than two minutes would have passed and whilst it isn’t the most important part of the story but I think that it could have been done slightly better.

I didn’t notice it before but its 15 minutes before Wendy Padbury returns and in the first scene I notice her in and she’s moaning about Jamie going to sleep with Cybermen around. In her next scene she’s better because she’s included in the Doctor’s explanation. I may have been wrong about Isobel. I think that she wasn’t annoying in this episode and was rightly miffed when he work of taking pics of the Cybermen were dismissed by the Brigadier.

We get another of the Doctor’s explanations and diagrams to show us what’s been going on. I always enjoy these moments as sometimes I like being treated like I’m stupid and it’s a nice refresher moment which is done quickly and effectively.

I do like the shots of London early in the morning just before the Cybermen make their grand appearance. I think that its such a rare thing to see London with nobody on it so its nice to see. The cliffhanger is really good as we get to see Cybermen walking on the streets for the first time. When the Daleks invaded our little planet it wasn’t particularly successful though to be fair it was in the days before location filming became what it was in 1968. It’s a great ending and I feel like the story has really found its feet and the last two episode cant come soon enough.

The Invasion - Episode 5

I know what your thinking and I won’t take a day off even on Christmas Day. I suppose I should say Merry Christmas to all of you but if your reading this in May or June then it might seem a bit odd but trust me its Christmas Day and I’m about to watch episode five. This is where the Cybermen really get involved in their own story, still can’t quite believe that were at the half way stage and they’ve only just appeared.

My dislike of Isobel continues as she ranges from flirting with the Captain to be disinterested at first when the Doctor informs everyone about the Cybermen. All she seems to talk about is money she thinks that taking pictures will lead to wealth and when she’s flirting with the Captain she hopes that he’s “stinking rich”. Though she comes up with what would be considered to a rather feeble insult when Isobel calls him “you man!”. This does lead to a bit of feminism in Doctor Who when both Isobel and Zoe decide to take matters into their own hands. This is the main thing about the second half of the episode because this is where Jamie, Zoe and Isobel encounter a rouge Cybermen in the sewers of London. It’s a very well lit sewer it has to be said though it does lead to a good cliffhanger but due to the claustrophobic feel of it the ending becomes quite memorable.

Rutlidge is back in this episode and I like the scene where he is talking to Lethbridge-Stewart. He puts in a rather feeble attempt to try and stop the Brigadier. No sooner has Lethbridge-Stewart got a no from Rutlidge then he basically decides to go over his head. When Rutlidge contacts Vaughn its clear that the hold over him is fading. The unravelling has been quite fun to watch though he’s not a bad guy really but has just been bad to the Brigadier which in a way can be worse. It’s quite interesting how there seems to be a sort of Scooby Gang feel to some of the scenes. We have the Brigadier with the Captain, the Doctor with Zoe, Jamie and Isobel.

There’s a scene where Packer is talking to two Cybermen and he pre-recorded the voices so as the production text indicates he is talking to himself which is quite a fun idea. As an episode it does feel like its starting to pick up pace and its feeling more like a Cybermen story now which is a relief.

The Invasion - Episode 4

T'was the night before Christmas and all was well as I watch episode four. Wendy Padbury returns off her holiday and it’s the second of the animated episodes. The early part of the episode is made up with re-introducing Zoe and Isobel to the story. It’s interesting to note that episode four aired on Doctor Who’s 5^th birthday. This is effectively the transition episode because as we enter the second half of the story this is where the good stuff starts to enter into the story and there are still some things from the early episodes that continue here such as the wonderful incidental music.

Vaughn is showing that he has a way of trying to control the Cybermen or his allies. Now it’s nothing new that someone working with the main villain thinks that they can control them but this is the best plan that we’ve seen so far. Vaughn has been planning this for ages and so it seems that it cant fail but we all know how this one ends. I like how Vaughn continues to use Packer as a bit of a whipping boy. I’ve not mentioned the performances of the regulars recently and that’s something I will put right here as there seems to be a seriousness that I haven’t seen to the Doctor for a while. Even Jamie didn’t seem his usual self and together both Frazer Hines and Patrick Troughton give very solid performances. Consider she didn’t really have much to do in this episode, Wendy Padbury reminds us that she is here and its good to have them back.

The part where they are trying to free Zoe and Isobel was quite well done and was probably the most actioned pack scene that Doctor Who has ever done. I think though that whilst it was good to have Zoe back, Isobel didn’t really do much apart from remind us that she could have taken some photographic evidence. This leads us to the fact that its not going to be easy to put an end to Vaughn or IE.  The name mentioned in episode two, Billy Rutlidge gets mentioned and we get a scene with him. He seems like a normal civil servant who doesn’t really have much power to resist Vaughn and it’s easy to see how Vaughn has the power he has.

Of course with this being a Cybermen story they weren’t going to make an appearance until the very end and they form the cliffhanger and even though its an animated episode its still an effective way to end the episode and I suppose the viewer must have known that the story would be stepping up a gear which is just what we need. A good episode.

The Invasion - Episode 3

This episode sees Wendy Padbury take a week off so she spends this week in a crate (or Zoe does). It means that Jamie and the Doctor get to do their double act and that is my abiding memory of this episode. The story shifts location during this episode and there something of interest is Vaughn’s office, despite travelling a long distance the office is the same design, size and layout and all they’ve done is change the backing cloth and given a rather clever line and uniformity and keeping things similar.

We finally get to see Professor Watkins we see that he is ‘working’ for Vaughn. I liked the scene where Watkins is talking to the Doctor and Jamie as it seems like the episode was taking a breather. With Isobel and Zoe not being around that meant that Watkins became the human contact for the Doctor and Jamie. I’ll be honest that I didn’t really miss Zoe in this episode and I definitely didn’t miss Isobel. I think that I was too distracted by Jamie and the Doctor that I wasn’t bothered that Zoe wasn’t in the episode. I’m not saying that I don’t want her in the show but unfortunately she’s teamed up with Isobel and I don’t mind if we don’t see Isobel again.

I love how Vaughn refers to the Cybermen as allies. Considering that they aren’t mentioned in the title it’s still a mystery to the 1968 viewer. Apart from that Cyber Planner that we saw at the beginning of episode two, we haven’t really had much of a hint that they are the ones involved. Vaughn just gets better and better as he spends most of the episode shouting and belittling Packer. It almost seems like Vaughn has him around just so that he can shout at him. I almost felt sorry for Packer because if the Doctor was a normal person then he would have been caught and Packer would be in Vaughn’s good books but sadly the situation is what it is and Packer becomes Vaughn’s punching bag.

The big scene came when the Doctor and Jamie were trying to get away from Packer and climbing up the lift shaft. It took up a fair portion of the episode and led towards the cliffhanger. The cliffhanger was much better. It was a good thing to question just what Jamie was snuggling up to. I thought that it was atmospheric and the look on Frazer Hines’ face helped make it much creepier. Whilst I enjoyed this episode I cant say that there was anything special that happened during this episode. It was just perfectly paced and moved the story along enough to feel like it wasn’t stationery.

The Invasion - Episode 2

The first non-animated episode of the story is where we can really start to judge the vibe of the story. We learn that this story takes place four years after ‘The Web of Fear’ which if you apply the UNIT logic (a UNIT story takes place five years in the future of transmission), means that this story is set in 1977. It’s always good when they film on the streets of London because it makes it feel different because so often they are either entirely in a studio or in a dusty quarry. The incidental music continues to impress me and credit should go to Don Harper.

Something I forgot to mention during the first entry was the introduction of Packer. He is quite funny to watch but not in a bad way. I think he can be a brut when needed to but his incompetence is what stops him from being on Vaughn’s level. At times he almost seems like a teachers pet, almost coming across as desperate to try and impress Vaughn. Speaking of Vaughn, Kevin Stoney’s brilliance shows from the very moment the episode starts.

It’s 5 minutes and 31 seconds before UNIT are properly introduced when Nicholas Courtney makes his return. There was a nice reference to the last time that Lethbridge-Stewart appeared and we know straight away that he’s going to be relatively co-operative with the Doctor. Billy Rutledge is one of the two people that Lethbridge-Stewart draws the Doctor’s attention to and he is someone that we will meet later on but its like its just a gentle reminder to us to remember this name. We know he is someone in power so he’ll be getting in the Doctor’s way later on. We then learn that the other picture belongs to the driver that the Doctor met in episode one. He works for UNIT so it makes his death somewhat more sad.

The directing is very good which shouldn’t come as a surprise considering its being helmed by Douglas Camfield is has clocked up the highest number of episodes so far as a director. The particular shot which stands out and that’s when the car that Benton, Jamie and the Doctor are in is driving along the airfield and without stopping manages to get on the airplane ramp and stop in exactly the right place. It’s a nice bit of directing.

I really enjoyed this episode. In fact when I was rating this episode like I do with the 220 episodes before this. This story currently ranks at number 3 just behind the first episode of ‘An Unearthly Child’ and the opening episode of ‘The Tenth Planet’ and its only the second Patrick Troughton episode to feature in the top 10  and the sixth to feature in the top 20. In terms of story rating, it is currently tied in second place with ‘Mission to the Unknown’. The only thing that lets it down slightly is the cliffhanger, here Packer is telling the Doctor and Jamie that they are like rats in a trap and it just dosent hit the mark for me but that’s the only thing that is wrong with the episode.

The Invasion - Episode 1

So now we get to amazingly the second longest story of the season. Normally eight episode would be long enough to rank and the longest but not during this season. This is the first time that we have had Cybermen since the less that spectacular ‘The Wheel in Space’. This is the first of two episodes to be animated and if I recall was one of the first DVD’s to receive the animated treatment. Now did I miss something? Only I remember the Master going into the TARDIS but at the start of this episode there is no sign of him.

There is a different feel to this story and that stems mostly from the incidental music. It’s very much like the sort of drama that you would see on ITV and it doesn’t have the same sort of vibe as other stories in the season have. This is something that I really like about the Invasion. There are many things that I like about this story including Tobias Vaughn and obviously the Cybermen but more of them later.  It starts off with the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe getting a journey in the back of a lorry and you can tell that this isn’t going to be a normal story when the driver gets gunned down in quite a grim manner for 1968’s story.

This story was due to see the return of Professor Travers from ‘The Abominable Snowmen’ and ‘The Web of Fear’ however they don’t appear and we get Professor Watkins and his daughter Isobel. The moment that we meet Isobel isn’t the best for the character. I must admit that I don’t really like character very much. It might have something to do with the rather unpleasant treatment she gives the Doctor. She buddies up with Zoe and this means that Zoe is separated from the Doctor and Jamie, allowing them to visit the IE building. This story marks the debut of U.N.I.T which would become an integral part of the show. However the first person we see is Benton and even then its quite serious. Not the loveable Sergeant that we would know soon after. It’s not the proper introduction but it’s the prologue if you would like it the return of Lethbridge-Stewart.

The animation still stands up and I thought that it was very impressive when I first saw it. Compared to future animation releases I think that there is a nice simplicity to it and it helps the story and I’m guessing that it adds something to the episode because obviously as the episode is lost (for the moment), we will never know whether this episode is as atmospheric as the animation suggests.

Kevin Stoney returns to Doctor Who after playing Mavic Chen in ‘The Daleks Master Plan’ and I’ll be saying several times over the course of this run that he is easily the best thing in this story and is superb from the very first moment his head appears on a screen. As Tobias Vaughn, his character has an ice coldness to it. Aside from that the performances of the regulars are all quite striking as far as I am concerned. After the relatively light hearted feel of ‘The Mind Robber’ it’s good to give the three regulars something approaching mainstream drama. The story feels like its setting things up and doing it properly.

It’s a cracking opening episode. There is a great sense that from the very beginning to the very end of the episode that this eight part run is going to be a highlight of Troughtons’ run.

The Mind Robber - Episode 1

The Mind Robber is another strange story and it starts off with the conclusion to the previous episode where the Doctor set on an explosion and lava was about to hit the TARDIS. This is a special episode as its an add on episode to Peter Ling’s story. His adventure will start in episode two but what we have here are the regulars on their own with no supporting characters and just the TARDIS set. So this is a Derrick Sherwin episode and its interesting to see how these three characters work together as opposed to how the first Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan worked together.

I like the scene where Jamie and Zoe both think that they have seen their home worlds. This is the start of the weird things happening and the scene concludes with the Doctor feeling the effects the most. The scenes with Zoe and Jamie outside the TARDIS and the Doctor trying to fight the influences are really good and I have to say that Jamie and Zoe in white outfits make them look like they have just come from some Tim Burton film. Frazer Hines looks the…. Well I want to say weirdest but I find myself saying funniest.

Credit must go to the cast for making a clearly defined space seem bigger than it was. It’s clear where the set ends because it curves but to be honest I didn’t mind to much as I thought that the performances from both Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury help convince us that they are in a misty void. Wendy Padbury goes from having one ridiculous outfit in ‘The Dominators’ to another silly costume here. She is put into a glitter catsuit which is clearly ‘for the dads’. I think that Wendy Padbury has been allowed to settle down and serves a purpose that Deborah Watling wasn’t allowed to serve and that is act as someone on the same intellectual level as the Doctor. Frazer Hines also does a very good job and I think that I like the Jamie/Zoe relationship more than the Jamie/Victoria one. Patrick Troughton doesn’t have much to do but boy does he do it well.

I’m technically not telling the truth when I say that its just the regulars in this episode as we meet the robots. Due to the fact that this had to be a cheap episode the writer had to recycle what he found and what he found were some robots from a BBC TV series called ‘Out of the Unknown’. Not sure about whether this is a good idea but I suppose in the bonkers scheme of things, this might just work.

The shot of the TARDIS breaking up was a fantastic scene followed by Zoe and Jamie clinging onto the TARDIS console (though there is a funny model shot where Zoe has a very long and bendy arm). The scene is made a lot more dramatic by Zoe screaming which isn’t something I remember the character doing a great deal. It’s a great way to end the episode and I think that Derrick Sherwin did a good job of holding our attentions long enough so that the second episode and the proper story can get started. The cast also deserve praise because their performances help destract us from the fact there aren’t any other cast members. My faith in series six has been restored and its easily the best episode of the season so far.