2.17: The Invasion

In which, oh good, it’s the f***ing cybermen again, great stuff. Oh, also, UNIT arrives at last.

Broadcast: November-December 1968

Watched: October-November 2019

Note: Episodes 1 and 4 are missing. The 2006 DVD release included animated versions –  the first official use of animation to plug gaps in the archive. Cool.

The Invasion, Episode One

Realised watching the start of this that I don’t think of it as “missing” any more because it’s been completed through animation for as long as I cared. Huh.

The music is amazing. As are the cows.

The sort of drop intro with the driver who gives the regulars a load of backstory, gets them out of the compound and then gets shot feels like a convenient add on, but works nicely in terms of ramping up the tension.

Where is the IE office? Is that Euston? Guess I’ll find out when it’s not animated. 

Were Watkins and Isobel at some point meant to be Travers and Anne? [Yes to Travers, no to Anne; apparently Jack Watling was too expensive for a minor role, and also the production team didn’t fancy paying writers they’d fallen out with to use their character.]

Benton! Yeah, I don’t care either. [Sgt John Benton is a minor character in this story, but becomes a regular character, and a regular butt of everyone else’s jokes, in the series between 1970 and 1975.]

This is one of those stories I experienced as backstory to Who Killed Kennedy  before I saw it directly. Which is weird. [A 1996 novel, which uses the UNIT years – again, 1970-75 – as backdrop. Basically, if you’ve listened to Redacted, it’s the same trick.]

The Invasion, Episode Two

Isobel spending so much on a camera she can’t afford a model seems a stupid business plan to me.

IT’S THE VALIANT! More to the point it’s UNIT.

This is definitely set in the future isn’t it? The computer stuff is way ahead of 1968. Although the fact computers can be made to blow up through insoluble equations is a bit rubbish. [Jim Cooray-Smith points out that the BBC’s intro to episode one said the story was set in 1975.]

Tobias Vaughan is a very watchable villain. But the music is by far the best thing about this story.

Is the fact IE has a private rail yard with a gate across it meant to be evocative of the Nazi death camps?

I do quite like the vagueness of the title. Could be anyone invading. 

The Invasion, Episode Three

“Oh that’s simple. We get squashed.”

Vaughan’s identical offices are a nice creepy touch. The music is reminding me of Edge of Darkness I think. 

This is slow, but the tension builds nicely –  we still don’t know who Vaughan’s allies are –  and it isn’t a story we’ve seen eight times already. Jim is right that it’s basically the pilot for season 7. [The period of the show when the Doctor is working with, yes, UNIT, on a contemporary or near future, depending on which side you’re on, Earth.]

Packer is hilariously useless. “The lift is stuck between the fourth and fifth floors,” he says in the voice of Frank Spencer.

I’ve only just realised it’s Wendy’s week off. Strikes me that Jamie means this is the only period of Who where the Doctor has a sort of sidekick rather than a companion.

The Invasion, Episode Four

I have a vague sense that when I watched this ten years ago I was annoyed at how long the Cybermen took to appear. Which is mental because it’s one of the best things about it. The villains’ chat about emotion pulses and conversion is the first proper hint of what we might be facing here.

Also –  this is the same genre as Enemy isn’t it? We talk a lot about Web being proto-UNIT, but large chunks of it –  the near future techno thriller stuff –  come from Enemy. Which makes the 2013 finds [of missing episodes from those two stories] all the more important.

The helicopter rope ladder escape sequence was probably quite exciting if you were a kid at the time.

Where’s the bit with the canoe meant to be set?

IT’S A CYBERMAN! Literally halfway through the story before they show up. Good.

This post’s going on a bit, so here’s a trailer for the animation.

The Invasion, Episode Five

The “this is no job for a girl” stuff hurts. The sewer stuff is good. The companions get a policeman killed, the idiots. He probably had a family. 

Vaughan’s plan of “help the Cybermen invade, then defeat the Cybermen” could use some work.

The Invasion, Episode Six

The music is a bit of a mismatch with the scene where soldiers beat a cyberman with a gun, so he lets go of Jamie then falls down a manhole.

The scene in which Vaughan lets Watkins shoot him and then laughs is great. One of the few decent villains of the era.

The fact we never seen UNIT’s rescue of Watkins, we just cut to someone describing it, is ridiculous. Budget problems? [No, they ran out of time on location and had to improvise.]

And then they use the same trick again either side of Jamie’s nap so we cut straight to the Doctor’s big discovery. Bit odd to cut corners in such a long story.

The actual invasion bit –  people covering their ears in shock, then going blank –  is very well done and very season 7. Although the Doctor’s anti control device falling off is a cheap way to generate some fake peril.

The Invasion, Episode Seven

“Is this what you wanted? To be the ruler of a dead world?” Cool cliffhanger. 

I love that the plan is “go to Russia, borrow a rocket”. Very RTD.

Vaughan telling the Doctor his plan is nicely Bond Villain-y. The shots of all the controlled people, some sleeping with their eyes closed, are nicely creepy.

This is alright but... with the Hartnells I tried very hard not to look at my phone while watching as I worried I’d miss stuff in dialogue. I don’t really feel that now. Maybe because action is something you can get the gist of with only part of your brain? Or maybe I’m missing some subtleties, I dunno.

The missile bit is kind of cool though. Stock footage I assume? What of?

The Invasion, Episode Eight

Some thoughts on weapons. The idea of a bomb that can wipe out all life on Earth at a single swoop is something that only makes sense after 1945. The fact the Cybermen can kill with a weapon in their chests looks a bit silly, but the idea they’d have weapons built in probably makes more sense than the idea they’d carry guns, really.

There’s a lot of shots of people taking it in turns to frown in this one in an attempt to build up the tension. Having random characters shout “We’ve done it!” or –  worse –  not bothering to film sequences such as UNIT destroying the radio equipment rather undermine that.

Strange in its way how easily the Doctor Who format shifts to him working with the military. Would have felt very, very odd before The War Machines I think. Ian Stuart Black always has him welcomed by the authorities for some reason. 

The Brigadier being fine with Isobel coming to watch the battle as long as she keeps out of the way is a bit stupid. So is the Cyberman falling off a roof but at least that’s funny.

Vaughan’s change of heart is ridiculously under-explored. Quite like the fact the Russians help out.

Why is Jamie barely in this one? I didn’t even register his absence til halfway through.