3.21: Invasion of the Dinosaurs
In which London is attacked by Chewit adverts, and UNIT is betrayed.
Broadcast: January-February 1974
Watched: May 2020
Invasion, Part One
“Typical. Absolutely typical.”
The first time I saw this it was an omnibus and the title fucked me up. [They’re hiding the nature of the monsters. YOU HEAR THAT, TERRY NATION? YOU CAN HIDE THE NATURE OF THE MONSTERS.] Britbox have listed at as “Invasion of the Dinosaurs 1” the cowards.
The last time we opened with a deserted London it was an invasion story, too. Obviously delighted to be watching this in the middle of lockdown. Anyway, this one is a favourite, but I’d forgotten how eerie this bit was.
LOVE the way at this point the story could be about literally anything: it’s nearly 10 minutes before UNIT show up, too. The Doctor speaking up for the Vandals. Been reading Terry Jones.
UNIT’s map of sightings has a definite north west London bias.
At minute 13 A pterodactyl arrives; at minute 16 it’s gone full Chewits ad. As in The War Games, I’d remembered the feint going on longer. Pity, but I suppose if you want kids to stay interesting it makes sense.
Not for the first time, the regular army are all bastards looking for an excuse to declare martial law. Fun to see Pertwee on the wrong side of the military for once though. Even if he’s changed his clothes since The Time Warrior for no bloody reason.
Sarah is 23. That suddenly sounds terribly young. The thought occurs that she and the Doctor are going through a lot together very quickly, which is a nice sort of bonding experience, isn’t it?
Love the grinning during the mugshots bit. “Now. What about one of both of us?” You old dog.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Part Two
I sort of love the rubbish dinosaurs, sorry. Also, I’ve always known the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago and I blame Doctor Who.
Second story running in which a 12th century peasant thinks the Doctor’s a wizard. The effects on the time eddy sequences are not great.
“I’ll just go chat up that nice Captain Yates.” Not sure you’re his type, love. Though he does leer at you a bit, so. Anyway – I sort of like the way they build him up as a character, and have the Doctor greet him with affection, to set up his betrayal. (Similarly: Finch laughing at the idea of time travel when he’s in on it. Weird how the villains are all involved in tackling the disaster isn’t it? Anyway.) Mike’s betrayal is revealed much earlier than I expected, too. Assumed that’d be the cliffhanger to episode 4 or something.
Some guest cast rambling – Peter Miles has major, recognisable parts in Doctor Who two seasons running. That’s... weird isn’t it? Martin Jarvis is in this and I’d totally forgotten.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Part Three
“Back in the cold war days...” There can’t be many episodes that explicitly say “the UNIT era is the future”.
The foregrounding of Mike’s betrayal makes sense to me now. It’s because this story is basically about radicalisation. It’s more important we see him being pulled in multiple directions than that his betrayal comes as a shock. Also – you could probably only do this with a character who wasn’t a companion but was a regular, couldn’t you? They could have played this with Mickey or River, they couldn’t with Rose or Amy.
Sarah is quite fun when they let her be a journalist. Shame they forget about that in about 20 minutes time.
The cliffhanger – “Hey, you’ve been in space for months!” – must have been an absolute headf**k if you didn’t know it was bullshit.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Part Four
Just realised that the next story I’m properly looking forward to is... Genesis, maybe? I quite like Spiders and Robot, but I’m not excited to see them again. Bleurgh.
Anyway. I do love this one – it has what Jim has been known to refer to as “that mad thickness”. The way it’s about a deserted London, and dinosaurs, and the environmental crisis, and radicalisation, and military overreach, and betrayal... [Writer Malcolm] Hulke was great, mostly, and I’m a bit sad there aren’t any of his stories left.
And the fact the security system for the hidden base is “beam a pterodactyl in from millions of years ago” is brilliant.
In this one specifically I love the Doctor’s stupid new car. Also, Carmen Silvera. The cuts between Sarah on the spaceship and the Doctor back in London is a fairly big clue that three months has not in fact passed.
Only just realised that this is basically the same twist as The Enemy of the World.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Part Five
“So, it was you, Mike.”
Not wild about how easily the Brig seems persuaded the Doctor is a traitor. Benton’s continuing loyalty is quite sweet though, and something Cornell plays on in No Future. Oh! The Brig was faking, that makes more sense.
But was it a real helicopter? Lot of padding in this episode. Pertwee’s fake squaddie accent isn’t fun enough to make up for it.
Also it’s just dawned on me that basically all the guest characters are in on the plot, which is a bit Murder On The Orient Express (oops, spoilers). In this episode it feels like they’re expecting us to have forgotten that Finch is also in on it – shades of Ambassadors of Death.
Oh, the cliffhanger is “the Doctor menaced by a dinosaur, again”. Disappointing.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Part Six
“Is everybody in this conspiracy?”
I sort of love that the Doctor is rescued from a dinosaur by the arrival of another dinosaur. Which gets eaten. Very, very slowly. The effects are not up to this.
The Brig and Benton rescuing the Doctor is very satisfying. Oh! And in over-powering Yates Benton finally does something useful, like the conclusion of a five year character arc. And then he does the same with Finch! This is a really good episode for Benton.
I like the way Grover won’t kill Sarah, even though she’s clearly screwing everything up for him: makes him an idealist not a villain. The ending when he and Nyder [that’s not this character, that’s the name of the more famous one the same guest actor will play next season] get sent back to the prehistoric age, presumably to get eaten, is a bit dark.
The fact there’s no conclusion to the story of Mike’s betrayal is a bit less weird when you know he’s back in a couple of months time, but it’s still kind of weird.
Anyway. I really like that one and am going to miss Mac Hulke, the old commie.
[James Cooray-Smith would like it noted that the title Invasion of the Dinosaurs is an excellent joke about this story’s reactionary villains which I have, somehow, never noticed. Huh.]
Hope you’re having a good Christmas!
On the end of the Cold War indicating that this is a definite future story, whilst I agree from our eyes, it might not have been from Hulke’s when writing. In a 70s published history of the world I’ve been able to have a quick look at, the Cold War is considered a distinct and completed thing, from the 50s and early 60s - 1972 visits to Moscow by Nixon were seen as a sign that ‘the polarised simplicities of the Cold War were clearly gone’ - we now have the more concrete ending of the fall of the wall and collapse of the Soviet Union (and the Raeganite ratcheting of tensions in the 80s to give more continuity) but it feels like at the time of writing it might have been seen as a specific era of relations out of a many.
Also, Grover is obviously a Lib Dem.