The Invasion (Doctor Who)
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| 046 - The Invasion | |
|---|---|
| Doctor | Patrick Troughton (Second Doctor) |
| Writer | Derrick Sherwin, from a story by Kit Pedler |
| Director | Douglas Camfield |
| Script editor | Terrance Dicks |
| Producer | Peter Bryant |
| Executive producer(s) | None |
| Production code | VV |
| Series | Season 6 |
| Length | 8 episodes, 25 mins each |
| Transmission date | November 2–December 21, 1968 |
| Preceded by | The Mind Robber |
| Followed by | The Krotons |
The Invasion is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in eight weekly parts from November 2 to December 21, 1968.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
The Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive in London and encounter strange goings-on at the International Electromatics corporation and meet its head, the sinister Tobias Vaughn. Also investigating IE is an old friend, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart who leads the newly formed United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. UNIT's baptism of fire will be against an invasion that has already begun…
[edit] Plot
After the TARDIS evades a missile fired at it from the dark side of the moon, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive in late twentieth-century London. However the TARDIS's visual stabiliser has become damaged, rendering it invisible. In order to have it repaired, they set out to find Professor Travers (of The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear) and ask for his assistance. When they arrive, they find that he has left for America, leaving his home in the care of Isobel Watkins and her scientist uncle, Professor Watkins. She explains that her uncle has disappeared, after he worked on an invention for International Electromatics. The Doctor and Jamie go to IE's head office in London to investigate.
When the computerised receptionist won't let them past, they seek out another point of entry; this leads them to being gassed and taken to see IE's Managing Director, Tobias Vaughn. He apologises for the rough treatment the companions have endured, and explains that Professor Watkins was engrossed in a delicate stage of his work and agreed to remain on site—a statement which has piqued the Doctor's suspicions. After they leave, Vaughn reveals an alien machine, by opening a hidden panel in the wall, which tells him that the Doctor and Jamie have been recognised from Planet 14 (see Notes, below), and are a threat to their plans.
The Doctor and Jamie are abducted by two men, Benton and Tracy, and taken to a military transport aircraft, housing a complete operations room, where they are met by the Brigadier. He explains about UNIT, and the taskforce's investigation of IE.
Concerned about their failure to return, Zoe and Isobel leave for IE in search for them. They also encounter the receptionist, and are similarly frustrated when Zoe's inquiries about the Doctor and Jamie are all but ignored. Instead of seeking another method of entry like Jamie and the Doctor, Zoe verbally inputs an unsolvable ALGOL equation that overloads and destroys the receptionist, which leads to their capture. Isobel is used to make her uncle, who is being held captive, co-operate.
The Doctor and Jamie return to Travers' house, to find a note from Zoe and Isobel, explaining their going to search for them. They return to IE, and find several packing cases being loaded onto a train—one of which has an item of Zoe's clothing showing. However, they are again captured by the security chief Packer (who captured them the first time around), and again taken to Vaughn, where the Doctor accuses him of kidnapping Zoe and Isobel (a claim he flatly denies). Vaughn invites the two companions to come to the company's country compound, where the train will be arriving; it is here where they meet Professor Watkins, who has been warned to not mention Zoe and Isobel's whereabouts. He shows the Doctor his cerebration mentor, a teaching device that is capable of inducing emotional changes.
The Doctor queries Vaughn of the deep space communicator he noticed when he came into the compound; in return, Vaughn demands that the Doctor explain about the failed visual stabiliser, even threatening to hand Zoe and Isobel over to Packer if he doesn't co-operate.
The Doctor and Jamie escape onto a railway siding. Whilst hiding in the crates, Jamie has a near encounter with an automated cocoon. They emerge from the crates, and overhear guards being ordered to take Zoe and Isobel to the tenth floor.
Vaughn confides in Packer that he intends to use the cerebration mentor to control the Cybermen once they have invaded Earth; he also intends to use the TARDIS as a "getaway car", should he fail.
Vaughn broadcasts over the intercom system to the Doctor that he has ten minutes to surrender or Zoe and Isobel will be harmed. The Doctor uses a radio transceiver (given to him by the Brigadier) to order in assistance from UNIT, who — with the use of a helicopter — assist in rescuing Zoe and Isobel from the room they are locked in. Realising how dangerous UNIT are to his plans, Vaughn exercises hypnotic control over Major General Rutlidge, and orders him to cease UNIT's investigations.
The Doctor examines photographs of UFOs over the IE factory, and reasons that those ships are bringing cocoons to Earth. He, along with Jamie, sneak into the London IE warehouse, where they witness the emergence of a Cyberman from its cocoon. They go and warn the Brigadier that a Cyberman army are invading Earth, and that they are hidden somewhere on Earth. (the Doctor later states that they are hidden in the sewers.) However, Rutlidge has ordered the Brigadier to cease all investigations against IE. Lethbridge-Stewart intends to gain authority from Geneva, but requires proof to back his reasoning. Isobel offers her expertise as a photographer, but the Brigadier refuses.
Vaughn tests Watkins' device on an awakened Cyberman; however, the alien is driven mad by the machine, and escapes into the sewers. Vaughn reveals that in an hour's time, the Earth will come under the control of the Cybermen through a micro-electronic circuit built into every IE device; the Doctor discovers this same circuit when he opens up an IE radio, and sets about making a device to block the telepathic signal.
Meanwhile, Isobel, Zoe and Jamie have ventured into the sewers to obtain proof of the Cybermen's presence on Earth, narrowly escaping them in the process. The photos, however, prove to be worthless as they look too much like fakes.
Watkins perfects his machine and delivers it to Vaughn, but discovers that the Managing Director has been partially cybernised. UNIT manage to free Watkins from IE, during which time the Doctor creates a neurister, which neutralises the Cybermens' hypnotic signals. The Brigadier orders all the troops to have one of these taped to the back of each one's neck. At dawn, the signal is broadcast, causing the collapse of the human race; leaving the Cybermen able to take over London.
UNIT plan to use a Russian rocket to destroy the source of Vaughn's signal, while using UK missiles to destroy the incoming Cyberfleet. Captain Turner is sent to Russia to organise the rocket, while the Brigadier goes to the Henlow Downs missile site. The Doctor stays back to try and dissuade Vaughn one last time. The missiles are successfully launched, with help from Zoe, and the Cybermen blame Vaughn for the setback in their plans, announcing that they will use a megatron bomb to destroy life on Earth. Furious, he uses the cerebration mentor to destroy the machine in his office.
The Doctor persuades Vaughn to now aid humanity instead of try to defeat it, and they take a helicopter to the factory, where they used Walkins' machine to battle the massed army of Cybermen; UNIT forces arrive later to assist. Vaughn is killed in the skirmish, but the homing signal is successfully shut down. The megatron bomb is destroyed by a missile, while the rocket destroys the last Cyberman ship, consequently stopping the hypnotic signal.
With the crisis now over, and the visual stabiliser circuits now repaired, the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie leave in the TARDIS.
[edit] Cast
- Doctor (Doctor Who) — Patrick Troughton
- Jamie McCrimmon — Frazer Hines
- Zoe Heriot — Wendy Padbury
- Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart — Nicholas Courtney
- Professor Watkins — Edward Burnham
- Isobel Watkins — Sally Faulkner
- Tobias Vaughn — Kevin Stoney
- Packer — Peter Halliday
- Tracy — Geoffrey Cheshire
- Gregory — Ian Fairbairn
- Major General Rutlidge — Edward Dentith
- Major Branwell — Clifford Earl
- Captain Turner — Robert Sidaway
- Sergeant Peters — Norman Hartley
- Sergeant Walters — James Thornhill
- Corporal Benton — John Levene
- Private Perkins — Stacy Davies
- Phone Operator — Sheila Dunn
- Soldiers — Bernard G. High, Joseph O'Connell
- Lorry Driver — Murray Evans
- Patrolman — Walter Randall
- Workman — Peter Thompson
- Policeman — Dominic Allan
- Cybermen — Pat Gorman, Ralph Carrigan, Charles Finch, John Spradbury, Derek Chaffer, Terence Denville, Peter Thornton, Richard King
[edit] Continuity
- The character of Tobias Vaughn reappears in the Virgin New Adventures spin off novel Original Sin by Andy Lane from 1995, meeting the Seventh Doctor. In the book, Vaughn is the Chairman of a powerful company, Interstellar Nanotomic which is an anagram of "International Electromatics". He says instead of dying in Part eight, his consciousness was transmitted via a satellite into one of fourteen identical robot copies of himself that he uses to influence the people of Earth from behind the scenes. The canocity of this book to the series is unclear.
- It is later claimed in Spearhead from Space that the events in The Invasion were kept from the public. How this was possible when the entire population of Earth all collapsed at the same time is never explained. In Remembrance of the Daleks, the Doctor suggests that humans have an "amazing capacity for self-deception".
- The Cybermen mention having encountered the Doctor previously on "Planet 14". Since this story takes place, from the Cybermen's point of view, before The Tomb of the Cybermen, Planet 14 is most likely not Telos and suggests an untelevised adventure. However, given the time travelling nature of the Doctor and the ability of the Cybermen to recognise the Doctor despite his regenerations, which incarnation encountered the Cybermen is uncertain. In the Grant Morrison scripted Doctor Who Magazine comic strip story The World Shapers (DWM #127-#129), it was revealed that the Doctor in question was the Sixth Doctor, and that Planet 14 was Marinus. That story, taking place prior to The Tenth Planet in Cyber-history, also stated that the Voord evolved into the Cybermen and that Marinus eventually became Mondas, the Cyberman homeworld. The canonicity of the comic strips, like the other Doctor Who spin-off media, is unclear.
- The Invasion is said to take place four years after The Web of Fear which, in turn, seemingly takes place in 1975, "forty years" after 1935 and The Abominable Snowmen. This was intended to be a "near future" setting which would serve as the backdrop for the coming UNIT era for the Third Doctor, but the dating was not consistently applied (see UNIT dating controversy).
- Much later, the Tenth Doctor encounters a similar situation (a powerful electronics company dominating the planet in league with Cybermen) on a parallel Earth in the two-part story Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel.
- International Electromatics was seen in the Tenth Doctor episodes Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel and was acting as a dummy company for Cybus Industries (the company that was creating the cybermen on a parallel Earth).
[edit] Production
- Working titles for this story included Return of the Cybermen.
- The sequence where Gregory describes UNIT's attack on an IE car and then is subsequently killed by a Cyberman was written into the script after the production team was unable to film the car attack on location due to lack of time. (The lost car attack scene was, however, reinstated by Ian Marter for the novelisation.)
- Due to director Douglas Camfield's refusal to use regular composer Dudley Simpson, Don Harper was hired to do the music for this serial. It would be Harper's only work with Doctor Who.
- A parallel Earth version of International Electromatics was mentioned in Rise of the Cybermen as being a front organisation for the Cybus Corporation.
- According to the production featurette on the 2006 DVD release of this serial, the character of Professor Travers was to have appeared for a third time, but the decision was made to replace him with Professor Watkins, although Travers is still referenced by name several times.
- This was Kit Pedler's last on-screen credit for Doctor Who for almost thirty-eight years, until Rise of the Cybermen in 2006.
[edit] Outside references
- Several elements in this serial are reminiscent of Nigel Kneale's 1955 television serial Quatermass II. The aliens in Quatermass II are seen only briefly, and the actual preparation for the invasion is done by 'infected' humans. In The Invasion, the Cybermen receive relatively little screen time, and their preparation work is done by Tobias Vaughn and his staff. In both cases, the aliens in command are not seen: neither the larger aliens inhabiting the asteroid in Quatermass II nor the Cybermen on the spaceship in The Invasion. In both serials, the invasion succeeds for a time and is ultimately foiled after a rocket attack upon the aliens' base of operations. Spearhead from Space, produced by the same team as The Invasion, also shows a strong resemblance to Quatermass II.
[edit] In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Ian Marter (who played Harry Sullivan during the Fourth Doctor era), was published by Target Books in May 1985.
[edit] Broadcast, VHS, CD and DVD releases
- As with many serials from the Troughton era, a complete version of The Invasion does not exist in the BBC's archives, with Episodes 1 and 4 having been lost (although their soundtracks survive, recorded off-air by fans at home). The story was released on BBC Video in 1993, with the missing Episodes One and Four summarised on-screen by Nicholas Courtney. This was the first incomplete story to be released on BBC Video.
- The soundtracks for The Invasion and The Tenth Planet along with a bonus disc, The Origins of the Cybermen, an audio essay by David Banks, were released in a collector's tin called Doctor Who: Cybermen.
- In June 2006, the BBC announced that the animation studio Cosgrove Hall, who previously created the webcast Scream of the Shalka, had produced animated versions of the two missing episodes. These episodes, along with the rest of the serial, were released on DVD on 6 November 2006.[1]
[edit] External links
- The Invasion episode guide on the BBC website
- The Invasion at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
- The Invasion at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- Doctor Who ReAnimated! - news article on the DVD release with a link to a teaser clip of the animation.
- Doctor Who Locations - The Invasion
[edit] Reviews
- The Invasion reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- The Invasion reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
[edit] Target novelisation
- The Invasion (novelisation) reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- The Invasion (novelisation) reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
- On Target — The Invasion
| Cybermen television stories | |
|---|---|
| First Doctor: | The Tenth Planet |
| Second Doctor: | The Moonbase • The Tomb of the Cybermen • The Wheel in Space • The Invasion |
| Fourth Doctor: | Revenge of the Cybermen |
| Fifth Doctor: | Earthshock • The Five Doctors |
| Sixth Doctor: | Attack of the Cybermen |
| Seventh Doctor: | Silver Nemesis |
| Tenth Doctor: | Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel • Army of Ghosts/Doomsday |
| Torchwood: | Cyberwoman |
| Minor appearances: | The Mind of Evil | Carnival of Monsters | Dalek |
| UNIT television stories | |
|---|---|
| Second Doctor: | (The Web of Fear) • The Invasion |
| Third Doctor: | Spearhead from Space • Doctor Who and the Silurians • The Ambassadors of Death • Inferno • Terror of the Autons • The Mind of Evil • The Claws of Axos • The Dæmons • Day of the Daleks • The Time Monster • The Three Doctors • The Green Death • Invasion of the Dinosaurs • Planet of the Spiders |
| Fourth Doctor: | Robot • Terror of the Zygons • The Android Invasion |
| Seventh Doctor: | Battlefield |
| Tenth Doctor: | The Christmas Invasion |
| Minor appearances: | The Time Warrior • The Seeds of Doom • The Five Doctors • Aliens of London/World War Three |
| See also: | UNIT dating controversy |
