The Invasion

After escaping from the Land of Fiction, the TARDIS materializes in space in orbit around the Earth. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe barely have time to rest before the ship is attacked by a missile fired from the dark side of the moon. They escape to Earth and attempt to contact their friend Professor Travers but find he has left London and his flat is being sublet by Professor Watkins and his photographer daughter, Isobel. Watkins has not been seen for days and to find him the Doctor investigates a company called International Electromatics and its owner Tobias Vaughan, only to discover that Colonel Lethbridge Stewart, now a Brigadier, is also investigating some strange events. But lurking behind the scenes isa massive army of Cybermen, and their invasion of Earth is about to begin.

The Invasion is epic. It's an 8 episode adventure filled with intrigue and suspense and hidden menace, about a madman who is willing to sell out the whole planet for his own gains, and an invasion so well conceived that without the Doctor's presence to interfere would have succeeded. Sometimes the longer adventures start to feel a bit too long, but it's obvious that the production team were aware of that as The Invasion somehow doesn't feel long *enough* - the story is paced perfectly, the characters are compelling, the danger feels real - and there are CYBERMEN IN LONDON, of course it left viewers wanting more. Part of that might be because the Cybermen themselves are not revealed until the end of episode 4; prior to their reveal it's all the sinister plotting and scheming of Tobias Vaughan and his thug, Packer, and the IE private security army. Vaughan is one of the best villains of the series if you ask me: he's a human selling out the planet to the aliens but with his own plans to overthrow them once he has what he wants. Oh the vanity of the man. But he's a ruthless businessman, his products are everywhere so he has already conquered the planet in one sense, now he wants it all. You know this isn't going to end well.

Now here's Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, who admits he is no longer the skeptic he once was after the Yeti invasion in The Web of Fear. The Candy Jar Books series of Lethbridge Stewart novels fleshed out those intervening years well, and now the man himself is in charge of a special operation called UNIT - United Nations Intelligence Taskforce - and investigation into the unusual and unknown is exactly what they are about. The group is new and relatively small, but it operates on a command structure outside of the regular military and takes orders directly from headquarters in Geneva. You can tell the Brig is proud of what he has built here; he has worked for it and has been rewarded with promotion. And he will become the Doctor's greatest ally on Earth in the years to come.

So - Cybermen! The Daleks got a bash at invading Earth in the past and were shown patrolling London after crushing humanity; here we see the Cybermen actually invading as Earth is helpless. There are a lot of iconic images throughout the whole Doctor Who series but none so striking as the Cybermen walking down the steps of St Paul's Cathedral in London. Manhole covers go flying as the Cybermen emerge from the sewers and wander the streets, and fierce battles ensue with the UNIT forces. The Cybermen are immune to bullets. But not to grenades and bazookas. And curiously they are not immune to a device that Vaughan has Watkins create for him: a machine that generates an emotional response from the aliens and destroys them. Does this mean that Cybermen have emotions somewhere in their psyche after all and it just needs to be brought out? And here's a good one: the UNIT stories are generally believed to be contemporary, so they would be taking place the year they were broadcast. This was 1969. The Cybermen debut story, The Tenth Planet, was set in 1986. This might suggest that the world would be ready for the Cybermen when they arrive, although when they do invade here they manage to incapacitate most of the planet when they do so; it's hard to say how many people may actually remember it. As far as continuity went when I first saw this, all I had seen by then were later Cyberman stories which I read were criticized for the Cybermen not being as good as they were in the early years - the chief complaint being that the Cybermen of the 70s and 80s were too enthusiastic and chatty. With the return of Tomb in 1991 I got an idea of what was being said, but here in Invasion it's perfectly obvious why people feel they're not as good as they were: these Cybermen hardly speak. They just march and kill. That is infinitely scarier.

And do not mess with Zoe. I love how she trashes Vaughan's robotic receptionist by inducing a full system collapse with a logic problem. And she enjoys it! She might also be having extra fun because she's get herself a pal to show off for in the form of Isobel. Between the two of them they have all sorts of galpal fun like taking fashion pictures, striking out on their own, blowing up computers.. getting kidnapped... teasing Jamie... striking out on their own again... flirting with soldiers. I don't think Zoe ever has as much fun as this her whole time in the series.

The Invasion is another one of the incomplete Troughton tales, but it benefitted from the animation treatment to restore episodes 1 and 4 to viewable status. The animation is a little rigid but I'm not going to complain - it's that or not see any of it at all. Previously it was released on VHS with some linking narration by the late Nicholas Courtney which was preserved and added to the DVD as a bonus. And like so many of the incomplete stories this one was for me just a legend I thought I would never glimpse when I first read the novelization back in 1985, and like so many others which translated so well to page I started to get edgy that I might not enjoy the visual as much. But I did. And I still do.

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