Three episodes into The Invasion, one might be excused for feeling a bit cheated: the first chapter hinted at something huge, yet little progress has been made so far. Okay, so a certain narrative slowness is to be expected in serialized dramas but hey, pacing is not supposed to equal dead air.
What do we know now? Well, Tobias Vaughn is unreliable (big surprise), he is working with some sort of extraterrestrial race (how unpredictable), and these aliens, though unidentified so far, fear the Doctor (thanks a lot: that applies to every villain who has ever met him!). Zoe and Isobel Watkins have disappeared (in fact, there's no trace of them in the entire episode), and with minimal help from UNIT the Doctor and Jamie must try to leave Vaughn's headquarters alive.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against a little mystery, as long as that card is played well, which isn't the case here: hearing the bad guys refer to their "allies" once is all right; three times later, another name would be better. As for what these "allies" are up to, hinting at it in the title isn't enough: some good motivations wouldn't do any damage to the plot.
How come I enjoyed this part more than Episode 2, then? Well, it's quite simple: no matter how dull the script gets, the Doctor is always a cracking presence, and his trademark sense of humor provides some entertainment to compensate the overall blandness. Take the scene where he and Jamie decide to escape through an elevator shaft, for example, which is transformed from typical action sequence to Brit comedy gold: "What happens if they get the lift going before we reach the top?" inquires the young sidekick. "Oh, that's simple." "What?" "We get squashed." the Time Lord says, as straight-faced as a sci-fi icon can be. As a fan who was initiated to the series by watching the Christopher Eccleston run, I also liked Troughton's remark to Vaughn "I hate computers and refuse to be bullied by them!", a nice contrast to Eccleston's Doctor, who got a kick out of fooling around with all sorts of technology and occasionally mocking uncooperative systems.
So, the 7/10 rating (which matches "good" in my evaluation parameter) is entirely due to Troughton's witticisms. Seek anything else of value, and you might be very disappointed.
What do we know now? Well, Tobias Vaughn is unreliable (big surprise), he is working with some sort of extraterrestrial race (how unpredictable), and these aliens, though unidentified so far, fear the Doctor (thanks a lot: that applies to every villain who has ever met him!). Zoe and Isobel Watkins have disappeared (in fact, there's no trace of them in the entire episode), and with minimal help from UNIT the Doctor and Jamie must try to leave Vaughn's headquarters alive.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against a little mystery, as long as that card is played well, which isn't the case here: hearing the bad guys refer to their "allies" once is all right; three times later, another name would be better. As for what these "allies" are up to, hinting at it in the title isn't enough: some good motivations wouldn't do any damage to the plot.
How come I enjoyed this part more than Episode 2, then? Well, it's quite simple: no matter how dull the script gets, the Doctor is always a cracking presence, and his trademark sense of humor provides some entertainment to compensate the overall blandness. Take the scene where he and Jamie decide to escape through an elevator shaft, for example, which is transformed from typical action sequence to Brit comedy gold: "What happens if they get the lift going before we reach the top?" inquires the young sidekick. "Oh, that's simple." "What?" "We get squashed." the Time Lord says, as straight-faced as a sci-fi icon can be. As a fan who was initiated to the series by watching the Christopher Eccleston run, I also liked Troughton's remark to Vaughn "I hate computers and refuse to be bullied by them!", a nice contrast to Eccleston's Doctor, who got a kick out of fooling around with all sorts of technology and occasionally mocking uncooperative systems.
So, the 7/10 rating (which matches "good" in my evaluation parameter) is entirely due to Troughton's witticisms. Seek anything else of value, and you might be very disappointed.
