The Invasion: Episode One

Review for all 8 episodes:

This is a truly classic story of the Cybermen invading Earth with the help of megalomaniac businessman Tobias Vaughn played brilliantly by Kevin Stoney. The villainous Vaughn is a superb character, performed to perfection and is actually the main adversary for The Doctor with the Cybermen very much in the background. This is not a bad thing as the Cybermen when they do appear have more impact and do their job as a 'monster' perfectly (especially in iconic scenes rising from the sewers to be seen starting to position themselves at locations such as St. Paul's Cathedral). Menacing, exciting and entertaining. Meanwhile Vaughn does his job perfectly, intellectually and verbally jousting with The Doctor better than any Cyberman really could.

To keep such quality up over 8 episodes is very impressive and it does so with cleverness and style. This is an all time classic, one of the greatest. It is a wonderful blend of great acting by regular cast and guest cast, characterisation, dialogue and direction (by Douglas Camfield). It has a good helping of action, tension, an intelligent script and is top notch storytelling from writers Sherwin and Pedler. Great stuff! All 8 episodes 10/10.

As this episode is sadly missing, I base my review on the animation and radio recording, both of which I've enjoyed many times.

I'm often split when I consider Troughton's best Cybermen story, I'm split between this and Tomb, Tomb is very much an adventure story, this has way more of an espionage/thriller vibe about it, typical of the 60's and 70's, we're treated to lots of cloak and dagger, it's all very sinister, the music adds to that feeling wonderfully.

It's such a refreshing change after The Mind Robber, that was very surreal, this is totally the other end of the scale. We are treated to an episode of intrigue, Troughton is very much at his best, he is outstanding here. Kevin Stoney, even after a few seconds, provides an excellent villain with Vaughn. Great how nothing was given away.

Great start. 9/10

This 1968 serial was the launching point for the Doctor Who stories, that were to be made during Jon Pertwee's era.

This eight part serial brought back The Cybermen, this time in league with corrupt business tycoon Tobias Vaughan.

The Doctor is lucky because he is helped by a new military organisation called UNIT. It is headed by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, wonderfully played by Nicholas Courtney, who was first seen in a previous serial, The Web Of Fear.

Within UNIT itself there is a character who like The Brigadier, would also later become a regular in the series. That character is Corporal Benton, played by John Levene.

Both there characters would still be in it, when Tom Baker would be playing Doctor Who.

The relationship between Patrick Troughton's Doctor with The Brigadier in this story is very different to the later Doctor Who's. It is more heavyweight, with a serious attitude between the two men. It also gives a harder edge to there relationship.

Kevin Stoney's sinister performance and characterisation of Vaughan, is menacing and superb.

The chemistry between Patrick Troughton and Kevin Stoney is excellent.

Peter Halliday's performance as Packer is excellent. A man who is more brawn than brain.

Clifford Earl is superb as Major Bramwell.

The location work is superb, back up by excellent camera work.

One of its great assets is the incidental music composed by World Of Sport composer Don Harper. There has been no other incidental music of its kind ever heard in a Doctor Who serial before or since.

It does bear a strong resemblance to the incidental music used in THE EAGLE HAS LANDED.

The director Douglas Camfield did a brilliant job directing this one. His camera shots are amazing. For example the long shot of The Cybermen walking down the steps, with St Paul's Cathedral behind them, or the low angle shot of more Cybermen walking past a pub on a London Street.

This story was a forerunner for serials such as Spearhead From Space, Terror Of The Autons, The Daemons, Robot and Terror Of The Zygons.

* The second Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury) land near London in the 1960s (having noticed an alien spaceship lurking round the Moon) only to find themselves dealing with sadistic killers, specific-traitors, and a familiar implacable enemy. This episode brings back Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) now a Brigadier and introduces 'UNIT' ('United Nations Intelligence Taskforce' (later renamed as the United Nations became very protective of their 'brand'). Although stretched a bit at 8 episodes, the serial moves along briskly and there is lots of action as UNIT takes on the invaders in the streets of London with small arms, grenades, bazookas, helicopters and missiles (the episode is quite militaristic). I always liked Troughton's era as the Doctor and the excitable highlander Jamie is one of my favorite companions. Zoe, petite and ever-so-cute-in-her-sparkly-cat-suit, is also a fun sidekick but, although her genius does help turn the tide when the situation seems hopeless, she doesn't seem to do a lot in this episode (both Hines and Padbury had time off when the episode was being lensed, so their appearances are somewhat sporadic). As the traitorous megalomaniac Tobias Vaughn who eventually discovers that he's out of his depth, Kevin Stoney is quite good and the series has some 'hard' moments courtesy of his sadistic operative Packer (Peter Halliday). The tension is somewhat undercut by a few out-of-place comic-flourishes (notably the Doctor hopping about and clutching the seat of his pants when being shot at), but otherwise this is a fine example of an action-focused outing from the early years of the popular sci-fi series. Like many of Troughton's serials, episodes have been lost (due to unfortunate, and I suspect now regretted, BBC policies) but the missing segments (1 and 4) have been 'recreated' using animation and original audio. The animation is not particularly sophisticated but serves to link the extant episodes and, as the first half of the story-arc is mostly set-up, we still get to see most of the 'action' in its original form.

*comments refer to the entire season 6 8-episode serial.

After reading several glowing reviews and seeing some episodes featuring the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston), I decided to give the original Doctor Who series a try. The first DVD I was able to get my hands on was The Invasion, a story from the sixth season (1968), starring Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor.

Being divided in eight parts, it is legitimate to assume the opening chapter will reveal very little of the big picture, and that's exactly what happens: in these first 22 minutes, we get to know practically nothing of whatever is going to threaten the Earth, apart from the fact that a businessman named Tobias Vaughn (Kevin Stoney) has some role in it, the center of interest is London and everyone's favorite Time Lord, alongside his assistants Zoe and Jamie, happens to be in the right place at the right time.

Prior to the DVD release, two parts of The Invasion (episodes 1 and 4, to be precise) were deemed lost forever. However, the BBC were relieved to find out people had kept recordings of the original soundtrack; at this point, Cosgrove Hall came up with the idea of merging the existing audio with brand-new animation, which would be a faithful rendition of the black-and-white footage.

The intent in itself is admirable, but the result is something of a mixed bag: firstly, the technique sort of slows down the episode, making it excruciatingly static in certain points; secondly, the homage to '60s London, in particular as depicted by Antonioni (the female fashionista who asks Zoe to pose as a model is straight out of Blow-Up) looks quite stiff in its animated version; thankfully, Cosgrove Hall's effort doesn't detract from the performances, Troughton's dry wit (which I did not expect from a guy who scared me to death in The Omen) finding its match in Stoney's controlled, very British ambivalence (imagine The Simpsons with a more ambiguous Mr. Burns).

Overall, not as good as I thought it would be, but pretty enjoyable nonetheless. Fans of the Doctor shouldn't be too disappointed.