The Invasion

After five wonderful episodes showcasing the more fantastical side of Doctor Who, the somewhat blandly titled story “The Invasion” sees the TARDIS crew in the more familiar setting of contemporary Earth and in the more familiar position of battling some good ol’ fashioned baddies. There are certain images from Doctor Who that have almost subconsciously become part of British culture. The Daleks parading around London in “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” is one of them; the Autons smashing their way through the shop windows in “Spearhead From Space” is another. Before the recovery of “The Tomb of the Cybermen,” the scene that the Troughton era is most famous for was without doubt the Cybermen emerging from the sewers in London in this story. Monsters on the doorstep? Arguably nothing works better, and that’s what “The Invasion” is all about. For all intents and purposes it’s a dummy run for a completely Earth-based Doctor Who; a Doctor that liases with the military in battling alien threats to Earth… sound familiar? Well in 1968, it wasn’t.

The previous season’s London underground classic, “The Web of Fear,” introduced us to a certain Colonel Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, a stiff-upper lipped English soldier; a man of action, a man of honour. “The Invasion” sees Lethbridge-Stewart return, duly promoted to Brigadier and placed in charge of the UK branch of the United Nations Intelligence Task Force (UNIT). In a refreshing change from the 60’s norm for Doctor Who, this story sees the Doctor and his companions actively work with the authorities in investigating the strange goings on; they aren’t arrested and locked up for two episodes or even quizzed about who they are and where they come from! The production team’s plan (as Patrick Troughton was scheduled to leave at the end of the season) was to establish the Brigadier and UNIT properly in this story, ready to become regulars in the forthcoming Earth-based season(s). From watching the surviving six episodes of “The Invasion,” it is clear that a lot of time, money and effort was put into creating UNIT. Their H.Q. that we see in this story, for example, is better than anything that we ever see in the Pertwee era; it looks almost like something from the lair of a Bond villain! The design is absolutely superb. There are also far more extras than usual used (many of them stunt men no doubt), plus a lot of military equipment and vehicles are also seen on screen. Unfortunately, every time UNIT show up in force their presence is marred by the most appalling incidental music imaginable; this sort of jolly whistling tune; I can’t even begin to describe how awful it is!

Sadly episodes 1 and 4 of this story are missing from the BBC archives, though in this case their absence isn’t as tragic as in some other cases. The BBC Video release of the story has Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier) filling in the blanks with a little bit of narration, and as harsh as it may sound I was thankful that I wasn’t viewing the whole thing! The first four episodes of “The Invasion” are incredibly slow. Following Courtney’s brief introduction to the story, the video begins properly with episode 2 and it feels like nothing has been missed (although to be fair, come the end of the story I had absolutely no idea why the TARDIS was invisible – that’ll learn me!) That said, there is much to enjoy about the slow-moving story. Sherwin’s script allows a lot of time for the Brigadier to develop, and also to introduce one of the serial’s main guest stars, Isobel Watkins (Sally Faulkner) – a character that would have made a great companion in my reckoning. Moreover, the longer story gives the principal villain, Tobias Vaughan, even longer to be… well villainous, really. Vaughan stands out as one of the best human antagonists of the Troughton era; he’s right up there with Theodore Maxtible and the like. Kevin Stoney brings a deadly earnestness to the part and a frightening sense of self-righteousness which pre-empts iconic characters like Davros and Omega. I also found his henchman, Packer, incredibly amusing in that stereotypically ineffectual henchman kind of way. Peter Halliday plays it completely straight that works perfectly, particularly in his scenes with the more offbeat Pat Troughton.

My hat really goes off to Derrick Sherwin for some of the subtleties in his script. For example, I enjoyed listening to Vaughan rant on about how he believes in “uniformity” and “duplication”, all the while thinking to myself, “aha, he’s dropping clues about who Vaughan is in league with.” Well yes, of course he is – but he’s also getting away with using the same office set for several different locations! Genius!

However, on top of their slow pace, the first half of the story is also completely devoid of Cybermen. I assume that their appearance in the cliffhanger ending to episode 4 (very similar in nature to the emergence of the silver giants in “The Tomb of the Cybermen”) would have been a surprise to the audience, otherwise surely the story would have been called “Invasion of the Cybermen”? Surprisingly, this works rather well. Not only does it give the episode 4 cliffhanger that “Oh My God!” shock-factor, but I think it also makes for a better story. So soon after six episodes of “The Wheel In Space,” I seriously doubt that the over-used Cybermen could have sustained an eight-part serial. In fact, for the most part the Cybermen in “The Invasion” are little more than foot soldiers for Vaughan; visually striking and very intimidating, but without a charismatic villain like Vaughan the story wouldn’t be half as good as it is. Likewise, as exquisitely evil as Vaughan is, without the Cybermen to back him up his own plans of world domination would be rather laughable, even with his high-society connections. His little talking computer is hardly all that menacing either, especially from a 21st century perspective!

Nevertheless, the pacing of the story suddenly becomes much faster in the fifth episode. Not only do we have Cybermen lurking about in the sewers beneath London, but also we learn that Vaughan is planning to double-cross them. He has forced Professor Watkins (Isobel’s kidnapped Uncle) to build him a ‘Cerebration Mentor,’ a machine that generates emotional impulses. It’s just the sort of thing an android like Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Data would have been eager to get his hands on, but to a Cybermen it’s as lethal as gold. Moreover, aside from the action there are some brilliantly written character moments. I particularly enjoyed watching the Brigadier utter the immortal line “Well, you’re a young woman. This is a job for my men,” to Isobel which sent her running for the nearest sewer just to prove him wrong, and Professor Watkins’ emotive speech to Vaughan. The Professor says that he will help Vaughan because he knows he wouldn’t be able to stand up to torture and he certainly doesn’t want to die, but if he ever gets chance he’ll kill him – an incredibly brave and bold move by the Professor in my book. It also sets up a fantastic scene where Vaughan gives Watkins a gun and dares him to shoot. The bullets don’t harm Vaughan; he has the body of a Cyberman!

It is episode 6 which features the timeless scene of Londoners collapsing to the pavements, each of them trying to shield their ears from the Cybermen’s powerful hypnotic signal as the silver giants slowly emerge from the sewers and begin their invasion. Jamie has an immortal line at the end of the episode: “Doctor! The Invasion has begun!” I was half-expecting the Doctor to turn around and say something like “What? Already? But there are still two episodes left!”

The penultimate episode sees Zoe use her technical skills to blow up the Cybermen’s invasion fleet using British missiles, causing the surviving Cybermen to double-double-cross Vaughan and decide to just wipe out humanity full-stop with their ‘Cybermegatron’ bomb! I have to say, for all my whinging about the story being slow the final episode has to be one of the most action-packed episodes in the history of Doctor Who. Whilst UNIT valiantly try to hold off the Cybermen, the Doctor manages to persuade Vaughan to use his Cerebration Mentor against the Cybermen. Vaughan agrees, not to save the Earth but because he’s angry with the Cybermen for double-crossing him before he had chance to double-cross them! He takes enough of them out to allow the Doctor and UNIT to destroy the remaining Cybership, bringing “The Invasion” to its fiery climax. 

I think the scene of the Doctor running down the alleyway as fast as he can, his coattails only the tiniest distance ahead of the Cybermen’s gunshots, is the perfect finale to the story. The Brigadier shouts “Down!” and the Doctor hits the ground. Suddenly the threat is over, and the Doctor is still on the floor, amusingly tidying up his hair because Isobel isn’t wasting any time in taking photographs of ‘the hero’! Brilliant stuff!

Since their introduction two seasons earlier in “The Tenth Planet”, throughout the Troughton era the Cybermen made more appearances than the Ice Warriors, the Yeti or even the Daleks. “The Invasion” marks their last appearance in the series until 1975, and also the first appearance of their new design; the basic tenets of which would remain part of their make-up right up until 2006’s “Rise of the Cybermen.” Their voices (when they utter their one line in the entire story) are atrociously bad, and the story’s rather unimaginative ‘conquer or destroy’ plot both go some way towards explaining why it would be nearly six years before they would appear on television again. “The Invasion” is a completely mixed bag. The simplicity of the plot is rescued by the brilliance of the characters; the over-used Cybermen are saved by their juxtaposition with contemporary London and for once, keeping their traps shut. Love it or hate it, “The Invasion” is one of the most important cornerstones in the history of Doctor Who. It’s a little glimpse of the Doctor’s near future, a teaser of what is to come…