Day 113 — April 23rd 2021
The Invasion Episodes Three and Four
The Invasion — Episode Three
I can’t believe we’re only three weeks into production on the new season and Wendy Padbury has already got a week’s holiday! I can only assume she must have had a very good agent.
In many ways this is a bit of a ‘typical’ Episode Three. There’s plenty of running around and capture/escape, but the combination of Douglas Camfield and some great locations conspire the lift this above the more run-of-the-mill examples of the format. Even sequences which aren’t on location, such as Doctor Who and Jamie escaping up the lift shaft, feel like they’ve got that same vibe.
I’ll confess to being surprised to see the lift escape here, as I could have sworn it happened in one of the missing episodes. I’ve a very clear memory in my head of the animation team inserting some ‘Bad Wolf’ graffiti on the wall, as it was in production at the same time Series One of the New Testament was being broadcast, but I’ve clearly misremembered that!
Indeed, The Invasion feels as much part of the ‘new’ series — or 2006, at least — as it does the old, for me. It was in late 2005 or early 2006 that I heard the soundtrack for the first time, the DVD was released that same year and International Electromatics gets an apperance in Rise of the Cybermen. I’m usually a little weary of that sort of continuity ‘in-joke’, but I’ll admit that in 2006 it felt like the most exciting thing ever.
Something I’m really enjoying about Season Six so far is that I like Jamie. That sounds like a strange thing to say, but I know that during my last marathon I’d really gotten tired of the character by the end of his time on the show. For some reason I’ve a feeling that the rot had already set in for me at this point, but I’m pleased to say that I’m enjoying him as much here as I ever have. Hines and Troughton work so work together, and the little bits of humour they inject into the series are very welcome. I’m particularly amused by their escape here (‘What happens if they get the lift going before we get to the top?’ / ‘We get squashed’), and I’m hoping that I’ll continue to enjoy the Highlander right until the end time time around.
The stars of this episode, though, are Vaughn and Packer. I wasn’t a big fan of The Daleks’ Master Plan a few months back, and although I enjoyed Kevin Stoney there I wasn’t as blown away by his performance as I’d hoped. Vaughn is incredible, though, and absolutely a part that he was born to play. He keeps cool and under control throughout which means that when he really loses it towards the end of the episode, it’s all the more effective.
A 7/10 for this one, which feels pretty good for an episode I was able to describe as ‘Typical Episode Three’…!
The Invasion — Episode Four
I commented last week that John Cura’s tele-snaps had been something of a God send on this marathon, and how much I’d enjoyed browsing through them after listening to each of the missing episodes. Their absence is especially keenly felt in this episode, because I’d love to see the shootout between UNIT and Vaghn’s security forces.
It sounds brilliant, with plenty of excitement, and I was very impressed by the direction of the big Yeti battle in the fourth episode of The Web of Fear. I imagine this sequence will have been in the same vein but it’s basically impossible to know! We do have a handful of photographs taken on location which may well be from this point, so at least it’s not a total unknown.
The bit that I found most exciting was described as thus on the soundtrack;
‘With Jamie clinging on to the ladder the helicopter swings away…’
It sounds silly to pick out something so small as a highlight, but that sounds like a brilliant piece of action. With some directors I’d worry that it looked silly, but if anyone could pull it off successfully it’s Douglas Camfield. Helicopters have become something of a staple of the series lately, between The Enemy of the World, Fury From the Deep and this one, so it’s always appreciated to see them trying something new with them!
UNIT are incredibly well equipped in this story, and it’s sort of a shame that they’re never this competent or well funded again in the classic era. By the time they return in Spearhead From Space they’re working out of a car park, and it feels a far cry from the swish airplane base they’ve got on the go here. I meant to mention during Episode Two how impressive it looked to have the car carrying Jamie and Doctor Who drive right up into the plane — we’ll not be seeing that sort of thing again.
I was also particularly amused when one of the UNIT soldiers says ‘Fortunately Vaughn’s jackboots couldn’t shoot a flying elephant’, which will prove to be ironic given the accuracy of UNIT’s marksmanship in the 1970s…!
It’s a shame that the Radio Times spoiled the return of the Cybermen in this story, because they’re nicely teased at the start of this episode, when Vaughn talks to Packer and drops in comments about emotions being alien to their allies, the idea of ‘conversion’ and that Humanity might vanish if they get their way. It’s a nice way of seeding it in, and even though we’ve had the Cybermen in this marathon not that long ago, the cliffhanger is really exciting. They’re back!
This episode went out on November 23rd 1968, Doctor Who’s fifth birthday, so it seems fitting that the programme’s current favourite monster should show up at the end to crash the party.
Another 7/10.
