Review of The Android Invasion: Terry's second bout of Dalek deficiency

By David Parkinson

Writer: Terry Nation
Director: Barry Letts
Starring: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Ian Marter, John Levene, Martin Friend, Roy Skelton and Milton Johns.

In a sentence: Body Snatchers with robots.

The Android Invasion is basically Doctor Who does Invasion of the Body Snatchers 2.0. Of course, Terror of The Zygons was 1.0. On paper, this story should work. Directed by Barry Letts, instrumental in creating UNIT, the Master and giving Pertwee a hugely great era, and written by Terry Nation, who needs no introduction, Android Invasion just simply kind of works.

For one thing, it's the last appearance of Benton and Harry, and they're wasted.  Strictly speaking, they aren't even Benton and Harry, but I'll get to that later. Basically the plot is this: The Doctor and Sarah Jane arrive on Earth, and almost immediately run into Men in White, and a UNIT soldier. The latter runs off of a cliff, and later re amerges, unscathed, and the Men in White fire at the Doctor and Sarah Jane, who run off, letting Sarah realize she was here before, on a story. Of course, the village that they are in is empty, but not for long as a truck comes in carrying what seem like humans. Then the seemingly dead UNIT soldier arrives again, and so The Doctor and Sarah hide. Basically The Doctor goes to this facility and finds this guy who wears an eyepatch and is not (spoilers, even though you should've pegged it by now,) an android. Then comes the cliffhanger, as the Doctor is captured, put into a cell, rescued by Sarah Jane, and then is watched by a peeping Tom. The cliffhanger for me is in the running for the boringest cliffhangers ever, probably in fifth place.

Basically, the villains, the Kraals, built a fake Earth to test their plan, then go to the real Earth and set off this virus that'll kill all life, including, um, the Kraals. So basically they're gonna release a virus that'll kill them too. Well done. Another thing I take issue with is that Crayford, the eye patch wearing astronaut who helped the Kraals who claim to have mended him and his eye, which, spoilers, has nothing wrong with it, never bothered to check under the eyepatch until the Doctor tells him to. And where does the third Kraal go to?

Best performance: Tom Baker as the Android Doctor

Baker plays the Doctor's double as the creepiest version of the Doctor ever seen. The most chilling bit? When Sarah Jane runs into him outside the Tardis, and the mannerisms he uses. He just oozes scares.

We also get the typical "Villain has to ooze out goo and compress when they die" scene, when Styggron, the head Kraal, falls into his own virus, and goes all Jim'll fix it Sontaran/ 6th Doctor Sontaran.. It's quite a disgusting scene, yet somewhat awesomesauce.

One final bit on the Kraals themselves. They are not memorable, or, to be honest, menacing, but still, they do the job. You can catch them again soon, thanks to Big Finish.

Report card:

score: 4.1/5

Coming next time: A new Doctor. An old companion. Tiny Tanks and giant robots! Yes, it's "Robot" with Tom Baker!

Your Thoughts:

Rick Broadhurst:  It's like an episode of the Avengers (Not Thor & Co.) Love the deserted village, Kraals(disagree with Hinchcliffe when he says that a tech advanced  race should look more 'sci fi' clean? Silver? I like the medieval look and their "ugly" tech, why should they have a 'sterile' look?) Bought the Target book when I was Ten, so this brings back lots of memories!

JoLee Rouse: My Fave classic story