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

Review of The Five Doctors

By David Parkinson




Written by: Terrance Dicks
Directed by: Peter Moffat/ John Nathan-Turner(uncredited)
Starring: William Hartnell (footage), Richard Hurndall, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tomb Baker (footage), Peter Davison, Anthony Ainley, Nicholas Courtney, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson, Elisabeth Sladen, Philip Latham.


Doctor Who was twenty. That in itself needed celebration, but how? Well, you bring back the first 4 Doctors to join your current 5th one, and see what happens. of course, by this time the great William Hartnell was dead, so Richard Hurndall took his place. Hurndall tries to convey Hartnell's personality, and does it a bit bad, but good at the same time. And of course, if you're going to have the Doctors, you're going to have the best of his enemies. Which, in this case, consists of one Dalek, who kills itself almost immediately appearing to challenge Hurndall and a rather mature Susan. Let's call it the Skaro redshirt. Also among the group of atagonists are the over relied on Cybermen, a lone Yeti who is the remnant of the original games of Rassilon, and The Master, although he doesn't get snippy until the climax, where he's rather awesomely floored by Nick Courtney. By rather awesomely, I mean amazingly greatly, and an amusing and awesome move from the Brig.

But the real villain of the set-piece is Borusa, who wants to be immortal so he can rule Gallifrey forever. Here's where the plot hole comes in. If Borusa wants immortality, and he offers the Master a new set of regenerations, therefore he himself could just get a new set of regenerations and not bother to set out the Doctors to retrieve it for him. And, contrary to fan belief, it was never going to be Omega who was behind it all. Never, ever, ever.

But, in the end, Borusa gets his just deserts, forced to live as a stone bust thingy forever. This climax also gives the Brigidier a chance to get re aqquainted with Sarah Jane and Tegan, thankfully without the weird Hair curtains, and a chance for the Brig to floor Anthony Ainley.

Of course, the very obvious exclusion is Tom Baker. Baker, famously, declined to return to the role, a decision he would later regret very much. So, just like Hartnell in the Three Doctors, he's said to be in a time eddy, this time in the Vortex. So they took a publicity photo with a waxwork Baker, but you can hardly see any difference

Although I don't remember Tom Baker looking like a Hispanic Tom Jones.

The ending, which isn't intended to be a sombre, just makes me, I don't know about you, feel a bit sad.

You'll love

• It's most of The Doctors!
• It's like a Doctor Who wet-dream
• The sublime acting
• Nick Courtney flooring Anthony Ainley

You'll hate

• Tom Baker not getting involved properly
• The worst use of the Daleks since Daleks in Manhattan
• Over-reliance on Cybermen

Rating: 4.6/5