The Invasion

The TARDIS comes back together in space after the Land of Fiction is detroyed; the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find themselves flung back into their own universe, orbiting Earth. Within seconds of their arrival the find a missile has been fired at the TARDIS from the dark side of the moon, and they make an emergency landing on Earth. In an attempt to get help to repair some damage to the TARDIS, the Doctor journeys to contact Professor Travers but finds instead that he has moved to America and left his home in the hands of Professor Watkins and his photographer neice Isobel. Watkins works for a company called International Electromatics, which is in turn run by Tobias Vaugham, a powerful businessman. IE are the Microsoft of their day, with their printed circuits in absolutely every piece of computer equipment in the world, and they are also being investigated by the newly formed United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT) and it's new commander, Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart. But there is more to IE than meets the eye, and Vaughan is revealed to be an ambitious traitor allied with the Cybermen in their newest attempt to invade Earth.

This is the fourth time the Doctor has confronted the Cybermen in this incarnation. And once more they have changed their appearance to look less like they were assembled in a hurry, and their voices are different as well. The CyberPlanner from the previous Cyberman story makes an appearance as well, as does the entire Cyberman invasion fleet. The Doctor does not have much in the way of direct confrontation with the Cybermen, just with Vaughan, who has been partially altered by the Cybermen and has a mechanised body like them, but his brain is still very much human, complete with greed and arrogance. Vaughan was played to incredible perfection by Kevin Stoney, who was last seen selling out the Solar System to the Daleks in the form of Mavic Chen in The Dalek Masterplan.

I can't say enough good things about this story. It was made as an 8 episode adventure but of course, some got lost, and we're missing episodes 1 and 4. The VHS release of the adventure has the missing episodes bridged by narration from Nicholas Courtney himself, the man who played the Brigadier and went on to be a fan favourite. The missing episode soundtracks are on CD as well, but as the bulk of the story is available to watch it's not like it suffers too much from their absence. The Cybermen do not actually appear until the end of episode 4, which makes for a lot of amospheric build-up in the meantime with creepy music and a lot of location work outside the imposing IE headquarters building in London. When the Cybermen finally do launch their invasion there are some amazing shots of the fleet in space, as well as the UNIT rocket attack to fend it off. And let's not forget the incredible location work, with the Cybermen throwing the covers off manholes and emerging from the sewers to march down the streets of London, and the steps of St Paul's cathedral. Fantastic stuff - oh to have been a child in 1969 to have seen this on televsion and be blown away by it.

The Invasion served extra purpose in establishing UNIT in the show's lore. After the Yeti invasion UNIT was put together with the specific aim to protect Earth from invasion from other worlds, and who better to run it than the Colonel who was on hand for the Yeti. Only promote him to Brigadier. So now the Doctor has an ally on Earth in modern times, and in a few more adventures he's going to need one.

But in the meantime...

NEXT EPISODE : THE KROTONS