Invasion of the Dinosaurs
The Doctor and Sarah return to London to find that, shades of The Web of Fear, the whole place has been evacuated. The deserted streets are being looted, and UNIT has been called in to investigate the sudden appearance of dinosaurs. The Doctor suspects that the dinosaurs are being brought forward in time rather than appearing on their own, but every time he attempts to make any kind of investigation his efforts are stymied by General Finch, who has Mike Yates helping him. Sarah finds herself on board a spaceship full of people who believe they have left Earth for a new planet which is unspoiled my pollution and technology, but in reality uncovers the key clue to a plot to roll back time and return Earth to a supposed "golden age" before humans evolved and change history.
The first episode of this story only exists in black and white as it was simply called Invasion to conceal the presence of the dinosaurs, but the only colour copy of that episode was junked, mistaken for the first episode of the 8 part Patrick Troughton adventure with the Cybermen from 1969. What we have on VHS is much like the release of Planet of the Daleks, with 5 episodes in colour and one in black and white.
Oh the dinosaurs. I had actually never watched this one in its entirety before, so I knew who I wanted on board for this treat: Jay. Armed with trans-fat laden belated birthday cake and our best sense of humour we watched the ponderous plodding of the BBC's best plasticine dinosaurs and... well.. laughed a lot. And whimpered. Almost cried too. Make no mistake, folks: these dinos are BAD. I know it's terrible to moan about the quality of the effects from back then but we were both reminded of the original Land of the Lost at times. And the shimmering blue screen CSO effects... Jay has a hard time not screaming at the TV to turn up the... something... he's a tech boy, he knows how to make CSO look better than that. This is an example of the BBC getting ambitious but not having the ability to realize it properly. I have seen on a website an alternate cover for the video and the tyrannosauras rex on the cover is nipped from Jurassic Park. If only.
As far as the story is concerned, though, very very good. A far reaching conspiracy drawing in people from all levels of government and the military, matching them up with a scientist with a theory about rolling time back. Mike Yates, probably driven wacko by the events surround Global Chemicals in The Green Death, has joined the conspiracy (either that or he really misses Jo Grant) and finds himself with a gun on the Brigadier. Sarah tries to retain her journalist attitude and tries to get an exclusive but instead gets stuck on a spaceship with people with pants that are too tight, after narrowly missing being dinosaur food. But in episode 2 she gets some of the best affirmation anyone around the Doctor can get: he refers to her as his assistant, showing that he has no hard feelings about her initial suspicions of him during their adventure with Lynx and Irongron. And she proves herself once again by finding the heart of the conspiracy for the Doctor, even if she can't get to him right away and tell him about it.
But those dinosaurs. Yikes. No, Jay, I don't know why. I wish I did.
NEXT EPISODE : DEATH TO THE DALEKS
PS I can't seem to log the proper time anymore when I post... it's 8:41 PM EST.
The first episode of this story only exists in black and white as it was simply called Invasion to conceal the presence of the dinosaurs, but the only colour copy of that episode was junked, mistaken for the first episode of the 8 part Patrick Troughton adventure with the Cybermen from 1969. What we have on VHS is much like the release of Planet of the Daleks, with 5 episodes in colour and one in black and white.
Oh the dinosaurs. I had actually never watched this one in its entirety before, so I knew who I wanted on board for this treat: Jay. Armed with trans-fat laden belated birthday cake and our best sense of humour we watched the ponderous plodding of the BBC's best plasticine dinosaurs and... well.. laughed a lot. And whimpered. Almost cried too. Make no mistake, folks: these dinos are BAD. I know it's terrible to moan about the quality of the effects from back then but we were both reminded of the original Land of the Lost at times. And the shimmering blue screen CSO effects... Jay has a hard time not screaming at the TV to turn up the... something... he's a tech boy, he knows how to make CSO look better than that. This is an example of the BBC getting ambitious but not having the ability to realize it properly. I have seen on a website an alternate cover for the video and the tyrannosauras rex on the cover is nipped from Jurassic Park. If only.
As far as the story is concerned, though, very very good. A far reaching conspiracy drawing in people from all levels of government and the military, matching them up with a scientist with a theory about rolling time back. Mike Yates, probably driven wacko by the events surround Global Chemicals in The Green Death, has joined the conspiracy (either that or he really misses Jo Grant) and finds himself with a gun on the Brigadier. Sarah tries to retain her journalist attitude and tries to get an exclusive but instead gets stuck on a spaceship with people with pants that are too tight, after narrowly missing being dinosaur food. But in episode 2 she gets some of the best affirmation anyone around the Doctor can get: he refers to her as his assistant, showing that he has no hard feelings about her initial suspicions of him during their adventure with Lynx and Irongron. And she proves herself once again by finding the heart of the conspiracy for the Doctor, even if she can't get to him right away and tell him about it.
But those dinosaurs. Yikes. No, Jay, I don't know why. I wish I did.
NEXT EPISODE : DEATH TO THE DALEKS
PS I can't seem to log the proper time anymore when I post... it's 8:41 PM EST.
Labels: Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, Sarah Jane Smith, The 3rd Doctor, UNIT
posted by Sean Hoover @ 5:16 PM
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