TV Club: Doctor Who, “The Invasion” (Episodes 1-4)

“The Invasion” (season 6, episodes 11-14. Originally aired Nov. 2-Dec. 21, 1968)

Doctor Who in the 1960s often made wild swings in tone from one serial to the next, but there’s few transitions quite as drastic as the one between the whimsical, surreal fantasyland of “The Mind Robber” and the stylish, modern action thriller of “The Invasion.” And the two shows were opposites in another way too: “The Mind Robber” was a side trip into a cul-de-sac, a fascinating but ultimately abandoned celebration of Doctor Who as pure childrens’-literature fantasy, which its creative staff knew was on the way out even while they were making it. But “The Invasion” was the future, in a very consciously planned way. Teaming the Doctor with the no-nonsense Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and his anti-alien military taskforce UNIT, and taking place in (more-or-less) contemporary London, “The Invasion” was essentially a proof-of-concept trial run for the grittier, more grounded Earthbound stories that dominated Third Doctor Jon Pertwee’s era. It’s therefore both fitting and ironic that the villains here are the Cybermen, Doctor Who’s most potent symbol of modern technology run amok, since they never actually faced off against the Third Doctor when the UNIT era became official.

Clocking in at eight parts, “The Invasion” is one of the longest stories in Who history. (And because of that, I’m splitting my writeup into two columns, with the second part coming next week.) The sheer length is undoubtedly the story’s biggest flaw, because there’s no real reason why it requires the equivalent running time of two feature films. I can’t say I was ever bored watching these first four episodes, which counts in their favor, but there’s an awful lot of contrivance, drawn-out scenes, and running back and forth between locations with one group of characters just missing the other group. A more ruthless script could have done the same thing in half the time.

Originally published Oct. 2, 2011 on avclub.com. Read the complete article.

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