The Invasion (Doctor Who)
Encyclopedia
The Invasion is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who
, which was first broadcast in eight weekly parts from 2 November to 21 December 1968. It is the first now-incomplete Doctor Who serial to be released with full-length animated
reconstructions of its missing episodes
.
evades a missile fired at it by a spaceship on the dark side of the moon, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive in late twentieth-century London. However the TARDIS's visual stabiliser has become damaged, rendering it invisible. In order to have it repaired, they set out to find Professor Travers (of The Abominable Snowmen
and The Web of Fear
) and ask for his assistance. They hitch a lift with a lorry driver, who talks of a compound belonging to International Electromatics, the world's biggest electronic manufacturers. The time-travellers are dropped off, but the driver is murdered by two guards on motorbikes. When they arrive in London, they find that Travers has left for America with his daughter, leaving his home in the care of Isobel Watkins and her scientist uncle, Professor Watkins. She explains that her uncle has disappeared, after he worked on an invention for International Electromatics. The Doctor and Jamie go to IE's head office in London to investigate.
When the computerised receptionist won't let them past, they seek out another point of entry; this leads them to being gassed and taken to see IE's Managing Director, Tobias Vaughn. He apologises for the rough treatment the companions have endured, and explains that Professor Watkins was engrossed in a delicate stage of his work and agreed to remain on site—a statement which has piqued the Doctor's suspicions. What's more, Vaughn never blinked during their meeting. Vaughn keeps the circuits for the TARDIS behind after they leave, and Vaughn reveals an alien machine by opening a hidden panel in the wall.
The machine tells him that the Doctor and Jamie have been recognised from Planet 14 (see Notes, below), and are a threat to their plans and must be destroyed.
The Doctor and Jamie are abducted
by two men, Benton
(Then corporal) and Tracy, and taken to a military transport aircraft
, housing a complete operations room, where they are met by the (now) Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. He explains about UNIT
, and how the taskforce is investigating IE because when people leave the office they're very different. He also reveals that the lorry driver is a UNIT operative and his report is 12 hours overdue (The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe don't know he was murdered).
Concerned about their failure to return, Zoe and Isobel leave for IE in search for them. They also encounter the receptionist, and are similarly frustrated when Zoe's inquiries about the Doctor and Jamie are all but ignored. Instead of seeking another method of entry like Jamie and the Doctor, Zoe verbally inputs an unsolvable ALGOL
equation that overloads and destroys the receptionist, which leads to their capture. Isobel is used to make her uncle, who is being held captive, co-operate.
Vaughn's chief researcher, Gregory, studies the circuits meanwhile and reports that he can't understand a thing about them.
The Doctor and Jamie return to Travers' house, to find a note from Zoe and Isobel, explaining their going to search for them. They return to IE, and find several packing cases being loaded onto a train—one of which has an item of Zoe's clothing showing. However, they are captured by the security chief Packer (who captured them the first time around).
The Doctor and Jamie are again taken to Vaughn, where the Doctor accuses him of kidnapping Zoe and Isobel (a claim he flatly denies). Vaughn invites the two companions to come to the company's country compound, where the train will be arriving; it is here where they meet Professor Watkins, who has been warned to not mention Zoe and Isobel's whereabouts. He shows the Doctor his cerebration mentor, a teaching device that is capable of inducing emotional changes.
The Doctor queries Vaughn of the deep space communicator he noticed when he came into the compound; in return, Vaughn demands that the Doctor explain about the failed CCTV camera, even threatening to hand Zoe and Isobel over to Packer if he doesn't co-operate.
The Doctor and Jamie escape and climb up the liftshaft, before going down to a railway siding. Whilst hiding in the crates, Jamie sees a cocoon breathing up and down.
They emerge from the crates, and overhear guards being ordered to take Zoe and Isobel to the tenth floor.
Vaughn confides in Packer that he intends to use the cerebration mentor to control their (unnamed so far) allies once they have invaded Earth; he also intends to use the TARDIS as a "getaway car", should he fail.
Vaughn broadcasts over the intercom system to the Doctor that he has ten minutes to surrender or Zoe and Isobel will be harmed. The Doctor uses a radio transceiver (given to him by the Brigadier) to order in assistance from UNIT, who — with the use of a helicopter — assist in rescuing Zoe and Isobel from the room they are locked in. Realising how dangerous UNIT are to his plans, Vaughn exercises hypnotic control over Major General Rutlidge, and orders him to cease UNIT's investigations.
The Doctor examines photographs of UFOs over the IE factory, and reasons that those ships are bringing cocoons to Earth. He, along with Jamie, take a canoe and sneak up a canal into the London IE warehouse, where a cocoon is being brought to life by Gregory and some other technicians. The cocoon is pulsed with energy and starts breathing, and is ripped open from within to reveal a Cyberman
.
They go and warn the Brigadier that a Cyberman army are invading Earth, and that they are hidden somewhere on Earth. (The Doctor later states that they are hidden in the sewers.) However, Rutlidge has ordered the Brigadier to cease all investigations against IE. Lethbridge-Stewart intends to gain authority from Geneva, but requires proof to back his reasoning. Isobel offers her expertise as a photographer, but the Brigadier refuses.
Vaughn and Gregory test Watkins' device on an awakened Cyberman; however, the alien is driven mad by the machine, and escapes into the sewers. Vaughn is pleased as he now has a weapon against the Cybermen, and arranges with the cyber-planner that at dawn the Earth will come under the control of the Cybermen through a micro-electronic circuit built into every IE device and the invasion will take place; the Doctor discovers this same circuit when he opens up an IE radio, and sets about making a device to block the telepathic signal.
Meanwhile, Isobel, Zoe and Jamie have ventured into the sewers to obtain proof of the Cybermen's presence on Earth. A policeman tries to follow but two Cybermen find and kill him. A UNIT squad go down to find them but are blocked off by the two Cybermen. Isobel, Jamie and Zoe are now trapped between the two Cybermen, and the insane one which is coming up from the other end of the tunnel.
Using grenades the UNIT men deal with the insane Cyberman and one of the normal ones, but a soldier is killed by a surviving one. They all escape and finally destroy the remaining one with grenades. Isobel took photos of the Cybermen in the sewers but, however, prove to be worthless as they look too much like fakes
.
Watkins perfects his machine and delivers it to Vaughn, and discovers that the Managing Director's body has been partially cybernised, although he still has a human brain. UNIT manage to free Watkins from IE, during which time the Doctor creates a depolariser, which neutralises the Cybermen's hypnotic signals. The Doctor explains that the cyber-plan is for the spaceship on the dark side of the moon (which fired the missile at the TARDIS) to come around to the other side and boost the hypnotic signals, and the main invasion fleet will home in on the transmitter at the IE factory.
Gregory returns to Vaughn after Watkins' escape, and explains how the guards were killed and he ran away to return to the IE office. He insists that with more time to look at the circuits he can find something else. To this Vaughn replies "You have no time.....No time at all". Gregory is then taken into the sewers by Packer and executed by a Cyberman.
The Brigadier orders all the troops to have a depolariser taped to the back of each one's neck. At dawn, the signal is broadcast, causing the collapse of the human race. A couple of minutes later, hundreds of Cybermen emerge from the sewers of London.
Some IE soldiers arrive at Watkins' house to recapture him and The Doctor, but they fail and everyone escapes, with Watkins and Jamie being wounded.
UNIT plan to use a Russian rocket to destroy the source of Vaughn's signal, while using UK anti-missile-missiles to destroy the incoming Cyberfleet. Captain Turner is sent to Russia to organise the rocket, while the Brigadier goes to the Henlow Downs
missile site. There aren't enough missiles to hit all the ships, but Zoe does some calculations on how they can cause a chain reaction of explosions.
The Doctor stays back to try and dissuade Vaughn one last time. The missiles are successfully launched with help from Zoe, and the entire cyber-fleet is obliterated. The Cybermen blame Vaughn for the setback in their plans, announcing that they will use a megatron bomb to destroy life on Earth.
Furious, Vaughn uses the cerebration mentor to destroy the machine in his office. The Cybermen take control of the building and kill Packer, but The Doctor persuades Vaughn to now aid humanity instead of try to defeat it, and they take a helicopter to the factory to try and destroy the radio beam so the incoming ship carrying the bomb can't land.
They make their way towards the transmitter controls using the cerebraton machine to kill Cybermen. Vaughn finally meets his match when the Cybermen gun him down over some railings, but the homing signal is successfully shut down with the help of some UNIT soldiers. The megatron bomb is destroyed by an anti-missile-missile, while the Russian rocket destroys the last Cyberman ship, consequently stopping the hypnotic signal.
With the crisis now over, and the visual stabiliser circuits now repaired, the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie leave in the TARDIS.
and Tat Wood
suggest that Planet 14 may be Telos
, placing that planet as the fourteenth in our own solar system, after Mercury
, Venus
, Earth
, Mondas
, Mars
, the time-looped planet mentioned in Image of the Fendahl
, Jupiter
, Saturn
, Uranus
, Neptune
, Pluto
, "Cassius" (mentioned in The Sun Makers
as a planet beyond Pluto) and "Xena" (a name popularly used for the dwarf planet Eris
prior to its official naming; in the essay, Miles and Wood confuse it with Sedna
, another trans-Neptunian object
discovered by the same team of astronomers).
In the Grant Morrison
scripted Doctor Who Magazine
comic strip story The World Shapers (DWM #127-#129), it was revealed that the Doctor who met the Cybermen on Planet 14 was the Sixth Doctor
, and that Planet 14 was Marinus. That story, taking place prior to The Tenth Planet
in Cyber-history, also stated that the Voord evolved into the Cybermen and that Marinus eventually became Mondas, the Cyberman homeworld. As with all Doctor Who tie-in media, the relationship of the comic strips to the ongoing story of the TV series is open to interpretation.
, which further dialogue places forty years after The Abominable Snowmen
(which still further dialogue places in 1935). The Invasion is set in the 1970s, and no earlier than Spring 1969. Indeed, the story was intended to have a "near future" setting, nevertheless, dating has never been consistently applied.
(who played Harry Sullivan
during the Fourth Doctor
era), was published by Target Books
in May 1985. The novelisation restores material cut from the broadcast including the UNIT raid to rescue Professor Watkins and Vaughn convincing Routledge to shoot himself. In this novel the Russian Air Base is named as Nikortny, a punning tribute to actor Nicholas Courtney.
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, which was first broadcast in eight weekly parts from 2 November to 21 December 1968. It is the first now-incomplete Doctor Who serial to be released with full-length animated
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
reconstructions of its missing episodes
Doctor Who missing episodes
The Doctor Who missing episodes are the instalments of the long-running British science-fiction television programme Doctor Who that have no known film or videotape copies. They were wiped by the BBC during the 1960s and 1970s for economic and space-saving reasons...
.
Plot
After the newly reassembled TARDISTARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
evades a missile fired at it by a spaceship on the dark side of the moon, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive in late twentieth-century London. However the TARDIS's visual stabiliser has become damaged, rendering it invisible. In order to have it repaired, they set out to find Professor Travers (of The Abominable Snowmen
The Abominable Snowmen
The Abominable Snowmen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from September 30 to November 4, 1967. The story is notable for the introduction of recurring foes, the Yeti....
and The Web of Fear
The Web of Fear
The Web of Fear is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 3 February to 9 March 1968. This serial — which marks the return of the Yeti, the Great Intelligence, and Professor Travers — is the sequel to The Abominable...
) and ask for his assistance. They hitch a lift with a lorry driver, who talks of a compound belonging to International Electromatics, the world's biggest electronic manufacturers. The time-travellers are dropped off, but the driver is murdered by two guards on motorbikes. When they arrive in London, they find that Travers has left for America with his daughter, leaving his home in the care of Isobel Watkins and her scientist uncle, Professor Watkins. She explains that her uncle has disappeared, after he worked on an invention for International Electromatics. The Doctor and Jamie go to IE's head office in London to investigate.
When the computerised receptionist won't let them past, they seek out another point of entry; this leads them to being gassed and taken to see IE's Managing Director, Tobias Vaughn. He apologises for the rough treatment the companions have endured, and explains that Professor Watkins was engrossed in a delicate stage of his work and agreed to remain on site—a statement which has piqued the Doctor's suspicions. What's more, Vaughn never blinked during their meeting. Vaughn keeps the circuits for the TARDIS behind after they leave, and Vaughn reveals an alien machine by opening a hidden panel in the wall.
The machine tells him that the Doctor and Jamie have been recognised from Planet 14 (see Notes, below), and are a threat to their plans and must be destroyed.
The Doctor and Jamie are abducted
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
by two men, Benton
Sergeant Benton
Sergeant Benton is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by John Levene. He was the senior NCO of the British contingent of UNIT , an international organisation that defends the Earth...
(Then corporal) and Tracy, and taken to a military transport aircraft
C-130 Hercules
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built originally by Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin. Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medical evacuation, and cargo transport...
, housing a complete operations room, where they are met by the (now) Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. He explains about UNIT
UNIT
UNIT is a fictional military organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures...
, and how the taskforce is investigating IE because when people leave the office they're very different. He also reveals that the lorry driver is a UNIT operative and his report is 12 hours overdue (The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe don't know he was murdered).
Concerned about their failure to return, Zoe and Isobel leave for IE in search for them. They also encounter the receptionist, and are similarly frustrated when Zoe's inquiries about the Doctor and Jamie are all but ignored. Instead of seeking another method of entry like Jamie and the Doctor, Zoe verbally inputs an unsolvable ALGOL
ALGOL
ALGOL is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in the mid 1950s which greatly influenced many other languages and became the de facto way algorithms were described in textbooks and academic works for almost the next 30 years...
equation that overloads and destroys the receptionist, which leads to their capture. Isobel is used to make her uncle, who is being held captive, co-operate.
Vaughn's chief researcher, Gregory, studies the circuits meanwhile and reports that he can't understand a thing about them.
The Doctor and Jamie return to Travers' house, to find a note from Zoe and Isobel, explaining their going to search for them. They return to IE, and find several packing cases being loaded onto a train—one of which has an item of Zoe's clothing showing. However, they are captured by the security chief Packer (who captured them the first time around).
The Doctor and Jamie are again taken to Vaughn, where the Doctor accuses him of kidnapping Zoe and Isobel (a claim he flatly denies). Vaughn invites the two companions to come to the company's country compound, where the train will be arriving; it is here where they meet Professor Watkins, who has been warned to not mention Zoe and Isobel's whereabouts. He shows the Doctor his cerebration mentor, a teaching device that is capable of inducing emotional changes.
The Doctor queries Vaughn of the deep space communicator he noticed when he came into the compound; in return, Vaughn demands that the Doctor explain about the failed CCTV camera, even threatening to hand Zoe and Isobel over to Packer if he doesn't co-operate.
The Doctor and Jamie escape and climb up the liftshaft, before going down to a railway siding. Whilst hiding in the crates, Jamie sees a cocoon breathing up and down.
They emerge from the crates, and overhear guards being ordered to take Zoe and Isobel to the tenth floor.
Vaughn confides in Packer that he intends to use the cerebration mentor to control their (unnamed so far) allies once they have invaded Earth; he also intends to use the TARDIS as a "getaway car", should he fail.
Vaughn broadcasts over the intercom system to the Doctor that he has ten minutes to surrender or Zoe and Isobel will be harmed. The Doctor uses a radio transceiver (given to him by the Brigadier) to order in assistance from UNIT, who — with the use of a helicopter — assist in rescuing Zoe and Isobel from the room they are locked in. Realising how dangerous UNIT are to his plans, Vaughn exercises hypnotic control over Major General Rutlidge, and orders him to cease UNIT's investigations.
The Doctor examines photographs of UFOs over the IE factory, and reasons that those ships are bringing cocoons to Earth. He, along with Jamie, take a canoe and sneak up a canal into the London IE warehouse, where a cocoon is being brought to life by Gregory and some other technicians. The cocoon is pulsed with energy and starts breathing, and is ripped open from within to reveal a Cyberman
Cyberman
The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs who are amongst the most persistent enemies of the Doctor in the British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. Cybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids originating on Earth's twin planet Mondas that began to implant more...
.
They go and warn the Brigadier that a Cyberman army are invading Earth, and that they are hidden somewhere on Earth. (The Doctor later states that they are hidden in the sewers.) However, Rutlidge has ordered the Brigadier to cease all investigations against IE. Lethbridge-Stewart intends to gain authority from Geneva, but requires proof to back his reasoning. Isobel offers her expertise as a photographer, but the Brigadier refuses.
Vaughn and Gregory test Watkins' device on an awakened Cyberman; however, the alien is driven mad by the machine, and escapes into the sewers. Vaughn is pleased as he now has a weapon against the Cybermen, and arranges with the cyber-planner that at dawn the Earth will come under the control of the Cybermen through a micro-electronic circuit built into every IE device and the invasion will take place; the Doctor discovers this same circuit when he opens up an IE radio, and sets about making a device to block the telepathic signal.
Meanwhile, Isobel, Zoe and Jamie have ventured into the sewers to obtain proof of the Cybermen's presence on Earth. A policeman tries to follow but two Cybermen find and kill him. A UNIT squad go down to find them but are blocked off by the two Cybermen. Isobel, Jamie and Zoe are now trapped between the two Cybermen, and the insane one which is coming up from the other end of the tunnel.
Using grenades the UNIT men deal with the insane Cyberman and one of the normal ones, but a soldier is killed by a surviving one. They all escape and finally destroy the remaining one with grenades. Isobel took photos of the Cybermen in the sewers but, however, prove to be worthless as they look too much like fakes
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
.
Watkins perfects his machine and delivers it to Vaughn, and discovers that the Managing Director's body has been partially cybernised, although he still has a human brain. UNIT manage to free Watkins from IE, during which time the Doctor creates a depolariser, which neutralises the Cybermen's hypnotic signals. The Doctor explains that the cyber-plan is for the spaceship on the dark side of the moon (which fired the missile at the TARDIS) to come around to the other side and boost the hypnotic signals, and the main invasion fleet will home in on the transmitter at the IE factory.
Gregory returns to Vaughn after Watkins' escape, and explains how the guards were killed and he ran away to return to the IE office. He insists that with more time to look at the circuits he can find something else. To this Vaughn replies "You have no time.....No time at all". Gregory is then taken into the sewers by Packer and executed by a Cyberman.
The Brigadier orders all the troops to have a depolariser taped to the back of each one's neck. At dawn, the signal is broadcast, causing the collapse of the human race. A couple of minutes later, hundreds of Cybermen emerge from the sewers of London.
Some IE soldiers arrive at Watkins' house to recapture him and The Doctor, but they fail and everyone escapes, with Watkins and Jamie being wounded.
UNIT plan to use a Russian rocket to destroy the source of Vaughn's signal, while using UK anti-missile-missiles to destroy the incoming Cyberfleet. Captain Turner is sent to Russia to organise the rocket, while the Brigadier goes to the Henlow Downs
RAF Henlow
RAF Henlow is a Royal Air Force station in Bedfordshire, England, equidistant from Bedford, Luton and Stevenage. It houses the RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine, the RAF Signals Museum and 616 Volunteer Gliding Squadron.- History :...
missile site. There aren't enough missiles to hit all the ships, but Zoe does some calculations on how they can cause a chain reaction of explosions.
The Doctor stays back to try and dissuade Vaughn one last time. The missiles are successfully launched with help from Zoe, and the entire cyber-fleet is obliterated. The Cybermen blame Vaughn for the setback in their plans, announcing that they will use a megatron bomb to destroy life on Earth.
Furious, Vaughn uses the cerebration mentor to destroy the machine in his office. The Cybermen take control of the building and kill Packer, but The Doctor persuades Vaughn to now aid humanity instead of try to defeat it, and they take a helicopter to the factory to try and destroy the radio beam so the incoming ship carrying the bomb can't land.
They make their way towards the transmitter controls using the cerebraton machine to kill Cybermen. Vaughn finally meets his match when the Cybermen gun him down over some railings, but the homing signal is successfully shut down with the help of some UNIT soldiers. The megatron bomb is destroyed by an anti-missile-missile, while the Russian rocket destroys the last Cyberman ship, consequently stopping the hypnotic signal.
With the crisis now over, and the visual stabiliser circuits now repaired, the Doctor, Zoe and Jamie leave in the TARDIS.
Continuity
- Corporal (later Sergeant) BentonSergeant BentonSergeant Benton is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by John Levene. He was the senior NCO of the British contingent of UNIT , an international organisation that defends the Earth...
of UNIT is introduced in this serial. John Levene, who had previously played a CybermanCybermanThe Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs who are amongst the most persistent enemies of the Doctor in the British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. Cybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids originating on Earth's twin planet Mondas that began to implant more...
in The MoonbaseThe MoonbaseThe Moonbase is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 11 February to 4 March 1967...
and a YetiYeti (Doctor Who)The Yeti of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, although resembling the cryptozoological creatures also called the Yeti, are in actuality alien robots. Their external appearance, that of a huge hairy biped, disguises a small spherical mechanism that provides its motive power...
in The Web of FearThe Web of FearThe Web of Fear is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 3 February to 9 March 1968. This serial — which marks the return of the Yeti, the Great Intelligence, and Professor Travers — is the sequel to The Abominable...
, would reprise the role of Benton fifteen more times in the series, as well as in the spin-off video WartimeWartime (Doctor Who)Wartime is the title of a short science fiction film, produced direct-to-video in 1987 by Reeltime Pictures. It was the first professionally produced, authorised independent spin-off of the long-running TV series Doctor Who, and the only such production to be made while the originating TV series...
, produced by Reeltime PicturesReeltime PicturesReeltime Pictures is a British multimedia film and video production company founded in 1984 by Keith Barnfather.It is known for its many documentaries about the long-running television series Doctor Who and in particular for The Myth Makers, a series of interviews with people associated with the...
in 1987. - The character of Tobias Vaughn reappears in the Virgin New AdventuresVirgin New AdventuresThe Virgin New Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who...
spinoff novel Original SinOriginal Sin (Doctor Who)Original Sin is an original novel written by Andy Lane and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It introduces the Seventh Doctor's new companions Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej.-Plot:...
by Andy LaneAndy LaneAndrew Lane , who also writes as Andy Lane, is a British author and journalist. He has written a number of spin-off novels in the Virgin New Adventures range and audio dramas for Big Finish based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who , as well as assorted non fiction books based...
, in which he meets the Seventh DoctorSeventh DoctorThe Seventh Doctor is the seventh incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor Sylvester McCoy....
. Vaughn is the Chairman of a powerful company called "Interstellar Nanotomic", which is an anagram of "International Electromatics". He says instead of dying at the conclusion of "The Invasion", his consciousness was transmitted via a satellite into one of fourteen identical robot copies of himself that he uses to influence the people of Earth from behind the scenes. As with all spinoff media, the canonicity of this book as compared to the television series is open to interpretation.
Planet 14
The Cybermen mention having encountered the Doctor previously on "Planet 14". The identity of "Planet 14" is uncertain, and has been the subject of fan discussion and speculation. In an essay in About Time, a critical analysis of classic Doctor Who, Lawrence MilesLawrence Miles
Lawrence Miles is a science fiction author known for his work on original Doctor Who novels and the subsequent spin-off Faction Paradox...
and Tat Wood
Tat Wood
Tat Wood is co-writer of the About Time episode guides to the television series Doctor Who. This book series, begun in 2004, emphasises the importance of understanding the series in the context of British politics, culture and science. Volume Six is entirely Wood's work.Wood has also written for...
suggest that Planet 14 may be Telos
Telos (Doctor Who)
Telos is a fictional planet from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is an arid and mountainous planet, with little sign of vegetation...
, placing that planet as the fourteenth in our own solar system, after Mercury
Mercury (planet)
Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
, Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
, Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, Mondas
Mondas (Doctor Who)
Mondas is a fictional planet in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Mondas is the homeworld of the Cybermen, a race of cyborgs....
, Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
, the time-looped planet mentioned in Image of the Fendahl
Image of the Fendahl
Image of the Fendahl is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 29 October to 19 November 1977.-Plot:...
, Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
, Saturn
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
, Uranus
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
, Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
, Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
, "Cassius" (mentioned in The Sun Makers
The Sun Makers
-Cast notes:*Michael Keating also appeared in the audio play The Twilight Kingdom as Major Koth and in Year of the Pig as Inspector Chardalot...
as a planet beyond Pluto) and "Xena" (a name popularly used for the dwarf planet Eris
Eris (dwarf planet)
Eris, formal designation 136199 Eris, is the most massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the ninth most massive body known to orbit the Sun directly...
prior to its official naming; in the essay, Miles and Wood confuse it with Sedna
90377 Sedna
90377 Sedna is a trans-Neptunian object discovered in 2003, which was about three times as far from the Sun as Neptune. For most of its orbit it is even further from the Sun, with its aphelion estimated at 960 astronomical units , making it one of the most distant known objects in the Solar System...
, another trans-Neptunian object
Trans-Neptunian object
A trans-Neptunian object is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater distance on average than Neptune.The first trans-Neptunian object to be discovered was Pluto in 1930...
discovered by the same team of astronomers).
In the Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
scripted Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
comic strip story The World Shapers (DWM #127-#129), it was revealed that the Doctor who met the Cybermen on Planet 14 was the Sixth Doctor
Sixth Doctor
The Sixth Doctor is the sixth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Colin Baker...
, and that Planet 14 was Marinus. That story, taking place prior to The Tenth Planet
The Tenth Planet
The Tenth Planet is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 8 October to 29 October 1966. It was William Hartnell's last regular appearance as the First Doctor, and the first story to feature the Cybermen...
in Cyber-history, also stated that the Voord evolved into the Cybermen and that Marinus eventually became Mondas, the Cyberman homeworld. As with all Doctor Who tie-in media, the relationship of the comic strips to the ongoing story of the TV series is open to interpretation.
UNIT dating
Dialogue places The Invasion four years after The Web of FearThe Web of Fear
The Web of Fear is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 3 February to 9 March 1968. This serial — which marks the return of the Yeti, the Great Intelligence, and Professor Travers — is the sequel to The Abominable...
, which further dialogue places forty years after The Abominable Snowmen
The Abominable Snowmen
The Abominable Snowmen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from September 30 to November 4, 1967. The story is notable for the introduction of recurring foes, the Yeti....
(which still further dialogue places in 1935). The Invasion is set in the 1970s, and no earlier than Spring 1969. Indeed, the story was intended to have a "near future" setting, nevertheless, dating has never been consistently applied.
Production
- Originally The Invasion was going to be a six-part story called Return of the Cybermen.
- The character of Professor Travers (who appeared in the two earlier Yeti stories) was to have appeared for a third time, but the decision was made to replace him with Professor Watkins as the character would not have featured prominently enough although Travers is still referenced by name several times.
- The sequence where Gregory describes UNIT's attack on an IE car and then is subsequently killed by a Cyberman was written into the script after time pressures prevented the production team from filming the car attack on location. (Ian Marter, however, did reinstate the lost car attack scene in his novelisation.)
Filming
- Wendy Padbury does not appear in episode three, as she was on holiday.
- Frazer Hines was on holiday during the last episode but did appear in a pre-recorded film insert at the conclusion.
- According to Frazer Hines in an interview on the audio CD of The Invasion, Sally Faulkner's skirt kept getting blown up around her neck whilst climbing up the rope ladder to the helicopter. To avoid the same thing happening to his kilt, he remembered reading somewhere that The QueenElizabeth II of the United KingdomElizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
had lead weights sewn into the hem of her skirt to stop this from happening to her. It so happened that Frazer's dresser was a keen fisherman, and so got him to sew some lead weights into his kilt.
Post-production
- Due to director Douglas CamfieldDouglas CamfieldDouglas Gaston Sydney Camfield was an accomplished director for television from the 1960s to the 1980s. His programme credits include Z-Cars, Paul Temple, Van der Valk, The Sweeney, Shoestring, The Professionals, Out of the Unknown, The Nightmare Man, the BBC dramatisation of Beau Geste and...
's refusal to use regular composer Dudley SimpsonDudley SimpsonDudley Simpson is an Australian television composer who is best known for his work on Doctor Who.Prior to leaving Australia, Simpson composed for the Borovansky Ballet Company, forerunner to the Australian Ballet. Among his early television work was the music for Moonstrike...
, Don HarperDon HarperDon Harper was an Australian composer.Born in Melbourne in 1921, Don Harper showed an interest in music from an early age, learning to play the violin as a child...
was hired to do the music for this serial. It would be Harper's only work with Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
.
Cast notes
- Kevin Stoney previously played Mavic Chen in The Daleks' Master PlanThe Daleks' Master PlanThe Daleks' Master Plan is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The twelve episodes were aired from 13 November 1965 to 29 January 1966...
and would later play Tyrum in Revenge of the CybermenRevenge of the CybermenRevenge of the Cybermen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 19 April to 10 May 1975.-Synopsis:...
. - Peter Halliday, who plays Packer, also supplied the voice of the Cyber-Director in the first seven episodes of the serial. In addition, Halliday went on to do several other roles (both voice and acting) in several later serials in the series.
- Edward Burnham also portrays Professor Kettlewell in the Tom Baker serial, RobotRobot (Doctor Who)Robot is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 28 December 1974 to 18 January 1975...
. - Clifford Earl previously played the station sergeant in The Daleks' Master PlanThe Daleks' Master PlanThe Daleks' Master Plan is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The twelve episodes were aired from 13 November 1965 to 29 January 1966...
. - Sheila Dunn previously played Blossom Lefavre in The Daleks' Master PlanThe Daleks' Master PlanThe Daleks' Master Plan is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The twelve episodes were aired from 13 November 1965 to 29 January 1966...
and would later play Petra Williams in InfernoInferno (Doctor Who)Don Houghton came to Terrence Dicks with an idea for the story based on the real life Project Mohole. A smaller budget for the serial drove the idea of a parallel world, where the studio could use the same actors in multiple roles...
. - Sally Faulkner later played Miss Tremayne in the audio play Winter for the AdeptWinter for the AdeptWinter for the Adept is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Plot:...
.
In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Ian MarterIan Marter
Ian Don Marter was an English actor and writer, perhaps best known for his role as Harry Sullivan in the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, from December 1974 to September 1975 as a regular, with a one story return in November and December 1975...
(who played Harry Sullivan
Harry Sullivan
Harry Sullivan is a fictional character from the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who and is a companion of the Fourth Doctor...
during the Fourth Doctor
Fourth Doctor
The Fourth Doctor is the fourth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC British television science-fiction series Doctor Who....
era), was published by Target Books
Target Books
Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of...
in May 1985. The novelisation restores material cut from the broadcast including the UNIT raid to rescue Professor Watkins and Vaughn convincing Routledge to shoot himself. In this novel the Russian Air Base is named as Nikortny, a punning tribute to actor Nicholas Courtney.
VHS, DVD and CD releases
- As with many serials from the Troughton era, a complete version of The Invasion does not exist in the BBC's archives, with Episodes 1 and 4 having been lost. However, their soundtracks survive, recorded off-air by fans at home.
- The story was released on BBC Video in 1993, with the missing Episodes One and Four summarised on-screen by Nicholas Courtney.
- The soundtracks for The Invasion and The Tenth PlanetThe Tenth PlanetThe Tenth Planet is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 8 October to 29 October 1966. It was William Hartnell's last regular appearance as the First Doctor, and the first story to feature the Cybermen...
along with a bonus disc, The Origins of the Cybermen, an audio essay by Davis Banks, were released in a collector's tin called Doctor Who: Cybermen.
- In June 2006, the BBC announced that the animation studio Cosgrove Hall, who previously created the webcast Scream of the ShalkaScream of the ShalkaScream of the Shalka is a flash-animated series based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was produced to coincide with the 40th Anniversary of the series and was originally posted in six weekly parts from 13 November to 18 December 2003 on bbc.co.uk's Doctor Who...
, had produced full-length animated versions of the two missing episodes. These episodes, along with newly remastered copies of the rest of the serial, were released on DVD on 6 November 2006.
External links
- Doctor Who ReAnimated! - news article on the DVD release with a link to a teaser clip of the animation.
- Doctor Who Locations - The Invasion