Directed by Douglas Camfield
Main Cast-
The Doctor - Patrick Trougton
Jamie - Frazer Hines
Zoe - Wendy Padbury
Main Guest Cast-
Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
Corporal Benton - John Levene
Isobel Watkins - Sally Faulkner
Professor Watkins - Edward Burnham
Captain Turner - Robert Sidaway
Tobias Vaughn - Kevin Stoney
Packer - Peter Halliday
Synopsis-
After their adventure in the Mind Robber, the time travelers find that the Tardis is suspended above the Moon and unable to land. A missile is fired at the Tardis and after a frantic bit of tinkering, the Tardis barely escapes and land on Earth.
The Tardis has unknowingly landed near International Electromatics' (I.E.) compound. The visual stabilizer has been damaged in the recent attack, which renders the Tardis invisible. The Doctor decides that they shall have to hitch a ride to London to look up their old friend Professor Travers.
Upon arrival, they find that Professor Travers has left for America and that their flat is now occupied by Professor Watkins and his niece Isobel. Isobel tells The Doctor that her uncle is now working for I.E. The Doctor and Jamie decide to visit I.E.'s London headquarters, to locate Professor Watkins. Zoe remains with Isobel, who is a budding photographer and interested in using Zoe as a model.
The Doctor and Jaime meet Tobias Vaughn and his chief of security Packer. Vaughn seems eager to help The Doctor with his problem, and agrees to show the broken circuits from the Tardis to Watkins. The Doctor and Jamie leave, but The Doctor is suspicious of Vaughn.
Members of UNIT, including Corporal Benton, pick up both The Doctor and Jaime and take then to UNIT headquarters. There, they meet up with their old friend Lethbridge Stewart, now a Brigadier General. UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, have had I.E. under surveillance for some time.
Zoe and Isobel decide to visit I.E.'s headquarters after getting worried about The Doctor and Jamie. They are caught by Packer and sent to the I.E's rural compound. The Doctor and Jamie, after learning this, follow. Vaughn, once again, seems overly eager to help and agrees to take The Doctor and Jamie to the compound to look for Zoe and Isobel.
Once at the compound, The Doctor and Jamie are able to escape the I.E. guards and rescue Zoe and Isobel. Once they return to London, the Doctor and Jaime do an undercover recon mission into I.E.'s London headquarters, only to find that I.E. and Vaughn are allied and helping the Cybermen with their planned invasion of Earth.
Vaughn is using Professor Travers to build devices that will allow Vaughn to have a hold over the Cybermen. One prototype is built, but Professor Travers is rescued before production can begin. The Cybermen invasion begins, but is thwarted thanks to the efforts of The Doctor and UNIT. Smaller ships are shot out of the air by missiles, including one carrying a large bomb that would destroy life as we know it. The main Cybership is destroyed by a Russian rocket.
The Tardis circuits now repaired, The Doctor and his companions return to the Tardis. They dematerialize in front of the rather surprised Isobel and her new beau, UNIT Captain Turner.
Review-
The Invasion has several things going for it, which make it by far one of my favorite Doctor Who stories, if not my all-time favorite. It features my favorite Doctor, Patrick Troughton. It features my favorite Second Doctor companion team, Jamie and Zoe. It features the Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, who's always fun to have around. Finally, the story features my favorite Doctor Who foes, the Cybermen.
Besides all that, it featurs a simply brilliant performance by Kevin Stoney in the role of Tobias Vaughn. Stoney played Mavic Chen in the Daleks' Master Plan, but of the two performances this is by far the superior. Stoney plays Vaughn as someone who is way too sure of himself and his plans. His utter contempt for Packer and the way he berates the man is somewhat perversely quite entertaining.
Indeed, the Invasion is more about The Doctor (with UNIT in a supporting role) attempting to outwit Vaughn. The Cybermen themselves don't actually show up until about halfway into the story, and in many ways they are more supporting characters.
This is, of course, the first UNIT story and we might as well get the discussion of the UNIT timeline out of the way. Do the UNIT stories take place in contemporary time, or several years in the future?
The Brigadier mentions to the Doctor that four years have passed since the Web of Fear (Earth time). However, The Doctor also mentions early on in the first episode that no one has yet seen the dark side (far side) of the moon. Since the first people to see the far side of the moon were the Apollo 8 astronauts, that places this story at the very latest in 1968, not 1975 as is claimed by some.
Because of this, I've always considered that the UNIT stories take place in the here and now. However, a case can also be made (based on dialogue and dates from the Web of Fear and the Abominable Snowmen) that the UNIT stories take place a few years into the future.
My whole opinion on the UNIT dating controversy is this - go with whatever dating method works for you. Or better yet, simply ignore the issue and enjoy the stories.
The two animated episodes (1 and 4) do an adequate job in providing the needed visual cues for the story and one of the main reasons I have the British version of the Invasion is that I wanted to see the animated episodes right away when this was done a few years back. At the time, the North American releases schedule was several months behind the British, so I chose to import the British version rather than wait. Of course, since that time the North American release calendar has caught up with the British calendar and nowadays DVD release are pretty much simultaneous (or close to it).
The Invasion is, to put it simply, great Doctor Who.
