Story: The Invasion
Written By: Derrick Sherwin
Length: 8 Episodes
Year: 1968
The first time I really watched a classic story of Who after becoming a fan through the new series was "The Invasion". This was pretty much because of the animated episodes, I was curious to see how well it worked, to bring back once lost episodes by animating them with the original audio tracks...I think it works well. It flows as good as it can jumping from animation to live action, and despite some fans feeling frustrated by some mistakes in the animation (like Zoe's costume), I think they did a decent job bringing something like this back to life.
As for the story itself, it is actually a REALLY good starter for Classic Who, because I was hooked rather quickly. The first and fourth parts are missing. Animation brought them back, thus...in a way, completing this eight part epic. The animation has style, and it works really well with the originals. I was originally watching just out of curiosity, but I kept watching each episode after the next.
For an 8 part story, there is very little padding. Thats rare, as early in this season we had a 5 part story that had too much padding. Every episode moves, and the story is pretty good. It sees a great misguided mad man who wants to take over the world, and he teams up with the Cybermen to do so. The Cybermen get another redesign, bigger heads this time. The heads stay bigger for all subsequent appearences, but I felt "The Moonbase" to "Wheel in Space" design was simpler and sleeker.
No matter what they look like, this is still a great story. The Cybermen invading London is another iconic image for the show featuring the Cybermen. It looks better than the "Daleks in Invasion of Earth", and their "march" over London.
This story also sees the return of the Brig, now promoted to Brigadier thus earning his title, and the creation of UNIT and Benton. All of this was created to set up the Earth exiled Doctor stories to pay off next year...but it works really well here. The cast, the monsters, the story, and ideas...they all work really well here.
"The Invasion" is rather special to me, the first time I really got into Classic Doctor Who, but having viewed it again recently, seeing it without looking back at it as "the first"...it really is one of the best stories, and certainly one of the best Troughton story.
NEXT TIME: The First Robert Holmes
Written By: Derrick Sherwin
Length: 8 Episodes
Year: 1968
The first time I really watched a classic story of Who after becoming a fan through the new series was "The Invasion". This was pretty much because of the animated episodes, I was curious to see how well it worked, to bring back once lost episodes by animating them with the original audio tracks...I think it works well. It flows as good as it can jumping from animation to live action, and despite some fans feeling frustrated by some mistakes in the animation (like Zoe's costume), I think they did a decent job bringing something like this back to life.
For an 8 part story, there is very little padding. Thats rare, as early in this season we had a 5 part story that had too much padding. Every episode moves, and the story is pretty good. It sees a great misguided mad man who wants to take over the world, and he teams up with the Cybermen to do so. The Cybermen get another redesign, bigger heads this time. The heads stay bigger for all subsequent appearences, but I felt "The Moonbase" to "Wheel in Space" design was simpler and sleeker.
No matter what they look like, this is still a great story. The Cybermen invading London is another iconic image for the show featuring the Cybermen. It looks better than the "Daleks in Invasion of Earth", and their "march" over London.
This story also sees the return of the Brig, now promoted to Brigadier thus earning his title, and the creation of UNIT and Benton. All of this was created to set up the Earth exiled Doctor stories to pay off next year...but it works really well here. The cast, the monsters, the story, and ideas...they all work really well here.
"The Invasion" is rather special to me, the first time I really got into Classic Doctor Who, but having viewed it again recently, seeing it without looking back at it as "the first"...it really is one of the best stories, and certainly one of the best Troughton story.
NEXT TIME: The First Robert Holmes
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