Plot:
The Doctor and Sarah arrive at what appears to be the village of Devesham, near a space centre where UNIT are currently based helping in the recovery of long missing astronaut Guy Crayford, who's returning from deep space (at least I'm assuming that's why UNIT are there - is it ever properly explained?). But the village is near deserted, and the people they do see are acting very strangely, and there's various hints that all is not right (all the coins they find are minted in the same year, a calendar only has one date over and over). The TARDIS team get split up after a attack by androids with motorcycle helmet heads and guns in their fingertips. The Doctor finds that Crayford is present in the space centre working with an alien race called Kraals who are creating androids copies of humans, including Harry and Sergeant Benton. Sarah makes her way back to the TARDIS, but sees the unmanned ship dematerialise and leave without her. Despite encountering android copies of each other, the real Doctor and Sarah are eventually reunited and realise that they are not on Earth, but are on the Kraal's planet: the village and space centre have been copied too, to act as a training ground for the androids.
Crayford, who has been brainwashed by Styggron, leader of the Kraals, is going to return to Earth in his spacecraft as a diversion, and the android copies will be shot to Earth in pods to aid the take over. The Kraals also plan to use a virus to wipe out all life on Earth (this doesn't make sense 100% but it's contractual that Terry Nation scripts must include a virus that wipes out all life). The Doctor and Sarah hitch a ride with the invasion fleet, and are shot towards Earth. Using the android version of himself to bamboozle his enemies, the Doctor stops the invasion. Crayford gets killed and Styggron falls foul of his own virus. The Doctor doesn't say a proper goodbye to Harry or Benton whom he'll never see again, and he and Sarah go off adventuring in the TARDIS once more.
Context:
Context:
This is a first for the blog I think. Started off watching part 1 (from the DVD) with all the children (boys of 13 and 10, girl of 7), but the Better Half entered towards the end of the episode and was intrigued, believing she'd never seen this particular story before. So, we had to repeat the experience a few days later, watching the first episode again, but amazingly, all the children re-joined us second-time round, and with just as much enthusiasm as first time. Thereafter, the family watched the remaining episodes on occasional evenings over the course of a week approximately. I made an effort to increase the mystery by not telling the kids anything about the story, and blocking the screen when the title came up at the start of the first episode. But on seeing the very first moments of action as the twitchy UNIT soldier walks straight toward camera, the youngest said "That's not a real person", and the middle child said "Yes, it's a robot". So, perhaps a longstanding criticism of this story - that its prosaic title gives too much away - is unfair, as it's clear the story is intending its audience to be clued in from the off. Everyone very much enjoyed this story, including me, which I have to say was a surprise as its reputation is of being under par - more on that in a moment.
First time round:
First time round:
I first remember seeing the novelisation in my primary school's library when I was a kid, so probably read it at one point in the early 1980s, though I remember nothing more than the cover: it was a good drawing, and the mysterious figures holding the Doctor wearing motorcycle helmets would likely have intrigued. The depiction of lead Kraal Styggron was rather better - and certainly greener - than it was on the telly box too. The first time I got to see the episodes would have been in March 1995 when they were released on VHS. This was one of the first pair of new releases that year (the other coming out at the same time was Carnival of Monsters), and both were the first to come with a free postcard of the cover art, which was a gimmick that they ran with for the next year. As per my standard behaviour pattern at that time, I would have purchased it in Volume One, an independent book and video store in Worthing, on its day of release.
Reaction:
This story comes from a period that to many fans is the golden age of Doctor Who: Tom Baker as the bescarfed Doctor - cheeky but commanding, and now fully settled in after his first year - travelling the universe with Sarah Jane Smith, righting wrongs. When they both step out in part one of his story, they do look amazing on screen together, and the chemistry between them makes them one of the most iconic of teams to ever helm the TARDIS. This particular story, though, is not necessarily as well regarded. The stories either side of The Android Invasion as originally broadcast, Pyramids of Mars and The Brain of Morbius, were the second and third Doctor Who VHS releases ever, coming out in the mid 1980s, a period when BBC Video had decided that stories where Tom Baker righted wrongs, usually accompanied by Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane, were what the public wanted. Why is it that The Android Invasion never comes near the top of any polls, is never included in the list of classics from this era, and did not see the light of day on tape until 10 years later?
One theory is that the story's undermined by any mystery regarding the antagonist being blown by the title. Writer Terry Nation has form in this regard, with all his 1970s stories featuring his creations, Skaro's finest, named in the giveaway "Something of the Daleks" format. But here, the mystery of the story is clearly not intended to be that androids feature, which is confirmed early on (and is obvious from the first moments if my children's reactions - see above - are anything to go by). The real mystery is about the village, and the odd clues found there; the big reveal is that the TARDIS has landed on an alien planet and not the sleepy English countryside at all. And that mystery and that reveal are a perfect fit for the audience of Doctor Who, particularly the younger ones, to enjoy. The scenes of the eerie deserted streets and buildings of Devesham are great, and the moments of all the impassive robotic villagers are pretty creepy. The similarly blank-faced motorcycle helmet androids are visually arresting too, and the finger guns are a nice touch, easy for kids to emulate in the playground. Tom Baker gets to gently tease the concept - "Is that finger loaded?" - without undermining it. The Kraals look good, though there's only two of them. Nation unshackled from having to deliver yet another Dalek story has produced some good work. Overall, the story's got a lot going for it.
Perhaps the story is overlooked because it is something of a throwback. The presence of UNIT regulars, and the direction of Barry Letts (producer of the stories of Tom Baker's predecessor as the Doctor, Jon Pertwee) means it is quite backward looking at a point where the show was striding out into new territory. In the later years of Pertwee's time, with the narrative reason given that the Doctor's freedom to travel in time and space had been returned to him, the Earthbound stories where the Doctor worked with UNIT were being gradually reduced in number, and fewer and fewer of the previous ensemble cast of regulars were appearing in them. Letts' successor as producer Philip Hinchcliffe seemed happy not to make major changes to the format, but it seems clear that the stories that travelled the universe were the priority and nobody's heart was fully in making more old school tales. This is the second UNIT story of Hinchcliffe's producer-ship and arguably the last (the later story The Seeds of Doom is nominally a UNIT one, but contains no returning regular cast, and the soldiers in it, who only arrive towards the end of the story, could be any fighting force).
It's such a shame that the Brigadier gets no proper send-off, and instead is represented by an empty office with his name on it occupied by a hastily cut-and-pasted in replacement. Actor Nicholas Courtney wasn't available for The Android Invasion, and instead the crudely similar but nuance-free character of Colonel Faraday appears (who coincidentally seems to be performed almost exactly like Peter Glaze's take-off of the Brig in the Crackerjack Who pastiche skit "Hallo my Dalek" which aired a few months before The Android Invasion was broadcast). Being available and in the show doesn't protect a character from having a rubbish send-off either. Ian Marter as Harry Sullivan and John Levene as Sergeant Benton both appear, but don't have much to do, certainly no big heroics, in their final outings, and disappear by the end quite abruptly. Of course, it was likely that nobody necessarily thought they were going to be their final outings at the time. This isn't that big a deal, and certainly is no explanation for why this serial is undervalued, it's just a shame, that's all. The best inclusion from the previous era is Letts himself, who manages some impressive material here, particularly the generous amount of film used, but also some subtle use of green-screen to make things look more expensive and expansive than the budget allowed.
One final stick that's often used to beat The Android Invasion is the ridiculousness of the Crayford eyepatch subplot. Milton Johns, in one of his many Doctor Who appearances, plays Crayford as earnestly grateful for the rebuilding of his broken body after his rescue by the Kraals from his spacecraft crash. The only part of him that could not be reconstructed is his eye, covered with an eyepatch until near the end. There is, though, nothing wrong with Crayford. People think it stretches credibility that he hasn't checked at any point to see if his eye still works - but the script clearly states that he's been brainwashed. That's not to say there isn't silliness in the plot, but for some reason the focus is on the eyepatch when in fact it's everything else that doesn't make sense. Styggron's plan is to distract Earth with the return of a missing astronaut, and fire androids to Earth in pods to take over in key positions. But his plan is also to destroy all humans with a virus. He really doesn't need both plans, and they conflict with one another. If the pods containing androids will just be mistaken for meteorites, then why does he need the misdirection of Crayford's return? He could just fire the pods to Earth without putting monitoring on alert for a returning spacecraft - which could, after all, endanger the plan - freeing him up to be able to kill the weak link that is Crayford. Or, assuming he needs a ship to get close enough to launch the pods, then why not just make an android copy of Crayford to pilot the ship and speak to mission control? It would be more efficient than brainwashing, and the technology clearly exists to make it happen. Then, if he could use all his supposed Kraal genius to work out a way to just shoot the virus to Earth in the pods, he could cut out the need for any other androids, and all that faff training them up for so long. Evil geniuses, they never learn: keep it simple.
Connectivity:
Perhaps the story is overlooked because it is something of a throwback. The presence of UNIT regulars, and the direction of Barry Letts (producer of the stories of Tom Baker's predecessor as the Doctor, Jon Pertwee) means it is quite backward looking at a point where the show was striding out into new territory. In the later years of Pertwee's time, with the narrative reason given that the Doctor's freedom to travel in time and space had been returned to him, the Earthbound stories where the Doctor worked with UNIT were being gradually reduced in number, and fewer and fewer of the previous ensemble cast of regulars were appearing in them. Letts' successor as producer Philip Hinchcliffe seemed happy not to make major changes to the format, but it seems clear that the stories that travelled the universe were the priority and nobody's heart was fully in making more old school tales. This is the second UNIT story of Hinchcliffe's producer-ship and arguably the last (the later story The Seeds of Doom is nominally a UNIT one, but contains no returning regular cast, and the soldiers in it, who only arrive towards the end of the story, could be any fighting force).
It's such a shame that the Brigadier gets no proper send-off, and instead is represented by an empty office with his name on it occupied by a hastily cut-and-pasted in replacement. Actor Nicholas Courtney wasn't available for The Android Invasion, and instead the crudely similar but nuance-free character of Colonel Faraday appears (who coincidentally seems to be performed almost exactly like Peter Glaze's take-off of the Brig in the Crackerjack Who pastiche skit "Hallo my Dalek" which aired a few months before The Android Invasion was broadcast). Being available and in the show doesn't protect a character from having a rubbish send-off either. Ian Marter as Harry Sullivan and John Levene as Sergeant Benton both appear, but don't have much to do, certainly no big heroics, in their final outings, and disappear by the end quite abruptly. Of course, it was likely that nobody necessarily thought they were going to be their final outings at the time. This isn't that big a deal, and certainly is no explanation for why this serial is undervalued, it's just a shame, that's all. The best inclusion from the previous era is Letts himself, who manages some impressive material here, particularly the generous amount of film used, but also some subtle use of green-screen to make things look more expensive and expansive than the budget allowed.
One final stick that's often used to beat The Android Invasion is the ridiculousness of the Crayford eyepatch subplot. Milton Johns, in one of his many Doctor Who appearances, plays Crayford as earnestly grateful for the rebuilding of his broken body after his rescue by the Kraals from his spacecraft crash. The only part of him that could not be reconstructed is his eye, covered with an eyepatch until near the end. There is, though, nothing wrong with Crayford. People think it stretches credibility that he hasn't checked at any point to see if his eye still works - but the script clearly states that he's been brainwashed. That's not to say there isn't silliness in the plot, but for some reason the focus is on the eyepatch when in fact it's everything else that doesn't make sense. Styggron's plan is to distract Earth with the return of a missing astronaut, and fire androids to Earth in pods to take over in key positions. But his plan is also to destroy all humans with a virus. He really doesn't need both plans, and they conflict with one another. If the pods containing androids will just be mistaken for meteorites, then why does he need the misdirection of Crayford's return? He could just fire the pods to Earth without putting monitoring on alert for a returning spacecraft - which could, after all, endanger the plan - freeing him up to be able to kill the weak link that is Crayford. Or, assuming he needs a ship to get close enough to launch the pods, then why not just make an android copy of Crayford to pilot the ship and speak to mission control? It would be more efficient than brainwashing, and the technology clearly exists to make it happen. Then, if he could use all his supposed Kraal genius to work out a way to just shoot the virus to Earth in the pods, he could cut out the need for any other androids, and all that faff training them up for so long. Evil geniuses, they never learn: keep it simple.Connectivity:
The Android Invasion and The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone both feature a Doctor travelling with a single female companion, plus the inclusion of a semi-regular character first introduced with a previous Doctor.
Deeper Thoughts:
Double History. The Android Invasion is one of a rich seam of Doctor Who stories, from throughout its lifetime, that fall in to a particular category: rip-offs of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This Doctor Who story - with its sinister versions of familiar people emerging from pods - is pretty blatant, but it's only one of many, many examples. A couple of classic monsters - the Autons and the Zygons - are wholly built around the duplication and substitution method cribbed from Body Snatchers, and a couple of others have dabbled (the Sontarans used their cloning tech to make a fake Martha in The Sontaran Stratagem, the Daleks made a robot copy of the Doctor in The Chase that even looked like him from some angles). In the lower monster divisions, the Chameleons were the first Body Snatcher types to appear in the series, and Axos had a go copying Bill Filer. Then there was Sharaz Jek making android copies of people in The Caves of Androzani, and the various android makers of Tara doing similar (in The Androids of Tara) and probably many more that I've forgotten.Doctor Who loves a doppelgänger (oh yes, of course, I forgot the Gangers from The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People, I knew there were more!). There's a few obvious reasons why; it allows a regular actor to play someone different, and usually evil, to demonstrate their range, or prevent them getting bored. In the early days, this didn't require much plot reconciliation beyond just throwing in a massive coincidence. William Hartnell got to play his double the Abbot of Amboise in The Massacre, and Patrick Troughton Salamander in The Enemy of the World, with no need for any clever trickery on anyone's part; the characters just happened to look exactly like their respective Doctors. By the time of later original series examples - Tom Baker as Meglos, Peter Davison as Omega - this clearly wouldn't wash, so some technobabble about copying body prints or some-such was tossed in. 21st century Doctor Who allowed its star to flex his acting muscles only a couple of times, with Matt Smith playing a copy of the Doctor in the aforementioned Ganger episodes, and David Tennant becoming two subtley different versions of the Doctor in Journey's End. Tennant memorably also got to play John Smith, a completely different character, in Human Nature / The Family of Blood. But, as both characters occupy the same body in that story it's not quite the same, and is more like a character possessed (another trope Doctor Who loves to do) than a dopplegänger situation.
The other main reason for lookalikes appearing in Doctor Who is not so much arising from the plot as it is a quirk of casting on a long-running show: the 'haven't I seen you somewhere before' factor. In the 20th century, this was just one of those things and didn't warrant explanation or even comment for the most part. As mentioned above, Milton Johns played several guest roles on Doctor Who over the years without rationalisation in the script, as did Bernard Horsfall, Micheal Sheard, Philip Madoc and loads of others. No one batted an eyelid when this happened with regulars either: Peter Purves and Ian Marter played different characters before they became companions Steven and Ian respectively, and Jacqueline Hill played a different character later without the Doctor commenting that she was the dead spit of his old friend Barbara. Even a Doctor (Colin Baker) was cast after having been in the series in a guest role the previous year. It's only with the post 2005 stories that it becomes necessary to hang a hat on this with some exposition: Eve Myles and Freema Agyemen's one-off characters were mentioned as being related to the regulars they later played. Peter Capaldi, cast like Colin Baker as Doctor after an earlier guest role, has picked the face deliberately to remind him to be kind or something. The only one I can think of that's never been explained is why Karen Gillan was in ancient Pompeii before becoming regular character Amy Pond. But as current showrunner Chris Chibnall has expressed a desire to bring Pond back it's not too late. Just as long as a plot tidying up some age old continuity can tempt Karen Gillan back from Hollywood paychecks and budgets, it can't fail! In Summary:
Unfairly overlooked - this is a lot of (silly) fun.
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