Customer Reviews

Doctor Who - The Android Invasion [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Android Invasion is a very fun Tom Baker story. The village setting was an excellent location for this creepy story. The outside location shots give parts of this story a cinematic feel. The return of the UNIT makes this story even more interesting. A definitive Tom Baker era story.

I truly enjoy the earlier Tom Baker (Sarah Jane) episodes. "The Android Invasion" is a wonderful example (when he actually wore the hat) and a great performance by Liz Sladen as they arrive and explore a seemingly deserted English village. When I sit down to watch a Dr Who, I often find myself reaching for this tape. The story has a special charm that is difficult to explain. I would recommend that all Dr Who fans add "The Android Invasion" to their library. It is one of my very favorite episodes!

I loved it when I first saw it in 1984 and it remains one of my favorites today. And the reason is simple: it remains one of the best companion episodes of all time. Baker and Sladen have the best interaction (second only to the Seeds of Doom). It highlights why Sarah Jane Smith remains one of the Doctor's best companions to this day. The aliens were slightly hokey, but the plot was interesting (I refuse to give out plots) and the execution was superb. Watch it, you'll like it or, at least, appreciate the interaction between the Doctor and Sarah Jane.

Slagged as the worst of the season, it's actually a very good action-thriller. It starts off with a very creepy first episode, then an extremely hostile second episode, a devious third episode, and the fourth is the resolve. What's so bad about it? Almost nothing, aside from some small questions let go at the end of the last episode leaving the viewer to assume how everything was tidied up.

One of the greatest strengths of this episode is that it moves. Most Doctor Who stories dwell and retrace in order to save money on sets and costumes. Android Invasion cleverly revisits familiar areas in the final episode, but they are now actual locations instead of imitations. There's always a chase or some gun play or confrontation through the entire story, which is Terry Nation's strength as a writer. All the elements are bizarre, the entire world twisted to be completely hostile toward the Doctor and Sarah. It makes this story highly entertaining.

The DVD will most likely not have the best possible commentary they ever could have had on a Doctor Who DVD: Hinchcliffe, Letts, Baker and Sladen. Sadly, Sladen and Letts passed away in the last year.

The Doctor and Sarah land on what appears to be Earth, in the town of Devesham. But not all is right, a soldier falls off a cliff, only to return to a pub minutes after his death. All this and more in Terry Nation's second non-Dalek script. The story, at times, can be very irritating, and tedious. There are too many flaws(Crayford never taking his eye-patch off, ect). But on the other hand, there are some enjoyably scenes. The location footage REALLY helps this one, a semi return of UNIT(sans Lethbridge-Stewart), and some great humor(which also really helps). With a few more helpful and clever explanations, this could have been a lot better.

If this had been made a few years later in Tom Baker's years as the Doctor, it would have been far by the best adventure of the season, but in the classic-filled years of Hinchcliffe/Holmes, it comes across as pretty ordinary.

That's not to say it's a bad story. On the contrary, it's very enjoyable and filled with nice touches of humour, not to mention memorable scenes such as the sinister android version of Sarah, the return of (most of) UNIT, good location work, the rhino-faced aliens and the plan to replace human beings with mechanicals. Don't expect a classic adventure on the same level as 'Pyramids of Mars' or 'Genesis of the Daleks', but you won't be disappointed either.

Ah, Season Thirteen. No robot dogs, no Mary Whitehouse's Revenge, no Star Wars on the horizon. Bliss. Just think...

The Scottish one, with the wonderful whispering aliens.
The claustraphobic one with Frederick Jaeger.
That really good Egyptian one filmed in Mick Jagger's house.
Philip Madoc and the thing made from bits of different aliens.
And the really scary one with the killer vegetables.
Sigh.

Hang on. That's only five stories. There should be six. Wait a minute. Zygons, Evil, Pyramids... Oh yes. 'The Android Invasion'. The runt of the Season Thirteen litter. The single shrug in a season of enthusiastic waving.

What makes it the ghost at the wedding? One answer and one answer only: the title. Fair enough, as a story it makes no sense but (notoriously) the plot of 'Pyramids of Mars' doesn't either, which didn't stop it being an undisputed classic. Okay, the principal enemy sound like (indeed are) the cast of 70s children's show `Rainbow' but the most scary thing about 'Terror of the Zygons' turns out to be a glove puppet. Yes, Faraday is no worthy replacement for Lethbridge-Stewart but nor is Beresford in 'The Seeds of Doom'. Fine, there was the absence of any really challenging alien presence but the same could be said of 'Planet of Evil'. And, what's more, the Sisterhood of Karn in 'The Brain of Morbius' are far more tedious than anything the supporting cast of 'The Android Invasion' can boast.

So it's not that bad then? No, I don't think it is. It's entire problem is just that you know what's going on before anything even happens. There it is in big letters: 'The Android Invasion' by Terry Nation.

So it is that wonderfully bizarre events are rendered predictable from the very start. All that new-Doctor, old-style, all that Tom Baker wit, all that strange England, wasted. Without the title it is my contention that episode one would now be considered a classic opener, dragging the rest of the story with it to glory.
You don't believe me? Watch it again and make a list of all the things you can't explain if you hadn't already been told it's all about androids and invasion. I've tried it. The list is huge. Odd, twisty UNIT soldier, "Stop man, stop!" identical coinage, "something seems to have annoyed them again", the silent pub... If you hadn't been aware of the `A' word, 'The Android Invasion' would have stayed in the mind as a baffling, wetting-the-pants-in-expectation moment, somewhere in that misty changing from autumn to winter, 1975. (And it is in good company: 'The Robots of Death' is a similar titular faux-pas.)

Of all the things I would do to revise the programme's entire past if I had the power, I would change the name of 'The Android Invasion' to `Devesham', the utterance of which is the story's first point of recognition, even though it is a false one. A great and an unusual title. (So much better than `Terror of Evil Doom' don't you think?)

Okay, perhaps there is one other thing that 'The Android Invasion' needs to redeem itself: no, not CGI (though that might help) but a gigantic pair of scissors. There are so many lazy little fillers that have no dramatic function whatsoever: the too-early introduction of the Kraals in part one or the demonstration of the special android to attack Kraals to name but two. Get rid of 'em. Sod reverence; the whole thing trimmed down to three parts (or even two) by expert hands would do the world of good. Future generations looking back on this awesome era in the show's time on Earth, could have the thrill that this programme should have given. No one but us would know...

Ok, so this is often sited as a weak story in an otherwise strong season. But, I have to admit, it remains a favourite of mine as it was the first Doctor Who I ever watched. Of course, it was the first time I saw Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah. The rest is history.

To be honest, I'm quite biased to this story for several reasons. Tom Baker, Ian Marter, John Levene, Philip Hinchcliffe, Barry Letts, Terry Nation, and the biggest smile goes to Elisabeth Sladen. Yes, it's properly spelled with an "S". The "S" is for star. Quoted from her autobiography. But in all fairness, all of them will always be, in front of, as well as behind the camera.

I feel no need to discuss the story line, since anyone who's reading this more than likely knows the story, although I will mention a silly plot point at end of this review, just for laughs. Rather I prefer to focus on why one should purchase this other than for the sake of merely watching the show on a format that's better than the VHS version.

To me, it's all about the extras. Mind you, there aren't many. 2|entertain is probably holding off on several of these for a re-release on a later DVD or Blu-Ray. It seems to be their style lately. But there is the standard audio commentary, and while it is not exactly gripping, it is indeed informative. My only regret is that Tom and Lis are not a part of this commentary. Not knowing when this was recorded, I can only guess that she was still alive at the time of the recording because she was repeatedly referred to in the present tense. The text commentary also provides an additional layer of information that true fans of the show can appreciate. "The Village that Came to Life", and "Life After Who Philip Hinchcliffe", are two very informative and interesting extras for which I am grateful for their inclusion to this DVD. In my humble opinion, both are a "Must Watch."

Now, not to spoil this release, but here's the silly plot point I refereed to. While realistically, we all know that not all stories dot all their "i's" and cross all their "t's", neither back in 1975 nor now in 2012. But anyone who wears an eye patch for two years and never noticed that under said eye patch, their eye was under it, AND IN TACT... Seriously? Did he sleep and bathe with that thing on all that time? Even one of the commentators brought that up.

Oh well. My bottom line is to watch, enjoy, and be sure to spend time with the extras.

As others have pointed out this is rather a standard android invasion type story with worked in rehashed pulp science fiction props and plots.

Having said that it is more of a comic horror type of story with Tom Baker literally hamming it up throughout. From the early moaning and groaning from Sarah Jane (are we there yet, are we there yet Type of complaining about getting back home) to the Marie celeste type village - could be in Epcot - through to the twisted Sontaran type aliens there is a lot of tongue in cheek humour. This also is a bit of a prototype of the later, not as good, Peter Davison story 'Four to Doomsady' which has a number of similarities but not as good sets or location.

This story is quite droll and if it was to be taken too seriously then I must admit it would not be such a good tale. I have not seen such a Doctor Who where Tom Baker is in such good comic form. It reminds me of a later UK tv show where he played a house doctor and obviously had a lot of fun doing it.

Do not judge this story too harshly. Given the context of the other stories of the season and the Tom Baker series it would not be terribly logical to broadcast a dummy.

Watch it in lightheart and you will get much enjoyment from it.
Originally broadcast 22 November to 13 December 1975.