224 The Invasion: Episode Five

EPISODE: The Invasion: Episode Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 224
STORY NUMBER: 046
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 30 November 1968
WRITER: Derrick Sherwin & Kit Pedler
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Peter Bryant
RATINGS: 6.7 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The Invasion

"You will accept what I say or our partnership is at an end. The invasion will take place at dawn tomorrow!"

Seeing the Cyberman reactivated the Doctor & Jamie leave, returning to their canoe. Back at UNIT HQ Captain Turner asks Isobel out for dinner as the Doctor & Jamie arrive and tell them that the Cybermen are here. The UFOs sighted are Cyberman spaceships homing in on Vaughn's deep space dishes. The Doctor speculates if the people observed going into IE are now controlled by the Cybermen. Major General Rutlidge tells the Brigadier not to investigate IE any further. The Brigadier wants to know what hold Vaughn has on Rutlidge. The Brigadier says he will over Rutlidge's head and go to UNIT HQ in Geneva to allow him to proceed. When he leaves Rutlidge calls IE. Vaughn has ordered Gregory to work with Professor Watkins on the Cerebration Mentor. When Rutlidge calls he reports tat there will be UNIT interference. Vaughn instructs him to come to IE, worrying that his control over him is weakening. Vaughn interrogates Rutlidge, wanting to know how long it will take UNIT to take action: Rutlidge says one day. Vaughn orders the Cerebration Mentor taken to the warehouse where the Cybermen are being revived. Vaughn reports to the Cyber Machine in his office that he needs the invasion plans advanced to dawn tomorrow. More Cybermen are revived and told to proceed through sewers the to their positions. Examining maps of the area the Doctor concludes that the Cybermen are hiding in the sewers, but the Brigadier thinks that they need proof. The Doctor once again examines Jamie's radio, and asks the Brigadier if UNIT has any IE equipment. Vaughn has a Cyberman revived and uses the Cerebration Mentor on it to produce fear. The Cyberman goes mad and follows other Cybermen into the sewers. Isobel comes up with idea of going into the sewers for photos of the Cybermen. The Brigadier won't let her do it as she's a woman but she, Jamie & Zoe go anyway, getting Benton to take them to London. The Doctor finds additional circuits in all of UNIT's IE equipment and on examination finds the same circuit in every one. The Cyber machine plans for the conversion or destruction of all humans but Vaughn disagrees: This is not as planned, he will be in control of Earth and it's population after the Invasion. He says that while his body is now cybernetic, his mind stays human. Vaughn tells Packer that the IE staff will protected from Cyber control by an implanted capsule. The Doctor needs use Professor Watkins laboratory facilities at his home to analyse the circuits he has found. Preparing to leave for London he realises that Jamie, Zoe & Isobel missing. Benton has dropped them off but is ordered to find them and Capitan Turner is sent to help. Jamie, Zoe & Isobel descend through a manhole into the sewers but are spotted by a policeman. Benton arrives as the policeman also enters the sewers. The policeman calls out for them attracting the attention of a group of Cybermen who kill him. Jamie, Zoe & Isobel find themselves trapped between these Cyberman and the deranged Cyberman that is wandering the sewers......

ZOE: Doctor, any luck? What did you find out?
JAMIE: Some old friends of ours are here, Zoe.
ZOE: Who?
JAMIE: The Cybermen.
DOCTOR: Yes, I'm afraid it's true, Zoe.
ZOE: That's what you suspected, wasn't it?
ISOBEL: What on Earth are Cybermen?
DOCTOR: They're from another world. Inhuman killers.
TURNER: You mean they're from space, or something.
DOCTOR + ZOE: Yes.
ZOE: And that spaceship we saw on the other side of the Moon was obviously their craft.
ISOBEL: What are they? Little green men? Oh, you're serious?
ZOE: We've met Cybermen before and seen what they can do.
TURNER: Where exactly are they and how many?
JAMIE: At Vaughn's headquarters in London.
DOCTOR: Oh, there's hundreds of them, possibly thousands.
ZOE: So Vaughn's helping them.
DOCTOR: That deep space radio transmitter is obviously being used by the Cybermen spaceships to home in on.
TURNER: So that's what those UFOs were. But there have been hundreds of those sightings.
JAMIE: Aye, they must have quite an army by now. The thing is, where are they hiding them all?
DOCTOR: I don't know, Jamie. Captain, where's the Brigadier.
TURNER: At the Ministry of Defence. I better get on to him immediately and tell him what you've discovered.
DOCTOR: No, no, Captain. The people who went into Vaughn's headquarters were different when they came out, weren't they?
TURNER: Yes.
ZOE: Do you think they're being controlled, Doctor?
TURNER: Controlled?
ZOE: Yes, the Cybermen have means of controlling people's minds. They appear to be almost normal but they're not, they're controlled.
DOCTOR: Who is the Brigadier is immediately answerable to?
TURNER: Major-General Rutlidge.

We saw the Brigadier's superior Major-General Rutlidge in the previous episode in animated form but this is the first time we see him as he appeared on screen. He's played by Edward Dentith who'd be in the Out of This World episode Vanishing Act as Major Bentley. He's one of several members of this story's cast who go on to be in the first Doomwatch episode The Plastic Eaters where he's the Engineer in Second Airline Crew. You can see that episode on The Doomwatch DVD. He later appears in The Professionals episode Old Dog with New Tricks as a High Ranking Police Officer. This was the first episode filmed and acts as a good introduction to the series but the Camfield directed Private Madness, Public Danger aired first with Old Dog, new Tricks being broadcast third.

Rutledge is a particularly annoying part of the plot. As an MOD official he's effectively the first in a long line of civil servants that frustrate both the Doctor & Unit. He's introduced in the previous episode, shown to be one of those who's visited Vaughn's HQ falling under his control, which is again demonstrated here, although the control appears to be faltering:

VAUGHN: Rutlidge. Rutlidge!
PACKER: What's the matter with him?
VAUGHN: Listen to me, Rutlidge? Listen! You will obey my commands. You understand?
RUTLIDGE: Your commands.
VAUGHN: You will leave your office and come here to me.
RUTLIDGE: To you.
VAUGHN: Immediately. Do you understand?
RUTLIDGE: I must. Your commands.
VAUGHN: Do you understand?
RUTLIDGE : Yes. I understand. I understand.
VAUGHN: Good fellow.
PACKER: What was the matter with him?
VAUGHN: Our control over him is weakening.
PACKER: Well, that could be dangerous. If he doesn't obey your orders to come over here, he might
VAUGHN: Oh, he will, Packer, he will.

Summoned to Vaughn's office he gets a right grilling:

VAUGHN: I must know, Rutlidge. You must tell me. How long? How long before the UNIT forces can take action!
RUTLIDGE: I. One day, maybe two.
VAUGHN: Good. Time enough.
PACKER: Well, I don't like it. Supposing the UNIT forces move faster than that? Suppose they want to come over
VAUGHN: Let me do the supposing, Packer.
PACKER: Yes, Mister Vaughn.
VAUGHN: Now, just to be on the safe side, I think we'd better conduct an experiment.
PACKER: What do you mean?
VAUGHN: Have the Professor's machine taken down to the warehouse. Wait outside. I'll join you later.
PACKER: What are you going to do?
VAUGHN: Wait and see, Packer. Wait and see.
PACKER: Yes, sir. What about him?
VAUGHN: Oh, leave him to me.

He then sits there gawping while Vaughn has another discussion with the Cyberplanner and that's the last we see of him, he completely disappears from the story. The insinuation is Vaughn's had him killed but, like the Super Strong workers in the warehouse it's another plot element that isn't specifically followed up on. I don't mind a little work to fill in the gaps but too many questions when there's obvious time wasting elsewhere is annoying!

With the mystery element removed there's a little bit of sag this episode until the trip down the sewers at the end. Sadly even though the Cybermen are revealed you still don't see that much of them with most of the communication still being done through the machine in Vaughn's office, though relations are becoming increasingly frayed:

VAUGHN: There has been some difficulty. We must alter our plans.
PLANNER: Report the difficulty and we will assess it.
VAUGHN: We must bring the invasion forward.
PLANNER: Our invasion force is not yet complete.
VAUGHN: The invasion must take place in fifteen hours time, otherwise we may have to face the combined forces of the entire world.
PLANNER: Wait while the report will be assessed.
VAUGHN: You will accept what I say or our partnership is at an end. The invasion will take place at dawn tomorrow.
PLANNER: It has been agreed. The data will be computed and the invasion details transmitted to you. Discussion terminated.

Neither side appears happy with decisions the other is making:

PLANNER: One hour before invasion, the Cyber-transmitter units will be launched into orbit around Earth.
VAUGHN: The effect will be immediate?
PLANNER: Yes. Transmissions will penetrate all areas.
VAUGHN: And if it doesn't work?
PLANNER: Humans cannot resist Cyber-control. Our forces will penetrate all areas and select suitable humans for cybernetic conversion.
VAUGHN: Conversion to Cybermen?
PLANNER: Yes. The unsuitable humans will be destroyed.
VAUGHN: No! This is not as we agreed!
PLANNER: It has been decided.
VAUGHN: We agreed that I should remain in control of Earth. In return, I supply the minerals you require. You will honour that bargain, otherwise there will be no invasion!
PLANNER: To control, you must undergo complete conversion and become one of us.
VAUGHN: No! My body may be cybernetic but my mind stays human. That is final!
PLANNER: It has been agreed. Discussion concluded.

The Planner wasn't in the last episode but seeing here again reminds me that it was a bit of a visual clue that Vaughn's allies are the Cybermen as it very much resembles the Cyber Controller from Wheel in Space:

Were Vaughn and his allies getting along in the months leading up to the invasion or is it purely the Doctor's arrival and disruption that's causing this? I'm not so sure it is 100% down to the Doctor because Vaughn's obviously been planning to use Watkins' teaching machine as a weapon, which he gets to test this episode:

PACKER: It's gone mad. It could have killed us all.
VAUGHN: Possibly, but I think we've proved that the Professor's machine can be effective. Get him to work on it, Gregory. I want twice as much power and I want directional control.
PACKER: Yeah, but what about that one? You can't let it roam down there alone!
VAUGHN: Why not?
PACKER: Well, it'll kill anything that gets in its way.
VAUGHN: Good. Anyone fool enough to be down in those sewers deserves to die.

The Cybermen in the sewers are obviously reminiscent of the Yeti in the Underground but although comparisons are frequently made between The Invasion and it's predecessor The Web of Fear, especially the element of having the army/UNIT with the Doctor, they're quite different. In Web the Invasion has happened and London stands isolated. In the Invasion we're witnessing the build up to the alien invasion and trying to prevent it.

Two new cast members this week: Peter Thompson is a Workman, presumably the one who speaks in Vaughn's warehouse who I think is the one on the left. He'll be back as a Primord in Inferno and is yet another cast member to appear in Doomwatch: The Plastic Eaters where he plays an Airline Passenger. Every time I look at that Doomwatch episode I think it must be directed by Douglas Camfield as I can see so many of his rep company involved, but it isn't! There's Kevin Stoney, here as Tobias Vaughn, as Prof. Hal Symonds, Edward Dentith, Major General Rutlidge, as the engineer on the second airline crew plus Richardson Morgan, Corporal Blake in The Web of Fear, as the engineer on the first airline crew and Tony Sibbald, Huckle in Terror of the Zygons, as the Captain of the first airline crew!

Dominic Allan plays the ill fated Policeman who chases Zoe, Isobel & Jamie into the sewers. He can be seen in two The Tomorrow People stories, Castle of Fear and Achilles Heel as Bruce Forbes.

Locations: if episode four existed we'd have seen the Regent's Canal there as it was used for the canoe scenes of the Doctor & Jamie rowing into Vaughn's HQ at the end of the last episode and the start of this. These scenes were recorded 13th September 1968.

The location where Benton pulls over in the Land Rover to let his passengers out is Moor Lane. Moor Lane in turns joins onto Fore Street where the scenes with the Manhole cover & Policeman were filmed. Footage at both locations was recorded 8th September 1968.

Looking at the link above I'm very pleased to see there's still a manhole cover in the same street!

The "Cybermen in the sewers" element is resurrected in the Eric Saward/Ian Levine "Attack of the Cybermen" along with elements from Tenth Planet and Tomb of the Cybermen.

This episode is the first of a run of 14 existing episodes. It's the best existing run since the 23 episodes (1-3-6-2-4-6-1) at the end of season 1/start of season 2. The start of the series has a run of 13 existing episodes to Edge of Destruction 2, there's a 19 episode existing run from the start of Keys of Marinus to episode 3 of Reign of Terror. Episode 6 of the same story starts the 23 episode run, the longest in the sixties, which ends with Crusade 1. The Space Museum 1 to Time Meddler 4 give a 14 episode run. After that the longest run of existing episodes in seasons 3-5 is the 11 episodes in season 5 made of the last three of The Ice Warriors, all six of Enemy of the World and the first two of Web of Fear. There's another 11 episodes from the last episode of season 5, Wheel in Space 6 to season 6's Mind Robber 5. This current run takes us past the end of the Invasion, through all of the Krotons and up to the end of Seeds of Death. The following story, The Space Pirates, has one exiting episode, the second. After that we reach the War Games and from there onwards every episode exists.