364 Invasion of the Dinosaurs Part Five

EPISODE: Invasion of the Dinosaurs: Part Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 364
STORY NUMBER: 071
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 09 February 1974
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Paddy Russell
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - U.N.I.T Files: Invasion of the Dinosaurs and the Android Invasion
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"There aren't any other ships. All this is a fake! We're not on a spaceship at all!"

Mark tells Sarah that the elders are thinking of killing her so she feigns co-operation to escape. Finch has the Doctor locked up but refuses to interrogate him. Captain Yates refuses to listen to him, ordering Benton to lock him up. The Doctor deduces Mike Yates is the traitor and Benton allows himself to be overpowered so the Doctor can escape. Whitaker demonstrates his ability to reverse time to Grover. Sarah attempts to escape through the spaceship's airlock. Finch threatens to court martial Benton. Finch orders the Doctor hunted down and killed. The Brigadier orders Benton to raise some UNIT troops. Sarah realises from her bruise that she's only been on ship a matter of hours and demonstrates to Mark the place is a fake. As the Doctor is pursued by troops Sarah escapes into the base but the lift she uses to escape takes her straight to Sir Charles Grover's office where she escapes. Returning to UNIT's temporary HQ she leaves a message for the Brigadier and takes General Finch back to the government offices where he pulls a gun on her and returns her to the underground base. Whitaker is ordered to produce a new wave of Monsters to clear London while Finch removes the troops. Grover explains he will use Whitaker's machines to roll back time taking the people on the "ships" back to an earlier age. The Doctor finds himself trapped between two battling Dinosaurs.......

It does look bleak for The Doctor at the start of the episode:

FINCH: All right. Captain Yates, take this man and lock him up.
BRIGADIER: Sir, aren't we going to question him first?
FINCH: There's no time for that now. I must report his capture to the Minister.
DOCTOR: Yes, and no doubt he'll be very pleased to hear it, since he arranged the whole thing.
FINCH: You are in an extremely dangerous position, Doctor. I advise you to keep silent.
DOCTOR: Oh, that's just what you want, isn't it, my silence?
BRIGADIER: We really should interrogate this man now, sir. Trying to discover his base, the names of his associates.
FINCH: All that can come later.
DOCTOR: Yes, well now that you've caught me, General, you can end the evacuation and return your eight million Londoners, can't you.
FINCH: That decision doesn't rest with me. It rests with the Prime Minister. Captain Yates?
YATES: Sir?
FINCH: Until further orders, you'll keep that man under close arrest. Come with me, Brigadier.
BRIGADIER: Sir?
FINCH: I want you with me when I make my report. Brigadier?
DOCTOR: Now listen to me, Mike. We haven't got much time. I want you to raise all the men you can muster and some kind of high explosive. Now I've got a pretty good idea where their base is.
YATES: Sergeant Benton?
BENTON: Sir?
YATES: Take the Doctor to a cell and lock him up.
BENTON: Sir?
YATES: Keep him under constant guard. He's to talk to no one.
DOCTOR: So it was you, Mike.
YATES: I'm sorry, Doctor. I'll be in the Brigadier's office.
BENTON: Right, that empty storeroom. Fix it up as a temporary cell. Check the lock on the door and do something about barring the windows. Oh, and put in a camp bed. Now move.

Fortunately Sergeant Benton still believes in him and quickly facilitates the Doctor's escape:

BENTON: All right, Doctor, what's going on?
DOCTOR: Captain Yates is the man inside who's working against us.
BENTON: Come on, Doctor.
DOCTOR: I'm afraid it's true.
BENTON: Well, what about the Brigadier?
DOCTOR: What indeed?
BENTON: Right then, Doctor, you'd better get busy.
DOCTOR: What?
BENTON: You'd better start overpowering me, hadn't you. You know, a bit of your Venusian oojah?
DOCTOR: Thank you, Sergeant Benton.
DOCTOR: Are you ready?
BENTON: Yeah!

Unfortunately this doesn't win him any favours with General Finch:

BENTON: There was nothing I could do, sir. He attacked me.
FINCH: Were there no guards?
BENTON: I'd sent them off to fix up a cell, sir.
FINCH: What do you mean, he attacked you? There isn't a mark on you.
BRIGADIER: The Doctor uses a rather unique form of unarmed combat, sir.
FINCH: You'll be court martialled, Sergeant. Brigadier?
BRIGADIER: Sir?
FINCH: I'm instituting a full scale search for the Doctor at once. I shall want the full cooperation of you and your men. They are to shoot on sight. Meanwhile, put this man under arrest. Captain Yates.

However with the General now out the way The Brigadier shows his true colours:

BRIGADIER: Well, don't just stand there, Benton. Go and put yourself under arrest.
BENTON: Sir?
BRIGADIER: Where's the Doctor gone?
BENTON: To that underground place, I think, sir.
BRIGADIER: Then we've got to find him before General Finch does. Get the men ready.
BENTON: Right, sir.

Things go down hill a bit after that as Sarah does the escape/recapture routine while the Doctor spends the entire episode running around and evading the the troops on Wimbledon Common!

This location is close to where the Doctor picked up Dodo in the closing moments of the Massacre. In fact Dodo's first full story, The Ark, also features the human race in deep sleep being shipped off to a new planet like the people in the ships believe is happening to them here. It's a theme the show will return again to shortly in the Ark in Space.

The Army Soldiers hunting the Doctor on Wimbledon Common is mainly made up of the same soldiers who captured him with Corporal Norton in Kingston during episode 1, recorded later the same day. Heading the patrol is a Corporal played by Mike Stevens who I've not located on IMDB. He had previously been UNIT Soldier in Ambassadors of Death, an Auton Daffodil Man Terror of the Autons, a Prisoner, Motor Cyclist & UNIT Soldier in Mind of Evil, an IMC Guard & Primitive in Colony in Space, a Guard in Curse of Peladon, a Castle Guard, Sailor, Stunt Diver & Sea Devil in The Sea Sea Devils and a stuntman Unit Trooper in The Time Monster.

Their driver once again is Colin Hamilton, from the vehicle rental firm, with regular extra and Dalek Cy Town riding in the back of the jeep and sneaking a cigarette while on patrol.

Kelly Varney is the final member of the patrol, unseen in the land rover.

The helicopter seeking The Doctor was not recorded for the program but is on location is stock footage of unknown origin.

The Doctor's escape starts on White Street & The Straight in Southall, both seen in earlier episodes.

The ruined warehouse he hides in is on the nearby Southall Gas Works site and features in many 70s TV programs. The Army Soldiers in the jeep searching for the Doctor are Pat Milner & Steve Ismay, who we saw fighting a dinosaur during episode two, and Corporal Leslie Bates with Driver Ted Heath: all four were patrolling the Gas Works in a Land Rover during episode 1.

Finally at the end of the episode we're back on Lindsey Street, seen in episode four.

Three soldiers are seen in the studio: The UNIT Soldier on the left of the captive Doctor is regular Leslie Bates, corporal in the jeep pursuing the Doctor at the Gas Works, while on the right is Brian Nolan. Both were in previous episodes of this story - see episode 1 for their prior credits - and this is probably our best look at both actors!

Colin Bell plays Private Bryson, the soldier who talks to Sarah-Jane on her return to the near deserted UNIT HQ. He was C.P.O. Summers in The Sea Devils. The DWAS Production File says Bryson should have been George Bryson, who played Private Ogden the radio operator in episodes 1 & 2. Should Bryson have actually been Ogden, played by the same actor, then when the actor was unavailable the character was renamed after the original actor?

Doctor Who likes Invasion stories. The word has been used several times over the years in story titles:

The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The Web Planet 5: Invasion
The Invasion
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
The Android Invasion (These last two are paired in January 2012's UNIT box)
The Invasion of Time

The day before this episode was transmitted it was revealed to the press that Jon Pertwee would be leaving Doctor Who at the end of the Eleventh season. A week later his successor was unveiled: a little known actor called Tom Baker who we will hear more about shortly.....