220 The Invasion: Episode One

EPISODE: The Invasion: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 220
STORY NUMBER: 046
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 02 November 1968
WRITER: Derrick Sherwin & Kit Pedler
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Peter Bryant
RATINGS: 7.3 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The Invasion

"We might try and look up our old friend Professor Travers in London. He might be able to help us!"

There's a bit of a lengthy preamble before we get to watch this episode........

The Invasion episode 1, despite rumours to the contrary, is missing. A 1975 audit of the BBC archives said a copy existed then but there was no evidence of a copy existing in 1978 when Ian Levine arrived. Nicholas Courtney told a story of being given a videotape of the Invasion where the first two episodes were mute, which was taken to mean the tape had episodes 1 & 2 on it whereas it's believed he meant the first two episodes on the tape IE 2 & 3. When the story was released on Video in 1993 Nicholas Courtney recorded some bridging narration for the missing episodes.

In 2000 the BBC released a VHS Boxset of the Tenth Planet and Attack of the Cybermen. The Tenth Planet 4 is the most famous missing episode, due to containing the Hartnell regeneration, and to compensate for it's absence the BBC made a full reconstruction of it using what little film survives and the telesnaps of the episode taken by John Cura and marrying these to the soundtracks that fans recorded off the television. There are eight Doctor Who stories missing from the BBC archives that are 50% or more complete that you feel enough survives of that they could be released on DVD in their own right. Most of these have Telesnaps existing for them so a reconstruction of a similar nature could be attempted:

Story	Exists	Missing	Telesnaps
The Reign of Terror	1, 2, 3 & 6	4 & 5	NO - Not Found
The Crusade	1 & 3	2 & 4	YES
The Tenth Planet	1, 2 & 3	4	YES
The Underwater Menace	2 & 3	1 & 4	YES
The Moonbase	2 & 4	1 & 3	YES
The Ice Warriors	1, 4, 5 & 6	2 & 3	YES
The Web of Fear	1, 2, 4, 5 & 6	3	YES
The Invasion	2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8	1 & 4	NO - None Taken

Reign of Terror's Telesnaps are missing: it's assumed some existed as they were taken for all of the other stories while Verity Lambert was Producer. Her successor John Wiles abandoned the practice - none exist for Galaxy Four - Celestial Toymaker - but it was taken up again by his successor Innes Lloyd and continued by Peter Bryant. John Cura stopped taking Telesnaps after Mind Robber 3, we assume that the cancer that would shortly claim his life was responsible for him stopping work. So no Telesnaps were ever made of the Invasion and thus there were no Photos to match with the surviving soundtracks.

BBC's Interactive Drama & Entertainment department had commissioned animators Cosgrove Hall to produce flash animations of the missing Invasion episodes for the BBCi Website, which was subsequently rebranded into the BBC Website leaving the episodes without a home. They were modified and placed on the DVDs - see The Restoration team's Invasion article for details. So today I'm sitting down and watching an animated version of a missing Doctor Who episode.....

The Tardis materialises beyond the Dark Side of the Moon. A missile is fired at them from the moon, but a circuit jams delaying their dematerialisation till the last second. The Tardis then materialises in a field but the failed circuit has rendered the Tardis invisible. Working out that they're in England, the Doctor decides to look up his old friend Professor Travers for help. Finding a road they thumb a lift in a lorry, which is then pursued by motor bikes. The driver pulls over to hide telling his passengers that company security are on his tail. Finding out that they're not company staff, he wants to know how they got inside the compound which is run by International Electromatics. They are building their own communities round new factories, including houses for workers. Any locals who don't join the company disappear, "his people" haven't been able to trace them. With the bikes having gone he drives to the gates where the guards check his pass and let him out but he's been followed to the gates by the bikes. Once outside the compound he lets the Doctor and co out of the truck. They leave, but he's apprehended by the biker guards. He refuses to go back with them so they shoot him. Meanwhile the Doctor, Jamie & Zoe thumb a second lift, this time in a car, to London. Arriving at the Travers' house they find the bell label says Watkins. Ringing the door bell it is eventually answered by Isobel Watkins, a photographer. Her uncle Professor Watkins is renting the house from Travers who has gone to America with his daughter Anne. She's broken her camera but the Doctor quickly fixes it and, seeing a decent subject, she takes photos of Zoe. Her uncle has been working for International Electromatics but has been gone for a week and she's not been able to get in touch with him. The Doctor rings IE but gets an automated answer machine. He and Jamie go to visit IE, while Zoe stays with Isobel. As they approach International Electromatics headquarters they are followed by two men in car. The Doctor is irritated by the automated computer receptionist and being unable to gain entry that way they go round the back to break in, where they observed by the men in the car. Watching inn an office the Doctor & Jamie have been recognised. They gain access to a lift but are gassed. The men in the car's HQ want the Doctor and Jamie bought to them. Security Chief Packer and 2 Guards bring the Doctor and Jamie to Tobias Vaughan's office, the Managing Director of IE. He knew they want to see Watkins from their exchange with the reception computer but says he is too busy to see anyone. Jamie mentions the damaged circuit which the Doctor reluctantly shows to Vaughan who takes it. He gives Jamie a modern radio as compensation for their treatment. Packer shows them out. The Doctor is worried by Vaughan, he doesn't blink enough. Vaughan opens a panel to reveal a complex machine made of tubes making an odd noise.

Ah that's good stuff. Up until the last moment that could have been a 1960s spy series, the music especially gives the episode that familiar feel. Then in the last moment we see the hidden instrument in Vaughan's office which diligent viewers may recognise as being not too dissimilar to something we saw in Wheel in Space and in turn give a clue as to who's conducting the anonymous Invasion of the story's title.

The animation works well here, slightly stylised but fits the tone of the story. We know of course what the major characters look like, 3 of the locations and 3 of the sets appear in other episodes giving the animators lots of reference leaving just the sequences involving the truck to be interpreted by the animators. Sadly no photographic reference exists for the location work done on the 3rd September 1968 at Hatherop Road in Coln St Aldwyn, Gloucestershire, where the Lorry picks up The Doctor & friends and where the driver is murdered, or Princedale Road, Notting Hill Gate, where the Tardis crew are dropped off by the car, which was filmed the following day. Although he's bumped off by the guards in this episode there is a brief glimpse of the lorry driver, Murray Evans, in the next episode when we see his photo.

I'm told the animators have inserted an in-joke into the episode: On the wall where Isobel Watkins writes her notes are written the words "Bad Wolf", a nod to the story arc running through the 2005 series of Doctor Who. I can't find that one but I have spotted he number plate on the car, H 23 63, which looks awfully like 11 23 63, the American way of writing 23rd November 1963 the date Doctor Who started!

There's only one major error made by the animators: Zoe is wearing the same costume she's got on for the rest of the story!

Surviving publicity photos, included on the DVD, indicate she's still wearing the sparkly catsuit she had on during the Mind Robber and only changes into the new clothes in Isobel's flat!

ISOBEL: Hey. Don't go. I don't often get the chance of photographing a real model.
ZOE: Oh, all right.
ISOBEL: Come on. Let's get you fixed up with some gear.

MAN: They set up a whole community of their own. Factories. Houses. A vast network of industrial complexes. All of the local people have been bought out. Most of them join the company. The others.....

The concept of building the community round a factory comes from real life. My now home town of Swindon grew drastically when the railway works built here, but the best example of a town being purpose built round a factory is when Cadbury built the Bournville community up round their new factory.

We do need to acknowledge that this episode has the first on screen credit for Terrance Dicks. He had been serving as the show's assistant script editor to Derrick Sherwin from the Web of Fear onwards but he now takes over the Script Editor's post to allow Derrick Sherwin to write this serial, bar a period during the Space Pirates when he was busy writing the War Games with Malcolm Hulke. Sherwin meanwhile would increasingly take on the responsibilities of Producer, especially towards the end of the season when Peter Bryant was taken ill, with the objective of becoming permanent producer on the show. As we'll see things didn't work out like that. So the next few months are a bit of a game of musical chairs with most seats being occupied by more than one person.

Returning to the series is director Douglas Camfield who helmed last year's successful Web of Fear. Camfield had long ago fallen out with the series regular composer Dudley Simpson so instead uses Don Harper and some of his music for the story canbe heard on the album Cold Worlds

The driver of the car that picks the Doctor, Jamie & Zoe up is none other than the director himself making a cameo appearance! He's got his wife in again too: following her appearance in Dalek Masterplan 7 Sheila Dunn provides the voice of the computerised answer phone and reception service. She'll return as Petra Williams in the Camfield directed Inferno.

If Camfield's directing then Walter Randall has to be involved: here he's playing one of the motorcycle patrolmen that shoots down the driver of the truck. He's previously been Tonila in The Aztecs, El Akir in The Crusade, and Hyskos in the Egyptain episodes of The Dalek Masterplan. He'll return as Harry Slocum in Inferno and the Guard Captain in Planet of the Spiders. Away from Doctor Who he was in Quatermass and the Pit as a Sightseer/Man in the Crowd in The Halfmen, The Wild Hunt & Hob, Out of This World as Mute-O in Impostor, Out of the Unknown as Thomas Hobbs in To Lay a Ghost, which survives and can be seen in the Out of the Unknown DVD Set, The Professionals as President Parsali in Mixed Doubles and in Yes Minister as Qumrani in The Moral Dimension.

An IE Guard is a second role for regular Doctor Who supporting artist Dave Carter who was a previously a Male Rebel in The Power of the Daleks. He'll be back as the Old Silurian in Doctor Who and the Silurians, an Ambulance Man in Doctor Who and the Silurians episode 6, a Primord in Inferno, a Museum Attendant in Terror of the Autons episode one, a Prison Officer in The Mind of Evil, a Skybase Guard in The Mutants, a Roundhead Officer in The Time Monster episode three, Sergeant Duffy in Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Grierson in The Android Invasion. The production paperwork indicates he was on location for this episode along with another actor named Terry Duggan, who IMDB doesn't credit for this or any other episode. For them to be on location they'd have had to be involved either with the scene where the truck is stopped at the gates or where the driver is shot. We will come back to this pair later in the story.

Another IE Guard in this episode, who the production paperwork indicates appeared in the studio, is Brian Nolan, on his first appearance in the series. He's back as a Resistance Man in The War Games, a UNIT Soldier in Spearhead from Space & Doctor Who and the Silurians, a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, an Earth Guard in Frontier in Space, a UNIT Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Guard in The Seeds of Doom and the TV Cameraman in The Deadly Assassin part one. He's also been in Doomwatch as a Man in Flood.

JAMIE: Is something wrong?
DOCTOR: Yes. That fellow's not what he seems.
JAMIE: That big idiot? Oh don't worry. I'll soon sort
DOCTOR: No, no, no. I mean Vaughn. The normal range of human blinking is about once every ten or fifteen seconds. Vaughn was blinking far less frequently than that.
JAMIE: Oh, and he's got a forked tail and wee horns.
DOCTOR: Oh I'm not joking, Jamie. Underneath all that charm there was something odd. Sinister. Almost inhuman.

Also returning from Dalek Masterplan is Kevin Stoney as Tobias Vaughn, who was Mavic Chen in the previous tale. Once again he's playing the lead villain here! He'll make a third Doctor Who appearance as Tyrum in Revenge of the Cybermen. Since his last Doctor Who appearance he'd been in The Prisoner: The Chimes of Big Ben as Colonel J and would shortly after make his Out of the Unknown appearance as Calton in The Fosters, which doesn't survive. His Doomwatch appearance follows not long after in the first episode as Prof. Hal Symonds in The Plastic Eaters which you can see on The Doomwatch DVD. He featured in ITV's The Tomorrow People as Steen in The Vanishing Earth and Space: 1999 as Talos in The Last Enemy. In the BBC's I, Claudius he played Thrasyllus in Waiting in the Wings, Queen of Heaven & Reign of Terror before appearing twice in Blake's 7 Councillor Joban in Hostage and Ardus in Animals. Reported deceased by Doctor Who magazine in the 80s he survived till 2008!

VAUGHN: Packer! Bring them to my office.
PACKER: But Mister Vaughn, I haven't interrogated them yet.
VAUGHN: Packer, please do as I say.
PACKER: Yes, sir. Come on. This way.

Packer is a first Doctor Who role for Peter Halliday , but later in this story also serves as the voice artist for both the machine in Vaughan's office and for the as yet unseen alien menace. He returns as the Silurian voice in Doctor Who and the Silurians, the Alien's Voice in The Ambassadors of Death, Pletrac in Carnival of Monsters, a Soldier in City of Death, where he also voices the second Jagaroth, as as the Vicar in Remembrance of the Daleks part two. Before Doctor Who he had appeared in A for Andromeda & The Andromeda Breakthrough as Dr. John Fleming. He'd go on to make an Out of the Unknown with Douglas Camfield in 1969 playing Patrick Wilson in The Last Lonely Man, the only completely surviving third season colour episode which is on the DVD linked to above. He was in UFO as Dr. Segal in A Question of Priorities, a missing Doomwatch episode Say Knife, Fat Man as Rafael Dominguez, The Sweeney as Chief Insp. Gordon in I Want the Man and The Tripods as an Interrogator the last episode of the first series.

DOCTOR: Oh, the address?
ISOBEL: Oh, that's scribbled on the wall too.
DOCTOR: Oh, thank you.
JAMIE: Do you not write anything down on paper at all?
ISOBEL: Well, I'd only lose it if I did. Writing on a wall's much safer. You can't lose a wall, can you?

Playing Isobel Watkins is Sally Faulkner. This is her only Doctor Who appearance but you can see her in The Sweeney as WPC Pat Bond in Jackpot and The Professionals as Anne in You'll Be All Right.

The driver of the car following the Doctor, Tracy, is played by Geoffrey Cheshire who was the Viking Leader in The Time Meddler (director: D Camfield) and then Garge in The Daleks' Master Plan (director.... oh you get the idea). He was also in Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. as a Roboman and the George Lazenby James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service as Toussaint

But making his début in this episode is by far the most important character in this entire serial, and some would say the whole of Doctor Who! John Levene, previously appearing as a Cyberman in the Moonbase and a Yeti in Web of Fear is recast by the director of the latter story as one of the men in the car following the Doctor and Jamie. His character's name is Benton, and that should tell you who the men in the car work for and why tomorrow is such a BIG game changing episode for Doctor Who!