OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 361
STORY NUMBER: 071
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 19 January 1974
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Paddy Russell
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 10.1 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - U.N.I.T Files: Invasion of the Dinosaurs and the Android Invasion
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video
"It's weird seeing London like this. All those deserted streets."
"I rather like it....."
Fleeing the battle The Doctor & Sarah hide in a garage where they confront a peasant from the middle ages who vanishes before their eyes. They are found by the Brigadier and taken to UNIT's temporary HQ where he explains how the Dinosaurs started to appear in central London. The Doctor meets General Finch who immediately dismisses the Doctor's theory that the dinosaurs are being brought from the past. The Doctor & Brigadier go to a nearby sighting of a stegosaurus which the Doctor studies. Mike Yates expresses the opinion that he likes London better deserted with cleaner air. As the Doctor approaches the stegosaurus to capture it, it vanishes in front of their eyes. The Doctor deduces someone in central London is bringing the Dinosaurs to this time. In a hidden control room Butler plans the next time transference to bring dinosaurs to London but Professor Whitaker wishes to get on with the main project. The Doctor builds a weapon to immobilise a dinosaur, explaining it to Mike. General Finch wants Sarah evacuated but Sarah gets Mike to get her a pass to stay in London. Butler & Whitaker are visited by their friend from UNIT: Captain Yates. The Doctor is visited by Charles Grover, the minister responsible for the crisis. Yates warns Butler & Whitaker that the Doctor can trace them and they fear he will jeopardise Operation Golden age and he is ordered to sabotage the Doctor's weapon. The Doctor believes the the Dinosaurs are being used to clear London in order for something to be carried out in secret. The Doctor goes to capture a platiosaurus but discovers the gun doesn't work as the platiosaur vanishes and a tyrannosaurus bears down on him!
MIKE YATES IS A DIRTY STINKING TRAITOR! Jaw Drops! Here's a character that we've seen on screen for the last 3 years serving with UNIT and helping the Doctor yet here he's conspiring with those bringing the dinosaurs to London and sabotaging the Doctor's efforts. What's happened to Mike between the end of the Green Death, where something rather nasty happened to him, and here? This is a huge thing for the series to have done and they're to be applauded for it. Real character development. We're also getting a hint of environmentalist leanings from Mike, judging by his speech to Sarah.
YATES: Well, after all that business in Wales with the giant maggots, I had to have a spot of leave. Suppose it was a reaction, really.In the Green Death the environmentalists were the good guys - are they the bad guys here?
SARAH: Oh, I'm not surprised.
YATES: As soon as I get back, of course, all this business blows up.
SARAH: It's weird seeing London like this. All those deserted streets.
YATES: I rather like it.
BENTON: Excuse me, sir.
OGDEN: Trap two, over.
YATES: Have you noticed the air?
SARAH: Hmm?
YATES: It's clean. No cars, no people. Do you know yesterday I saw a fox in Piccadilly?
SARAH: And nightingales in Berkeley Square?
YATES: It's not impossible.
SARAH: No. No, I like London the way it was, traffic jams and all.
YATES: Yes, I expect you're right.
Already there's enough hints for the viewer to join up the dots and work out who else is involved.
How many sugars does the Doctor take in his tea? He's piling them in for a while as we watch!
His dinosaur stun gun is reused prop from Frontier in Space but it's more familiar here as publicity photos taken during this story keep cropping up showing Pertwee holding it!
The Doctor points out that platiosaur is more commonly known as the brontosaur: in fact the brontosaur, a popular name for the large long necked & tail four legged dinosaur now usually referred to as a brachiosaur, doesn't actually exist.
Most of the major guest cast for this serial appear in this episode.
John Bennett plays General Finch in every episode of the series, the only member of the main guest cast to appear in episode one.. He'll be back, somewhat controversially wearing oriental make up, as Li H'sen Chang in The Talons of Weng-Chiang. He was in I, Claudius as Xenophon in Fool's Luck, Survivors as Jim in Sparks,Blake's 7 as Coser in Weapon, The Professionals as Inspector Truitt in Backtrack, Alien Nation: Millennium as Officer Laskau, and Jonathan Creek as Frank Geiger in The Three Gamblers. On the big screen he was in The Fifth Element as a Priest and Minority Report as Adulation #4/
Sir Charles Grover is Noel Johnson was King Thous in The Underwater Menace. He was the original radio voice of Dick Barton special agent on BBC radio and Dan Dare/a> on Radio Luxembourg. On television he was in An Age of Kings, the BBC adaptation of William Shakespeare's history plays as Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk in Henry IV Part One The Hollow Crown, Part 3 The New Conspiracy and Part 4 Uneasy Lies The Head, the Duke of Exeter in Henry V Part 1 Signs of War & Part 2 The Band of Brothers, Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter in Henry VI Part 1 The Red Rose And The White and the Duke of Norfolk in Richard III Part 2 The Boar Hunt. He played J.M. Osborne in both A for Andromeda & The Andromeda Breakthrough. He appears as General Short in Thirteen to Centaurus an existing first season episode of Out of the Unknown which can be found on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set. In Doomwatch he's Priestland in The Logicians, which also exists and is on The Doomwatch DVD. In Inspector Morse he plays Butler in The Sins of the Fathers. On the big screen he's in the Roger Moore James Bond film For Your Eyes Only as the Vice Admiral and in Withnail and I he's Pub Land Lord The General.
Peter Miles, previously Dr. Lawrence in the Silurians, is Professor Whitaker here a year before his defining Doctor Who role as Nyder in Genesis of the Daleks. In Blake's 7 he plays Secretary Rontane twice, in the first season's Seek-Locate-Destroy and the second season's Trial. In Doomwatch he's Cook in Hear No Evil, and in Moonbase 3 he's Prof. Heinz Laubenthal in Departure and Arrival and Behemoth. He's in The Sweeney as Bradshaw in Golden Boy and Survivors as Lincoln in Gone to the Angels.
We've also seen the actor playing Butler, Martin Jarvis, before as Hilio in The Web Planet, and he too will return, this time as the Governor in Vengeance on Varos. He's had a long career on screen: you can see him in Inspector Morse as Randall Rees in Greeks Bearing Gifts and Endeavour as Henry Broom in Rocket. I don't believe I've ever credited anyone in Doctor Who as appearing in Space: Above and Beyond before where he plays Major Cyril MacKendrick in Pearly.
James Marcus, the Peasant, played Rask in Underworld. Outside of Doctor Who, he played Georgie in A Clockwork Orange. In UFO he was a SHADO Operative in Mindbender, in The Sweeney he plays Myles in Cover Story and in The Professionals he is D.C. Jack in Take Away.
Regular extra Pat Gorman appears in this episode as a UNIT Corporal and we'll assume you know who he is! But just in case you don't, and since we've not had them yet this season, now's a good time for a ceremonial reading of his full Doctor Who credits: he was a Freedom Fighter/Rebel in Dalek Invasion of Earth, a Planetarian in Mission to the Unknown: Delegate Detective thinks he's Sentreal the black Christmas tree, a Greek Soldier in The Myth Makers, a Guard in Massacre, a Worker in The War Machines, a Monk in The Abominable Snowmen, a Guard in The Enemy of the World, a Cyberman in The Invasion, a Technician in The Seeds of Death, a Military Policeman in The War Games episode two, the Silurian Scientist in The Silurians, a Technician in The Ambassadors of Death, a Primord in Inferno, the Auton Leader in Terror of the Autons, a Primitive and Long in Colony in Space, a Coven Member in The Dæmons, a Guard & Film Cameraman in Day of the Daleks, a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, a UNIT Soldier in The Three Doctors, a Presidential Guard and Sea Devil in in Frontier in Space, and a Global Chemicals Guard / 'Nuthatch' Resident in The Green Death He returns as a Guard in The Monster of Peladon, a Soldier in Planet of the Spiders, the Gate Guard in Robot part one, a Thal Soldier in Genesis of the Daleks, a Cyberman/Dead Crewman in Revenge of the Cybermen, a Guard in The Seeds of Doom, a Soldier/Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, a Chancellery Guard in The Deadly Assassin, a Medic in The Invisible Enemy, a Kro in The Ribos Operation, the Pilot in The Armageddon Factor, a Thug in City of Death part one, a Gundan in Warriors' Gate, a Foster in The Keeper of Traken, Grogan in Enlightenment, a Soldier in The Caves of Androzani, a Slave Worker and a Cyberman in Attack of the Cybermen. Of those it' easiest to spot his face in Abominable Snowmen, Planet of the Spiders, Robot and The Armageddon Factor! He's got several Blake's 7 appearances to his name as a Scavenger in Deliverance, Federation Trooper / Rebel in Voice from the Past, Trantinian planet hopper Captain in Gambit, Death Squad Trooper in Powerplay, Federation Trooper in The Harvest of Kyros & Rumours of Death, Hommik Warrior in Power, Helot in Traitor and a Federation Trooper in Games & Blake. We was also in Adam Adamant Lives! as a Guard in More Deadly Than the Sword, a Man at Club in Beauty Is an Ugly Word, a Coven Member in The Village of Evil, a War Office Guard / TA Soldier in D for Destruction and an S.S. Guard in A Sinister Sort of Service. He appears once in The Prisoner as a Hospital Orderly in Hammer Into Anvil and just once in Doomwatch as Man in Hear No Evil. His Porridge appearance in the second Christmas Special The Desperate Hours is another easy spot: he's the Prison Officer who comes into the loos as Fletcher and friends are sampling the contraband home brew. He was in two episodes of The Sweeney as a Flying Squad Officer in Thou Shalt Not Kill (director: D Camfield) & Latin Lady, and two The Tomorrow People stories: Worlds Away as the Vesh Hunter and War of the Empires as a US Marine. In the BBC The Day of the Triffids he played a Blind Man in episode 5 while in Douglas Camfield & Robert Holmes adaptation of The Nightmare Man he played The Killer with Camfield using him again as a Legionnaire in Beau Geste. He was in The Professionals five times: as a Golfer in Killer with a Long Arm, a CI5 Agent in Close Quarters & Servant of Two Masters, a Security Man in Weekend in the Country and the Police Superintendent at inquest in Discovered in a Graveyard. He's a Policeman again in The Young Ones: Interesting and towards the end of his career Russell T Davies uses him in Dark Season as a Heavy.
We're back the Kent Road location in Kingston, where the Doctor & Sarah were arrested in episode one, for more filming in this episode as the Doctor & Unit confront a stegosaurus. This sequence was shot the same day as the episode 1 footage on 27th September 1973. The location is now under the Seven King's car park but most of the buildings seen in the background still exist. The white edged brick building in the background, seen over Corporal Gorman's left shoulder, is the Kingston Guildhall where the Royal Borough's council sits. Another building, the one with four chimney stack, currently houses a restaurant and was the site of a 371 bus crash some years ago the scars of which are still visible on the walls. When I first brought my wife Liz to Kingston she parked her car on the road very close to where the Doctor & Brigadier are standing..... and then had to leave it there for a week when she discovered the keys had gone missing! Did we mention the Riverside Vegetaria restaurant round the corner from this site already? We did, oh well, another plug, it really is that good :-)
Which brings us onto the matter of the two soldiers on the ground with Corporal Gorman: There's five soldiers listed in the DWAS Production File as being in this episode. I can recognise three of them, as we'll see in a bit, ruling them out of being in the scenes at Kingston which leaves two: Ian Elliot and Dennis Plenty.
Ian Elliot is in the middle of both shots above: he was a UNIT Soldier in Inferno, an Auton Daffodil Man Auton in Terror of the Autons, a UNIT Soldier in The Mind of Evil, a Colonist in Colony in Space, a Villager in The Dæmons, a Guard Warrior in The Mutants and a Unit Trooper in Time Monster. He returns as a Villager in Planet of the Spiders, an Android Villager in The Android Invasion, a Guard in The Seeds of Doom and a Haemovore in The Curse of Fenric. In Doomwatch he's an Ambulance Driver in Tomorrow, the Rat, a Man in You Killed Toby Wren, a Man in No Room for Error, a Man in Flight Into Yesterday, a Manservant in High Mountain and a Man in Flood.
The other soldier is to the right is Dennis Plenty who'd previously been a Tavern Customer & a Guard in The Massacre, a Worker / Soldier in The War Machines, an English Soldier in the Highlanders, a Submarine Rating & Naval Base Sailor in the Sea Devils,a Solos Guard & Skybase Guard in The Mutants, Earth, Prison & Presidential Guards in Frontier in Space and a Security Guard in The Green Death. He returns as an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks, a Guard in Planet of the Spiders and a Soldier, Brethren member, Entertainer & Guard in The Masque of Mandragora. In UFO he was Lt. David Worth in Identified and one of the SHADO Mobile 1 Personnel in Computer Affair. In Doomwatch he is a Man in Flood and he's in out favourite Adam Adamant Lives! episode D for Destruction playing a RA Camp Guard and appears as a man in a 1901 photo in the later episode Black Echo. His Fawlty Towers episode is A Touch of Class where he plays a PC and he's a Technician in the Moonbase 3 episodes Achilles Heel, Castor and Pollux & View of a Dead Planet. Although he doesn't appear in the final film Plenty served as the model for the original Stormtrooper armour used in Star Wars.
My grateful thanks to Toby Hadoke for helping to clarify that the soldier in the greener uniform is Dennis Plenty!
The fourth member of this team, on an opposing rooftop is David Billa. He first appeared as a Guard in The Savages then played a German Soldier in The War Games episode one, German / Roman Soldiers / Alien Technician in The War Games episode four and a Time Lord Technician in The War Games episode ten, a Waxworks Visitor/Auton in Spearhead from Space, a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a UNIT Soldier in Three Doctors, a Prison Guard & Earth Guard in Frontier in Space, a Spiridon in Planet of the Daleks and a UNIT Soldier in The Green Death. He returns as a Soldier/Thal Soldier in Genesis of the Daleks and a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen. In Moonbase 3 he's a Technician in Departure and Arrival and Behemoth while in Doomwatch he's a Man in Flood.
The same four actors again play soldiers in the scenes shot at the Elderberry Road Electricity Substation 2 days later on 29th September 1973.
Meanwhile the battle filmed at The Straight on the 25th Sept, the same day and near the Southall Gas Works location in episode 1, features Steve Ismay & Pat Milner, both of whom were in the army patrol at that location.
In 1976 when the archive was audited for a Doctor Who documentary and then again in 1978 when Ian Levene first came to the BBC looking to buy episodes of Doctor Who the film and video library possessed no copies of Invasion of the Dinosaurs. In 1976 BBC Enterprises had black & white film copies of the first three episodes, the last episodes of Doctor Who to be telerecorded onto black & white film, but by 1978 these had been destroyed. And yet by 1981 transmission tapes of episodes 2-6 now resided in the film & video library. The original tapes were pulled out of storage for the story's release on video and were found to be covered in British Rail transit labels. In 1974 BBC Wales had opted out of showing Doctor Who on a Saturday evening instead showing a regional music show Gwerin 74. That year Doctor Who was shown on a Monday night (Time Warrior 1), Tuesday night (Time Warrior 2 - Invasion of the Dinosaurs 1) and then Sunday afternoons (Invasion of the Dinosaurs 2 onwards) This in itself may have seen Invasion of the Dinosaurs 1 separated from it's brethren. The theory is that BBC Wales accidentally held onto the tapes for longer than necessary only returning them at a later date accounting for their 1976 absence and yet their presence in 1981.
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