OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 363
STORY NUMBER: 071
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 02 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
"The monsters are a side-issue, Brigadier, a device to clear central London. No, some vast scheme is underway, I'm sure of it, and it's rapidly moving towards its climax!"
Finch objects to the Doctor's scheme as Yates confers with Finch and objects to what he has been asked to do. The Doctor takes his new futuristic car out to take readings on the time fields. Sarah is taken to meet the elders on the ship Ruth & Adam. She recognises them as Lady Cullingford, environmentalist, & Nigel Castle, novelist, while Mark is John Crichton, a British athlete who jumped 2.6362 meters at the last Olympics. The majority of the remaining members of the human race are asleep on one of the seven ships on the voyage to the new Earth like planet. The Doctor tracks the signals to Moorgate tube station where he sees Butler enter a cupboard, a disguised lift, and vanish. Discovering the controls he descends into their base. He finds himself herded back to the lift by a series of closing doors and returned to the underground station where he is attacked by a pterodactyl. Sarah argues with the elders who lock her up forcing her to watch environmental propaganda films. The Doctor brings the Brigadier to Moorgate but they find the lift control mechanism gone. Charles Grover doesn't believe the Doctor's story and shows him files indicating the bunker project under London was abandoned. Grover tells The Doctor that Sarah returned to UNIT HQ and Butler, posing as Grover's chauffeur confirms the story. The Elders decide to destroy Sarah if she doesn't respond. Grover, Finch, Whitaker, Butler & Yates confer and decide to discredit the Doctor. The Doctor has deduced Grover is involved but doesn't know why. Professor Whitaker calls the Doctor and lures him to the hanger where the Tyrannosaur was kept. Returning to the hanger he finds some strange equipment installed. A Stegosaur materialises as the Brigadier arrives with General Finch who has the Doctor arrested for summoning the monsters.
What? You hadn't figured out General Finch was in it too? He's was hanging around with Mike at the start of the first episode and he's regular army, and any member of the regular forces in the Third Doctor stories is either evil, under the control of the enemy or obeying orders from some incompetent. It's not a bad episode at all, but the way we keep cutting back from Sarah to Earth does rather undermine the idea that she's on a spaceship 3 months away from Earth quite quickly. Straight after the cliffhanger reprise we're back in UNIT's temporary HQ and any illusion that Sarah 's months in the future and millions of miles from Earth is rather gone. Perhaps using a wibbly wobbly back in time effect, like between the different Earths in Inferno, might have helped the illusion? I wonder if any thought was given to doing a complete episode on the spaceship? As it is the sequence of the Doctor in the base and being herded out again smacks a little of filling in time!
Playing Ruth is Carmen Silvera. She had previously appeared in The Celestial Toymaker playing Clara the Clown in episode 1 The Celestial Toyroom, the Queen of Hearts in episode 2 The Hall of Dolls and Mrs. Wiggs in episode 3 The Dancing Floor. She doesn't feature in episode 4, the only one which exists. She's now famous for appearing 'Allo 'Allo! as Edith Artois, the wife of bar owner Rene. The series also features several other Doctor Who alumni: Hilary Minster, Maret in Planet of the Daleks & a Thal Soldier in Genesis of the Daleks, played General von Klinkerhoffen while Guy Siner, General Ravon in Genesis of the Daleks was Lt Gruber. John D. Collins, who briefly plays Talor in Arc of Infinity is Flt. Lt. Fairfax, one of the stranded airmen.
Her fellow crew member Adam is played by Brian Badcoe who'd appeared in the Doomwatch Train and De-Train as Stephens. This episode exists and is on The Doomwatch DVD.
A pair of Army Soldiers accompany General Finch at the end of the episode: Nigel Winder was a Roundhead in Time Monster and plays an Exillon in the next story Death to the Daleks. Tim Blackstone returns as an SRS Bouncer/ SRS Officers/ SRS Audience member in Robot and a Soldier in Genesis of the Daleks.
This episode introduces us the Whomobile, a vehicle Jon Pertwee has build for his personal appearances and persuaded Barry Letts to use in the show. It's not quite finished yet, missing it's roof and sporting a temporary windscreen. Both Jon Pertwee & Elizabeth Sladen tell stories of their trip to work during the location filming of this story and driving down Kingston Upon Thames high street and getting a lot of attention.
The Doctor's journey in the Whomobile starts from Northfields School, now Clementine Close in West Ealing, which we saw the back of in episode 1 as The Doctor & Sarah escaped from the detention center.
He then continues down Long Lane, also seen in episode one during the deserted London sequence, and onto the adjoining Lindsey Street.
We get another Kingston Upon Thames location in this story as the Doctor pauses to take readings in South Lane, just south of the town centre and adjacent to the previously seen Kent Road location.
The Doctor finishes his journey on Moorfields, at Moorgate Tube Station.
Scenes shot near Moorgate Tube seem to deliberately invoke the Underground's most famous Doctor Who appearance Web of Fear with very similar shots of Newspaper Billboards announcing a disaster and closed Underground station gates. >
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