Tuesday 22 September 2015

The Invasion of Time

Season 15, Story 6/6, Serial 4Z: 6 x 25min episodes, 4th February to 11th March 1978, Writer: David Agnew (Antony Read & Graham Williams), Director: Gerald Blake, Script Editor: Antony Read, Producer: Graham Williams



Good old David Agnew...



Viewing today's story from my private box. Where's my prawn sandwiches?

Nice space ship but that overhead style of shot is nicked from Star Wars.

We seem to have joined mid-story - the Doctor's mid-conversation with some grey ovals.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H Some very cone-headed Sontarans, perhaps?

Nah, can't see any Sontarans showing up in this story. How likely is that?

M@nterik@Manterik
 They would never attack Gallifrey.third doctor said so in Time Warrior.

Leela's outfit looks really odd in this.

K9 is having a good sulk.
Agent S(ean Bassett)@WhoPotterVian It looks like she got drunk and K9 is analysing the alcohol levels in her body.

Result: Not enough! (to cope with Tom!)
Agent S(ean Bassett)@WhoPotterVian Back to the TARDIS's secret stash of wine it is, then!

MAW Holmes@MAW_H "Gotta get me a may-aan..."



That's a weird looking space pen Tom's got there. His scarf is absolutely enormous in this. 
M@nterik@Manterik speed is vital doctor. Bloody druggies.

"Order K9 to tell you to shut up."
"How dare you!"
"Adopt silent mode, mistress!"

Chris Tranchell played an airport security type in The Faceless Ones & now does the Gallifreyan equivalent.
Davad@davadsteel He also presented "Play School" around this time. I got very excited when Andred popped up one morning!

Tell you what, since The Deadly Assassin, Gallifrey's gone awfully tatty looking.
M@nterik@Manterik Milton Johns always plays a goodie, have you noticed?
MAW Holmes@MAW_H "What the Capitol really needs is some ghastly plastic seating to cheer it up..." sounds like a typical government response.
Vincent Jones@Bunny_Snuggler Love Deadly Assassin - bloody hate the Invasion if time !

It has its' moments but yeah, far from a classic and not a patch on the Deadly Assassin.
Vincent Jones@Bunny_Snuggler Nice to know it's not just me! ( Hinchcliffe left, and production values fell like a stone! )

Chris Barrie's still doing that David Coleman impression. "Extraordinary!"

Tom tries to persuade K9 to try a jelly baby.

Blimey! That's the TARDIS bathroom?
Agent S(ean Bassett)@WhoPotterVian I like to think it's where all the companions go when they get fed up of the Doctor. Ian and Barbara probably went there to drown their sorrows over their inability to return to 1963.

The TARDIS bathroom even has its own inflatables.
50dw50@50dw50 ahem!

MAW Holmes@MAW_H "Gotta cool off, otherwise I'll just jump the first person I meet..." thought Leela...



The guards' uniforms are actually quite a good design.

The mystery conspirators grow impatient...

...as the TARDIS arrives on Gallifrey.

The Doctor's off to see his old teacher, Cardinal Borusa.

It's taken him a series & a half to realise that Goth dying in The Deadly Assassin makes him President of Gallifrey.

Tom is *really* mad in this. Angry, sulky, sombre and dark. Is this really the Doctor? Or has he been replaced?

The aliens seem to talk as if it *is* him. 

He must be up to something. 

The weasly Castellan knows which side his bread is buttered.

The Doctor seems to enjoy having the Castellan sucking up to him.

This has turned into Gallifreyan Grand Designs as Tom decides to redecorate.

He wants the room lined with lead so Superman can't see what colour undies he's got on.

That's not paranoid or anything, right?

Leela and Andred are rowing about what to wear. 

And knives. "And don't call me madam!"

Borusa walks the Doctor through his forthcoming inauguration.

Leela does seem to respect Andred standing up to her. There might be something going on here...

Love the gossipy old Time-Lords.
50dw50@50dw50 "gold usher? all time probe and no knickers if you ask me duckie"

This OTT grandiose organ music is not exactly in keeping with those red plastic cushions.

Tom's come in his nighty. So to speak.

"Accept the Rod of Rassilon!" Fnur fnur!

He's been given the Matrix. Tom knows Kung Fu now.

The matrix has given Tom a headache! Know the feeling.


50dw50@50dw50 Tom always gave good pain.

The Doctor needs a doctor. Interesting that they say the old Hartnell-ish time-lord is "young".

Do all Time-Lords try to hang on to their 1st incarnation that bit too long, perhaps?

Now he's turned on Leela and ordered her off Gallifrey! He's gone mad!
Tim@parks8472 Not surprising; the all Jelly-Baby diet was bound to send him off his rocker sooner or later.
M@nterik@Manterik It really gives Leela a chance to be more than just a generic companion.
50dw50@50dw50 i remember finding nasty Tom very upsetting as a child.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H  at least he doesn't try to throttle Leela... ("I'd like to see you try, Evil One...!")

Now Tom's talking to himself.

And the sonic screwdriver.

"You must admit, you do like the sound of your own voice..." Hark at him.

Lovely touch of Tom playing hopscotch down the corridor as Leela looks on, utterly perplexed, then smiles!

They really should have let Tom have that talking cabbage on his shoulder for the 50th.

Tim@parks8472 I think a couple more stories of Tom going sans-companion would have been great.

"Is the President by any chance nipping out for a swift half?"
MAW Holmes@MAW_H "The Old Peculiar... of Rassilon"

Well, if it has to be a half...
Paul Cooke ‏@paulvcooke good drink that Old Tom. The one with ginger is very nice. :-)

Yes, Ginger Tom is lovely. Though I'm probably a bit biased...!

Simon Mallinson@Mallyman72 beware of the evil of old Tom and whatever you do don't drink 8 pints of it like I did.


Crikey! Sir Thomas of Baker could hardly manage that, I'm sure!

Andred is crazy for Leela. "Did you see her?!"

Now the Doctor's locked Leela out of the TARDIS. 

Must have been something she said.

Leela's better off out of it; this is just Tom and K9 wibbling at each other.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H  "Alone at last, Master"

The "art" around Gallifrey is... interesting.

You can see the inkling of the idea for Romana in the character of Rodan. 
M@nterik@Manterik Rodan !!!! Mmmmmmmmm. Teenage fantasies reborn. i remember the 12 year old me having a twitch in the loins for Rodan, even though not sure what it meant .
Pierre@DWfan9 ya but I still miss leela. Pleasant sort of a savage once she outs the knife down

James Gent@jamesgent76 Aw Rodan was lovely.

50dw50@50dw50 first Timelady since susan


Makes a change for her, though. Isn't she normally smashing up Tokyo with Godzilla?

MAW Holmes@MAW_H I wonder if Graham Williams ever considered just actually using Rodan as the next companion?

You kind of wonder why they didn't just do that, really. Maybe they thought after this she was too well-adventured i.e. because Romana was supposed to be a total novice that had never had a day out of the academy.


The Doctor emerges to tell Andred he was hiding from Leela. 

Poor guy just can't understand why you would, so he consoles him with a jelly baby.

The sneaky Castellan watches as the Doctor and Andred leave the Panopticon.

"Hello, Commander? I've got the keys!" One of the most banal characters in the history of the show...!
MAW Holmes@MAW_H "I've got the peas" CUT!!! "Can we go again please?"
Tim@parks8472 "YOU'VE got the keys??? I thought I was the Key-Master!"

Other Pete@other_pete Key Guy is ACUTALLY behind the whole thing and seizes control once the Doctor's cleared off. Like Janet in Terror of the Vervoids.


It all makes sense now!

The Doctor makes it back to the Chancellor's rooms in time to make the Castellan look daft in front of Borusa.

He angrily orders everyone out, and seems to be under some enormous strain.

K9's on a mission...

"Oh, if one must, one must..." Leela is always that bit more sarky than people credit her with.

Notice Rodan's going with Tom's preferred pronunciation of "Gally-free".
Pierre@DWfan9 i think Drax pronounced it the same in The Armageddon Factor.

Yep, the season after this. "Remember me to Gallifree!"

After inhaling some of Tom's breath in those earlier closeups, K9's got a hangover so kills the alarm.

Tom's laughing at that killer tinfoil. Not surprised!
 

50dw50@50dw50 he knew he was in a turkey so he invited the tin foil. It seems crazy to spend money on new sontarans for two episodes and have cheepo tinfoil for four.

So hang on, aliens are invading Gallifrey and the Doctor's helping them? He's turned traitor?
Pierre@DWfan9 maybe he's pulling an Adric?
So to speak...

The wibbly foil aliens are the Vardans; they're pleased with the Doctor's progress. "You could be a first grade dictator."

The Vardans want the Doctor to find the Great Key...
Tim@parks8472 Then why are they talking to Tom, they need to talk to the little chappie earlier that had the keys!

Leela persuades Rodan that they need to get out before the invaders take over completely.


The Doctor checks that Borusa has decorated to his instructions. "AS you can see, it looks like the bloody Series 8 title sequence!"

"Good, then at last we can talk..."

Leela and Rodan bump into Andred.

Wow. It's taken till part 3 for the Doctor to stop acting mysteriously.

Probably a massive risk, but a great idea. Tom at the height of his popularity, the show could cope.

Love Borusa's little babble about tea which proves the Doctor's point for him - the other Time-Lords are too single minded to pull the wool with the psychic Vardans.

Andred stares longingly as he releases Leela into the wild, knowing she'll come back to him... Maybe?

The restored film footage of Leela and Rodan in outer Gallifrey looks incredible. Weird light; deliberate I guess.

"I'm fairly sure that's Crosby..." Niche one for you, there.

50dw50@50dw50 where are the silver trees?

MAW Holmes@MAW_H Invading the planet, it seems... Does this mean Gallifreyan environmentalists are known as Silvers?
50dw50@50dw50 it would be dangerous to vote silver, you could end up electing cybermen.

Vote Vardan, get Sontaran. Bloody politics.

Max Faulkner! there'll be some stunt work here. 

Right on cue, Leela throws him.
Chris@KosmicKris The time war will sort this lot out!

Rodan's gimmick is Smarties instead of Jelly Babies. 

She's like a cross between the 1st Romana and Peri.
Chris@KosmicKris I always had a not so secret crush on Rodan :)

Even if you have the CGI switched on, the Vardans still *sound* like tinfoil; guess it's a bit electrical sounding.
50dw50@50dw50 there are so many actors with great voices, why employ these? they needed a Blessed or a Thorne to make them a threat.

"There's no help out there..." I see what he did there.

Now the Vardans want the Doctor to dismantle the quantum forcefield. It's just one thing after another with them.

"What colour would you prefer?"
"Orange."
"Orange? Ugh, they're the most boring."
"Jelly Baby racist."

Hang on isn't this guy moaning about being in his 10th incarnation the one the others were calling "young" earlier? Maybe they're all on their second regeneration cycles...

Andred sends him to the growing resistance in the wastelands.

K9 continues tracking down the Vardan homeworld...

...and the Doctor comes to check how he's getting on.

"The Castellan would have me shot!"
"That's alright, I'll have him shot."

The Doctor hooks K9 up to the Matrix, so now he knows Kung Fu too.

"In the name of liberty and honour, I sentence you to death, traitor!" Steady on!

Halfway through now. Hard to see how "David Agnew" is going to get another 3 episodes worth out of this...
Chris@KosmicKris  The Terrance Dicks “Six Episode Plot Twist Generator” ™ must have been deployed :)


MAW Holmes@MAW_H Ah, part four... the one I had to miss because of Louise Moody's birthday party... #NeverForget

Chris@KosmicKris This is the one episode where the TARDIS Console Room looks smaller on the inside!! Very strange camera angles…!

"Don't point that thing at me, I am the President, you know!"


Andred's gun won't work in the TARDIS but K9's stun ray does, so it's not clear how, why or even if the "temporal grace" thing is true. 
MAW Holmes@MAW_H Although it does seem to have a Soda Syphon setting...

Dispenses pints of Old Tom...

"But you have access to the greatest source of knowledge in the universe."
"Well, I do talk to myself sometimes, yes."

Andred's been a bit slow on the uptake, but doesn't look too convinced by the Doctor's plan.
Cameron Yarde Jnr@CameronYardeJnr
The Doctor: "Look up Andred. It's a tweet from @TygerWhoCame2T go on look!"
Andred: "You're not tricking me!"

lol! :-D Nicely done, sir!

Now the weasly Castellan's sucking up to the Vardans.

If the Doctor takes the barrier down, anyone'll be able to invade, though, not just the Vardans. No worries there, right?

Leela tries to train the Time-Lords to use bows & arrows. Needs a training montage. Even Rocky had a montage.
50dw50@50dw50 she really should have become the leader of the outsiders at the end, it would have been far more in character.
While the Doctor consults the Matrix on how to shut down the transduction barrier...

...Andred's tweeting from the TARDIS. "Stuck with the tin dog. FML."

The Doctor gets to work on lowering the barrier...

...as Leela leads her "warriors" back to the Capitol.

Tom's got the shakes. What time does the BBC bar open?

The Vardan ship moves in, and the invaders' true form is revealed...

*THAT* is what the Vardans really look like? Bring back the tin foil!

Gallifrey's had it now, Leela and the Outsiders are on tour...
MAW Holmes@MAW_H "Leela and the Outsiders"split! Toyah goes solo!

Andred makes it to the safe room so he can take his special helmet off.

The Vardans realize something is wrong when the Doctor locks himself in the safe room.

The Doctor & K9 have successfully located the Vardan's homeworld (cos there are no maps on Gallifrey, obviously)...

...and put it in a timeloop, banishing them forever.

"We've won again!" Whatevs.

Can't believe they wasted budget on those Vardan costumes; they were only in it for 5 minutes.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H "Gallifrey's future has been assured! Huzzah!" - The length of a politician's promise

Oh, it's all over, and the Vardans are defeated. Good. Hang on, now it's the Sontarans! Bad.

That is a genuinely great cliffhanger; false sense of security then the sucker punch - the Vardans were being used all along.

The Sontarans look great there. And there's 4 of them - the most we've seen up to now!


This Sontaran sounds a bit cockney, but I like the subtle tweak of the helmet design.

MAW Holmes@MAW_H "You wot?"
50dw50@50dw50 and they have the correct number of fingers this time!

"The glorious Sontaran army reckons its numbers in hundreds of millions, you slaaaaaag!"

Borusa turns on an ear-splitting alarm that allows the Doctor and pals to give the Sontarans the slip.

Now the Castellan's in with the Sontarans. What a pushover.

Leela's combined voice- and knife- throwing bit is great.

Not sure about Tom's cravat.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H Napkin...

Now they alls in a chase!


The gang make it back to the cog room.

One of these Sontarans is a right lazy sod. Stor gives the orders, two of them get stuck in & he just stands around.
Angie Snowe@ajsnowe They'd make great road workmen wouldn't they? Except one works while two watch.

They use the secret passage to escape to Borusa's office...

...just in the nick of time.

Leela, Andred, Rodan and the Outsiders give the Sontarans the run around...

...finally making it back to the safety of the TARDIS with a little help from K9.

Oh dear, Tom's got his mits on the key!

Tom Baker with absolute power - just think about that for a moment...
Chris@KosmicKris Is there a better ‘oily bureaucrat’ than Milton Johns? He never gets the credit he deserves for some really fine acting.
Angie Snowe@ajsnowe I remember the days when you couldn't watch three channels without Milton Johns appearing in something.


Borusa has a personal force shield that he's able to extend around the Doctor, but the battery's low...

One last dash and they make the safety of the TARDIS.

Stor sets the Castellan to rustling up some reinforcements.

The Doctor spots Andred & Leela getting comfy in the TARDIS and quickly acts the gooseberry.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H Needs to give him a quick dose of the old Clifford Jones frost, if you ask me..

Stor deals with technological problems in the correct manner.

Rodan really is just proto-Romana here.

Looks like the Castellan's pulled the wibbly lever!

End of part 5!
MAW Holmes@MAW_H Had these last 2 eps on (audio) cassette for years. Some of it was lovely, some things I couldn't work out at all...

Was wondering when the Sontarans would take their helmets off.

Another non-identical clone!
Angie Snowe@ajsnowe Looks like he peeked in a mirror and just realised that himself...
Simon Pittman@LibraryPlayer Perhaps they experiment on themselves, adapt, etc. in different battles/wars which is why they look different? ;)
Guess there's nothing to say each batch isn't a different template from the last batch, only those in the same batch alike.

Quite hard to imagine these hospital corridors as part of the TARDIS, even though you know it could be anything.
Bek Hobbes@Greebobek I love the TARDIS interior in this story...

The repetition gag is a bit repetitious.

The repetition gag is a bit repetitious.

After Leela stands on the Doctor's scarf...

...they make it to the TARDIS garden centre.

The Sontarans bring out the big guns.

"If I had a dog like you in my unit..."
"Yes?"

"...I'd make him a sergeant."
"Okay, not where I thought that was going."

The Doctor leaves Rodan with a job to do.


The Sontarans have the Doctor's scent.

Rodan works on the Doctor's powerful weapon.

While Stor breaks on through to the other side...

...Borusa chillaxes by the pool. "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs..."

The Doctor denies all knowledge of the Titanic sinking.

The Sontarans get a little bit too excited by being poolside...

...and one of them takes a glorious spill.

Time for Andred & Leela to play doctors and nurses.

Leela's very keen on helping Andred when his arm is injured.

Definitely something going on there.

Back to the garden centre...

...where the Doctor lays a trap.

One of the Sontarans just got eaten by a squeaky venus flytrap Triffid thing.

Tom's on the Colonel Bogey again...

Stor releases his trooper and dispatches him to destroy the power unit that's scrambling their sensors.

The Castellan shows the trooper to the TARDIS' gallery.

Not pictured: Genuine fake Mona Lisa or the Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H  Anything by Rodin?

Only a Lautrec.


Stor's ploddy tune is no Empire March, is it?


The Doctor has assembled the forbidden demat gun, much to Borusa's horror...

...but when the Doctor lines up his shot...

...Stor pulls a grenade.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H "Typical Sontaran... bringing a grenade to a gunfight..."

Look at the size of the Doctor's weapon. Fnur fnur.

Not too keen on the Doctor shooting someone to save the day but it is a Time-Lord time gun sort of thing.

Simon Threadgold@dimwittedly The Man Who Never Would... unless he just decides to, in which case run for you life the nutter's got a gun!!!

And unlike the rest of us, the Doctor gets to forget most of what just happened. "My induction?!"

By rights, some other aliens should pop up for a go now.

Aha! Leela's shacking up with Andred. 
50dw50@50dw50 it must be the uniform he has nothing else going for him.

K9's quitting as well! They're all quitters!

I'll miss you too Savage... 


...but not you K9 - here's your replacement already!
MAW Holmes@MAW_H In another cupboard, the Autoleela...



TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... Invasion of the Dinosaurs

2 comments:

  1. No comments on the Castellan disabling the TARDIS' temporal grace in the gallery room?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Also: what a rubbish exit for Leela. She was an excellent companion. Marrying her off is like someone trying to find the ultimate revenge for her being a fierce woman companion.

    She was tough and smart, even though she wasn't educated. She was always ready to fight the fight. Everywhere they went, she'd pick up the local weaponry, unlike most other characters ever. It's not that I'm a gun fiend, but whenever people are under attack by badguys, in dangerous places, so many stories have the badguys weapons left laying around on the floor as the badguys are knocked out, as if they're useless in the hands of the good guys.

    Oh and Rodan... my goodness that woman playing her (Hilary Ryan) reminded me of an alternate timeline Peri/Nicola Bryant. Is Peri somehow sent to live in the past on Gallifrey and somehow an ancestor of Rodan? Or a descendent??

    ReplyDelete