Geek Syndicate
Why The Invasion and not the oft-lauded Tomb
of the Cybermen? For one thing, Invasion
manages to keep a momentum for eight episodes. For another, it has what to my mind is
the best team of regulars ever to man the TARDIS. It also introduces an element to the series that would become the very premise of the
show for the first few years of the 1970s – UNIT.
I think its greatest success is this: It manages
to maintain an intriguing mystery for four episodes before the Cybermen are revealed. This
almost splits the story into two parts: the first
is a missing person investigation that grows
into something larger, the second an alien invasion story!
The story is one of the earliest to really make
reference to previous adventures. We reminded
of the Doctor and Jamie’s previous Cyber-encounters – which include an unseen adventure
as the Cyber-Planner recognises the two from
“Planet 14”. Realising what time era they have
landed in leads our heroes to seek out allies
from The Web of Fear and to stumble across a
military group spawned from that adventure.
These little nods to the past are an unexpected early start to building a coherent continuity to a television serial that was designed to
be watched and forgotten. At this time there
were no commercially available video recorders and so no chance to re-watch a story. It’s
nice to think that early viewers were rewarded
with these nods.
Even though Jon Pertwee would spend a few
years working for UNIT, I think The Invasion actually manages to show that the organisation
is a global operation better than many later
offerings. Here, UNIT is based from a mobile
headquarters in the form of a C-130 plane. An
idea later re-visited by Joss Whedon’s Agents
of S.H.I.E.L.D – albeit they have a heavily converted version! Additionally, the Russians are
integral to the earth’s defence. This televised
co-operation came at the height of the cold
war but offered hope for the future.
UNIT on patrol
I mentioned the TARDIS team. To my mind, the
combination of Patrick Troughton and Frazer
Hines (as eighteenth century piper, Jamie McCrimmon) is perfect. The chemistry between
the characters and the actors themselves
shines through the screen. Add to this Wendy
Padbury’s Zoe Herriot, who (in my opinion)
was the first “non-standard” female companion and something special is born. Zoe was
both a young woman out for adventure, but
also a genius level mathematician. The Invasion
shows both of these elements of her character
beautifully. In fact, if it were not for Zoe’s presence in the story, things might not have gone
so well for Earth!
The Cybermen invade London’s lanfmarks!
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