The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Invasion (Episodes One - Four)
The Invasion - Episode One (02/11/08)
What a fantastic episode! So much more sophisticated than anything we've had before! It was like The Avengers! The music was very John Barry, the Direction was brilliant and the acting and general atmosphere was incredible!
Having been attacked orbiting the moon, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe have left the TARDIS invisible in a cow field while they go off to find Professor Travers to help them fix a faulty circuit. However, Travers and Anne are away and their house is being looked after by a photographer/model called Isobel and her scientist uncle who works for a company called International Electromatics. This company we already know as sinister as they have a community outside London where the TARDIS landed. Hitching a lift with a truck driver, the Doctor et al. got out of the area, but after they left security guards stopped the truck and shot the driver.
Going to the main offices of IE, the Doctor and Jamie were watched by two strangers (Zoe having stayed behind to model for Isobel) but not allowed to speak to Isobel's uncle, Professor Watkins. They instead met the company owner, Tobias Vaughn, and his psychotic, sadistic henchman Packer who took the TARDIS circuits and offered to help fix them. However, after the Doctor and Jamie left he revealed some sort of machine behind a panel in his office wall.
Now, partly because of the fact Kit Pedler's involved in the writing of this story and partly because of the sound accompanying the machine, I reckon the Cybermen are back, but so far there's been no sign. Nevertheless, this has got to be the best episode since Patrick Troughton became the Doctor if not in the entire series. It was everything an opening episode needs to be and even though it's present day Earth, it's far superior to any of last seasons' stories already! Can't wait for next week.
The Invasion - Episode Two (09/11/08)
This is getting better every week! Captain Lethbridge-Stewart's back, but he's a Brigadier now and in charge of a United Nations Intelligence Taskforce which is investigating Tobias Vaughn and IE! Zoe and Isobel followed the Doctor and Jamie to IEHQ where, frustrated by the reception computer, Zoe programmed it with an impossible calculation and blew it up. For their effort, Vaughn took them prisoner. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Jamie were followed by the two guys from last week in a car and taken to Lethbridge-Stewart whose HQ is in an RAF plane. Having learnt Vaughn is dodgy, the Doctor and Jamie left with a comms device to get in touch with Lethbridge-Stewart with, found Zoe and Isobel had gone looking for them and went back to IEHQ, broke in, got seen by Vaughn on CCTV, and caught after Vaughn ordered Zoe and Isobel be used as bait (by knocking them out and putting them in containers).
I'm even more convinced this is a Cyberman story now as the computer in Vaughn's office says its kind have encountered the Doctor and Jamie before on Planet 14. Also, the men working in the IEHQ warehouse seemed to have superhuman strength.
Enjoying this story immensely as it's zipping along with plenty happening. Vaughn is a very cool villain and it's great to have more old faces back. I know I enjoyed The Web Of Fear, but having Lethbridge-Stewart return impressed me more than I would've thought. It's a shame it wasn't Anne or Professor Travers, but this was a pleasant surprise. I bet the Cybermen turn up next week!
The Invasion - Episode Three (16/11/08)
Another good episode and now we're back on Earth we have another story with helicopters! Yay! No Zoe this week as she was carted off with Isobel to Vaughn's countryside factory. Vaughn (who's played by the same actor who was Magic Mavic Chen in the big Dalek story) was very friendly and took the Doctor and Jamie to the factory to find her (in order to find out more about them since they're known to his allies) in his fancy Rolls Royce. Here they met Isobel's uncle, who used to teach Anne Travers, and Vaughn tried to find out about the Doctor and the TARDIS by letting them chat in a bugged room. The Doctor was too clever, though, and after thwarting this plan he and Jamie escaped up a lift shaft, onto the roof and then into a railcar containing the containers Zoe and Isobel were transported in. Almost caught by guards, Jamie hid in a container with something that moved.
Oh, and the Brigadier (who's played by the same actor who played Brett Vyon in the big Dalek story) is keeping an eye on the factory with a surveillance helicopter. I'm fairly certain we're dealing with the Cybermen now, although it's the end of Episode Three and we've still not seen any! I bet that's what's in the container with Jamie, though, and we'll see them next week. Cool story!
The Invasion - Episode Four (23/11/08)
The Cybermen are back! It was made fairly explicit early in the episode during a conversation between Packer and Vaughn where Vaughn asked Packer if he wanted to be completely converted (implying, looking back, that he and Vaughn are at least partially converted already!).
This week saw the majority of the episode deal with a daring rescue attempt by helicopter (well, it had to be, really) where we got to see Isobel's knickers. Aside from that, we learnt that Vaughn has figured out that his allies are susceptible to strong emotion and has had Professor Watkins create a machine in order to use it on the Cybermen to instil fear and take control.
The end of the episode saw the Doctor et al. return to the UNIT aircraft base and head off by canoe to infiltrate Vaughn's London HQ via the sewers. They arrived just in time to see Vaughn's scientists reviving a Cyberman. Incidentally, bloody hell do they look different! And really cool, too! They've got really chunky headpieces and look a lot more modern and powerful. Can't wait for next week now that they're definitely back!
What a fantastic episode! So much more sophisticated than anything we've had before! It was like The Avengers! The music was very John Barry, the Direction was brilliant and the acting and general atmosphere was incredible!
Having been attacked orbiting the moon, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe have left the TARDIS invisible in a cow field while they go off to find Professor Travers to help them fix a faulty circuit. However, Travers and Anne are away and their house is being looked after by a photographer/model called Isobel and her scientist uncle who works for a company called International Electromatics. This company we already know as sinister as they have a community outside London where the TARDIS landed. Hitching a lift with a truck driver, the Doctor et al. got out of the area, but after they left security guards stopped the truck and shot the driver.
Going to the main offices of IE, the Doctor and Jamie were watched by two strangers (Zoe having stayed behind to model for Isobel) but not allowed to speak to Isobel's uncle, Professor Watkins. They instead met the company owner, Tobias Vaughn, and his psychotic, sadistic henchman Packer who took the TARDIS circuits and offered to help fix them. However, after the Doctor and Jamie left he revealed some sort of machine behind a panel in his office wall.
Now, partly because of the fact Kit Pedler's involved in the writing of this story and partly because of the sound accompanying the machine, I reckon the Cybermen are back, but so far there's been no sign. Nevertheless, this has got to be the best episode since Patrick Troughton became the Doctor if not in the entire series. It was everything an opening episode needs to be and even though it's present day Earth, it's far superior to any of last seasons' stories already! Can't wait for next week.
The Invasion - Episode Two (09/11/08)
This is getting better every week! Captain Lethbridge-Stewart's back, but he's a Brigadier now and in charge of a United Nations Intelligence Taskforce which is investigating Tobias Vaughn and IE! Zoe and Isobel followed the Doctor and Jamie to IEHQ where, frustrated by the reception computer, Zoe programmed it with an impossible calculation and blew it up. For their effort, Vaughn took them prisoner. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Jamie were followed by the two guys from last week in a car and taken to Lethbridge-Stewart whose HQ is in an RAF plane. Having learnt Vaughn is dodgy, the Doctor and Jamie left with a comms device to get in touch with Lethbridge-Stewart with, found Zoe and Isobel had gone looking for them and went back to IEHQ, broke in, got seen by Vaughn on CCTV, and caught after Vaughn ordered Zoe and Isobel be used as bait (by knocking them out and putting them in containers).
I'm even more convinced this is a Cyberman story now as the computer in Vaughn's office says its kind have encountered the Doctor and Jamie before on Planet 14. Also, the men working in the IEHQ warehouse seemed to have superhuman strength.
Enjoying this story immensely as it's zipping along with plenty happening. Vaughn is a very cool villain and it's great to have more old faces back. I know I enjoyed The Web Of Fear, but having Lethbridge-Stewart return impressed me more than I would've thought. It's a shame it wasn't Anne or Professor Travers, but this was a pleasant surprise. I bet the Cybermen turn up next week!
The Invasion - Episode Three (16/11/08)
Another good episode and now we're back on Earth we have another story with helicopters! Yay! No Zoe this week as she was carted off with Isobel to Vaughn's countryside factory. Vaughn (who's played by the same actor who was Magic Mavic Chen in the big Dalek story) was very friendly and took the Doctor and Jamie to the factory to find her (in order to find out more about them since they're known to his allies) in his fancy Rolls Royce. Here they met Isobel's uncle, who used to teach Anne Travers, and Vaughn tried to find out about the Doctor and the TARDIS by letting them chat in a bugged room. The Doctor was too clever, though, and after thwarting this plan he and Jamie escaped up a lift shaft, onto the roof and then into a railcar containing the containers Zoe and Isobel were transported in. Almost caught by guards, Jamie hid in a container with something that moved.
Oh, and the Brigadier (who's played by the same actor who played Brett Vyon in the big Dalek story) is keeping an eye on the factory with a surveillance helicopter. I'm fairly certain we're dealing with the Cybermen now, although it's the end of Episode Three and we've still not seen any! I bet that's what's in the container with Jamie, though, and we'll see them next week. Cool story!
The Invasion - Episode Four (23/11/08)
The Cybermen are back! It was made fairly explicit early in the episode during a conversation between Packer and Vaughn where Vaughn asked Packer if he wanted to be completely converted (implying, looking back, that he and Vaughn are at least partially converted already!).
This week saw the majority of the episode deal with a daring rescue attempt by helicopter (well, it had to be, really) where we got to see Isobel's knickers. Aside from that, we learnt that Vaughn has figured out that his allies are susceptible to strong emotion and has had Professor Watkins create a machine in order to use it on the Cybermen to instil fear and take control.
The end of the episode saw the Doctor et al. return to the UNIT aircraft base and head off by canoe to infiltrate Vaughn's London HQ via the sewers. They arrived just in time to see Vaughn's scientists reviving a Cyberman. Incidentally, bloody hell do they look different! And really cool, too! They've got really chunky headpieces and look a lot more modern and powerful. Can't wait for next week now that they're definitely back!
Comments
Post a Comment