The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Invasion Of Time
The Invasion Of Time: Part One (04/02/18)
That was an interesting start! It looks like we have a direct sequel to 'The Deadly Assassin'! It started off with the Doctor already aboard an alien spaceship making a deal to help them in return for complete control over the Time Lords. Leela and K9 were locked in the TARDIS and so know nothing about this, and then the Doctor took them to Gallifrey where he met up with Cardinal (now Vice-Chancellor) Borusa and reclaimed his right to be President of Gallifrey (which he technically gained the right to last series).
He's been acting very angry and treating Leela quite badly - at one point he got K9 to tell her to shut up and point his laser at her so she wouldn't ask any questions. He's up to something, though. The aliens are monitoring him and he must know this so that would explain his odd behaviour.
You got to see the Panopticon again (rebuilt after 'The Deadly Assassin'), some more Time Lords including, it seems, a new Castellan, and Leela is being guarded by one of the security chiefs called Andred. K9 has been left in the TARDIS since they arrived so maybe he's been told something of the Doctor's plan. Oh yes! And we got to see more inside the TARDIS because Leela went for a swim in its huge swimming pool (complete with plastic sunbeds and an inflatable float ring shaped like a frog!). It's a shame that's all we saw, and a bit odd so maybe we'll get to see more later?
Anyway, at the end of the episode the Doctor was inducted, given the Sash and the Rod of Rassilon and the neural coronet which grants him access to the Matrix (and makes him the most powerful being in the cosmos), just as the aliens seem to want. But something seems to have gone wrong as he fell to his knees clutching the coronet! Given that the Doctor has never had much affection for the Time Lords it seems plausible that he'd sell them out to an alien race, but unlikely. We'll just have to wait til next week to find out!
The Invasion Of Time: Part Two (11/02/18)
Really very interesting this week! Leela rushed to the Doctor's side to help as the Matrix rejected/attacked his mind, but Borusa claimed she had attacked him and the Doctor ordered she be expelled from the citadel into the wastelands outside! Obviously, she escaped and spent the episode evading the guards (who are a pretty clueless bunch, all said, but it's doubtful they've ever dealt with anything like this before as aliens are forbidden in the citadel/on Gallifrey).
The Doctor was seen by the chief physician, Lord Gomer (one of the Time Lords seen chatting last week) and left in Borusa's office to rest, with a guard on the door. He escaped through a secret door, however, and went to the TARDIS to discuss his plan with K9. He then left, having ordered K9 to sneak off and destroy the controls for Gallifrey's transduction barrier (which prevents any aliens from approaching the planet). However, he's been observed by the suspicious and quite unpleasant Castellan Kelner, who I imagine will turn on the Doctor at some point.
Meanwhile, Leela had stumbled across the control room of the transduction barrier and its controller, Rodan - the first female Time Lord we've met since Susan! While she was there, K9 blew up the barrier control on the levels below as the alien spaceship appeared that we saw last week. The aliens on board have been watching the Doctor and at the end of the episode the Doctor gathered the Time Lords in the Panopticon again and introduced them to their new masters. The aliens then beamed down - weird, shapeless, shimmering things.
At this point it's unclear what the Doctor is up to. Nothing has been said as to who the aliens are or what they plan, nor why the Doctor is helping them. It's clear he wants Leela out of the way for her own safety, but he's going about it all in a very odd way. Overall, a very interesting episode and it looks like we're back on track after the disappointment of 'Underworld'. Nevertheless, the series doesn't look as gorgeous this season as last, but then the show is more Sci Fi, and not much is going to beat the Victorian splendour of 'The Talons Of Weng-Chiang'!
The Invasion Of Time: Part Three (18/02/18)
Interesting again, rather than exciting this week. The Doctor hasn't betrayed Gallifrey to the aliens,a s it seemed. He had his chambers coated in lead to keep the aliens from reading his thoughts (they can travel along any wavelength, apparently, and are telepathic), and explained to Borusa (off camera) what he was up to - to a point.
Leela and Rodan left the citadel as the Doctor had ordered (Rodan more as a companion for Leela), helped by Andred, and encountered a tribe of drop-out Time Lords who have forsaken life in the citadel, all tranquillity and reason, to live a natural existence alongside nature; although outside looks very barren and sandy, but has a pleasingly orange-ish sky, just like Susan said back in the first series!
Meanwhile, Castellan Kelner is using the invasion to settle old scores and has compiled a list of Time Lords who may stand against the Doctor and the aliens. Cleverly, the Doctor has chosen to have them banished, knowing their likely to meet Leela out there and fight back. However, despite helping Leela and Rodan escape, Andred is still convinced that the Doctor is on the side of the invaders and has gathered a group of Time Lords and guards, followed the Doctor to the TARDIS, gained entry and is going to execute him as a traitor (cue cliffhanger)!
Two very interesting plots driven on one side by the Doctor and on the other by Leela. I think Leela must be the first companion since Ian and Barbara strong enough to lead a plot on her own - no, scratch that! Steven! She's by far the best companion there's been since the Hartnell era, though; better even than Liz and Jo! Lord Gomer, the chief physician, was in this episode again as one of the expelled dissenters, and Kelner is a wonderfully slimy, kow-towing character. It was good to learn that the Doctor is somehow planning to double-cross the aliens, but since he revealed his plans to Borusa Tom's portrayal hasn't been quite so angry and nasty, which I think is a shame as this hasn't been picked up on by the invaders, nor Kelner. Anyway, still pretty good and a cool idea. Looking forward to next week.
The Invasion Of Time: Part Four (25/02/18)
Strangely lacking in excitement, this week, despite the Doctor saving Gallifrey and an unexpected twist at the end!
Andred couldn't execute the Doctor as stasers don't work inside the TARDIS (you'd think Andred, as guard commander, would have known this!). Then, having plugged K9 into the Martix, the Doctor found that the only way to get the alien Vardans to materialise, and thus for him to identify and locate their planet of origin and trap it in a time loop, would be to disable the defensive forcefield around Gallifrey. He also persuaded Andred he wasn't a bad guy and made his guard helmet work as a defence against the Vardans reading his thoughts (he probably lined it with tin foil!).
Anyway, he disabled the forcefield, the Vardans materialised (and turned out to be rather boring-looking Humanoids - as the Doctor said, very disappointing!), then he hooked K9 into the Matrix again and got rid of them. Meanwhile, Leela failed to train any of the banished Time Lords how to fight because they were shit, and stormed the citadel with Nesbin and his warriors. And Rodan. They met up with the Doctor just as K9 was defeating the Vardans and then joined the duplicitous Kelner in the Panopticon for the cliffhanger. Yep, it looked like the story was over in four episodes with a rather anti-climactic conclusion, but just as the Doctor was giving his victory speech who should turn up? Only the bloody Sontarans!
My immediate reaction was 'eh?', but I imagine they snook in while everyone was distracted by the Vardans. Come to think of it, didn't Rodan mention a war fleet passing by on their way to conquer some planet a couple of episodes back? That's quite ironic!
So, a bit of an anti-climactic episode, but that's because it wasn't the climax! Looks like the Doctor is going to have to fight off the Sontarans now, and they're a hell of a lot more dangerous than the Vardans! Quite fitting, on reflection, to be ending the series with Sontarans after starting it with their sworn enemies, the Rutan!
The Invasion Of Time: Part Five (04/03/18)
A livelier episode this week. Borusa was listening in from his office and used some ceremonial bells turned up to maximum volume to allow the Doctor, Leela, Andred and the Gallifreyans to escape, although Kelner stayed behind and ended up aiding the Sontarans. The Doctor's group split up, Leela, Andred, Rodan and two Gallifreyans going with him, the rest heading off elsewhere, and they met up with Borusa and K9 in the President's quarters.
Then they all headed off to the TARDIS, the Doctor having persuaded Borusa to give him the Key of Rassilon - apparently, the Chancellor has been charged to secretly hold the Key since the time of Rassilon to prevent any President from becoming all powerful (the Sash, the Rod and the Key all plugged into the Matrix give power over time itself, or something, which is what the Sontarans want). The Doctor had Leela take Borusa, Andred and K9 (the two Gallifreyans having been killed by Sontarans) further into the TARDIS and got Rodan to patch control over the forcefield barriers round Gallifrey to his TARDIS, thus keeping the rest of the Sontaran battlefleet out. However, Kelner managed to bypass it, with the feedback threatening to throw the TARDIS into a Black Star.
Pretty good, all said, if a bit complicated and sciencey for me. Good to see Rodan being used positively - she got a couple of decent scenes with the Doctor, as did Borusa ("All this running around - most undignified!") and it's cool having the Sontarans back, although I'm not sure about Commander Stor's husky Cockney accent. I guess it takes all sorts!
This series has slowly lost the warm sheen that the Hinchcliffe stories had (even 'The Hand Of Fear'!) and has developed a rougher, slightly grittier look. Everywhere looks a little run down and quite cold and clinical, compared with, say, the opulence of 'The Robots Of Death' or the historical charm of 'Masque...' or 'Talons...'. I guess it's a sign of the times. Still, a fairly good story so far, and a contrast to the darker, more political tone of 'The Deadly Assassin'.
The Invasion Of Time: Part Six (11/03/18)
Leela's gone! With K9!
This was a very odd episode. Obviously, the Doctor defeated the Sontarans and saved Gallifrey, then right at the end Leela turned around and said she was staying on Gallifrey! Why? Given that, when asked this by the Doctor she reached back and took Andred's hand, I can only imagine she thinks the Chancellery Guard need better training, especially since Andred was shot in the arm (and thus made useless to the Doctor, so he told him) while being chased around the TARDIS!
Oh yes. This week we saw more of the interior of the TARDIS than ever before! Parts look like the insides of a skanky old factory. Others look like an abandoned mental hospital. Then there was the swimming pool again, and a greenhouse and a workshop - both of which looked like rooms dressed for purpose in a skanky, old factory.
We also got to see Sontaran Commander Stor without his helmet and, to be frank, it was one of the worst masks the series has seen; a complete redesign of the first two and made with clearly inferior materials. The whole episode looked incredibly cheap and was a far from fitting end to the series.
Basically, the plot was the Sontarans (both of them), aided by Kelner, slowly following the Doctor, Leela, Andred, Rodan and Borusa round the TARDIS, while the Doctor hypnotised Rodan into helping K( build the D-Mat gun (powered by the Key of Rassilon and powerful enough to use to rule the universe). The Doctor then used the gun on a Sontaran soldier, took the gun to the Panopticon and used it on Stor before he could nuke Gallifrey (with a grenade), then had his memory wiped of the last six weeks by the Key which also vaporised the gun. Then Leela decided to stay behind and K9 decided to stay with her. However, the Doctor seems to have cobbled together a K9 Mark II (judging by what was written on the side of the box he pushed into the control room).
Odd, cold, stark, and slightly disappointing. I'd hoped Leela would stay longer as she's one of the very best companions there's been (and not just compared to the utterly awful Sarah Jane), and I certainly hoped for a better send off. Oh well, we'll have to see what the next series delivers. Hopefully not six months of One Man and his Dog!
That was an interesting start! It looks like we have a direct sequel to 'The Deadly Assassin'! It started off with the Doctor already aboard an alien spaceship making a deal to help them in return for complete control over the Time Lords. Leela and K9 were locked in the TARDIS and so know nothing about this, and then the Doctor took them to Gallifrey where he met up with Cardinal (now Vice-Chancellor) Borusa and reclaimed his right to be President of Gallifrey (which he technically gained the right to last series).
He's been acting very angry and treating Leela quite badly - at one point he got K9 to tell her to shut up and point his laser at her so she wouldn't ask any questions. He's up to something, though. The aliens are monitoring him and he must know this so that would explain his odd behaviour.
You got to see the Panopticon again (rebuilt after 'The Deadly Assassin'), some more Time Lords including, it seems, a new Castellan, and Leela is being guarded by one of the security chiefs called Andred. K9 has been left in the TARDIS since they arrived so maybe he's been told something of the Doctor's plan. Oh yes! And we got to see more inside the TARDIS because Leela went for a swim in its huge swimming pool (complete with plastic sunbeds and an inflatable float ring shaped like a frog!). It's a shame that's all we saw, and a bit odd so maybe we'll get to see more later?
Anyway, at the end of the episode the Doctor was inducted, given the Sash and the Rod of Rassilon and the neural coronet which grants him access to the Matrix (and makes him the most powerful being in the cosmos), just as the aliens seem to want. But something seems to have gone wrong as he fell to his knees clutching the coronet! Given that the Doctor has never had much affection for the Time Lords it seems plausible that he'd sell them out to an alien race, but unlikely. We'll just have to wait til next week to find out!
The Invasion Of Time: Part Two (11/02/18)
Really very interesting this week! Leela rushed to the Doctor's side to help as the Matrix rejected/attacked his mind, but Borusa claimed she had attacked him and the Doctor ordered she be expelled from the citadel into the wastelands outside! Obviously, she escaped and spent the episode evading the guards (who are a pretty clueless bunch, all said, but it's doubtful they've ever dealt with anything like this before as aliens are forbidden in the citadel/on Gallifrey).
The Doctor was seen by the chief physician, Lord Gomer (one of the Time Lords seen chatting last week) and left in Borusa's office to rest, with a guard on the door. He escaped through a secret door, however, and went to the TARDIS to discuss his plan with K9. He then left, having ordered K9 to sneak off and destroy the controls for Gallifrey's transduction barrier (which prevents any aliens from approaching the planet). However, he's been observed by the suspicious and quite unpleasant Castellan Kelner, who I imagine will turn on the Doctor at some point.
Meanwhile, Leela had stumbled across the control room of the transduction barrier and its controller, Rodan - the first female Time Lord we've met since Susan! While she was there, K9 blew up the barrier control on the levels below as the alien spaceship appeared that we saw last week. The aliens on board have been watching the Doctor and at the end of the episode the Doctor gathered the Time Lords in the Panopticon again and introduced them to their new masters. The aliens then beamed down - weird, shapeless, shimmering things.
At this point it's unclear what the Doctor is up to. Nothing has been said as to who the aliens are or what they plan, nor why the Doctor is helping them. It's clear he wants Leela out of the way for her own safety, but he's going about it all in a very odd way. Overall, a very interesting episode and it looks like we're back on track after the disappointment of 'Underworld'. Nevertheless, the series doesn't look as gorgeous this season as last, but then the show is more Sci Fi, and not much is going to beat the Victorian splendour of 'The Talons Of Weng-Chiang'!
The Invasion Of Time: Part Three (18/02/18)
Interesting again, rather than exciting this week. The Doctor hasn't betrayed Gallifrey to the aliens,a s it seemed. He had his chambers coated in lead to keep the aliens from reading his thoughts (they can travel along any wavelength, apparently, and are telepathic), and explained to Borusa (off camera) what he was up to - to a point.
Leela and Rodan left the citadel as the Doctor had ordered (Rodan more as a companion for Leela), helped by Andred, and encountered a tribe of drop-out Time Lords who have forsaken life in the citadel, all tranquillity and reason, to live a natural existence alongside nature; although outside looks very barren and sandy, but has a pleasingly orange-ish sky, just like Susan said back in the first series!
Meanwhile, Castellan Kelner is using the invasion to settle old scores and has compiled a list of Time Lords who may stand against the Doctor and the aliens. Cleverly, the Doctor has chosen to have them banished, knowing their likely to meet Leela out there and fight back. However, despite helping Leela and Rodan escape, Andred is still convinced that the Doctor is on the side of the invaders and has gathered a group of Time Lords and guards, followed the Doctor to the TARDIS, gained entry and is going to execute him as a traitor (cue cliffhanger)!
Two very interesting plots driven on one side by the Doctor and on the other by Leela. I think Leela must be the first companion since Ian and Barbara strong enough to lead a plot on her own - no, scratch that! Steven! She's by far the best companion there's been since the Hartnell era, though; better even than Liz and Jo! Lord Gomer, the chief physician, was in this episode again as one of the expelled dissenters, and Kelner is a wonderfully slimy, kow-towing character. It was good to learn that the Doctor is somehow planning to double-cross the aliens, but since he revealed his plans to Borusa Tom's portrayal hasn't been quite so angry and nasty, which I think is a shame as this hasn't been picked up on by the invaders, nor Kelner. Anyway, still pretty good and a cool idea. Looking forward to next week.
The Invasion Of Time: Part Four (25/02/18)
Strangely lacking in excitement, this week, despite the Doctor saving Gallifrey and an unexpected twist at the end!
Andred couldn't execute the Doctor as stasers don't work inside the TARDIS (you'd think Andred, as guard commander, would have known this!). Then, having plugged K9 into the Martix, the Doctor found that the only way to get the alien Vardans to materialise, and thus for him to identify and locate their planet of origin and trap it in a time loop, would be to disable the defensive forcefield around Gallifrey. He also persuaded Andred he wasn't a bad guy and made his guard helmet work as a defence against the Vardans reading his thoughts (he probably lined it with tin foil!).
Anyway, he disabled the forcefield, the Vardans materialised (and turned out to be rather boring-looking Humanoids - as the Doctor said, very disappointing!), then he hooked K9 into the Matrix again and got rid of them. Meanwhile, Leela failed to train any of the banished Time Lords how to fight because they were shit, and stormed the citadel with Nesbin and his warriors. And Rodan. They met up with the Doctor just as K9 was defeating the Vardans and then joined the duplicitous Kelner in the Panopticon for the cliffhanger. Yep, it looked like the story was over in four episodes with a rather anti-climactic conclusion, but just as the Doctor was giving his victory speech who should turn up? Only the bloody Sontarans!
My immediate reaction was 'eh?', but I imagine they snook in while everyone was distracted by the Vardans. Come to think of it, didn't Rodan mention a war fleet passing by on their way to conquer some planet a couple of episodes back? That's quite ironic!
So, a bit of an anti-climactic episode, but that's because it wasn't the climax! Looks like the Doctor is going to have to fight off the Sontarans now, and they're a hell of a lot more dangerous than the Vardans! Quite fitting, on reflection, to be ending the series with Sontarans after starting it with their sworn enemies, the Rutan!
The Invasion Of Time: Part Five (04/03/18)
A livelier episode this week. Borusa was listening in from his office and used some ceremonial bells turned up to maximum volume to allow the Doctor, Leela, Andred and the Gallifreyans to escape, although Kelner stayed behind and ended up aiding the Sontarans. The Doctor's group split up, Leela, Andred, Rodan and two Gallifreyans going with him, the rest heading off elsewhere, and they met up with Borusa and K9 in the President's quarters.
Then they all headed off to the TARDIS, the Doctor having persuaded Borusa to give him the Key of Rassilon - apparently, the Chancellor has been charged to secretly hold the Key since the time of Rassilon to prevent any President from becoming all powerful (the Sash, the Rod and the Key all plugged into the Matrix give power over time itself, or something, which is what the Sontarans want). The Doctor had Leela take Borusa, Andred and K9 (the two Gallifreyans having been killed by Sontarans) further into the TARDIS and got Rodan to patch control over the forcefield barriers round Gallifrey to his TARDIS, thus keeping the rest of the Sontaran battlefleet out. However, Kelner managed to bypass it, with the feedback threatening to throw the TARDIS into a Black Star.
Pretty good, all said, if a bit complicated and sciencey for me. Good to see Rodan being used positively - she got a couple of decent scenes with the Doctor, as did Borusa ("All this running around - most undignified!") and it's cool having the Sontarans back, although I'm not sure about Commander Stor's husky Cockney accent. I guess it takes all sorts!
This series has slowly lost the warm sheen that the Hinchcliffe stories had (even 'The Hand Of Fear'!) and has developed a rougher, slightly grittier look. Everywhere looks a little run down and quite cold and clinical, compared with, say, the opulence of 'The Robots Of Death' or the historical charm of 'Masque...' or 'Talons...'. I guess it's a sign of the times. Still, a fairly good story so far, and a contrast to the darker, more political tone of 'The Deadly Assassin'.
The Invasion Of Time: Part Six (11/03/18)
Leela's gone! With K9!
This was a very odd episode. Obviously, the Doctor defeated the Sontarans and saved Gallifrey, then right at the end Leela turned around and said she was staying on Gallifrey! Why? Given that, when asked this by the Doctor she reached back and took Andred's hand, I can only imagine she thinks the Chancellery Guard need better training, especially since Andred was shot in the arm (and thus made useless to the Doctor, so he told him) while being chased around the TARDIS!
Oh yes. This week we saw more of the interior of the TARDIS than ever before! Parts look like the insides of a skanky old factory. Others look like an abandoned mental hospital. Then there was the swimming pool again, and a greenhouse and a workshop - both of which looked like rooms dressed for purpose in a skanky, old factory.
We also got to see Sontaran Commander Stor without his helmet and, to be frank, it was one of the worst masks the series has seen; a complete redesign of the first two and made with clearly inferior materials. The whole episode looked incredibly cheap and was a far from fitting end to the series.
Basically, the plot was the Sontarans (both of them), aided by Kelner, slowly following the Doctor, Leela, Andred, Rodan and Borusa round the TARDIS, while the Doctor hypnotised Rodan into helping K( build the D-Mat gun (powered by the Key of Rassilon and powerful enough to use to rule the universe). The Doctor then used the gun on a Sontaran soldier, took the gun to the Panopticon and used it on Stor before he could nuke Gallifrey (with a grenade), then had his memory wiped of the last six weeks by the Key which also vaporised the gun. Then Leela decided to stay behind and K9 decided to stay with her. However, the Doctor seems to have cobbled together a K9 Mark II (judging by what was written on the side of the box he pushed into the control room).
Odd, cold, stark, and slightly disappointing. I'd hoped Leela would stay longer as she's one of the very best companions there's been (and not just compared to the utterly awful Sarah Jane), and I certainly hoped for a better send off. Oh well, we'll have to see what the next series delivers. Hopefully not six months of One Man and his Dog!
A story with a lot of potential let down by 1) the script and 2) the limited budget left to produce it. As you say, for the most part it looks cheap and nasty, and isn't very exciting. It's intriguing, certainly, for the first couple of episodes, and Tom Baker really sells the uncertainty of what the Doctor's up to and whether he has in fact betrayed Gallifrey, but it all too soon descends into (quite literally) a runaround. And the salt in the wound is Leela's departure: ill-conceived, out of character and wholly unsatisfying. I know the production team put off devising a proper exit for her in the hope that Louise Jameson would be persuaded to stay for another year, but honestly, they served both the character and actor very poorly with the approach they fell back on.
ReplyDeleteThis is another moment in the series' history where I wish there'd been some foresight and greater planning, too - not just in regard to Louise Jameson leaving, but in that Rodan is basically a prototype Romana (not that they came up with the character with that in mind at the time) and it would have been much more satisfying to have had Mary Tamm playing the character here and then turning up at the start of the next season again.
It really does come across as a series of unfortunate mistakes. Granted, there were issues with getting a script for the end of the season and the lack of budget shows all too clearly, but Graham Williams and Anthony Read do at least come up with some good ideas. Making it a sequel to 'The Deadly Assassin' gives it an epic quality, as does the twist with the Sontarans arriving. The idea of going into the TARDIS and using identical locations for visual and narrative humour/expressing dimensional concepts is a clever way of saving money and extending the running time. Unfortunately, it all looks rather drab. Gallifrey is a horribly lit place compared to the last time we saw it, and I think better lighting may have helped the story no end. And whilst the locations that represent the interior of the TARDIS are interesting, they also look pretty grim; I guess we should take into consideration the cultural climate at the time - Punk was at its height and urban decay was in vogue. Programmes like 'Grange Hill' and 'Citizen Smith' which showed the grimy, working class underbelly of contemporary London were the popular shows for children and adults respectively, the charts were dominated by the Sex Pistols, The Stranglers and The Jam, Bowie was in his Berlin period and even ABBA's recent chart-toppers had been the brooding, bass-driven 'The Name Of The Game' and chirpy but cold 'Take A Chance On Me', so maybe the decision to portray the interior of the TARDIS as a run-down, disused asylum was perfectly in keeping with what else was being seen on TV. On the whole, I'd be more inclined to blame the rather vapid directing than anything else.
DeleteAs for Tom, here we have him at his most anarchic and, unfortunately, least watchable. His anger and contempt throughout the early episodes make sense once we know the truth behind his plan, but as soon as the audience is told, he goes back to the usual slightly aloof, sometimes crabby character we've got used to over the last couple of seasons which makes no sense within the narrative. The actor is clearly bored with the script and pretty much phones in most of the latter instalments. Louise makes the best of what she's given and does a damn sight better job of it than her co-star but, as you say, is horribly short changed by her departure scene. And I entirely agree that it makes little sense having Rodan appear throughout the story only to have her remain on Gallifrey and a pretty-much-carbon-copy turn up already in the TARDIS in the following season (as much as I love Mary Tamm).
Many cite 'The Sun Makers' as Doctor Who at it's most Blake's 7, but I think 'The Invasion Of Time' is far more like its sister show. It's also the epitome of the '"Shit, the money's run out!" Season Finale', a term I first encountered in the 90s which described pretty much every series finale from 1978-1984. Part of this could be ascribed to everything being compared to 'The Talons Of Weng-Chiang' but, particularly in this case, I think it has more to do with the Director. It's telling that Gerald Blake wasn't brought back again, and that his last Directing credit on the show had been 'The Abominable Snowmen'; a casual look through his list of credits shows that he was far more experienced in period- and kitchen-sink drama than Science Fiction, which fits with his unimaginative approach.
'The Invasion Of Time' is a story idea with a great deal of potential, some intelligent plot twists and a clear understanding of what a 'season finale' should be. Sadly, it's let down by its visuals and narrative which is an immense shame.