The Android Invasion

Last updated

083 –The Android Invasion
Doctor Who serial
Cast
Others
Production
Directed by Barry Letts
Written by Terry Nation
Script editor Robert Holmes
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Executive producer(s)None
Music by Dudley Simpson
Production code4J
Series Season 13
Running time4 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast22 November 1975 (1975-11-22)
Last broadcast13 December 1975 (1975-12-13)
Chronology
← Preceded by
Pyramids of Mars 		Followed by →
The Brain of Morbius
List of episodes (1963–1989)

The Android Invasion is the fourth serial of the thirteenth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who , which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 22 November to 13 December 1975.

Contents

The serial is set on the planet Oseidon and in England. In the serial, the alien race the Kraals plot to wipe out humanity with a virus to prepare the Earth for their invasion.

The serial was directed by former series producer Barry Letts and written by Terry Nation — his first Doctor Who script for eleven years not to feature his creations, the Daleks. The serial marks the last appearances in the programme of both John Levene in his recurring role as Sergeant Benton, and also of Ian Marter, who makes a guest appearance as previous companion Harry Sullivan.

Plot

In the village of Devesham, the Doctor and Sarah Jane meet a group of humanoid robots in white suits and opaque helmets, who shoot at them with their index fingers. The Doctor and Sarah Jane flee to a pub, where the villagers wait motionless until the clock strikes, when they suddenly come to life, acting normally.

The Doctor finds his way to the local Space Defence Station and introduces himself to Senior Defence Astronaut Guy Crayford, who places the Doctor in a cell. It is revealed that Crayford is working for Styggron, the leader of an alien race called the Kraal. Sarah frees the Doctor and they escape, but they become separated and Sarah is captured. Styggron tells Crayford to locate, but not seize, the Doctor.

The mask of Styggron, at the National Space Centre. Styggron Mask (14866783779).jpg
The mask of Styggron, at the National Space Centre.

The Doctor returns to the village and encounters an android copy of Sarah Jane, sent to test his knowledge and abilities. The real Sarah is kept alive so Styggron can test the virus he intends to use on Earth. The Doctor escapes from the android but is recaptured and locked up with the real Sarah. The Doctor explains that the Kraal planet will soon be uninhabitable due to high levels of radiation, so the Kraal plan to eradicate humanity and take over Earth. The duplicated village was a training ground. Crayford explains that he is helping the Kraals because they rescued him and reconstructed his body, while Earth left him for dead.

Sarah and the Doctor escape aboard Crayford's rocket and travel to Earth to warn the real defence station, while being followed by android duplicates of themselves. They land separately on Earth in their pods, and Sarah finds the TARDIS in the woods. When Crayford's rocket lands, Colonel Faraday and Harry Sullivan head there, not knowing that Styggron is there with Crayford. The real Doctor enters the Station and meets Benton, who tells him where Harry and Faraday are. The Doctor contacts them by radio and urges them not to enter the rocket.

The real Doctor explains the Kraal invasion to Faraday and Sullivan, but they have been replaced. The android Doctor enters and threatens the Doctor with a gun but he escapes. After dodging pursuit, the Doctor makes his way back to the Space Defence Station's control room, where he had given a technician instructions to prepare a device that would disable the androids. The android Doctor intervenes and holds the Doctor at gunpoint, preventing him from activating the device, but Crayford enters, saying that Styggron promised no killing. The real Doctor tells him that the Kraal did not reconstruct him, but merely brainwashed him. Realising the truth, Crayford rushes out, distracting the android long enough for the Doctor to make his move. In the struggle, the Doctor activates the device, which jams all the androids in mid-step.

Meanwhile, Crayford attacks Styggron on his ship. The two grapple and Styggron shoots Crayford. The Doctor enters and defeats Styggron, using his reprogrammed duplicate android as a distraction.

Production

East Hagbourne, Oxfordshire, used as the location for the village of Devesham Village cross East Hagbourne.JPG
East Hagbourne, Oxfordshire, used as the location for the village of Devesham

The story was influenced by the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), and would be the last Terry Nation script for Doctor Who for four years until his final script for the series, Destiny of the Daleks (1979). This was the first script by Nation since The Keys of Marinus (1964) that did not feature the Daleks.

Location filming for the Kraal-replicated village of Devesham took place in East Hagbourne, Oxfordshire, a few miles from Didcot. Scenes outside the Space Defence Station were filmed at the National Radiological Protection Board at nearby Harwell. [1]

Cast notes

Nicholas Courtney was unavailable to play Lethbridge-Stewart, [2] so his character was re-written as Colonel Faraday. Ian Marter would continue his acting career and go on to write several Doctor Who novelisations, an original novel featuring Harry and an unused screenplay, Doctor Who Meets Scratchman, the last with Tom Baker. He died in 1986 from diabetes-related health complications.

Only three Kraals are seen throughout the story. Styggron was played by Martin Friend. Marshal Chedaki was played by Roy Skelton. [3] The silent Kraal underling that appears in one scene was played by the series' long time stuntman Stuart Fell. Milton Johns had appeared as Benik in The Enemy of the World (1967–68), also directed by Barry Letts. His next appearance in Doctor Who would be as Castellan Kelner in The Invasion of Time (1978). [4]

Broadcast and reception

EpisodeTitleRun timeOriginal air dateUK viewers
(millions)  [5]
1"Part One"24:2122 November 1975 (1975-11-22)11.9
2"Part Two"24:3029 November 1975 (1975-11-29)11.3
3"Part Three"24:506 December 1975 (1975-12-06)12.1
4"Part Four"24:3013 December 1975 (1975-12-13)11.4
The depiction of androids was similar to other television series of the period, such as The Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner Bionic Woman 1977.jpg
The depiction of androids was similar to other television series of the period, such as The Bionic Woman

Kenneth Williams briefly mentioned viewing episode two of this story in his diaries, writing on 29 November 1975 "Doctor Who gets more and more silly." [6] Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping gave the serial a negative review in The Discontinuity Guide (1995), writing that it was "stupid, tiresome and very irritating". [7] In The Television Companion (1998), David J Howe and Stephen James Walker reported that the serial had a mixed reception. They wrote that the Kraals were "somewhat unoriginal but otherwise reasonable addition", with average effects and the actors making the most of it. They also praised the direction, but wrote that the plot was too far-fetched. [8] In 2010, Mark Braxton of Radio Times awarded it two stars out of five, writing that The Android Invasion was the weak link in the season. He criticised the plotting and use of UNIT, but was more positive towards the way the story played around with the android duplicates of characters. [9] DVD Talk's Ian Jane gave the serial three-and-a-half out of five stars, saying that it "may not be the deepest or for that matter the most original of stories told in the series but it's a fun tale that breezes by at a good pace". He praised the location work and the androids and white robots. [10] SFX reviewer Ian Berriman also criticised the far-fetched plot, but said that it was "as enjoyable as it is unlikely". [11]

The Android Invasion was reviewed favourably by John Kenneth Muir, who described it as "an atmosphere-laden suspense thriller", despite finding some deficiencies in the storyline, which he referred to as an idiot plot. Muir praised the conceit of frightening, android duplicates of familiar people, and he traced influences from the films Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and The Stepford Wives (1975). He also notes the similarity of the depiction of androids in Doctor Who to the Fembots that appeared the following year in The Bionic Woman television series ("Kill Oscar", 1976), with "faces filled with circuitry and round, lifeless orbs for eyes". Another familiar science-fiction device used in The Android Invasion is that of artificial duplicate settings; Muir considered that the "fake" village of Devesham imitated scenarios seen in earlier television series such as Star Trek ("The Mark of Gideon", 1969), UFO ("Reflections in the Water", 1971) and Space: 1999 ("One Moment of Humanity"). [12]

Commercial releases

In print

Doctor Who and the Android Invasion
Doctor Who and the Android Invasion.jpg
Author Terrance Dicks
Cover artistRoy Knipe
Series Doctor Who book:
Target novelisations
Release number
(Assigned 2, but never used)
Publisher Target Books
Publication date
16 November 1978
ISBN 0-426-20037-3

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in November 1978. The novelisation was later designated number 2 when Target opted to number the first seventy-three novelisations alphabetically; however no edition using the number was ever released.

Home media

The Android Invasion was released on VHS in February 1995. The serial was released on DVD in the US on 9 January 2012 as a stand-alone, and again on 9 January 2012 alongside Invasion of the Dinosaurs , coupled as the "UNIT Files" box set in the UK. [13] This serial was released as part of the Doctor Who DVD Files in Issue 126 on 30 October 2013.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<i>Invasion of the Dinosaurs</i> 1974 Doctor Who television serial

Invasion of the Dinosaurs, simply titled Invasion in Part One, is the second serial of the 11th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 12 January to 16 February 1974.

Terror of the Autons is the first serial of the eighth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 2 to 23 January 1971.

<i>Doctor Who and the Silurians</i> 1970 British sci-fi TV serial

Doctor Who and the Silurians is the second serial of the seventh season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in seven weekly parts on BBC1 from 31 January to 14 March 1970.

Day of the Daleks is the first serial of the ninth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 1 to 22 January 1972. It was the first of four Third Doctor serials to feature the Daleks, which returned to the series for the first time since The Evil of the Daleks (1967).

Doctor Who spin-offs refers to material created outside of, but related to, the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

<i>The Dalek Invasion of Earth</i> 1964 Doctor Who serial

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is the second serial of the second season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Terry Nation and directed by Richard Martin, the serial was broadcast on BBC1 in six weekly parts from 21 November to 26 December 1964. In the serial, the First Doctor, his granddaughter Susan Foreman, and teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright discover that the Earth in the 22nd century has been occupied by Daleks. They work with a human resistance group to stop the Daleks from mining out the Earth's core as part of their plan to pilot the planet through space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrance Dicks</span> English author and screenwriter (1935–2019)

Terrance William Dicks was an English author and television screenwriter, script editor and producer. In television, he had a long association with the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, working as a writer and also serving as the programme's script editor from 1968 to 1974. The Doctor Who News Page described him as "arguably the most prolific contributor to Doctor Who". He later became a script editor and producer of classic serials for the BBC.

Pyramids of Mars is the third serial of the 13th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Robert Holmes and Lewis Greifer under the pseudonym of "Stephen Harris" and directed by Paddy Russell, the serial was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 25 October to 15 November 1975.

Silver Nemesis is the third serial of the 25th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC1 in three weekly parts from 23 November to 7 December 1988. In New Zealand, all three parts were broadcast on TVNZ on 25 November.

Planet of the Spiders is the fifth and final serial of the 11th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 4 May to 8 June 1974. It was Jon Pertwee's final regular appearance as the Third Doctor, the last regular appearance of Mike Yates, and marks the first, uncredited appearance of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. This serial introduces the term "regenerate" to explain the Doctor's transformation into another appearance. It also contains the first mention in the series of future companion Harry Sullivan.

The Dominators is the first serial of the sixth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in five weekly parts from 10 August to 7 September 1968. The Second Doctor and his travelling companions Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot work with the Dulcians of the planet Dulkis to prevent the alien Dominators from blowing up Dulkis and using its irradiated remains as spaceship fuel.

Resurrection of the Daleks is the fourth serial of the 21st season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on BBC1 between 8 February and 15 February 1984. The serial was intended to be transmitted as four 23-minute episodes but a late scheduling change by the BBC meant that it was transmitted as two episodes of 46 minutes; reruns restored it to its intended format.

Terror of the Zygons is the first serial of the thirteenth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 30 August to 20 September 1975. The serial was written by Robert Banks Stewart and directed by Douglas Camfield.

Revenge of the Cybermen is the fifth and final serial of the 12th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 19 April to 10 May 1975. It was the first to feature the Cybermen since The Invasion (1968) and the last until Earthshock (1982).

<i>The Rescue</i> (<i>Doctor Who</i>) 1965 Doctor Who serial

The Rescue is the third serial of the second season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by outgoing story editor David Whitaker and directed by Christopher Barry, the serial was broadcast on BBC1 in two weekly parts on 2 January and 9 January 1965. In the serial, the time travellers the First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, and Barbara Wright befriend Vicki, an orphan girl marooned on the planet Dido who is being threatened by an apparent native of Dido called Koquillion while awaiting rescue.

<i>The Chase</i> (<i>Doctor Who</i>) 1965 Doctor Who serial

The Chase is the eighth serial of the second season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Terry Nation and directed by Richard Martin, the serial was broadcast on BBC in six weekly parts from 22 May to 26 June 1965. Set in multiple time periods on several different planets, including Aridius, Earth, and Mechanus, the serial features the Dalek race travelling through time while pursuing the TARDIS and its occupants—the First Doctor and his companions Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, and Vicki —to kill them and seize the TARDIS for themselves. The Doctor and companions encounter several characters, including monsters Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, human astronaut Steven Taylor, and an android replica of the Doctor.

Snakedance is the second serial of the 20th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 18 to 26 January 1983.

The Monster of Peladon is the fourth serial of the 11th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 23 March to 27 April 1974. It was Jon Pertwee's penultimate serial as the Third Doctor.

<i>Doctor Who</i> season 12 Season of television series

The twelfth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 28 December 1974 with Tom Baker's first serial Robot, and ended with Revenge of the Cybermen on 10 May 1975.

References

  1. ↑ Campbell, Mark (2011). "83. the Android Invasion". A brief guide to Doctor Who. London: Constable & Robinson Ltd. ISBN   9781849018869 . Retrieved 3 November 2016.
  2. ↑ "Interview with Nicholas Courtney".
  3. ↑ "The Android Invasion ★★".
  4. ↑ Braxton, Mark (21 July 2010). "The Android Invasion". Radio Times. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  5. ↑ "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  6. ↑ "Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide – The Android Invasion". BBC . Archived from the original on 8 December 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  7. ↑ Cornell, Paul; Day, Martin; Topping, Keith (1995). "The Android Invasion". The Discontinuity Guide . London: Virgin Books. ISBN   0-426-20442-5.
  8. ↑ Howe, David J & Walker, Stephen James (1998). Doctor Who: The Television Companion (1st ed.). London: BBC Books. ISBN   978-0-563-40588-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ↑ Braxton, Mark (21 July 2010). "Doctor Who: The Android Invasion". Radio Times . Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  10. ↑ Jane, Ian (18 January 2012). "Doctor Who: The Android Invasion". DVD Talk . Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  11. ↑ Berriman, Ian (6 January 2012). "Doctor Who: UNIT Files DVD Review". SFX . Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  12. ↑ Muir, John Kenneth (15 September 2015). "The Series: Season 13". A Critical History of Doctor Who on Television. McFarland. pp. 241–3. ISBN   9781476604541 . Retrieved 10 November 2016.
  13. ↑ "DVD Schedule Update". Doctor Who News. 5 March 2011. Retrieved 9 October 2013.

Target novelisation

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.