 WHAT IF... the Doctor became EVIL? This one has it all...Timelords, Sontarans, Barbarians and the Lord President Doctor. |
| Review Date: June 26, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Kevin J. Loria, New Orleans, LA USA |
The premise of "THE INVASION OF TIME" is simple, but genius: WHAT IF... the Doctor became EVIL? "Invasion" is a sequel of sorts to the Doctor's last visit to his homeworld of Gallifrey in "Deadly Assassin" in which the Doctor saves the Timelords from the Master and in doing so becomes the sole surviving candidate in an election to determine the Timelord Presidency. The story opens with the Doctor apparently selling out his people to anonymous alien invaders. The Doctor berates and expels his companion, Leela and betrays his old Timelord mentor Borusa and before long succeeds in arranging the conquest of the planet. Once revealed, the invaders turn out to be B list, working for the Sontarans (as seen in this season's DW series 4, the "Sontaran Stratagem"). The Sontaran want control over time itself, via the relics of the President's office and the help of the Lord President of the Timelords a.k.a The Doctor...Once the Doctor's plan is revealed things really get complicated...a rebellion against the traitorous Doctor is underway, ultimately leading up to a battle for Gallifrey, even including a "unforgettable" chase through the deep recesses of the Doctor's TARDIS.
Some of the best moments of the story include conversations between the overbearing Lord Doctor and Borusa, his teacher's current & most memorable incarnation played by John Arnatt. Tom Baker is in top form when he in his over-the-top megalomaniacal glory for the first half of the story. The climatic TARDIS chase is memorable, not for the execution, which isn't so good, but the sense of the transdimensional nature of the Doctor's craft. The scenes in the TARDIS really convey the limitlessness and spark the imagination for the possibilities in store for the new series, hopefully. K9 mark I. and Leela say their farewells, but what's not so memorable, the unbelievable romance between the warrior woman Leela and the sheltered Captain of the Guard, Andred. Equally forgettable are some effects on the second string invaders, the Vardans, worse than their horrible shroud images is their actual physical form in some sort of cross between a WWII paratrooper and a TV news cameraman. One major flaw of the finale of the 6 part story is having the Doctor solve the conflict with a gadget, especially when that gadget is for all intents and purposes a big gun! Even fans new to the series, know "the Doctor just `ain't down with `dat!"
For all of it's script troubles, plot and FX flaws, Invasion is a must own for any Doctor Who fan, for it's many Timelord and Tardis milestones and because the Sontarans have just been revamped. Besides, this is history.
"Invasion" Drinking Game
Drink....
...everytime Gallifrey is saved from "the invaders."
...when Leela kills ( or throttles ) someone.
...everytime RASSILON is mentioned (the Presidential induction provides loads of these.)
...when you see the same BBC car-park stairwell in the TARDIS.
...when a Sontaran trips on patio furniture.
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"I know this TARDIS like the back of my hand."
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| Review Date: November 23, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Jason A. Miller, New York, New York USA |
"The Invasion of Time" was one of the first "Doctor Who" stories I encountered, at a very young age, thanks to the novelization (Doctor Who and the Invasion of Time) by Terrance Dicks. I thus lack any objectivity towards this story. I've read the book, and later seen the TV episode, so often that I know every line by heart and could assemble the script like a jigsaw puzzle even with the lights off. It wouldn't make any sense to me now, nearly 25 years later, to question where the pieces are supposed to go. If offered the script to improve, I couldn't change it.
Plot-wise, it's best to think of "Invasion" as three successive two-part adventures. In the opening two acts, the Doctor has seemingly turned evil -- assuming dictatorial control of his home planet (Gallifrey, last seen in the wonderful Doctor Who - The Deadly Assassin) and opening the floodgates to alien invaders. This is Tom Baker at his manic best. In the middle story, the camera pulls back to reveal the Doctor's been on our side the whole time, as he enlists the help of an enormous cast to defeat the threat -- until the camera pulls back yet again to reveal that the Doctor's been duped by the Sontarans (last seen in the much less impressive Doctor Who - The Sontaran Experiment (Episode 77)) and has to journey deep into the rarely-seen heart of his own TARDIS to save the day in Parts Five and Six.
The DVD production team's editorial slant towards "Invasion" is roughly similar to mine. Via the stellar production note subtitle feature during the main story, and on the too-brief making-of featurette, they reveal a fondness for the big ideas and concepts that underlie the story -- even if the production values got caught up and trampled in the rush to make the Big Epic Season Finale on a less-than-shoestring budget.
I learned a lot about "Invasion" from the DVD, in fact, much more than I thought I'd be able to learn from a story whose twists and turns I've worn smoothe through years of re-use. The script, for example, was a last-minute filler replacement written in four days. Who knew? Or that the production was hastily mounted on location in a disused hospital, or that companion Leela (Louise Jameson)'s departure from the series was something the producer hoped to reverse at the very last minute.
The commentary track here is a little dull; we've already heard from Jameson, John Leeson (the voice of K-9, who occasionally slips into character), and FX man Mat Irvine on this month's companion release, Doctor Who: The Invisible Enemy/K9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend. Co-author Anthony Read is a welcome addition to the booth, although he doesn't really add much until the final hour. Six minutes of deleted scenes are quite welcome -- we don't get these too often. A comedy reel on the story's pseudonymous author, "David Agnew", gets its few chuckles, while a short bit on the Doctor's since-defunct home planet Gallifrey feels oddly rushed.
While the visual effects don't hold up so well after 30+ years, the CGI overlay added by the restoration team offers one nice benefit: the Vardans now appear as menacing humanoid ghosts rather than as rattling drapes of tin foil, if you choose that option. Of course, the effects don't matter much, not with a large well-acted cast and a script full of such large ideas. Here's another case of "Doctor Who" doing something with next to nothing, and more than getting away with it. |
awsome
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| Review Date: September 10, 2008 |
| Reviewer: James V. Blecha, Illinois |
| what can I say, the more Doctor Who that is released the better the world is. great redone special effects and of course the original version. |
Invasion indeed!
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| Review Date: September 3, 2008 |
| Reviewer: A. Shapiro, Fl |
| I've been a Tom Baker fan all my life, so admittedly, there are few baker stories that I don't like. However, any fan of the series would be very hard pressed not to love this episode. This is pure, unbridled Doctor Who. This one is chock full of twists and turns and the appearnce of an old foe really blindsides you! Well acted, with some fabulous chemistry between the actors, especially the Doctor and the Cardinal. the whole thing leaves you with a feeling of mixed emotion of course, as the bad guys get it in the end, but we lose a Tardis companion. The possibilities of what actually happned to this companion are limitless, and have never been explored, and of course with the new series, anything is possible!!! This really is Tom Baker at his erratic best doing what he does best! |
Gallifrey invaded... the Doctor a traitor... and time threatened... "The Invasion of Time"!
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| Review Date: April 8, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Jero Briggs, |
I hold this one up to be one of my favorite Tom Baker stories of all time along with "The Ark in Space", "Genesis of the Daleks", and "Planet of Evil", and if I could choose just one story from the Tom Baker era to sum up his Doctor, then this one would have to be it. The only thing that's missing from this story is a hammer horror feel to it. But other than that, this one's got everything. It has a great script with interesting plot twists at every turn. You've got lots of mystery and action with some great humorous moments in this one. Two alien races are invading Gallifrey - the Vardans and the Sontarans. Performances are great. Tom Bkaer's Doctor is as good as ever as he is featured eating and offering everybody jelly babies in this one. For the first half of the story the Doctor appears to be a traitor by helping these alien beings invade his own world and he even turns against his own companion, Leela, in this one. And when the truth is finally revealed, the Doctor is never more heroic. K9 stands by the Doctor's side throughout the whole thing, and he is certainly a dog of action when you see him battling Sontarans with his laser nose. This is definitely a five star script.
And although the production suffers a little bit due to the fact that the BBC was having money troubles then and suffering from a strike, the story is so good you are able to forgive this story for it. Plus the new CGI effects included on this DVD also greatly improve the story - although I think I like the original shot of Gallifrey better than the new CGI shot, but other than that, the new effects are a lot better. The story is great, and is highly recommended! |
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