June 30: Invasion Part One / Invasion of the Dinosaurs Part Two

Here's the second (and final) exception to the "everything exists on PAL tape" fact: Invasion Part One only exists as a 16mm black & white film print, and while color recovery was attempted, the results weren't great; apparently only the red and green signals could be recovered, not the blue.  The blue was approximated, but the results (which can be seen as an alternate viewing choice on the DVD) aren't great; you can see why the default version of this episode is a cleaned-up copy of the b&w print.  Still, some color is better than none, and let's not forget: they're pulling color off a black & white film.  Seriously, color recovery is just so cool.

So that's the first thing to note about part one.  The second thing to note is the title.  In an effort to hide the surprise appearance of dinosaurs, this first installment is called simply Invasion.  Except the surprise had already been ruined by that week's Radio Times listings, as well as by the Radio Times Doctor Who Special back in November 1973 (which had a preview of the then upcoming season 11), so it's not really that much of a shock when a pterodactyl shows up halfway through.

The opening scenes are really nicely done though; there's a sense of desolation and neglect here, giving us the impression that London really has been deserted.  It's also nice how they continue this feeling throughout most of the first episode, and even occasional encounters with other people have a sense of society having broken down -- it's almost an apocalyptic feel, in a way.  And that shot of the pterodactyl trying to bite the Doctor is pretty well done as well -- even if the shot of it flying is less successful.

But despite being attacked by a prehistoric reptile, the Doctor and Sarah are still uncertain as to the nature of the emergency that's gripped central London, and none of the authorities they've encountered will tell them anything, content instead to lock them up for looting.  But as they're being driven away, a (somewhat sad-looking) Tyrannosaurus appears...

Butler and Professor Whitaker listen to Mike Yates's warnings
about the Doctor. (Invasion of the Dinosaurs Part Two) ©BBC

The mood in part two (now properly called Invasion of the Dinosaurs) gives way from an atmospheric thriller to a fairly typical UNIT runaround.  There's an interesting bit near the beginning with someone from 12th century England attacking the Doctor, before vanishing (presumably back to his own time), but before long the Brigadier has found the Doctor and is briefing him on the situation.  So we get a bit of exposition about how dinosaurs keep turning up, forcing an evacuation of the area, but then it's off to try and find the cause of these appearances.  But the whole thing is treated so matter-of-factly that the overall impression is one of business as usual -- even when it patently isn't.  I mean, for goodness' sake, Mike Yates is working for the bad guys!  That should be a game changer, but instead it's handled as just another incident along the way, and other than a reference to taking leave after The Green Death's events and liking London with less pollution, Yates's motivations here aren't really explored.  Fair enough, maybe they'll be covered in later episodes, but as for right now there's barely a hint of a reason for his actions.

But he's working for the villains, who have been bringing dinosaurs forward in time essentially as a diversion, a reason for London to be evacuated.  So the Doctor reasons that if he can capture a dinosaur, he can study it and work out where the time field that's bringing it to the present day is coming from.  Which means we should probably talk about the dinosaurs.  The three we see in this episode aren't actually that bad, and are in keeping generally with a 1970s understanding of dinosaurs.  The main problem is that they're clearly puppets, and thus they're being prefilmed on model sets.  But no one's taking care to line up the CSOed-in actors with the puppets, and so we get moments like the one near the beginning of part two, with UNIT soldiers firing well to the Tyrannosaurus's right instead of at it.  The other, less noticeable problem probably can't be helped, but it's the fact that they move like, well, puppets.  And not even very articulated puppets.  It's rather like watching a child's rubber dinosaur toy being moved around on screen.  The upshot of all this is that there's a lack of care involved with this that makes the finished product rather unimpressive.  There's nothing wrong with the conception; it's the execution that lets things down.

Nevertheless, the story's called Invasion of the Dinosaurs, so when the Doctor goes to capture a Stegosaurus (which is one of the better dinosaurs on display) with his fancy stun gun, he finds it doesn't work (because Mike Yates sabotaged it with a device from working-against-UNIT person Professor Whitaker, who managed to create a stun gun neutralizing device despite having never seen the device and said device being based on a principle that, according to the Doctor, hasn't been developed on Earth yet).  Which would be fine if the Stegosaurus didn't disappear, to be replaced by a much more ferocious (and still sad-looking) Tyrannosaurus bearing down on him...