Invasion of the Dinosaurs is the last Third Doctor story I hadn’t seen before. I’d owned it for a long time, but the impression I’d gained was of a highly naff production, even accounting for Doctor Who’s usual low budget standards.
INVASION
I love that Episode One is simply titled ‘Invasion’ and I’m sure that plenty of viewers will have managed to see the original transmission unspoiled (providing they hadn’t seen the dinosaur in the Radio Times). There are Dalek and Cybermen stories that build up to ‘shock’ reveals at the end of the first episode, yet no one can be totally surprised because the name was in the bloody story title! It’s nice that some effort was made to avoid this here. As the Doctor and Sarah start to wander around a very recognisable Earth that’s gained sudden fascistic qualities, it could be a military coup, but the bare streets indicate something else.
They have arrived in a quiet, sunny London. It’s a nice day and I was just thinking that it’s like one of those wonderfully peaceful summer Sunday afternoons, when the Doctor remarked, “Perhaps it’s Sunday. Great Britain always closes on Sunday.” But there’s a definite eeriness to it. Hearing nothing but constant bird tweeting becomes a bit much and the lack of anything else – no children playing, no dog walkers – soon feels odd.
The atmosphere reminded me of Day of the Triffids. Then the empty shops and general abandoned state of things in lovely spring/summer weather brought back memories of the first COVID lockdown. Fed up of taking daily walks in the same streets near my home, I started going for bike rides in the evening and the local cycle paths took me to the town centre. I rarely saw anyone. I could enjoy the beautiful evenings undisturbed. I could ride up and down the high street, past places that always had at least some people about, zooming around parts where I could never have managed to cycle normally. And it was slightly eerie. I got used to spotting fading posters in shop windows, on the side of bins or noticeboards, all advertising events that never happened. Watching ‘Invasion’, I began thinking that similar posters were probably just out of shot.
There’s a lot going on with sound in that first episode. We hear the looter crashing his car into… something. After the Doctor and Sarah follow some other looters into their hideout, we hear what sounds like machine guns outside. And we hear the roar of… something. There seems such great work for the story to hide what’s really going on. Even once we cut to the operations HQ with UNIT, it’s still just hints that there’s some things appearing across London (does anyone else hear the EastEnders’ duff duffs when Benton’s aerial map appears?). The Brigadier simply gestures at the map of coloured pins as he says, “The looters are a detail; it’s these we’ve got to worry about.”
The dinosaurs
We see a pterodactyl that flies at the Doctor and Sarah, but it’s a one-off and, frankly, so poor that it’s like we aren’t even supposed to think it’s a real dinosaur!
The story’s great attempts to hide the things is properly ruined by a fairly random scene of UNIT soldiers trying to machine-gun down a t-rex. I can’t deny that it’s a nice, fun set piece, but it feels like the show has given up the opportunity for the huge dinosaurs to be revealed to the audience at the same time as the Doctor. Was this episode underrunning? Because the cliffhanger is still done like the t-rex is a big reveal, and by this point it isn’t for the audience. Did someone intervene and say, “This is called Invasion of the Dinosaurs, so where the hell are my bloody dinosaurs? Stick one in earlier.” Admittedly, we’ve already seen the pterodactyl before the t-rex first appears, but, well…
Perhaps because my expectations had been set so low, I was fairly impressed with what the production had managed with the dinosaurs throughout a lot of the story. They are careful with how the dinosaurs are used, so that it’s rare we see any humans or other moving objects in the same shot. This definitely helps as I think the dinosaurs generally look better against still backgrounds. It’s such an ambitious thing to attempt that I often can’t help but admire them for trying impressive ideas like the t-rex smashing through a brick wall.
But there are some poor moments. In the first episode the pterodactyl’s strings are undeniably visible. I’m watching on a 55″ HD screen – could viewers really see them on a 21″ monochrome one in 1974? I don’t think I can be that generous: yes, I reckon they probably could. Is there any way the production team could have done better? Pre-CGI, I’m not sure they could.
By Episode Five I did start to feel that my generosity towards these limitations had run out. The problem is they aren’t ever actually shown to be that dangerous. Early on, the Brigadier casually mentions that there had been a few deaths, but that’s it. I needed to see or at least hear about some UNIT soldiers being maimed.
Between the dinosaur models, I enjoyed all the location filming for the story. I’m presuming they made use of early mornings or Sundays for some of the London streets. It’s apparent we’re getting some of the same streets again later in the story. I got even more excited when we headed off-road and seeing the Doctor in a jeep with a helicopter above – plus some aerial shots from it too! – felt like one of those peak Third Doctor era moments. I will miss them.
Mike TRAITOR Yates
If I hadn’t seen Malcolm Hulke’s name in the titles, I would still probably have guessed that this was a Malcolm Hulke story. His lefty credentials don’t just shine through so much as smash through at times. We’ve characters like Grover and the General showing us that we shouldn’t trust the establishment. When the Doctor realises Mike’s treachery, he even becomes unsure of whether he can trust the Brigadier. Mike’s treachery adds a nice extra dimension to the story – the plot could have functioned well enough without it.
I did recall some animosity towards Mike Yates in Planet of the Spiders and now I know why. I was horrified by Yates’s actions! How dare he! I may have called him quite a few unpleasant names. Thank goodness for Benton and the Brigadier. It’s a great idea having one of the regulars involved, and I must wonder if Malcolm Hulke had seen Mike’s pretend treachery in The Green Death. We’ve known him for several years now and he’s one of the good guys, so we trust him as much as the Brigadier and Benton. He’s flirted with Jo and generally been a nice, decent chap, which all gives it greater impact than the traitor being any old previously unknown UNIT soldier.
Mike’s betrayal is done so well within the story. It provides a good reason for extra jeopardy, with him informing on the Doctor and Sarah’s actions. Despite me being so bloody annoyed with him, on reflection I can see he’s actually conflicted at times. Malcolm Hulke has written Mike with some layers, with small moments like his one with Sarah, describing the positives of a deserted London.
Yates: Have you noticed the air?
Sarah: Hmm?
Yates: It’s clean. No cars, no people. Do you know yesterday I saw a fox in Piccadilly?
He hasn’t suddenly turned into a baddie, but has really strong beliefs about the world’s problems, even if he’s not chosen the best cause to solve them. We can even stretch out and ponder on whether this relates to some deeper characteristics – perhaps one of the reasons Mike joined the army and UNIT is because he wants to protect this world and is worried. He becomes hesitant about the way Grover and the General are going about things, clearly increasingly uncomfortable with the lengths they’re going to.
It’s a wonderful moment late on in the story when his treachery is confirmed to the Brigadier and the Doctor, who wouldn’t believe it earlier. Mike? Surely not – HOW COULD HE?! As the audience, we’re aware of Mike’s treachery from early on, and we might have expected him to be persuaded back to the Brigadier and the Doctor’s side partway through the story. But UNIT’s days are numbered and this offers an opportunity to wave off one of the semi-regulars. It’s not taken as, ultimately, Captain Yates will return at the end of the season (UNIT uniform swapped for shaggy hair), but Malcolm Hulke did at least offer the option.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs all took a far weirder turn than I expected. I thought we would just have some time leak to deal with, but rogue scientists, Sarah in ‘space’ with All Creatures Great and Small’s Mrs Pumphrey (Margaretta Scott), plus dodgy *expletive* Yates made this far more interesting across its six episodes. I do also adore Peter Miles turning up any time he gets to be awful and slippery and unpleasant. Like The Time Monster, I’ve learned that fan consensus should be avoided. There’s fun to be had in all sorts of Doctor Who, although sometimes it’s better when you aren’t expecting it.
