Production Code: VV
First Transmitted
1 - 02/11/1968 17:15
2 - 09/11/1968 17:15
3 - 16/11/1968 17:15
4 - 23/11/1968 17:15
5 - 30/11/1968 17:15
6 - 07/12/1968 17:15
7 - 14/12/1968 17:15
8 - 21/12/1968 17:15
Plot
The TARDIS materialises in England in the 1970s and the time travellers meet a girl named Isobel whose uncle, computer scientist Professor Watkins, has recently gone missing. The Doctor offers to help track him down, starting at the place where he last worked - the London HQ of International Electromatics, the world's major supplier of electronic equipment.
His initial suspicions about IE's managing director, Tobias Vaughn, are confirmed after he becomes reacquainted with Lethbridge-Stewart, now promoted to Brigadier and in charge of the British branch of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT), and learns that there have been other disappearances at IE premises.
He discovers that Vaughn is in league with the Cybermen in a plan to invade Earth, but is also plotting against them with the aim of seizing power for himself. Watkins is being forced by Vaughn to develop the cerebration mentor, a machine designed to generate emotional impulses as a weapon against the Cybermen.
The Cybermen immobilise most of Earth's population - sending a hypnotic signal through special circuits incorporated in all IE equipment - and launch their invasion. The Doctor has managed to protect himself and his friends from the signal and - with help from an embittered Vaughn, who is killed during the fighting - the invasion is eventually defeated.
Episode Endings
Tobias Vaughn crosses to the wall of his office and activates a switch on a control panel. The wall pivots upwards to reveal a strange, alien-looking device within a hidden compartment.
The Doctor and Jamie see guards placing an unconscious Zoe and Isobel into crates ready for transportation to the IE factory. Jamie attacks Vaughn's sadistic security chief, Packer, but the guards are alerted by the sounds of their struggle. The Doctor tells his companion to run, but they are both caught and brought before Packer at gunpoint.
To avoid capture by guards, the Doctor and Jamie each hide inside a crate loaded aboard the IE train. Jamie finds himself lying next to some sort of a cocoon. To his horror, something inside the cocoon starts to move...
The Doctor and Jamie watch from hiding as technicians attach cables to one of the cocoons and activate the device to which they are connected. The cocoon is split open from inside and a Cyberman emerges.
Jamie, Zoe and Isobel are trapped in a London sewer as Cybermen converge on them from both directions. Suddenly a rogue Cyberman that Vaughn earlier sent mad using the cerebration mentor appears and lurches toward them...
The Cybermen emerge from the sewers and march through the streets of London as the invasion begins.
The Cyber Director tells Vaughn that the Cybermen no longer need him; they intend to deliver a Cyber megatron bomb that will destroy all life on Earth. The Doctor asks Vaughn if this is what he wanted - to be the ruler of a dead world.
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe enter the TARDIS, watched with bemusement by Isobel and UNIT's Captain Turner. The ship dematerialises.
Roots
The Third Man.
The Ipcress File.
The Power Game.
Quatermass II.
James Bond.
Richard III (the scene where Vaughn dares Watkins to shoot him).
The Brigadier's reference to UFO sightings gives an indication of B-movie origins of The Invasion (e.g. Earth vs. The Flying Saucers).
Dialogue Triumphs
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart : "You still making a nonsense of it, Doctor, in your... what's it called? TARDIS?"
The Doctor : "Yes, we're still travelling, yes."
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart : "Yes, Miss Travers told me all about it. It's... um... well, it's to say the least an unbelievable machine."
The Doctor : "Any more unbelievable than the Yetis, hm?"
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart : "No, true. I'm not quite so much a sceptic as I was before that little escapade!"
Tobias Vaughn : "My body may be cybernetic but my mind stays human!"
Professor Watkins : "You're an evil man, Vaughn. You're sadistic. You're a megalomaniac. You're insane. I pity you. But if I get half a chance, I'll kill you."
Tobias Vaughn : "The world is weak, vulnerable, a mess of uncoordinated and impossible ideals. It needs a strong, single mind, a leader."
Dialogue Disasters
Lethbridge Stewart : [Acts as if he's auditioning for Scooby Doo.] "I think those crazy kids have gone off to the sewers to get photographs of the Cybermen."
Continuity
On arriving on Earth, the Doctor removes the TARDIS' faulty visual stabiliser circuit. This renders the TARDIS invisible.
The Cybermen's spaceship is hidden on the dark side of the moon. The 'death rays' from the Cybermen's chest units produce the standard negative flash. Their hand held weapons (seen only in the last episode) produce a flame thrower effect.
The headquarters of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce is a Hercules transport plane (by Spearhead from Space they have become Earthbound). The Brigadier says that UNIT cannot arrest people. The Brigadier uses a Browning 9mm automatic pistol in this and most subsequent stories.
Captain Turner tells Isobel 'no one believed in the Yeti until they saw them', which indicates that knowledge of the attempted invasion was more widespread than the Doctor suggests in Remembrance of the Daleks. [UNIT at this point have no policy on public secrecy: see Spearhead from Space.]
QV
Location
London, [Spring 1969]
Links
The TARDIS reassembles and the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe awake in the same positions as at the end of episode one of the previous story.
There are many references to The Web of Fear.
The Doctor travels to see Professor Travers, but finds he has gone to America with Anne, loaning his home to Professor Watkins and his niece Isobel. Lethbridge-Stewart reappears, now promoted to Brigadier. UNIT was created in Geneva, with the Brigadier in charge of British forces [dialogue in Spearhead from Space would seem to indicate that UNIT was already in existence at this time, Lethbridge-Stewart joining later].
Untelevised
The Cyber Director tells Vaughn that the Doctor and Jamie have been recognised 'from Planet 14' [an untelevised adventure, as all of the second Doctor's other meetings with the Cybermen take place, chronologically, after this date, and the Cybermen as yet show no time travel ability]
Trivia
Peter Halliday also provided, uncredited, the voices of the Cybermen and of the Cyber Director hidden in a concealed compartment in Vaughn's office.
On the closing credits of Episode Five Ralph Carrigan's surname was misspelt 'Carrigon'.
The TARDIS becomes invisible for the first time after materialising.
There is a cameo appearance by director Douglas Camfield, who plays a car driver in the first episode.
John Levene makes his debut appearance as future regular Benton. In Episode Eight he replaced James Thornhill, who was originally planned to have appeared as Sergeant Walters.
Douglas Camfield's wife Sheila Dunn provides voice-overs as a phone operator.
Zoe makes no appearance in Episode Four of the story as Wendy Padbury was on holiday during the week when it was recorded. Similarly Jamie appears only in a pre-filmed insert in Episode Eight as Frazer Hines was due for a break.
There is some excellent and highly distinctive incidental music (albeit only about four minutes in total) by jazz musician Don Harper.
Stock footage of radar dishes, missiles etc is employed extensively.
There is an appearance by the 2nd Battalion of Coldstream Guards as UNIT troops in the battle scenes in Episode Eight.
Technobabble
Gregory states narrow bandwidth transducers should make 'transmission more directional'. Zoe disables the IE computer, giving it an insoluble Algol equation: 'Realsum positive, delete square... print out Y to the minusvariable X one.'
Goofs
In episode five, the panel concealing the Cyber Director struggles to close.
The Cyberman falling from the roof of an IE building in episode eight is clearly an empty costume.
Zoe's and Isobel's knickers are frequently revealed.
Why does Vaughn continue to delegate tasks to Packer, who is obviously incompetent?
In episode six, Gregory's sudden low-budget announcement of the off-screen recapture of Professor Watkins by UNIT is followed by his low budget on-screen death as an extra who looks nothing like him is shot by a Cyberman in the sewer.
Fashion Victim
Zoe in a feather boa.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
Jamie - Frazer Hines
Zoe - Wendy Padbury
Benton - John Levene Also appeared in film sequences in Episode Five, but uncredited
Captain Turner - Robert Sidaway
Cyberman - Pat Gorman
Cyberman - Ralph Carrigan
Cyberman - Charles Finch
Cyberman - John Spadbury
Cyberman - Derek Chaffer
Cyberman - Terence Denville
Cyberman - Peter Thornton
Cyberman - Richard King
Gregory - Ian Fairbairn
Isobel - Sally Faulkner
Lorry Driver - Murray Evans
Major Branwell - Clifford Earl
Major-General Rutlidge - Edward Dentith
Packer - Peter Halliday
Patrolman - Walter Randall
Phone Operator - Sheila Dunn
Policeman - Dominic Allan
Private Perkins - Stacy Davies
Professor Watkins - Edward Burnham
Sergeant Peters - Norman Hartley
Sergeant Walters - James Thornhill
Tobias Vaughn - Kevin Stoney
Tracy - Geoffrey Cheshire
Workman - Peter Thompson
Crew
Director - Douglas Camfield
The Invasion