The Android Invasion

"Nobody knows who's who around here."

Writer: Terry Nation
Format: TV
Broadcast: 22 November - 13 December 1975
Season: 13.04

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane

Synopsis

The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane find themselves in the English village of Devesham near a Space Defence Station. The village seems deserted, the telephones don't work, calendars are stuck on the same date and white-suited figures are wandering about aimlessly. Who are the Kraals and what are their plans for Earth?

Verdict

The Android Invasion was a decent serial to make up part of the thirteenth season of Doctor Who, but despite that it just has a very strange feeling. I'd totally forgotten prior to watching that this one was written by Terry Nation which instantly made me see the story in a different way because of his reputation with the Daleks and I was hoping that I would feel the same about this one as I did with his other non-Dalek story The Keys of Marinus which is one of my all time favourites. It wasn't up to that standard, but it was still pretty good. I haven't seen this story in eight years, but I remembered finding it a bit odd that Sergeant Benton was in it and it not exactly being a great final appearance for his character. My sentiments on that remain unchanged. However, I had absolutely no recollection that Harry returned! It was just all very strange with both he and Benton there, but not feeling relevant to the overall plot in any kind of way. They just did a lot of standing around during the middle parts which was awfully strange. Seeing the Brigadier's name on a door label was intriguing, but with this story only being three removed from Terror of the Zygons, I don't understand why he couldn't have appeared. Surely they could have just filmed this one straight after and keep some of the cast? It just didn't make much sense at all to have Harry and Benton there alone, especially when we didn't really resolve anything regarding them at the story's conclusion. I think the ending definitely hurt things for their characters a little as it seems awfully strange that the Doctor and Sarah Jane would just walk off without even checking on them and making sure they were back to normal. I look forward to reading the novelisation of this one to see if it is amended or expanded upon in any way. The serial did start really well with part one having an incredibly eery feel which was excellent. I enjoyed the horror of what turned out to be an android throwing himself off the cliff and breaking his neck, only to return a few scenes later unharmed. The village setting worked fantastically and I just got a real sense of quietness. It was almost chilling. Silence can be so powerful at times and I think this story is rather unique in that regard. It worked brilliantly with Sarah Jane having knowledge of the village from a story she'd ran a couple of years earlier and she was able to show her strengths. One scene I particularly loved was the Doctor playing darts in the pub. I'm a pretty good player and I definitely didn't approve of his throwing technique! The plan of the Kraals with the androids was really good and I even didn't mind their design. I do think the image on the front of The Oseidon Adventure from Big Finish was better though. Their wanting to take militant positions and then have a virus wipe out the planet was pretty death heavy and seemed like a sure way to take over the planet in a coup. Talk of a virus was very apt with all that's going in the world at the moment. One image from the story that was striking was the android Doctor with a gun and shooting it. That was very powerful as that just isn't something we associate the Doctor with. I have to say though, some of the directing in this adventure was really poor, particularly in the scenes involving Sarah Jane's tumble and her 'falling' out of the tree. The ending was hectic and action packed with a nice twist involving the Doctor and his reprogramming of his duplicate, but once the Kraal had been comically bounced onto the virus and effectively turning its face to mush, things still felt slightly unfinished. Overall though, this was still a pretty decent serial.

Rating: 7/10