4J1 - The Android Invasion 1

I'm becoming glad that I won't have to watch many more Terry Nation stories as I'm getting tired of noticing (and pointing out) the various trends that manage to find themselves into almost every script that he writes.

The Android Invasion, Episode One, shares a similar theme with most other Nation-penned stories, as the viewer discovers The Doctor's new surroundings along with him. (The frequency of this is actually surprisingly rare, as a lot of stories since the early Hartnell era are already underway, and The Doctor just has yet to get involved in the story). Also, there's a contrived monster reveal at the end of the episode.

The one thing that singles out The Android Invasion from other typical Nation stories is that The Doctor and Sarah are rarely separated, whereas usually, by now, Sarah would have found trouble, and The Doctor would be finding a way to get her out of it with some help from his new friends he's just met, or vice versa. In seeing how many scenes The Doctor and Sarah have together in this episode, it makes me notice how often the two share scenes together in every Fourth Doctor story since Harry left at the end of Terror of the Zygons. When it was Sarah and Jon Pertwee's Doctor, for the most part, the two were often separate to allow two storylines to develop, as was the case with most other Doctor/companion relationships that came before.

Not so with Sarah, which is ironic, given how headstrong and independent she seems. Perhaps, though, that she manages to hold her own against The Doctor, despite having numerous scenes with him, is why she seems so independent, and the fact that the two of them form such a strong team because they're together all of the time is probably one reason why Sarah's character continues to be popular to this day.