4Z1 - The Invasion of Time 1

The Invasion of Time starts off remarkably bold and assured. In response to the recently released Star Wars, Invasion starts off with Doctor Who's own answer to the first shot of Star Wars, with a poor man's Star Destroyer flying overhead, with an equally poor man's Tantive IV following closely behind. It may not have been as impressive as Star Wars, but for Doctor Who, it looks pretty not bad at all.

Where this episode really plants its foot, though, is how it picks up the story midstream, as The Doctor is signing a contract with mysterious, unseen aliens, about which he tells Leela nothing and acts very erratically afterwards. Only The Doctor knows the reason for his bizarre attitude - not even the audience is let in, other than the fact that, surely, their hero wouldn't turn to the dark side so readily. Would he?

However, the differences between how Gallifrey is portrayed here and how it is seen in The Deadly Assassin are quite obvious. Despite both serials using the same sets and costumes, Gallifrey looks like a cold and empty place nowadays as opposed to the grand splendour that was Gallifrey in The Deadly Assassin. In a little over year, it is evident how little money the Doctor Who production had to play with thanks to the crippling inflation that was ravaging Britain at the time. The complex video effects that quadrupled the ranks of the Time Lords in Assassin are sadly missed here, as a paltry number of Time Lords are around to attend The Doctor's induction as president.