ZZ1 - The War Games 1

Looking back at Episode One of this, in this day and age, it is difficult to watch the scenes set in the trenches and in General Smythe's office without immediately thinking of 1989's Blackadder Goes Forth. The makers of the later programme must have watched The War Games as inspiration, or were, at the very least, channeling it when they made the sets. Even Major Barrington could be mistaken at a distance for Captain Blackadder, and Smythe is one bushy mustache away from resembling General Melchett.

What would appear to the be theme of the story is set up right from the get-go when The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are captured (more-or-less) by Lady Jennifer, then again by the Germans, and then, seconds later, my Lieutenant Carstairs and his men, before they're taken back to the English camp where they're held captive yet again. That's a lot of capturing in a few short minutes (a further escape and re-capture occurs before the end of the episode), but none of these events feel forced, at least. Anyone popping up out of nowhere into the middle of a war zone would be treated with no less suspicion.

What I love about this episode is how quickly the stakes are raised when General Smythe first switches on the futuristic TV screen in his 1917 office. An older story, especially one of this mammoth length, would have at least waited until the cliffhanger for episode one, if not longer, to reveal the twist. What starts out as an apparent historical is now moving into territory that Doctor Who has never waded into before...

Speaking of the cliffhanger, what a fantastic ending to Episode One! Guns fire, The Doctor flinches...it all looks pretty legit to me, although keen observers will note that the "Fire!" order is never given. Perhaps, in a further nod to the future, the same leader of the execution squad in Blackadder was called into service here, too?

READYAIMFIRE!

YY6 - The Space Pirates 6

What more can you say about a story that is seen as so inconsequential that the regular cast don't even turn up for the recording of the final episode? Because Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, and Wendy Padbury were knee deep in mud filming in a quarry for the upcoming season finale, The War Games, they pre-filmed all their scenes for this episode some seven weeks before the studio recording. So, because I'm fascinated with how 1960s Doctor Who was produced, I'm curious to see how this was put together during the studio recording of the episode. Were the many filmed inserts switched in via telecine as was often done in those days? Or was this an episode borne of the editing suite?

Sadly, we may never be able to see the final product. But, less sadly, this was the last missing episode I'll have to watch during this whole Chronic Hysteresis. Hooray! Fair dos to the various folks out there who have made up all the reconstructions that have made watching the missing episodes so endurable. From now on, though, all the pictures move.

This is a passable story that had some well shot model footage (although use of an (inaccurate) starfield in the background might have added to the atmosphere a bit), but the mammoth that is following The Space Pirates casts a long shadow indeed...

YY5 - The Space Pirates 5

Two plot twists involving members of the family Issigri occur during this episode that, for some reason, took me by surprise. Now, I don't want to spoil a TV programme that aired 40 years ago for you, but let's just say it gives some thrust in a story that, with little involvement from The Doctor, could use a push in the right direction.

I've seen a lot of websites that cover this story list the varied pronunciation of the name Issigri amongst the goofs that occur during the story. I think it's perfectly reasonably, actually. The only person who pronounces the name wrong (apparently) is Madeline Issigri, who says "EE-see-gree", whereas everyone else says "ee-SEE-gree". I figured that Madeline would know how to say her own name, and that, up until now, everyone for the past 15-20 years has been pronouncing it wrong. That alone would have driven Dom Issigri mad and forced someone to lock him up in a room for 15 years. Not that anything like that happened in this episode, of course...spoilers.

The Doctor seems to be in trouble at the end of the episode, but more concern is being placed in this story, it seems, on the fate of Milo Clancey and his ship, the LIZ 79. Oh, and its other occupant, but I won't tell you who that is.

YY4 - The Space Pirates 4

Usually, before settling to watch each story on this marathon of mine, I try and flush all preconceived notions of how the story I'm about to view ranks with me, based on previous viewings, or more generally in the eyes of fandom. Before The Space Pirates started for me, though, it was almost like an eerie silence settled across the land of viewer opinion for this story.

The Space Pirates is an odd bird, and not only because of its relative lack of involvement of The Doctor. Amidst a fairly intact Season 6, only one episode (Episode Two) completely exists in the BBC Archives. No telesnaps for the story survive, as the last known of these were created for Episode Three of The Mind Robber. There's even a scarce amount of publicity photos for the story; so much so that the main villain of the piece, Caven, has seldom been seen because he doesn't appear in Episode Two. This story often rates very low in "Favourite Story" polls, not because it's bad, but because so little is known about it to rate it any higher.

Thus, I officially proclaim The Space Pirates to be "The Most Forgotten Doctor Who Story of All Time". So much so that I've already forgotten most of which has gone on in it so far....

YY3 - The Space Pirates 3

This story is the next in a run of classic Dudley Simpson scores. The highlight of the score is the haunting, ethereal female vocals, often appearing over the opening credits. The music is similar to that heard in Simpson's earlier The Ice Warriors, and elements of it remind me of Lalo Schifrin's score from the 1971 film Dirty Harry.

I'm also a fan of the opening credit sequences. To offset the multitude of space sequences in this story (set against a black backdrop, because, you know, space is black), the opening credits are written in black on a stark white backdrop (although it is most likely a traditional white lettering on black, with the picture turned to negative). I don't know why I've always liked these titles, but I do.

The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are finally getting involved, albeit tenuously, in the story by Episode Three. I'm becoming more disturbed, however, at how Jamie is being treated. His intelligence does, admittedly, fall far afield of the near-genius abilities of Zoe and The Doctor, but he's becoming resorted to being the first person to blindly rush into a situation and require The Doctor's help. In Episode Two, he receives a further slap in the face when The Doctor explains magnetism to him, then hands him two magnets to play with as if The Doctor was passing them around a class of pre-schoolers. I do enjoy the Doctor/Jamie/Zoe team as a whole, but Jamie has certainly suffered as an intelligent character since Zoe came on board.

YY2 - The Space Pirates 2

It isn't really until the very end of this, the second episode, that The Doctor and his companions become even remotely involved in this story. Up until now, it would be entirely plausible to believe that what I'm watching is a new science fiction show called The Space Pirates!, which chronicles the adventures of the heroic General Hermack, his trusty sidekick Major Warne, the dastardly villain Caven, and the comedic prospector Milo Clancey.

Because of this, though. the proper The Space Pirates actually has much in common with future Holmes classics like Carnival of Monsters, The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Ribos Operation, and The Caves of Androzani. Those classic stories all contain memorable characters that are often given larger portions of screen time, and a plot that often develops and blossoms without the involvement of The Doctor. It almost seems as if Holmes is more interested in telling the tales of the peripheral characters, rather than that of the Doctor himself, so he spends most of his time and energy creating a world of interesting characters that The Doctor can be placed into, rather than having The Doctor being the key to everything happening.

The Space Pirates doesn't quite have the memorable characters (except for Milo Clancey, who I think is a hoot) as those other stories mentioned, naturally, but the groundwork is being laid.

YY1 - The Space Pirates 1

I wrote earlier about how, in The Seeds of Death, it took over eight minutes for The Doctor to first appear in the story and how surely, at the time, that must have been a record. There's no debate about the new record, though. By my clock, the TARDIS is seen to materialize 14:52 into Episode One of The Space Pirates, and The Doctor and his friends finally emerge from their ship over fifteen minutes into this installment.

This is, quite frankly, alarming. The entire structure of the plot and most of the main characters are introduced well before the hero of the show arrives on the scene. And even when The Doctor does arrive, he is so far removed from the action that he doesn't even exist in the world of General Hermack, Major Warne, or the pirate Caven. In fact, the only thing shorter than The Doctor's screen time in this episode is Wendy Padbury's skirt. And, as you can see in the picture above, there is nowt wrong with that...

This story was another late addition to the lineup when yet another script fell through (a common theme during the production of Season 6), and it was written by Robert Holmes. Fan commentators over the years have often derided The Space Pirates as a subpar effort from someone who would go on to become the greatest writer in the programme's history, but someone who had yet to find his groove in Doctor Who. After seeing this episode, I couldn't disagree more. This story is the genesis of the prototypical Robert Holmes story. I'll explain this more as the story moves along, though...

XX6 - The Seeds of Death 6

One of the reasons that The Seeds of Death was made was to try and recoup the cost of production of the Ice Warrior costumes that were made for their debut in the previous year's recording block. Another reason, though, it seems, was to showcase the BBC's latest toy - the foam machine. This device also debuted in the previous recording block during Fury From The Deep, and it features heavily in the final three episodes of The Seeds of Death, providing acres of foam for Patrick Troughton and several extras playing guards to fall down in.

I like the creation of the new rank of Ice Warrior, Slaar (colloquially referred to as an Ice Lord), for this story. It gives the Ice Warriors more of a voice - literally and figuratively - as not only does Slaar stand out from his minions in rank and stature, but his voice is less like a hiss, which made the Ice Warriors difficult to understand at times in their previous adventure. The disadvantage of this, of course, is that the other Ice Warriors are reduced to non-speaking thugs, just as the Cybermen were in The Invasion when Tobias Vaughn was thrust into the spotlight.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I've come to think that Season 6 was considered the laziest and worst season in Patrick Troughton's run as The Doctor, but, if those accusations are true, I find them unjustified. The Seeds of Death brings together two notable aspects of the Troughton era into one cohesive package - an attack on an isolated outpost (as seen in several previous Troughton adventures), and and attack by a strange alien force on the Earth (a la The Web of Fear and The Invasion). It's a story that closes that part of the Troughton era in style, as the last two stories of the 1960s would be very different from what we've seen before.

XX5 - The Seeds of Death 5

A tip of the hat to the direction of Michael Ferguson in this story, which is responsible for such gorgeous shots as the one seen above. This story saw a greater use of out-of-sequence recording, which hadn't been attempted that often up to this point in the programme's production history. It shows - scenes flow seamlessly from one to the next, and there's a general gloss to the production that hasn't been as evident before. I don't necessarily credit Ferguson with those technical achievements, but the ease of production did allow him to be more creative with his camera shots.

Poor Fewsham meets his end in this episode, closing the book on one of the more memorable characters in the series's history. Fewsham's apparent alliance with the Ice Warriors is different than other Quislings (to quote Jon Pertwee quoting Norwegian history from World War II) seen in the series. Self preservation is Fewsham's key motivation, naturally, and the viewer is meant to believe, at first, that he has turned traitor towards the Ice Warrior cause because he is doing all that he can to survive. Later, though, he aids the T-Mat crew and The Doctor when the Ice Warriors' backs are turned, not necessarily because he wants to see the Ice Warriors defeated, but because he is more scared of what awaits him on Earth in the form of investigation and punishment for his part in the Ice Warrior invasion. When Slaar asks Fewsham later why he remains allied with the Ice Warriors, Fewsham uses that excuse, which seems like a bluff on his part, but it couldn't be more true.

Once he realizes how grand the Ice Warriors' plan is, though, Fewsham seems resigned to his fate, and finally makes the ultimate choice of sacrificing himself to open the video link to Earth and let the T-Mat crew in on what the Ice Warriors are planning. Slaar trusted Fewsham one time too many. Was Fewsham planning this all along? Probably not. It would be more accurate to say that he was taking each crisis as it came and adapting to survive the situation, but in his final moments, his defiance towards Slaar leads you to believe otherwise. An overlooked character in the annals of Who history, only slightly more overlooked than the splendid performance by Terry Scully that brought him to life.

XX4 - The Seeds of Death 4

Finally, after six years of having either William Hartnell or Patrick Troughton take a week off and having the story suffer as a result, this, the final Doctor-less episode in the series' history, shows how writing The Doctor out of the episode for a week can be done without stalling the story in its tracks.

Part of the credit might go down to script editor Terrance Dicks, who was pretty much writing all the episodes of this story at this point, but the development of Fewsham's story is, again, the most interesting thing to watch here. The Doctor's absence (or, at least, his conscious absence, as Troughton's body double appears in a few scenes) is almost beneficial, in this instance. When Slaar orders Fewsham to T-mat The Doctor into space, it seems to finally push Fewsham over the edge in his collaboration with the Ice Warriors. Sure, he's seen the Martians slaughter all of his friends, but the fact that the Ice Warriors order Fewsham to press the button is what makes it hard for the poor technician. Even though Fewsham presses the button to (apparently) banish The Doctor's body to space, he is adamant that the Ice Warriors are the ones behind it. Fewsham's cries of "You've killed him! You've killed him!" hammer that point home. It's a fairly intense scene, and it also shows what Slaar is willing put Fewsham through in order to test Fewsham's growing loyalty towards the Ice Warriors.

The very beginning of this episode contains another one of those deaths to minor characters that always seems to kick me in the gut every time I watch it. Brent, well meaning assistant to Miss Kelly and who probably has one or two employee-of-the-month awards under his belt, is the first onscreen victim of a seed pod. Poor guy. Every time I watch this, I wish he would duck out of the T-Mat booth just a couple seconds early so he doesn't feel the full brunt of the seed pod explosion. Sniff.

XX3 - The Seeds of Death 3

Mention must be made at this point about the score for The Seeds of Death, as provided by Dudley Simpson. Simpson was in the midst of perhaps his best work in the series' history, well before he ever became the series' main composer in 1970. The Seeds of Death was only Simpson's third score in as many years, but his work on his previous two serials, The Evil of the Daleks and The Ice Warriors, was seminal.

That strong work continues in The Seeds of Death, his first of three consecutive scores to close out the Patrick Troughton era. Armed with little more than a set of tympani, a snare drum, and a phasing unit, Simpson's themes for the Ice Warriors when they march around the moonbase is evocative, and the chase theme that takes up a nice chunk in the middle of this episode is superb.

The afore-mentioned chase sequence is padding of the highest order (but really, what chase scene isn't?), but at least it's entertaining to watch. Patrick Troughton certainly seems as if he's having fun in the role...but I sense as if he's almost having too much fun in the role. Troughton had decided to relinquish the title role in between his second and third production, and, while he still quite clearly has enthusiasm for the role, I'm sensing there's a certain gravitas lacking from his later episodes compared to, especially, the monster-filled fright fests of Season 5.

XX2 - The Seeds of Death 2

While The Doctor and his entourage worry about getting a rocket ready to launch for the first time in years back on Earth, the much more interesting story in this episode is, again, taking place on the Moon. Fewsham is continuing his collaboration with the Ice Warriors, having seen almost all of his colleagues killed before his eyes. When Miss Kelly and her team manage to arrive on the Moon via T-Mat, they are all captured by the Ice Warriors.

This is where, for the second time in as many episodes, the employees of T-Mat show off their vast intelligence. Once captured, Fewsham shouts out "Don't move!". So, naturally, the two men who accompanied Miss Kelly try and make a break for it, and get about as far as five paces before they're mowed down with the Ice Warriors' Mirrorlon guns. The exact same thing happened in Episode One. Does no one obey orders at T-Mat?

There's some amusing scenes in the rocket once The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are finally able to launch. However, for the second story in a row, Jamie is treated like an infant - not just by Zoe, but Eldred and Miss Kelly - in regards to his knowledge of space travel. How unfair!

XX1 - The Seeds of Death 1

Episode One of this story features what might be, at the time, the longest elapsed time before The Doctor appears in the story - 8 minutes, four seconds, by my reckoning (although this mark will be shattered very soon). Two entire settings and plot threads are started up, Osgood, who looks like he's going to be a major character, is introduced and killed before we even see the TARDIS materialize.

This episode, and, indeed, the entire story, features one of my favourite performances in Doctor Who history - that of Terry Scully as Fewsham. Some might call Scully's performance as over the top, but I don't. I think it's perfectly pitched as a man who was probably promoted to a position before he was ready, and is now being thrust into a life-or-death situation where one wrong move could mean his death. Wouldn't you be panicky in that situation? When Fewsham bellows, "I want to live!", it is entirely believable.

One of the worst jobs imaginable, though, would be at T-Mat Control on Earth. Having to wear what looks like a diaper as a uniform is one thing, but to have to listen to that droning computer announce every single dispatch and receipt from every single T-Mat cubicle from around the world would drive me batty. It certainly did in the first scene alone.

But what an ending to the episode! Of course, we all know the Ice Warriors were in this story, after the fact, and anybody who knows anything when this episode first aired could have guessed who the main villains were by the sound of the voice and the visual effect used for their weaponry, but what an impact they make when they are revealed at the end of this episode! the Troughton era was famous for not only its monsters, but its reveal of those monsters. This one doesn't disappoint.

WW4 - The Krotons 4

Well meaning characters, especially people who are in positions of power, are not long for the world in Doctor Who stories. Look at poor Selris - once the leader of the Gonds, blindly offering his citizens for selection by the Krotons, powerless to stop them on his own once the truth is revealed, but he is key in the Krotons' destruction before he is vaporised. Yet no one will know of Selris's sacrifice, and it's all The Doctor's fault.

Typical of Patrick Troughton's Doctor, he and his companions flee the scene before the dust settles at the end of this story, leaving Selris's death a mystery to the rest of the Gonds. The Doctor could have at least spoken up about how Selris died before he left. It would have helped rebuild Selris's standing within the community, as his legacy was left somewhat battered by all those who abandoned him. Instead, Selris is forgotten, and now a power struggle seems to be at hand between Eelek and his supporters, and a small minority who might be in favour of Beta and his amazing sideburns. Thanks for helping, Doc.

I have to admit - I was more enthralled while watching The Krotons at times than I was while watching The Invasion. Does that make me a bad person? It was all rather enjoyable fluff, notable for two noteworthy Doctor Who debuts in front of and in behind the cameras, and some terrific comedy sequences that never detract from the story at hand. Much better than its undeserved reputation.

WW3 - The Krotons 3

I mentioned earlier how this story is the debut of esteemed writer Robert Holmes, but I've neglected to mention that this story is also the premiere Doctor Who television performance* of Sir Philip Madoc. Although this is easily his least notable role in the programme's history, it still stands up as a typically Madocian performance, that of a fiendishly well-played jerk.

Madoc's character, Eelek, has aspirations to take over the leadership of the Gonds from the kind, yet ineffectual (my new favourite word over the past few days) Selris. Eelek also has the backing or pretty much every other Gond we meet, too. But really, if Philip Madoc wanted to take over Canada, I'd vote for him, too.

We finally get a good look at the eponymous Krotons in this episode. As Terrance Dicks has intimated in pretty much every single interview he has ever given, he had to rewrite scenes in Holmes' scripts to make up for the fact that the Krotons couldn't actually move. They do wobble wonderfully well, though, but whenever they do move, their actions are narrated by characters onscreen, and then, in the next shot, we see that the Kroton has reached its destination. Yes, they're crap monsters, but I still crack up every time I see them, and their voices are equally memorable. How many times have I repeated the phrase "That is not a Gond!" (pronounced "Thowt is nowt a Gownd!") since I've seen this story? Honestly - at least three times.

The blooper of this episode appears at the very end when Beta, whose stature in the proceedings is growing along with the length of his sideburns, appears in his laboratory in one scene, and is then seen in the very next (prefilmed) in the Learning Hall when the roof collapses. He's quick, that one.

*assuming that Madoc's equally stellar performance in the 1966 Doctor Who film Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. was never shown on British television before 1969.

WW2 - The Krotons 2

This episode will always hold a special place in my mind because it contains the very first glimpse if Patrick Troughton I ever had as a youngster. A clip of the sequence where Zoe is selected as a companion of the Krotons (the clip starts from Troughton's line "Great jumping gobstoppers!" ) was used in a 1985 PBS documentary called Whose Doctor Who that I probably saw for the first time around 1987. It's amazing how even the smallest scene in a relatively minor Doctor Who story can lead to such warm nostalgia, innit?

That scene in question contains some great comedy bits between Troughton and Wendy Padbury. In my mind, I think Padbury fits the best with Troughton's Doctor out of the female companions during the Second Doctor era. The fact that she appears as clever as (if not more so) The Doctor allows them to have a slightly competitive relationship, with comedic results. The relationship also allows Troughton to be his usual aloof self without having to be protective of Zoe - something he never had the luxury of doing with Victoria or Polly.

The Doctor/Zoe relationship also frees up Jamie, who used to fulfill the protector role when the naive Victoria was in the TARDIS. Poor Jamie, though, takes a bit of a beating in this episode. His role in the proceedings was clearly laid out in Episode One with his fight with Axus. Jamie is the brawn, and his actions fall in line with many of the hotheads of the Gonds. In this episode, he is resorted to trying to break down the door into the Dynotrope with a crowbar. When the Krotons trigger the opening mechanism themselves, Jamie thinks he's done it, and, at episode's end, he is about to be killed by the Krotons because of his apparent lack of intelligence. Poor guy.

Two episodes in, and I'm still finding this wonderfully diverting. There seems to be a notable blooper in every episode, though. The very first shot of Episode One features a door that refuses to open, and, in this episode, listen for the floor director call out for the gong sound effect not once, but twice...

WW1 - The Krotons 1

Three words that, for years to come, will bring so much joy and hope towards Doctor Who fans that what they are about to watch just might be the most entertaining 24-and-half-minutes they'll have seen in some time, appear for the first time at the beginning of this episode:

"By Robert Holmes"

To be fair, the "classic" Holmes style is nowhere in evidence yet, with no "Holmesian double act" to be found anywhere, but it was early in his career, and this was an episode that had been sitting, in one way or another, on some BBC executive's desk for four years before being thrust into the spotlight on short notice.

Is it wrong that, while I fully expected to find this dull, I actually quite enjoyed this episode? Part of it may have been because of the dullest looking quarry ever featured in Doctor Who (a hotly contested title), which is notable in itself. Also, the fact that this episode survives on 35mm film results in a gloriously crisp picture and audio. Can't wait for the DVD release of this one in all its VidFIREd glory. This is good fun thus far.

VV8 - The Invasion 8

I always have a soft spot for stories, and TV programmes and films in general, that have the main antagonist and protagonist join up and fight what they both no realize is their common enemy. Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker teaming up briefly to dispose of the Emperor in Return of the Jedi is an example that leaps immediately to mind. Tobias Vaughn has been such a great character during the first seven episodes of this story that I was really hoping he wouldn't be wasted in the final installment once his involvement in the Cybermen's plans came to an end. And, thankfully, he joins up with The Doctor to exact revenge on his former allies.

He and The Doctor make a formidable, if short-lived, team. I still think it's a shame that Vaughn dies. It would have been much more interesting, in my opinion, if Vaughn would have escaped after helping The Doctor disable the Cybermen's radio signal, thus sign posting a potential reunion between the pair down the road (which never would have been made, if the show's producers knew what was good for them. Leave the fate of Vaughn to the fan fiction world). As it happens, though, Vaughn is gunned down in long shot by the Cybermen in a bit of an anticlimactic end to one of the best villains in Doctor Who history.

There are so many elements competing with each other throughout the eight episodes of The Invasion. The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe, Isobel and Professor Watkins, Tobias Vaughn, Packer, and so on. The most surprising element of this story is the almost complete absence of the Cybermen. They only feature in three of the eight episodes, and they are often reduced to unintelligent drones doing the bidding of the Cyber Director or Vaughn and his minions. In retrospect, after their meagre impact in this episode (barring one or two notable scenes, of course), as well as the relative failure that was The Wheel in Space (and the perceived substandard nature of their next adventure, 1975's Revenge of the Cybermen), one could argue that it took 15 years for the Cybermen to regain their glory (with 1982's Earthshock) after the smashing The Tomb of the Cybermen.

Another, perhaps equally surprising as the Cybermen being ignored, is how little a role, at times, The Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie play in this story. Zoe solves a problem regarding missiles in Episode Seven, but is otherwise often in the background. Jamie, during the second half of the story, at least, is quite ineffectual, sleeping for most of his time after the sewer rescue, and not present at all during Episode Eight (apart from the final leaving scene). The Doctor does manage to get close to disabling the radio signal midway through Episode Eight, but he needs UNIT's help to finish the job. Once that is done, he's reduced to a bystander while UNIT, the real focus of this story, destroys both the Cybermen's missiles and the Cybermen's mother ship. This is the most powerful we will ever see UNIT. In the future, they will try and fail, and will require and seek The Doctor's help - at first, resentfully; later, with more enthusiasm. Here, The Doctor agrees with everything that UNIT is planning, guns blazing and all. It's a promising outlook, and one that paints UNIT in a remarkably positive light, but isn't actually the "promise of the future" for the Pertwee era that it is often made out to be.

VV7 - The Invasion 7

After such an epic end to the previous episode, this episode is fairly disappointing in that, apart from the reprise from the Episode Six cliffhanger, we never see the Cybermen at all during the course of this installment. For the first time in the programme's history, the entire Earth us being affected by an alien menace. It would have been nice to see the scope of the Cyber invasion, but, as far as we can tell, the only people who were knocked out by the Cybermen's radio signal.

UNIT, though, is the real star of this story, even though some of their ranks make for questionable soldiers. Captain Turner must have it in for Jamie, for some reason. During the sewer rescue machine in Episode Six, Turner actually makes Jamie, an untrained civilian, take up the rear when everyone is climbing up the ladder out of the sewer. Jamie then gets attacked by a Cyberman as a result. And, in this episode, when Packer's men are ambushing the house that Jamie, Turner, and Turner's men are in, Turner again has Jamie follow on, and the poor kid is shot in the leg. Is Captain Turner really pledged to protect the public? UNIT must take a separate set of oaths than the police and the army.

My favourite bit in this episode is the casual way that Vaughn sits in his chair, legs crossed, while he jots down the plan that he and the Cyber Director are coming up with to proceed with the next step of the invasion. Even at this late stage, Vaughn seems totally in control of events, but that changes at the end of this episode.

VV6 - The Invasion 6

This is the episode, of course, that features the famous, iconic scene with the Cybermen marching down the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral (drink). The scene is worthy of all the accolades it receives, mostly because of the atmospheric build-up. It starts with shots of an empty street, followed by the sound of the Cyber signal gradually getting louder, then seeing several passers by on the streets affected by it. When Captain Turner bursts in and tells everyone that there are reports of hundreds of Cybermen coming out of the sewers, you believe it! Even when there's only six Cybermen on screen at one time, you believe it.

Douglas Camfield's direction and the editing really make this scene work, particularly the quick shots of the Cybermen flinging off the manhole covers, with well placed sound effects covering up the fact that the covers are made of polystyrene. I actually punched the air when I watched this scene. I've seen it almost hundreds of time on many and varied Doctor Who documentaries over the years, but when seen in context, it is one of Doctor Who's most magical moments.

Following up on Isobel and Zoe's ill advised trip down to the sewers from Episode Five, one UNIT soldier, in addition to that poor policeman from last episode, met his end at the end of a Cyberman death ray. All that Isobel offers later on to Captain Turner is a brief apology. She also does her best Polly impersonation and makes tea for everyone. Feminism in Doctor Who lasts one episode.