Written by Anthony Read, Graham Williams, and Sydney Newman
Directed by Gerald Blake

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series which has been around off and on since 1963. The main character is just known as “The Doctor” and is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. This means he travels through time to various places. One of his favorite places to visit is Earth. Typically, he has a companion traveling with him, usually female, sometimes male, sometimes one of each. He travels in a time machine known as a “Tardis” which is disguised as a British Police booth.

A Time Lord can regenerate if fatally wounded, which has accounted for all the different actors who have played The Doctor throughout the years. In this episode, the Doctor is portrayed by Tom Baker and is traveling with Leela (portrayed by Louise Jamison).  Leela is a primitive-like descendant of a group of earthlings who crashed on a planet far in the future.

The TARDIS has materialized on an alien spacecraft. The Doctor has left Leela alone inside, and she’s crazy with a mixture of curiosity and worry as to what’s going on. When the Doctor returns, he is still close-mouthed.

The TARDIS approaches Gallifrey, and the defense department there prepares to destroy what they think is a renegade capsule. When he lands, the Doctor begins acting erratically, one moment telling Leela to follow him, the next telling her to stay where she is until he sends for her. The Doctor then enters the office of Chancellor Borusa (portrayed by John Arnatt) and claims his right to the Presidency of the Council of Time Lords.

During the induction ceremony, a crown known as The Matrix is placed upon the Doctor’s head. There is a reaction, and the rest of the Council engages in debate as to whether this means he is to be President or not.

The Doctor then ducks away from the Chancellor and the head of the defense to consort with K-9 to shut down the transduction barrier which defends Gallifrey against alien invasion. As the new alien masters of the Time Lords materialize, the Doctor laughs menacingly. It would seem that he has sold out his race to the Vardans.

With a six-part story-arc, it would be easy to end up with a story that’s too dragged out. To a certain extent, that’s exactly what happens. However, the producers here manage to do away with just an alien-of-the-week scenario. Just when it looks like the Time Lords have vanquished the Vardans, the Sontarans appear. This is a good twist – just at the end of a typical story-arc it becomes something quite different and ends up with six parts instead of three or four.

The Invasion of Time marks the final appearance for Leela, who was definitely my favorite companion of the old series. Her departure is handled well. Although she and the Doctor are separated for the majority of this story-arc, it doesn’t have the feeling that she was just shoved off somewhere while the Doctor worked his miracles. Instead, once the Doctor sends her out of the city for her own safety, she hooks up with some hippie-like Gallifrey-ans who “dropped out”. This is a radical change in the perception of the Time Lords as their society obviously isn’t for everyone. It also provides a bit of comic relief. Leela, however, is in her element with the renegades.

Tom Baker is wonderful here as the Doctor. He’s not so over-the-top and bombastic as he becomes near the end of his tenure. Instead, he’s setting up a situation that seems rather convoluted to get out of. I enjoyed what he did here, and the performances by him and Louise Jameson are what largely keep a long, drawn-out storyline from going down the tubes.

There’s some nice chemistry in the guest cast as well. John Arnatt as Chancellor Borusa has some terrific scenes with Tom Baker. Max Faulkner as Nesbin, the leader of the Gallifreyan outsiders has some great moments with Leela. Chris Tranchell portrays Commander Andred, who is the one to take a stand againSonst the Doctor when he believes the Time Lord is selling his own people out to the Vardans. He handles the role well, although his contact with Leela is minimal for what the ending of the story will be and the explanation for her departure.

Most Doctor Who fans consider the kitschy special effects to be a part of the charm of the series. However, there have been a few times in the series where the production values are so low they make even the most devoted fans cringe. Even taking into account the capabilities of the time period in which this was made, the appearance of the Vardans will make people cringe. They look like creatures made of aluminum foil draped over humans and sound like it as well. The Sontarans fare much better and actually appear menacing once they arrive on the scene.

One continuity note I picked up on almost immediately is that the Chancellor claims he moves slow and is old after his 10th regeneration – that conflicts with what the 10th Doctor looks like for sure!

As always, these DVD releases of the Doctor Who story-arcs come with a number of special features. In fact, with a six-part story, a second disc is needed for all the special features. However, after renting the second disc I was disappointed that there was so little on it. The commentary is good although Tom Baker is missing from it.. A few featurettes on the story are present as well, but it felt like less than a full selection of special features.

I liked The Invasion of Time, but it definitely isn’t up there with some of the better Doctor Who stories, While the send-off for Leela might be a bit lacking, it overall wasn’t bad. The production values were pretty bad, but the acting really makes up for a lot of the story-arc’s shortcomings. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone but fans of the series. If you are interested in it, check out some of the better story-arcs out first to get a better feel for the series.



SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary with Louise Jamison, John Gleeson (voice of K9), Tony Reed (script editor), and David Agnew
• “Out of Time” – members of the cast and crew reminisce about working on this story-arc
• Deleted Scenes
• The Rise and Fall of Gallifrey
• The Elusive David Agnew
• Continuity