THE INVASION

"My body may be cybernetic, but my mind stays human!."

This page looks back to the Patrick Troughton story from 1968, The Invasion.

The Cybermen invade.

The Story The TARDIS lands in a field in England in 1975. The time travellers discover that they are inside a huge compound owned by a company called International Electromatics. They manage to get a lift outside the compound, but shortly after dropping them off, the lorry driver is murdered by security guards from the company. The Doctor is having trouble with some TARDIS circuits, and they make their way to London, hoping to enlist the help of their old friend, Professor Travers. Travers is out of the country, but they find Isobel, whose uncle, Professor Watkins, is a friend of Travers. Watkins is working for International Electromatics and has disappeared. The Doctor and Jamie visit the headquarters of International Electromatics and meet the sinister Tobias Vaughn and his sadistic accomplice, Packer. Shortly after leaving the I.E. building, they are kidnapped by two men. They are taken to an aeroplane where they meet Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, now in charge of U.N.I.T. It seems that UNIT have been keeping an eye on the I.E. building. Vaughn is in league with the Cybermen and is planning to take over the world....

Tobias Vaughn (Kevin Stoney).

The Production The Invasion is one of the all-time classic Dr Who stories. The sequence where the Cybermen descend the steps near St Paul's Cathedral is one of the memorable moments from Dr Who - like the Daleks crossing Westminster Bridge some four years earlier. The story has many 'plus points'. It's the first UNIT story, it has Patrick Troughton in excellent form as the Doctor and it has a first-rate villain, played by Kevin Stoney. Add to this the haunting, memorable, yet simple incidental music by Don Harper and you have one of the best Dr Who stories ever. The Invasion is the third-longest Dr Who story ever at eight episodes, beaten only by The War Games (10) and The Daleks Master Plan (12). In spite of this, the story doesn't drag and keeps the viewer's attention.

The Cybermen attack the Unit troops.

Things to look out for 1. John Levene makes his first appearance as Benton - a series regular during Jon Pertwee's era. 2. Director Douglas Camfield's wife, Sheila Dunn, provides the voice of the receptionist computer at International Electromatics. She later appeared in the Jon Pertwee story, Inferno 3. The final battle scene between the UNIT troops and the cybermen was filmed at the Guinness brewery in London - the same location was also used in the next UNIT story, Spearhead From Space.

Availability Only six of the eight episodes still exist and were released on BBC video (BBCV 4974) in 1993, with linking narration by Nicholas Courtney. The two missing episodes exist in audio form and it is to be hoped that the BBC may release the story on audio CD.