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| The Doctor is captured by the evil Kraals! |
4 episodes. Approx. 96 minutes. Written by: Terry Nation. Directed by: Barry Letts. Produced by: Philip Hinchcliffe.
THE PLOT
The Doctor and Sarah Jane materialize near Devesham, a rural English village located not far from a Space Defence Station. They have only just arrived when they spot a UNIT soldier, who runs erratically over a cliff to his death. When the Doctor searches the man's body, he discovers that his money is all newly minted - which is very improbable.
Mysterious events continue to build up. Strange men in spacesuits fire on them without even a word exchanged. When they reach the village, they find it completely deserted - with the money in the local pub all newly minted, just as the soldier's was. When the people finally arrive, they are dropped off in trucks and shuffle into the pub where they sit or stand like zombies - until the clock strikes twelve, at which point they suddenly behave normally.
The Doctor goes to the Space Defence Station, in hopes of finding UNIT allies to fill him in on the situation. He finds familiar faces: Harry Sullivan, Warrant Officer Benton. But these friends turn on him violently. These are not the real Harry and Benton, but android duplicates - and by the time the Doctor reconnects with Sarah Jane, she has been replaced as well...
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: Though The Android Invasion isn't one of his better stories, Tom Baker is on excellent form. The scene at the end of Part Two, in which he confronts the android Sarah Jane, is a particular highlight. He has a calm, even casual tone as he reveals what he's figured out so far (which is a lot), but there's a dangerous undercurrent as he asks what has happened to the real Sarah. He switches between casual irreverence and deadly seriousness regularly throughout the story, sometimes within the same line delivery, and makes a fairly weak script very watchable in large part through sheer charisma.
Sarah Jane Smith: You know you're in a Terry Nation script when capable Sarah Jane Smith can't help herself from falling over nothing in each of the first two episodes - the second time, even spraining her ankle! To Nation, all companions are Susan Forman. That said, I love the easy screen rapport that had developed by this point between Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen. The opening bit, as they leave the TARDIS and walk into the woods, is wonderful as the Doctor's aside about "watch the bramble" is carried on to a full, natural-sounding conversation as they walk away. There are a lot of little bits like that between these two, who just "fit" beautifully together on camera.
Harry Sullivan/Warrant Officer Benton: This serial is the final series appearance of both characters. Not that there's much for either of them to do - We don't even see the real Harry and Benton until the final episode, and the effectiveness of having android doubles of them is undercut by Terror of the Zygons having done something similar just a few stories earlier. They remain welcome presences, though, even if one could have wished for stronger roles for them.
THOUGHTS
With its rural village and UNIT involvement, The Android Invasion feels very much like a leftover from the Pertwee era. One expects the Brigadier to pop up and start shooting at things and for the Doctor to hop into Bessie at any moment. It also is another Season 13 story whose plot involves doppelgangers of familiar faces, which can create a sense of deja vu so soon after Terror of the Zygons.
These factors probably have a lot to do with just how poorly-regarded this serial is. To be sure, this isn't one of the series' better stories. The Kraals are weak villains with a plan so convoluted as to practically be nonsensical. An ending twist involving the weak-willed Crayford (Milton Johns)'s eyepatch is so ludicrous in its stupidity it about crosses the Event Horizon of idiocy. That's not even mentioning the presence of Colonel Faraday (Patrick Newell), a third-rate Brigadier knockoff who might as well be clad in a sandwich board reading, "Nicholas Courtney wasn't available, so you got me."
For all its faults, though, I find this a passably entertaining runaround. It moves along at a decent pace, and Barry Letts' direction is sturdy. The opening episode is by far the best of the story's four installments. The Village of the Damned trappings are genuinely spooky, and the script artfully piles one mystery on top of another: the strange spacesuited figures, the radiation, the mint condition money, the odd behavior of the locals. It's all effectively presented, and builds quite nicely... albeit, to a very weak cliffhanger.
The Android Invasion is an enjoyable time-filler, and it's given a tremendous boost by the performances of Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen. But its plot feels half-formed, and its most effective ingredient - evil doubles of our regulars - was already done earlier in the same season. All of which leaves this a passable runaround, but ill-placed and outclassed by most of the stories surrounding it.
Overall Rating: 5/10.
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