The Android Invasion

There are some impressive things about The Android Invasion. Barry Letts directs with great energy and the individual scenes work very well. The sequence where the android Sarah is unmasked and then sits up and shoots as the Doctor is very memorable. The design work is excellent, with the Kraals being successfully realised as a cross between a Sontaran and a Triceratops. There are also good guest performances, especially from Milton Johns as Crayford and the regulars put in good work- the chemistry between Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen is so successful that it manages to save some scenes that would otherwise be execrable.

However, the story suffers from having one of the stupidest, most poorly thought out scripts the programme has ever seen. This is Terry Nation at his worst, a script formed of set pieces that are clumsily stitched together. This is exemplified in the scene where Sarah twists her ankle for no good reason apart from adding ten minutes to the story time. There are ludicrous elements such as the robot detector and although enough has been written about the plot holes by others, it’s important to take note of how blatant they are- Guy Crayford’s eye, the fact that there is no real need to build the village in the first place, the fact that there is still an invasion fleet heading for earth at the end of the story etc. For this story to work, one would have to have the short-term memory of a cabbage. As soon as one thinks of the story as a whole, the whole thing falls apart. Instead of killing the Doctor Styggron ties him to a war memorial and blows up the fake village for no reason. This looks good and is exciting, but makes no sense in story terms. The opening is memorable- unfortunately it is exactly the same opening used in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. This story is an insult to the intelligence, with all the inherent narrative value of a screensaver.

NEXT: The Brain of Morbius