Doctor Who: The Invasion of Time (Story 97)
by Gerald Blake
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DVD details
Actor: Louise Jameson, Stuart Fell, Tom BakerDirector: Gerald Blake
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 150 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-09-02
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Video / Warner Bros.
Product features:
- In Leela's farewell story, the Doctor returns to Gallifrey to claim the Presidency and begins an unorthodox administration by opening the gates to alien invaders. This adventure is famous for its extensive look into the backrooms of the TARDIS.Running Time: 150 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:?SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating:?NR Age:?883929025084 UPC:?883929025084 Manufacturer
DVD Reviews of Doctor Who: The Invasion of Time (Story 97)
DVD Review: Gallifrey invaded... the Doctor a traitor... and time threatened... "The Invasion of Time"!
Summary: 5 Stars
I hold this one up to be one of my favorite Tom Baker stories of all time along with "The Ark in Space", "Genesis of the Daleks", and "Planet of Evil", and if I could choose just one story from the Tom Baker era to sum up his Doctor, then this one would have to be it. The only thing that's missing from this story is a hammer horror feel to it. But other than that, this one's got everything. It has a great script with interesting plot twists at every turn. You've got lots of mystery and action with some great humorous moments in this one. Two alien races are invading Gallifrey - the Vardans and the Sontarans. Performances are great. Tom Bkaer's Doctor is as good as ever as he is featured eating and offering everybody jelly babies in this one. For the first half of the story the Doctor appears to be a traitor by helping these alien beings invade his own world and he even turns against his own companion, Leela, in this one. And when the truth is finally revealed, the Doctor is never more heroic. K9 stands by the Doctor's side throughout the whole thing, and he is certainly a dog of action when you see him battling Sontarans with his laser nose. This is definitely a five star script.
And although the production suffers a little bit due to the fact that the BBC was having money troubles then and suffering from a strike, the story is so good you are able to forgive this story for it. Plus the new CGI effects included on this DVD also greatly improve the story - although I think I like the original shot of Gallifrey better than the new CGI shot, but other than that, the new effects are a lot better. The story is great, and is highly recommended!
DVD Review: An unremarkable production that doesn't justify a two-disc set
Summary: 2 Stars
Primitive special effects, tacky production values and location shooting that turns the English countryside or derelict buildings into sci-fi settings have always been a big part of the charm of Doctor Who. The story and characters have to be compelling when the show so often looks as if it were pulled out of the BBC's you-know-where.
"The Invasion of Time," however, was not one of those creative stories. It was a fair to middling production from one of the fourth Doctor's more fallow periods, and it simply doesn't warrant the two-disc treatment it receives here. Yes, it is a six-parter, but the extra features clock in at well under an hour. "The Sea Devils," released on DVD three months previously, manages to squeeze six episodes, almost an hour of extras, plus a 120-page book in PDF format, all onto one disc. So disc capacity certainly wasn't an issue.
"The Invasion of Time" was the final story before the "Key to Time" season and marked Louisa Jameson's last outing as Leela, but it all feels haphazard from start to finish. The story recycles sets and costumes from the previous season's "The Deadly Assassin." The special effects depicting the unseen invaders are laughably bad even by Doctor Who standards. The story is structured as a four-parter but tacks on a two-episode "dog leg" featuring a "surprise" appearance by the Sontarans, one of the easier aliens for the show to produce.
The padding in these last two episodes is shameless: Characters chase each other through the same scenery over and over and over, and we're told it's because they're walking through different, identical levels of the TARDIS. Yeah, right. You'd think the producers would at least try to put a little razzle-dazzle into such a rare, insider's tour of the Doctor's fabled time machine. Instead, the scenes were shot inside a decommissioned mental hospital.
This was clearly not one of Tom Baker's finest hours (or two) as the good Doctor and is recommended for completists only. Casual fans of the fourth Doctor will want to invest their hard-earned cash in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" or "City of Death."
DVD Review: A classic!
Summary: 5 Stars
Tom Baker is my all-time favorite Doctor. This is my favorite episode of his. It is a classic and one of the few Gallifrey episodes. If you are a die-hard fan, this is a must see!DVD Review: "I know this TARDIS like the back of my hand."
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Invasion of Time" was one of the first "Doctor Who" stories I encountered, at a very young age, thanks to the novelization (Doctor Who and the Invasion of Time) by Terrance Dicks. I thus lack any objectivity towards this story. I've read the book, and later seen the TV episode, so often that I know every line by heart and could assemble the script like a jigsaw puzzle even with the lights off. It wouldn't make any sense to me now, nearly 25 years later, to question where the pieces are supposed to go. If offered the script to improve, I couldn't change it.
Plot-wise, it's best to think of "Invasion" as three successive two-part adventures. In the opening two acts, the Doctor has seemingly turned evil -- assuming dictatorial control of his home planet (Gallifrey, last seen in the wonderful Doctor Who - The Deadly Assassin) and opening the floodgates to alien invaders. This is Tom Baker at his manic best. In the middle story, the camera pulls back to reveal the Doctor's been on our side the whole time, as he enlists the help of an enormous cast to defeat the threat -- until the camera pulls back yet again to reveal that the Doctor's been duped by the Sontarans (last seen in the much less impressive Doctor Who - The Sontaran Experiment (Episode 77)) and has to journey deep into the rarely-seen heart of his own TARDIS to save the day in Parts Five and Six.
The DVD production team's editorial slant towards "Invasion" is roughly similar to mine. Via the stellar production note subtitle feature during the main story, and on the too-brief making-of featurette, they reveal a fondness for the big ideas and concepts that underlie the story -- even if the production values got caught up and trampled in the rush to make the Big Epic Season Finale on a less-than-shoestring budget.
I learned a lot about "Invasion" from the DVD, in fact, much more than I thought I'd be able to learn from a story whose twists and turns I've worn smoothe through years of re-use. The script, for example, was a last-minute filler replacement written in four days. Who knew? Or that the production was hastily mounted on location in a disused hospital, or that companion Leela (Louise Jameson)'s departure from the series was something the producer hoped to reverse at the very last minute.
The commentary track here is a little dull; we've already heard from Jameson, John Leeson (the voice of K-9, who occasionally slips into character), and FX man Mat Irvine on this month's companion release, Doctor Who: The Invisible Enemy/K9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend. Co-author Anthony Read is a welcome addition to the booth, although he doesn't really add much until the final hour. Six minutes of deleted scenes are quite welcome -- we don't get these too often. A comedy reel on the story's pseudonymous author, "David Agnew", gets its few chuckles, while a short bit on the Doctor's since-defunct home planet Gallifrey feels oddly rushed.
While the visual effects don't hold up so well after 30+ years, the CGI overlay added by the restoration team offers one nice benefit: the Vardans now appear as menacing humanoid ghosts rather than as rattling drapes of tin foil, if you choose that option. Of course, the effects don't matter much, not with a large well-acted cast and a script full of such large ideas. Here's another case of "Doctor Who" doing something with next to nothing, and more than getting away with it.
DVD Review: Better With The CGI Enhancements
Summary: 4 Stars
The Invasion of Time has always been one of my favorite Doctor Who stories. Unfortunately, the nasty special effects that were created for the Vardans really ruined the story for me. (Well, maybe the clumsy Sontaran trying to leap over the chaise lounge chair was pretty lame too.)
However, thanks to the advent of CGI technology, the viewer is able to replace some of the bad special effects. This helps the story immensely.
I recommend this story for the tried and true Doctor Who fan.
Description of Doctor Who: The Invasion of Time (Story 97)
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/02/2008 Run time: 150 minutes Rating: NrCrystalline aliens lurk in their ship in the vicinity of the shield that keeps Gallifrey safe from its enemies, and the Doctor, in his Tom Baker incarnation, is engaged in highly suspicious negotiations with them. As he takes his seat as president of the Time Lords Council and displays ever-increasing signs of paranoia, expelling Leela (Louise Jameson) to the barren area outside the Time Lords' citadel, could it be that he has turned to the dark side? Or is this all a cunning plan?
This is one of the most inventive of the Doctor's adventures back home on Gallifrey, with nicely judged portrayals of the senior Time Lord bureaucracy, some suspenseful journeys through the Tardis's interior, and a surprise appearance by particularly unpleasant old enemies. The real high point, though, is Tom Baker's performance, more barnstorming than ever before, at times blazingly angry and at times even more terrifying when soft-spokenly whimsical; this is a story line that reminds us that the various incarnations of the Doctor are impressive as well as charming. --Roz Kaveney
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