Spearhead from Space written by Robert Holmes and directed by Derek Martinus

This story in a nutshell: A new Doctor, a new assistant, a new format and a new menace. Doctor Who is stranded on Earth and things are more dangerous than ever…

The Mighty Nose: The shot of the Doctor falling from the TARDIS is such a tease because we want to know what he looks like and yet all we see is a weakened man fall into the grass. Then we get to see him tossing in bed but still don’t get a clear view. Okay so he is clearly visible in the credits at the top of the show but that is still no compensation for seeing in the flesh the main man post Troughton. The anarchic little pixie put such a stamp on a role after the definitive first incarnation that it is hard to imagine anybody coming close to capturing that sense of magic. It's not until the Brigadier turns him around that we get to see our new Doctor and we share the Brig’s despondence that we don’t recognise this fella. It is easy to forget that so much of what we take for granted was first introduced in the Pertwee era such as his two hearts, self induced comas and the name Gallifrey. Anybody who was worried that this might become Pertwee’s comedy caper might have been appalled to see him romping around in bed, looking for keys and crying ‘unhand me madam!’ to the nurse, singing in the shower and trying on all manner of comedy hats! It's fantastic fun and initially appears that Pertwee is going to play the part with as much humour as Troughton did (the humour is there throughout his run but it is far more less slapstick and subtle but ultimately Pertwee was probably the most serious and authoritative Doctor of the lot). After the initial shock of seeing his face he judges it as quite distinctive, even his mighty nose. When the Doctor grabs his shoes and hugs them his physician wonders if his brain has been damaged (I love his cheery ‘Hello! How are you feeling?’ and the Doctor’s deadpan ‘Shoes!’). Everybody is having fun trying to find their way with the Doctor in this tale from Robert Holmes to Jon Pertwee to Nicholas Courtney who as the Brig plays the same role that Ben did in Power of the Daleks, attempting to determined whether this is the Doctor or not. Since we have already seen him transform before and the Time Lords stated they would be changing his appearance at the end of The War Games there isn't that sense of uncertainty that we had during Power. But that just leads to even more fun, we're one step ahead of the Brigadier and are experiencing the new Doctor charming his way into his life in exactly the same way Troughton did with his audience at the beginning of his era. By the end of Spearhead from Space there is no doubt whatsoever in the Brigadier's mind that this is the Doctor, having defeated an alien menace on behalf of humanity. I’m guessing that the Doctor figures since he’s been caught and punished by his own people and cast in the role of a criminal and exiled to Earth he may as well keep up the image by stealing clothes and vintage cars. Whilst there was always the feeling that there was more than meets the eye with the second Doctor he never manipulated his friends like the third Doctor does here with Liz, using her to obtain the TARDIS key and escape his prison on Earth. It's fascinating that like the first Doctor in his initial handful of stories you get the feeling he would happily go and leave the humans to sort this mess out themselves. It's a feeling of contempt that would run like words through a stick of rock through season seven. By the end of this story you are convinced that the Doctor has always been UNIT’s scientific advisor and this is how the show has always been, that’s how firmly Pertwee has asserted himself. I never have any problem with the Doctor working for the establishment and making a name for himself, it is the most distinctive way to mark him out from Troughton (although even he work work with the authorities when it was necessary - The Faceless Ones, The Web of Fear, The Invasion). And besides I wouldn't say that his anti-establishment attitude vanishes - he spends almost the entirety of his era mocking the army and their brutish ways and condemning the Brigadier and his military pomposity. It's just he happens to exploit them at the same time. He's card, this one. I love how he scoffs at the thought of earning a salary and yet wants a very materialistic lifestyle on Earth of fast cars, stylish clothes and pretty ladies. He's the James Bond and John Steed of Doctor Who, the feckless dandy adventurer with a penchant for hardware. It's another Doctor I really enjoy spending time with.

Brainy Redhead: Liz Shaw has one of the most stylish introductions of any companions, chauffeur driven into UNIT headquarters and drafted by Lethbridge Stewart into aiding their fight against alien menaces. With her introduction the show suddenly feels as though it has grown up, introducing a strong, intelligent foil for the Doctor in a very sophisticated way. Her interaction with the Brigadier is spiky, almost flirtatiously so at the beginning (at points during their many spats in this adventure I could have sworn they were one more insult away from grabbing each other and snogging) and it is a shame that when the Pertwee gains control of the series that we lose this thorny chemistry in favour of the Doctor/Brigadier fights. She deals with facts and not science fiction ideas and she sounds ever so much like Scully early in The X-Files run. In this story certainly Liz Shaw feels like a prototype for Gillian Anderson’s character, cold, calculating, resourceful and ever so slightly aloof but played by an actress who imbues the part with enough warmth to make her likable. Caroline John’s little eyebrow raise when the Brigadier mentions that Liz is not just a pretty face is perfect. By the end of the story Pertwee has asserted himself and Liz is left holding the equipment whilst he tackles with the monster but their chemistry is instant and very enjoyable.

Chap With Wings: The scenes between the Brigadier and Liz in episode one are phenomenal – I love it when they take UNIT this seriously and Nicholas Courtney sells this format changing material brilliantly. Despite a moustache that doesn’t quite want to hold in place he is instantly charismatic and exceptional in his field and you can see how he will be an invaluable asset to the series. It’s a shame he became something of a parody of his own character in later years because there is absolutely nothing wrong with how he is characterised here. The Brig knows how to deal with the press and their incessant questions; he asserts his authority over them with a firm ticking off. I love the way the Brigadier treats the Doctor like a naughty child after he tries to abandon them, he makes him promise not to run off again just as a parent would with a wayward child. UNITs co-operation with the army is discussed here and it is clear it is a tentative relationship. It takes a long time for the Brigadier to be convinced that this is the Doctor and his little runaway attempt doesn't help matters but by the story's conclusion it is clear that his new scientific advisor is a massive benefit to his cause and he is trying to make his transition to exile on Earth as comfortable as possible.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘We have drawn attention to ourselves, Miss Shaw.’
‘What you don’t understand is that there might, there is a remote possibility that outside your cosy little world other things could exist!’ ‘No need to get tetchy!’ ‘Well sometimes you can be very aggravating!’ ‘Me? What about you? You really believe in a man who’s helped to save the world twice with the power to change his physical appearance? An alien being who travels through time and space…in a police box?’ – hurrah for Robert Holmes for managing to sum up the first six years of Doctor Who in one witty line!
‘Camouflage General, its not really a police box…it’s a spaceship!’
‘Where are they going?’ ‘To take their places…’ – all those dummies of civil servants are heading of on a killing spree to take over the country!
‘We are the Nestenes. We have been colonising other worlds for 100,000,000 years and now we have come to colonise the Earth.’

The Good Stuff: Its only when you watch this story in hindsight of the new series that you realise just how much Russell T Davies nabbed to reboot the series in 2005. A contemporary Earth setting, a new Doctor and assistant, a Nestene invasion – both stories even start with the same shot of a pan in on the Earth! Clearly everybody looks to Spearhead from Space for inspiration since the TV Movie features a Doctor who is rushed to hosptial and the x-ray sequence is repeated practically to the letter. I'm not surprised, this is stirring material and deserves to be repeated.What it points out is just how contemporary Robert Holmes' writing could be, this material works in 1970, 1996 and 2005. The music leaves you with no doubt that the throbbing sphere that Seeley is pulling from the ground has not come to the Earth for any beneficial reason to the planet. Armed soldiers guarding the TARDIS in the woods – there has been nothing like this in Doctor Who before and it genuinely feels like a whole new, grittier lease of life for the show. There are a number of beautifully executed tracking shots in this story – one taking place in the corridors of the hospital and another as the Brigadier is taken to one of the meteorite fragments outside. The slick camerawork feels glossy and contemporary, a real jolt after the creaky black and white years, a quantum leap in quality as much as the leap from third to the fourth season of the Avengers was. Hugh Burden’s Channing is a creepy background presence; he doesn’t need to say anything to put the wind up me, just stare with those cold eyes. Make no mistake, no matter how many attempts there have been to copy the success of this original Auton story this is the definite article and they have never been scarier then decked out in their boiler suits, eyes gouged out and faces slick with plastic. They are a terrifying menace, all the more disturbing because they resemble something that we all see on a daily basis. If this were being made today the glorious Meg Seeley would have her own spin off (‘You watch your tongue and don’t think I’ll have that dirty old box in my house!’). What a marvelous old dragon. Proof that the show was trying to push the horror content as far as it would go, we have never seen anything quite as grisly as the scene where the Auton steps out in the road and forces the UNIT soldier to collide his jeep with a tree. We see its blank staring eyes surveying the wreckage through the cracked windscreen, the poor soldiers bloody face smacked into it. Astonishingly nasty for Doctor Who and quite terrifying for the kids watching. The end of episode two is enough to give you nightmares, a row of mannequins that our victim passes and one slowly twitching and coming to life. Ransome spitting out his tea and shaking with fear is scarier than a hundred monsters, a very human reaction of terror to an inexplicably terrifying situation. This the first time that Doctor Who has ever had a monster stepping into a normal person house and terrorising somebody, it wouldn't be the last but I don't think it is ever quite as effective as it is handled here. The awful gluey face of the Auton who menaces Meg Seeley is pretty horrific and the way he slowly advances on her as she pumps his chest full of lead must have given the kids around the country nightmares. The scares keep coming when it is revealed that characters aren't even safe under UNIT protection, the Auton tears through the fabric of the tent and disposes of Ransome in a tightly edited sequence. I remember when this was first released on video I was petrified by this sequence, it is so quick and unrelenting and Ransome barely has time to react before he is blown away. It really establishes the Autons as an unstoppable force. There is a sequence in The X-Files episode Two Fathers that mirrors almost exactly the end of episode three where Scobie answers the door and is greeted by an alien facsimile of himself. Love the Nestene plan to replace all the top civil servants and replace them with facsimiles to take over the country, very clever, and they are all such emotionless automatons I doubt anybody would even notice! The Nestenes in their natural form feature a disgusting gunky eye that pulsates and shudders nastily, thanks goodness they took human form for this story because this is nauseating. Save the best set piece for last and the one that everybody wants to see – shop window dummies smashing through windows and terrorising the high street. About a million times more effective than a similar scene in Rose because it doesn't feel as though it has been edited down for a CBBC audience. Whilst we never get to see the glass smashing what we do get is genuine looking dummies storming the streets, cutting down policemen and people running for their lives, genuinely terrified. What the kids would have made of this beyond me...this is enough to get adults twitchy walking down the high street! There is something so horribly mundane about executing a bunch of people waiting in a bus queue, the Autons punishing us Brits for what we do best! What an awful way to go though, waiting for a bus. Although it is shot in the same place as The Invasion concluding action set piece it feels entirely different in colour but equally as spectacular, UNIT soldiers are disposed in flashes of smoke, gunfire is exchanged and explosions rip through the scene. It looks gorgeous and provides an exciting story with a memorably action packed climax. Channing’s smoky Auton corpse covered in green snot is the last gross out shot of the story.  ‘Will these Nestenes try again?’ – yep when the ratings are down at the end of the season!

The Bad Stuff: Whilst the cliffhanger to part one is great as written (the Doctor is shot dead before we even get to know him) the closing line feels really badly edited. What's missing is the cliffhanging sting that Barry Letts introduced and in it's place is an awkward silence before the title music cuts in. Barney the dog is clearly a man doing a poor dog impression ('arf! arf! arf!') - they couldn't find stock sound effects of a dog barking?  You can see General Scobie the waxwork blinking clearly and one of the female waxworks actually opens her eyes and closes them several times when she thinks she is out of shot! Just to remind us that actually this is still Doctor Who after all we get the Doctor gurning ridiculously as giant green rubber tentacles try and strangle the life out of him. Pertwee tries to play this danger for real but with the camera shoved right down his nose it looks like he is taking the proverbial out of the climax to this tale. What a shame as otherwise this story would be practically flawless and probably earn full marks.

The Shallow Bit: I cannot believe that they filmed Pertwee washing his lily-white butt in episode two! I cannot imagine any other actor being able to pull of a velvet jacket and frilly shirt and not look ridiculous but during his time Pertwee pulls off all manner of ensembles without batting an eyelid or even thinking about feeling embarrassed. Nameless soldier (lets call him ‘Bemused Man’) who looks around in astonishment as the Auton’s fall is pretty cute.

Result: Spearhead from Space is so slick and assured it could have been the pilot story for the series and nobody would known otherwise. A mysterious man who falls to Earth at a time when he is most needed, having been exiled from an unknown planet and aiding a military organisation against a terrifying menace. That is a premise strong enough to hold up a feature film. Holmes affords himself the entire opening episode to the mystery the Doctor's new face before kick starting the plot in episode two. Forcing this story on location is the best thing they could have done because this reboot couldn't have looked any more expensive and different from what had come before. It feels as though the BBC is throwing everything they have at this story to make the switch to colour a success when in reality it was industrial action that forced the show on film. Jon Pertwee, Caroline John and Nicholas Courtney make for an impressive set of new regulars and all three characters are intelligently written and have memorable interaction. Some of this material is astonishingly adult and frightening and episode three in particular features one scary set piece after another. At four episodes long it feels quick paced and with touches of Avengers eccentricity and Quatermass frights   but bundled into a story that is as mad and as engaging as only Doctor Who knows how to be the result is an alluring introduction to the shows Earthbound formula. If they are all going to be like this then the show is in very safe hands. What do you get when you combine a polished production, a charismatic new Doctor, a bold new format for the show and a proper scary adventure? A ratings smash hit: 9/10

The War Games written by Terrance Dicks & Malcolm Hulke and directed by David Maloney

This story in a nutshell: The ultimate Doctor Who epic which results in his death…

Oh My Giddy Aunt: Ten episodes of Patrick Troughton! Ten episodes! What a treasure trove! The usually jubilant second Doctor shirks off his usual frivolity as soon as he realises he has landed in the First World War. It's great how he huffs and puffs his way through his fake trial and kisses Zoe before going off to be shot – from its first episode The War Games feels very different and as though something important is happening. When he is pinned up to be shot there isn't that sense of comfort that this is just another cliffhanger that will be resolved quickly in the next episode, it really feels as though the Doctor might die such has been the swiftness and brutality of his trial. The sheer unadulterated gall of the Doctor walking into the military prison and pretending to be an officious inspector makes me howl with laughter every time I watch it –Troughton is sublimely funny as he chews out the smug military Commandant (‘D'you know who I am, sir!’). It just goes to show that when he wants to be Troughton can be every bit as frightening as Hartnell. He’s all bluff and bluster in the face of military might, declaring ‘Are you going to shoot us? My friends and I are leaving!’ He is eager to blow up the safe, the little anarchist, proving he can never quite let go of the sense of juvenile excitement when breaking the rules. He cheekily disarms the German Leftennant with an obvious ploy. Some of my favourite scenes in the story come when he interrupts the lecture, plays about with the equipment without asking and generally behaves like a naughty schoolboy. The Doctor recognising the War Chief is a chilling moment when everything we know about the character is turned on its head. How wonderful is his ‘...better leave him on simmer!’ Only Troughton could make a ridiculous line like that work so well. The Doctor crawls out of the TARDIS waving a white hankie in surrender and then throws a smoke bomb – he’s brilliantly anarchic. As the Doctor tries to juggle so many problems at once Troughton’s performance becomes increasingly frantic, expressing the sense of desperation he is facing. ‘Don’t worry I’m not going to hurt you’ says this little pixie to an armed guard. Troughton’s quiet unapologetic intensity when he talks to someone from his own planet is simply the best scene he has performed in the show to that point. And that is against some stiff competition from practically every other story. Could the Doctor have gone rogue and betrayed his friends because he’s out of options? How much quality material can one actor be given in one story? I love the panic stricken cowardice as Villa goes to the kick the bejesus out of him and when we return to him the Doctor is involved in a violent scrum! ‘Did you really think I would be involved in your disgusting schemes?’ he tells the War Chief, deadly serious. ‘For once Jamie do as you are told!’ – that makes me crack up although it does show that the Doctor is truly out of options, snapping at his best friend. Observing and gathering knowledge was never enough for the Doctor, he was bored and wanted to explore the universe and visit countless civilisations and so he stole the TARDIS and went on the run from his people. It’s a great credit to the writers that we have waited 6 years for these answers and they do not disappoint and feel like a very natural revelation that fits both Hartnell and Troughton. Bravo! Watch the Doctor dash madly around the console as he tries to escape the Time Lords, this is gripping stuff. Troughton is fabulously defiant in the tribunal, the Doctor not only admits his interference in other cultures but he is proud of the difference he has made. It's brilliant that the most revolutionary Doctor should go out kicking and screaming, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Ten episodes of challenging material and you cannot fault Troughton for one second – he’s a brilliant actor and this is an unforgettable swansong for his Doctor.

Who’s the Yahoos: I said in my reviews of The Seeds of Death that I thought season six could happily chug on without Jamie and it was newcomer Zoe that had all the best material (and a hilarious relationship) with the Doctor. However the War Games is the one exception. Given that this is Jamie’s last story of an incredible stretch (just one story less than Troughton and for the sheer wealth of episodes he is unbeaten when it comes to the Doctor's assistants) Dicks and Hulke give him some wonderful things to do and remind us of his origins and how far he has come. As an ex-resistance fighter he takes great umbrage to being called a deserter. It is wonderful to see Jamie as a fighter once again having to use his wits and fists against an overwhelming enemy. He cannot imagine fighting a war in holes in the ground and blowing the hell out of each other, his is a far more romantic vision of hand-to-hand combat. Jamie, who used to fight against these people to the death, is willing to talk to a Redcoat and work out a plan to escape together. He’s hilariously rubbish at subterfuge and almost blows the Doctor’s cover by demanding what he is playing at when he is trying to rescue him from the military prison. Frazer Hines looks so cute with a cushion over his head to protect him from the exploding safe, he's so confident in the part at this point that it would be a long time indeed before another actor was quite so contented in the role of a companion. Brilliant to see Jamie smash an American off his horse with a tree stump and steal the animal – this was very much his life before the Doctor. He rides through the hills and rescues Lady Jennifer in the very model of a dashing hero! He insists that she cannot come with them to the control centre because she is a woman in what I can't make up my mind is a chivalrous or sexist (you decide) act. There’s some fabulous funny business as Jamie trips through the door posing as the leader of the rebellion. Both Jamie and Zoe have unwavering loyalty to the Doctor and refuse to believe that he would betray them. Jamie’s fake processing is gigglesome (‘Oh aye…I’ll obey yer!’ Loyal to the last, he refuses to leave the Doctor even when he is on the run from his (clearly dangerous) own people. ‘The TARDIS is no good to you!’ he tells the War Chief, ‘he can’t even steer it properly!’ He says he will never forget the Doctor and you believe him until that devastating final twist. The Doctor’s laughter as Jamie runs after a Redcoat so furiously is wonderful, the affection he has for the young Scot is palpable.

Beautiful Brainbox: My favourite girl of the era gets some wonderful material in her last story. Somehow Zoe looks even cuter than ever in her trench coat. She is a real feisty mare when she wants to be and gives the soldier an earful for keep bellowing at them and Smythe also gets a piece of her mind for his ridiculous kangaroo court. She’s resourceful too, searching the general’s quarters and rescuing the Doctor (risking execution herself) and smashing the vase over the Commandant’s head as he is about to phone through and expose the Doctor as an imposter  As the Doctor says: ‘What a nice and clever girl you are!’ ‘The girl is from the future and the boy is from the past’ – given the run of contemporary companions we have had in the new series it is easy to forget how experimental they were with companions in the classic series and what an inspired idea the culturally diverse duo of Jamie and Zoe was. Once again Zoe is paired up with the Doctor and they make a giddy and excitable pair as they explore the control centre. She’s given a blast of the mind probe but it's not enough to bring down this stubborn lass. Her photographic memory is brought to the fore; she’s like Adric done right, a total boffin but cute and engaging with it. Wendy Padbury is excellent at adding little moments that add depth to the situation and I love her disgusted look away as a man is beaten. ‘For such a little woman your mouth is too big!’ says Villa, brilliantly summing her up. I guess she's like Tegan in that respect, but charming and resourceful with it. Look at her pigeon steps as she heads off to get Jamie to introduce him to Villa; she’s just as good at comedy as her co-stars. She puppeteers the young Scot hilariously, she is such a fabulous know it all and she puts all the right words into his mouth. When asked why he lets a woman speak for him, Jamie questions why not if she's right and Zoe promptly perks up with: 'I am!' Zoe and Jamie convince the Doctor to make one last halfhearted escape on his home planet. Seeing Zoe back on the Wheel is actually far more upsetting than Jamie in the Highlands because there is a strong feeling that her adventures with the Doctor made her a better person and now that has all been forgotten. It's such an unforgettably cruel thing to do Russell T Davies borrowed it for Donna in the new series and it still works like a charm.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘You send no car to meet us on our arrival and now you add insult to injury by doubting my credentials! D’you know who I am sir?’
‘I had every right to leave…’
‘I was bored!’
‘No…no, you’re above criticism, aren’t you?’
‘I thought I’d forgotten something important but it doesn’t matter…’
‘Is this the best you can do? I’ve never seen such an incredible bunch!’

The Good Stuff: The wartime opening of landing in a wasteland and being bombarded with explosive is so immediately atmospheric Maloney used it twice, here and in Genesis of the Daleks (another classic that he helmed). After 12 weeks in space this is a much-needed dose of realism. You can hardly say this story is slow to get going since they are captured by the Germans and rescued by the British within five minutes. Both Carstairs and Lady Jennifer are superbly characterised and acted allies of the Doctor, an extremely likable pair. it would have been so easy to have written these characters as upper class stereotypes but Dicks and Hulke are far too good to fall back on cliche. From the opening episode you can feel the noose tightening around the Doctor’s neck, sentenced to death within 25 minutes! Mud, explosions, barbed wire, gunfire, prisons and executions, it might have been transmitted early but they certainly managed to whip up a gritty wartime atmosphere. The Seven Sisters Country Park is just down the road from me and one of my favourite places to visit so imagine my thrill when I saw the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe emerging there during the Roman scenes? Every time I visit now I half expect to see a Roman legion charging towards me. The second cliffhanger feels like it is befitting of a silent movie with a Roman army chasing our friends as our friends try and crank the car into operation. It's a particular favourite moment of Terrance Dicks and sees the story twisting off in a completely unexpected direction. I felt so sorry for Ransome, such a bumbling fellow, and tied up and gagged in an ignominious fashion. Edward Brayshaw gives an instantly charismatic and fascinating performance as the War Chief and he is totally believable as rogue from the Doctor’s own race. There's a heightened realism about the character that really sells that he is from a race that is extremely confident in their own abilities. Maloney directs the location scenes with real bite, the hand-to-hand combat scenes are violent and nasty and people are shot dead with no hint of cutting away in case they upset the kiddie winks  The War Room is a well designed set which the director shoots imaginatively (I really like the low shot through the table map of the zones). How does a story this long feel so pacy? I love, love, love the groovy sixties pop art guillotine door and the huge hanging balls in the processing room – was the designer on acid? When you see colour photos of these sets we should be ever more thankful that it was shot in black and white. James Bree’s delivery is an unusual monotone but he has an intensity and anger that makes him unmissable. He’s also very quotable -’…the-war-LORD!’ How much fun is having the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe (aww) dressed up as period soldiers? It feels like a return to Troughton's early days in the part where he dressed up in something outrageous every week. A shrinking TARDIS makes for a fantastic cliffhanger, sold almost entirely by the actors. That skin crawling sound effect makes the War Lord’s arrival very powerful and Philip Madoc’s performance is eerily intense – he’s another great character in a story that is already stuffed to the brim with a memorable guest cast. Just one gaze from the War Lord makes me want to crap my pants. As Terrance Dicks says, if the War Chief is playing pantomime menace then the War Lord is playing menace for real. Everything about him is so still and controlled that when he does finally lose it you know things have gotten really bad. Bringing together all the resistance is the next brilliant innovation. It’s a regular Doctor Who cliché to rouse the underdog but done on this scale it feels fresh and invigorating. The bitch fights between the Security Chief and the War Chief get better and more dramatic until they are literally screaming at each other. They remind me of the Dominators in that they have the same argument repetitively and with increasing intensity but this time it is pulled off perfectly, with superb dialogue and pitch perfect performances  It's great how the story has been constructed so that by episode seven you can skip from the control centre to the Romans to the First World War without batting an eyelid - the scale is incredible. The time barrier surrounding the chateaux sees the story breaking new ground again, using the set up imaginatively  A gigantic army of the most violent humans is actually a very scary idea. The thought that the aliens couldn't find a more aggressive and brutal race than humanity out there to cherry pick the most violent examples is a cutting condemnation of our species at its worst. You can’t help but feel uplifted as the resistance starts to fight back, luring out the guards and capturing them all (with some gorgeous upbeat music). Villa is pure comic gold, he’s so stupid he can’t even pretend to be processed (‘Your machine is no good!’) but finally gets to be trigger happy (‘I told you! My guns is best!’). Everybody gets a chance to shine in this four and half hour story. The War Chief kills his rival and in a very satisfying moment of callousness. ‘They’ll show you no mercy!’ he screams in fear of the Time Lords approach and they feel like an awesome force before they even show up. The War Chief was such a huge villain he deserved such a fantastic death scene full of bluster, attempting to run away and being cornered and fired upon by a multitude of guns. Few villains come to such deliciously melodramatic ends (I can only think of Mavic Chen and Salamander at this point in the shows history). The sound effects as the Time Lords descend sounds like the anger of the Gods approaching and the slow motion cliffhanger sees the Doctor trapped like a fly in amber, time having literally run out for him. Who said that only Steven Moffat has the budget and imagination to hop from location to location? On the run from his people the Doctor goes from the First World War to plopping down on the ocean, sinking beneath the waves, deep space, crocodile infested swamps before landing on an alien planet…all in the space of five minutes. There’s a long shot of the TARDIS in episode ten where it looks absolutely massive, just as it did in An Unearthly Child. Visually it feels like the show is coming full circle, really selling how impressive the Doctor's machine is. It’s a torture tribunal for the War Lord who suffers a moment of insanity as he screams for mercy as the Time Lords force a confession from him. Guns and violence inside the TARDIS – is there nothing this story can’t do? Obviously not, as it also provides a fascinating backstory for the Doctor. Erasing the War Lord and his planet suggests the sort of powers the Time Lords wield. Fascinating that the Doctor should have to tell the Time Lords about the Daleks, it is their first exposure to the race that will ultimately wipe them out. If it wasn’t heartbreaking enough to have one of the strongest Doctor/companion teams torn apart, the injustice of having them forget their time with the Doctor is as devastating as it is unjustified. That's why it lingers in the memory. Exile on Earth, no TARDIS and a new face, it is a shocking final indignity for the Doctor and brilliant way to shake up the format. What an exciting, jaw dropping way to end sixties Doctor Who with the Doctor screaming for mercy as he is blasted into oblivion.

The Bad Stuff: The open-mouthed Romans are daft. Is that the campest German officer of all time (‘Soooo you were lost!’)? What are those groovy specs all about? And magnet controls? Most of this stories rare issues are usually aesthetics. The American Civil War sections are where the padding sets in with one side gaining a foothold, then the other, then back again and then the resistance take over. The action is well directed but it does feel like a way of stretching out the story in it's middle episodes. Another black guy bites the bullet in the Troughton era. Are those the kinkiest rubber suited guards ever? Despite some great moments it is during episodes five and six that the only harmful padding takes place (especially all that nonsense about taking the panel off the processing centre wall that seems to go on forever). Episode six is the cheapie (if this story was missing from the archives you know this would have been the one that was held back by the BBC) with lots of wobbly walls, no new sets or locations or actors. Is the name SIDRAT a joke? Those Time Lord technicians don’t put up much of a fight, do they? I don’t know if I would use the Quarks as the first example of the menaces I have fought!

The Shallow Bit: What is it about good-looking pairs in the sixties? Steven and Vicki, Polly and Ben…Jamie and Zoe are just gorgeous! David Troughton makes an appearance and he's quite the cutie. Bring on The Curse of Peladon.

Result: The ultimate Doctor Who epic and ten episodes of absolute magic. The way this story stacks up its revelations and becomes more vast and epic as it progresses is breathtaking; the war, the glasses, the scanner, the second TARDIS, the mists, the Romans, the map of all the war zones, the control centre, one of the Doctor’s own people, the resistance, the Time Lords, the trial, the forced regeneration…this is a beautifully crafted piece of work that is never short of surprises. The beautifully written and performed villains encourage you to keep watching, starting very effectively with General Smythe and simply getting better and better – the Security Chief, the War Chief, the War Lord and finally the Time Lords - with each one feeling more powerful and dangerous than the last until you are gasping with delight at how high the stakes have become. I remember when I first watched this story on a scratchy videocassette at Christmas – I was watching one episode each morning before heading off really early to do some overtime and I can still remember the dazzling atmosphere of the darkness outside, the Christmas lights glowing and this black and white delight transporting me back to a point in the series that was truly innovative and gripping. I was absorbed and enchanted. You’ve got a massive and engaging cast of characters brought to life by some great actors and enough locations to fill a season all artistically shot by the director. Right at the centre of this masterpiece there’s Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury, a great team and they are appropriately all given their finest material in their last show together. Exciting, shocking, hilarious, dramatic, action packed and reshaping the series forever, The War Games sees the Troughton era end as it began with a triumphant story. As proof of what Troughton could do with the role there is no finer story and we are blessed that this epic somehow escaped the culling and clung to the archives: 10/10

The Seeds of Death written by Brian Hayles and directed by Michael Ferguso

This story in a nutshell: The reptilian rascals are back and this time they have their sights set on Earth…

Cheeky Chappie: To give you some idea how superlative Troughton is in the role this story doesn’t feature anywhere near his best material from season six (that goes to The Mind Robber, The Invasion and The War Games in my book) and yet this is still an exceptionally well judged performance and some very engaging characterisation. Troughton played the Doctor with effortless enthusiasm and whenever I pick out one of his stories I am suddenly reminded that he was probably the best Doctor we ever had. I think it might just be the lack of material to watch that makes me forget. Trust the Doctor to get giddy with excitement at visiting a space museum - to the first Doctor it was more like a scientific exploration but the second is just like a kid in a sweet shop, he can't wait to skip out there and see what's on offer. He is so sweet in his passion for the exhibits, offering a gesture of support to Eldrad. You just want to hug him when he tries to calm Eldrad down and help with the rocket programme. He gives Zoe a very funny look when she hands him some figures and he declares ‘I couldn’t have done better myself!’ The chemistry between him and his brainbox protege is always a delight. He skips about the Moonbase like a sprite with a fabulous Dudley Simpson piano score that perfectly suits his character. Troughton shows off his comic genius as he blanches at the audience, spotting the Ice Warriors and indulging in a riotously funny sequence running through the base like a demented pixie! ‘Your leader will be angry if you kill me!’ he exclaims, ‘I’m a genius!’ The Doctor rather enjoys winding up Slaar, suggesting that the Earth has far more resources than they actually do. He talks quietly to Fewsham and prickles at his conscience, the manipulative little git. He’s very excited about travelling by T-Mat but finds the experience disappointing because you don’t feel anything. For the Doctor, travelling is an experience, not just a means of getting from A to B. There is a great exchange that reveals the Doctor’s approach perfectly: ‘We’ve tried to attack it!’ ‘Yes, but have you tried to understand it?’ He tries conventional science but it turns out he works best under pressure, throwing all manner of solutions over the expanding seedpod until he discovers the antidote totally by accident. That's one of the things I always liked about the second Doctor, he always seemed to trip over the solution to a problem at the last minute. He never has everything mapped out (as exemplified by his frequent panic attacks). Troughton mucking about in the foam is worth the admission price alone and he has the ability to make it both blissfully funny and dramatic at the same time by just going for it. His chemistry with Jamie sparkles when the Scot tries to help: ‘Is that the one?’ turning the lights out ‘No Jamie!’ There’s a wonderful visual of the Doctor walking through the weather control bureau with huge solar lights held out in front of him. He looks a bit pathetic swamped by all the lashed up machinery, but he knows exactly what he's doing. He’s defiant in the face of Slaar’s threats and tells him to get on with killing him. It's a cold statement, asking the Martian to murder him but he has saved the lives of everybody on Earth and it feels as though that us reward enough if he has to be dispatched. Sending the Martian fleet into the sun is a bloodthirsty solution for the Doctor – far more worthy of his seventh incarnation but proof that the second Doctor could be a very sinister, unforgiving figure at times, for all his frivolity. You’ve got to watch these diminutive Doctors! They sure look cute but let your guard down and it's a massacre. Lovely funny business heading back to the TARDIS with a soaking wet crew.

Beautiful Brainbox: I really like Zoe as a companion, I think she compliments Troughton’s Doctor perfectly and because of their constant oneupmanship they are extremely funny together. It's like watching two little kids in the playground trying to best each other - I half expect the Doctor to snort 'and so's your mum!' at any minute! This might be a little controversial but I feel that the sixth season of Doctor Who could have survived just as well without Jamie. As much as I like Frazer Hines in the role (and he’s gorgeous) and will always treasure his presence in the show, Jamie’s character had come to the end of his usefulness at the end of the Fury from the Deep and he probably could have left with Victoria. If you look at the stories in this season you have the Doctor and Zoe exploring the Land of Fiction whilst Jamie is left holding the string, the Doctor and Zoe foiling the Cyber invasion whilst Jamie sleeps and rests in a hospital bed, the Doctor and Zoe heading into the Dynotrope to face the Krotons whilst Jamie the thickhead is left in the dark and the Doctor and Zoe infiltrating the military prison and gate crashing demonstrations of the processing machine in The War Games – plus Zoe does all the clever stuff in this story while Jamie is just there to back her up as the muscle. Aside from a few cute scenes and the ever-reliable Hines/Troughton chemistry, Jamie is pretty superfluous to requirement this season. Whereas the interaction between the Doctor and Zoe is fresh and interesting, she's too useful to get rid of but irritatingly smug to have around. Just like season seven was just the Doctor and Liz, I feel Troughton and Padbury could have held up this season perfectly well on their own. Again, I want to add that I do love the character of Jamie, but I feel that his characters perhaps wasn't best served in his final season.

I love how Zoe talks to Jamie as though he is subnormal – telling him to look at a dial and asking ‘do you think you can manage that?’ You would have thought that Zoe and Miss Kelly would have something of a totty brain-off but actually they get on very well, ganging up on the others with their reliance on logic. Zoe seems to be well into this adventure lark now, willing to squeeze into the grille and turning the heating up - ‘I’m smaller than you and I’ll probably be a lot quieter too!’ she hisses at Jamie. There’s a very revealing scene where Phipps’ has a panic attack and Zoe coldly diagnoses his nervous exhaustion but cannot empathise with him. She's all logic and no heart. Her photographic memory comes in very handy again. Seeing Zoe spread eagled against a bank of pulsing lights as an Ice Warrior advances to gun her down makes for a memorable cliffhanger. Whilst everybody else condemns him, Zoe defends Fewsham saying that he saved her life. I don't know if it's the lighting or the fact that it is shot of film but during the sequences set outside the Weather Control Station both Zoe and Jamie look as pure as the driven snow. I defy anybody to avoid laughing as the foam pours in and a soggy wet Troughton stumbles onto the set covered head to toe in bubbles! In Padbury's assured hands, Zoe is a marvelously engaging character and adds a great deal to this runaround.

Sexy Scot: Everybody thinks that Jamie is being left behind but he wont here a bit of it and yet once they are rocket-borne he declares that it is worse than travelling in the TARDIS! The best Jamie moment comes at the end of the story when he distracts an Ice Warrior by going ‘ner-ner-ne-ner-ner!’ (well okay he doesn’t say that but it’s just as funny!) so Zoe can open the door and let the soggy Doctor in and T-Matting to the moon to protect the Doctor in the face of Ice Warrior weaponry.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Is that the one?’ ‘No Jamie!’
‘You have destroyed our entire fleet!’ ‘You tried to destroy an entire world.’

The Good Stuff: The opening sequence is a great example of the visual imagination that was rife during the Troughton era – the stories may have become more formulaic but the approach to realising the show was extremely creative (there are similarly strong title sequences in The Ice Warriors and The Space Pirates). The model work is exemplary and the story offers strong geographic markers throughout by panning across to either the Earth or the Moon depending on where the next scene is set. Add that an unforgettable Dudley Simpson score and we are off to a good start. Isn't it marvelous how the computer voices in the 60s tales have such attitude? Miss Kelly is an immediately striking character and not the sort of female character that I would expect to stumble across during this period of the show. She is cold, resourceful and authorative and has wonderfully bossy lines like 'please don't stop me again otherwise I shall have to go above your head!' With both Zoe and Miss Kelly, The Seeds of Death pushes strong female characters to the fore (it's Fewsham and Phipps who panic and lose it under pressure). Michael Ferguson knows how to build up suspense and tells the invasion of the Moonbase from the POV of the aliens, looking through their eyes at the terrified crew members staring back, horrified. The question of everybody's lips is what could possibly cause that much panic and dread? How much mileage does Ferguson get from that wall of pulsing lights? His silhouette shots look especially striking in black and white. Just like the New Series had the cheek to stick Cybermen in various locations all over the world, The Seeds of Death does the same thing but with the far more mundane T-Mat capsule. You have to admire their cheek. Fewsham elevates the Moonbase sequences considerably, a character that we can really buy into because he is trapped in a no-win situation of co-operating with the Martians or being killed. As much as we all like to think that we would be willing to sacrifice our lives in a similar sort of situation I am prepared to admit that it probably isn't as simple as that. Put in Fewsham's position I think many of us would follow in his footsteps and it's that 'what would I do?' that elevates this character from the other, stock characters that populate this tale. Despite his stubbornness (many writers think the obstinacy adds shades of character but more often than not it is just annoying...and irritatingly Doctor Who stories are often full of them to make sure that the Doctor is prevented from saving the day in episode one), I really like Eldrad, an old man with fading dreams of a rocket flying into space. The effect of the Ice Warrior gun is great because it looks like it literally sucks in your insides and scrambles them. When you find out how easy it was to achieve it impresses all the more. There is a close up on Fewsham as Miss Kelly T-Mat’s up to the Moon to confront him where he really looks like a man waiting to be hanged. I couldn't have sympathised with him more at this point. The Ice Warrior suits have been properly blinged up in this story, their armour shines and they look spanking new and menacing. You cannot fault the ambition of a story that has the line ‘if we crash into a mountain range we’re done for!’ and cut to a shot of the POV of a rocket screaming towards the moon! Even if they didn't have the budget to support such an idea, that never stopped Doctor Who in it's early years. Alan Bennion’s hissy voice is very effective plus the Ice Warriors have a new burbling growl, which sounds gives them real presence. After three episodes of skipping from the Earth to the Moonbase it is great to go outside for some impressively mounted scenes of the Warrior stomping across Hampstead Heath. Asking Fewsham to beam the Doctor into space is horrible and Terry Scully plays it for real. There's no attempt to cut away from this agonising choice, as drama so often does. Fantastic shots of the warrior silhouetted by the sun and storming through the foam, pish to those of you who think these creatures were presented as a genuinely frightening force in Cold War. I love the foam covering the camera, for a moment it feels like the danger is spilling from the story out of the TV into our homes. Slaar and Fewsham share a very arty scene silhouetted against the lights, as I said Furgeson really gets his money out of this smart piece of design. The moment when Slaar realising he is being filmed and turns to the camera to cut the link always makes me heart skip a beat. I love it when the villains direct the camera directly. How wonderfully pathetic does Slaar sound when he realises that he has been tricked into sending his fleet into the sun. It;'s a good thing that he dies because he was never going to live that one down.

The Bad Stuff: Those awful nappy trousers! There are some awkward early moments – Osgood turning to his death being far too aware of the camera placement, Eldrad’s absolute stubbornness and the victim who gives a very vacant, toneless plea for help from the moon! Simpson goes crazy with his drums at some points and the music is almost deafening. Perhaps Murray Gold took this story as inspiration. The montage of fuzzy stills make for an unconvincing rocket take off sequence and the model work is pretty ropey compared to great stuff being done elsewhere in this story. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe pull at their faces to simulate G-Force, a trick that trips up all the best Doctor Who characters. I know it should take ages to prepare a rocket and get from the Earth to the Moon but taking a whole episode to get from one location to the other means the padding starts from an early point in this six parter. Watch out for the fat fella who attempts to escape the Ice Warriors in episode one and wobbles horribly to his death. Hilarious stuff. The Balloons of Death more like! Brent’s body is visibly breathing (and his fingers twitch as well) after he has expired. Phipps has trouble trying to squeeze through a grille that is clearly large enough for him to slip through with ease. After an impressive entrance smashing through the T-Mat capsule on Earth the Ice Warrior does some weird kind of Abba music video dance where he turns left and right to frighten the base personnel  It just looks odd. I would just groove on down with him. Phipps’ body vanishes from the grille at the beginning of episode five. Give that extra a round of applause…when the Ice Warrior enters the Weather Control Bureau he has nearly as an apoplectic fit and runs about the place like a flea on a griddle. If water kills the seedpods surely Earth is just about the worst planet to terraform? The Grand Martial is beyond bling.

Result: The Seeds of Death is one of those stories that often gets shuffled into the pack which is a shame because there is a lot to recommend it. Nowadays they could easily squeeze this plot into 45 minutes which leaves the almost three hour running time full of padding but shot this well running around and hiding from monsters has rarely been as much fun. The Ice Warriors are beautifully shot in this story, they look great and it’s probably the story where they exude the most menace. Michael Ferguson is the forgotten classic Who director whose work is always stylish and very imaginatively shot (here he deploys pans, fades, zooms, shooting through sets, high shots, extreme wide shots on location, quick cuts, shadows and silhouettes) and The Seeds of Death would be a lot sorrier without his masterful handling of the somewhat repetitive material. There is a point around episode three when it feels like all the arsing about on the Moonbase is going to play out forever but Terrance Dicks is on hand to guide the story back to Earth and gives the story a real shot in the foot with the introduction of the Weather Control Station. Also the inclusion of Fewsham adds a great deal of pathos to the story that would otherwise be missing, he is one of the unsung guest characters that really injects a great deal of realism to an otherwise frivolous bit of running about. Troughton is sublime and Padbury isn’t far behind and all the guest performances are strong. My heart wants to give this ridiculously engaging story a 9 but my brain wants me to give it an 7 so lets split the diff: 8/10

The Dominators written by Norman Ashby and directed by Morris Barry

This story in a nutshell: The cure for insomnia…

Oh My Giddy Aunt: Looks like the Doctor is exaggerating his holiday destinations again…he calls Dulkis a perfectly splendid place! Troughton could light up even the dreariest of stories and he truly has his work cut out for him with this story but I did smirk as he grabbed his deckchair, beach ball and fishing net as thought they were all going on holiday! He’s definitely not the Doctor of old, he cannot remember if he checked the radiation levels before leaving the TARDIS. He has intelligent eyes, apparently. I love the shots of the Doctor (not Troughton but they are shot in such a way that you might believe that it was) juggling the bomb and running in the last episode. After five long half hours of enforced inactivity it is great to finally get to see the Doctor doing something.

Who’s the Yahoos: A simple brain with signs of recent rapid learning. ‘Just act stupid Jamie, do you think you can manage that?’ says the Doctor trying to convince the Dominators that they are unintelligent enemies. The test that they are subjected to finally allows for some entertainment as Troughton and Hines get up to some monkey business pretending to be daft apeths arsing about with guns! There is a scene where Jamie leans his head gently on the Doctor’s in the travel capsule and I was struck by the relaxed intimacy between the two actors – this really is the ultimate Doctor Who bromance.

Brainy Beauty: Zoe is used to a sterile and event free life on the Wheel and landing on Dulkis she is confronted with corpses and explosions and it clearly shocks her. She lets out a few belters as the observation post is destroyed by a bunch of Quarks. Zoe tries to rouse her fellow Dulcian prisoners to riot and fight back but she’s wasting her time. As expected, Zoe is still rather prim and proper in this tale, the girl from the Wheel taking her first steps into the universe. It is only when she is confronted with the truly bizarre, illogical events of The Mind Robber that her character really starts to soften and adapt.

The Good Stuff: The have no idea what the Quarks are doing to those adventure seekers but my word it looks nasty - the effect makes it look as if the girl turns into a cardboard cut out and her face melts. Their method of dispatch is clearly much nastier than their appearance. Cully’s ship sure goes up in an impressive gout of flame. On the odd occasion The Dominators offers a really impressive visual like that (such as the tracking shot of the Doctor running with the bomb in episode five) which is highlighted against all the dreary point and shoot direction elsewhere. I really like the groovy screens inside the Dominator ship – when the only thing I can find to praise is the interior design of the most tedious alien race in the universe then a story is in serious trouble. I’m quite fond of the laser guns that blows great flaming holes in the walls. They remind me of similar weaponry seen in The Tomb of the Cybermen. One episode ends with some appalling direction as a set is junked in an explosion but it is the most exciting thing to have happened in an age so it deserves points for that. The sad truth is that the lava pouring towards the TARDIS at the end of story is just about the most attention grabbing moment in the story and that is only there to serve as a cliffhanger lead-in to The Mind Robber.

The Bad Stuff: I have absolutely no idea what is going on in the first few seconds of this story except it is a hastily chopped together mixture of poor video graphics and poor model work that gets the season off on precisely the wrong note. Can someone clear up for me if that is instrumental music when the Dominators emerge from their ship or just a discordant sound effect to announce their presence? Cully’s ship looks oddly like a thimble and not a very impressive one at that (can thimbles look impressive?). Was this story filmed at the end of the last season? That must be a reason that it all looks so cheap…the dreadful flat looking quarry backdrop outside the Dominator craft fails to convince on any level. Landing on an atomic testing island should make for the most gripping installment of the series to date but the first episode is so ponderous and unexciting. The Dulcians must be the most soporific race the Doctor has ever encountered, certainly the most relaxed in the face if potential domination and I could help but hope that the Dominators would attack far sooner and torture them horribly just so they would actually emote something other than apathy. After all that (for want of a better word) build up (well, a couple of odd POV shots) the Quarks are singularly unimpressive. Can you think of a duller design of robot than these stompy cuboid cuties with their clumpy feet and rectangular arms? How cheap is having the Troughton and Hines pretending to be stuck to the wall? Rago and Toba are the ultimate married couple in Doctor Who, snapping at each other the slightest issue and getting into more bitch fights than the average gay couple. There is a scene in episode four where they stare at each other discussing mutiny and such is their proximity and intensity I swear they were about to snog each others faces off. You would think it an impossibility to find a location more sleep inducing than the nuclear testing island but then we visit the capital of Dulkis and it’s a bunch of characterless officials debating dreary matters of state with yet more unpersuasive backdrops and some hideous (supposedly opulent  furniture. Cully wonders why he is treated like a child but his juvenile strops hardly encourage people to tackle him with any maturity. I get the impression that the part was supposed to be played by some young, gorgeous slip of a boy which would make the dialogue make a lot more sense (‘Why can’t I be treated as an individual and not as the son of the Director?) but coming from the mouth of the weighty, middle aged Arthur Cox the effect is rather jarring. I have to wonder if the idea was to make the Quarks look so inoffensive that people will simply dismiss them until they are close enough to face blast you to death. Surely the only explanation for these cuddly machines of death. The Quarks recharge by making a lot of noise and waving their arms about...but surely that would drain energy? Even the Quark voices are desperately cute, about as far from the ruthless robots the Dominators want you to think they are. They are precisely the sort of thing that BBC Worldwide would love to see making an appearance in the New Series now (probably on the side of the good guys though) because they are imminently marketable. The Dominators are masters of the ten galaxies…I bet those galaxies are bit embarrassed about that. I wonder of some of those also belong to Porridge from Nightmare of Silver - he owns thousands! It's one of the few stories when you are glad to see the native species subjugated and forced to commit torturous manual labour, just so they feel something. Can you believe the Dulcian council members are still lounging around debating the threat of the Dominators in episode three? I thought it took the Thals a long time to spring into action (the last story to examine the idea of pacifism as a way of life was The Daleks) but this bunch take inactivity to the point of indolent stupidity. If I were the Doctor I would grab Zoe and Jamie and high tail it back to the TARDIS and let them get wiped out. Frankly they don't deserve the Doctor to rescue their asses. Cully struggles with some polystyrene rocks lent to the production team by Star Trek (I jest). One Quark is blown up, his arms shooting off around the quarry and all that are left are his stumpy little legs. I felt quite sorry for him which possibly wasn't the effect the writers were aiming for. So many of the cliff-hangers follow the same pattern that it gets old very fast - the Quarks doing something vaguely unthreatening with a whacking great close up on Toba's smug face. Like all big bullies Toba is fine when things are going his own way and he can intimidate people but as soon as they start to fight back he proves to be a bit of a wimp, often losing himself in a panic attack. I love the Dulcian who says ‘You better make an appointment!’ after Rago storms into their council chamber with a Quark. You just know he is going to be first to whipped. Who thinks this shit up? ‘A Dominator must be obeyed!’ – I bet they all have small cocks, their names, attitude, even their dress sense suggests compensation for something. I cannot believe that they repeat the scene of Rago interrupting Toba about to hurt/kill/torture over and over and over and over…after a while you start to wonder if you have been caught in a Dominator timewarp and all the events are repeating themselves with no way out. The scene of the Doctor running with the bomb in the quarry is clearly not Patrick Troughton. The Dominator ship blows up in an unspectacular model explosion. Five episodes of build up…for that?

The Shallow Bit: What’s up with those huge Dominator shoulder pads? All the men walk around in dresses made out of curtains, which probably should spice things up more than it does. Kando is a welcome touch of beauty in drab looking story. When Zoe gets changed into Dulcian gear it looks like she is wearing silky underwear.Something for the guys at least.

Result: Can The Dominators really be so bad that the writers were justified in disowning it and the producer for lopping off one episode and giving it to the next story? In all honesty, yes and I can’t imagine being forced to sit through another episode of this muck. It's rare to find a Doctor Who story where both the alien menace and the native populace are this mundane and the episodes suffer interminably from some monotonous direction and a general lack of incident and character. Russell T Davies once said that in order for a Doctor Who story to work you need some kind of human connection and this story made up of entirely alien characters (except for Jamie who is from the past and Zoe who is from the future which means there is still some distance between them and the audience) almost seems to set out to prove him right. It's hard to give a flying fuck about the Dulcians because they are so laid back about the whole affair of being subjugated you have to wonder why the Doctor doesn't just hop back into the TARDIS and leave them all to their fate. The Dominators are equally drab, indulging in the same argument over and over again, stalling the plot with their constant bickering. You’ll never see Troughton and Hines working so hard to try and provide the entertainment that is lacking in the scripts and the fact that they manage to provoke a handful of moments that amuse is a testament to their skill given the obstacles they have to overcome. Morris Barry can deliver some dynamic results when he is commited to the story but it feels as though he has given up at this point (in the same way it felt that Chris Clough had come Silver Nemesis - a general feeling of apathy about the whole piece). This is one story that commits every sin you would might imagine sixties television is capable of; cheap sets, drab location work, static performances and a general feeling of greyness to the whole piece. In truth very little of black and white Doctor Who is anywhere near as bad as this - it's something of an anathema, certainly when compared to some of the other gems to come in season six (The Mind Robber, The Invasion, The War Games). The Dominators is a hugely embarrassing opener to a generally great season and easily the weakest second Doctor story: 1/10

The Apocalypse Mirror written by Eddie Robson and directed by Lisa Bowerman

What’s it about: The TARDIS lands in the city of Tromesis on Earth – but it’s a world far from the one that the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe recognize. The buildings are ruined, the streets deserted. And against the devastation they see a ghostly mirror image of another place – the city as it was before disaster hit. People vanish here, and huge metal birds attack from the sky. Can the Doctor find the future, in a place that doesn’t have one?

Who’s the Yahoos: We get a little insight into Jamie’s first sight of the Earth from space when he visited the moon with the Doctor, Ben and Polly. They had to explain to him what it was and even then it was almost too enormous a concept for him to get his head around. Jamie is a background presence for the most part, observing the strange goings on but he really comes into his own at the climax, showing the confidence that the Doctor has imbued into his ability to get across a complex idea to many people. He refuses to sugar coat what is going on or to make it sound any less ridiculous than it really is, he takes to the microphone and tells the people of the damaged world that it is there pessimism and misery that has brought them to their knees and created the world that they live in. He offers them hope for a better future. Jamie uses his culture shock from when he first visited the future as a reference point to explaining how stepping into a new world can be a positive thing.

Brains’n’Beauty: There were predictions of an environmental disaster on the Earth in Zoe’s time but nowhere near as bad as the evidence that she sees here. Zoe is not above admitting when she is lost, technologically, because it is rather ahead of her time.

Oh My Giddy Aunt: It doesn’t last for long but I could listen to a whole two episodes worth of the Doctor arsing about in the console room and Jamie and Zoe (supposedly the children) frowning disapprovingly. They are so much fun together. But Robson wisely jumps into the story as soon as possible since he only has an hour to tell it in. The Doctor gets so wonderfully stroppy and upset when he is trying to help the rebels and they keep doubting his motives and methods.

Standout Performance: It might seem obvious to say this by now but Frazer Hines’ take on Troughton is so natural by now it is like the actor is putting on a comfy pair of slippers when he steps up to the mike. It doesn’t surprise me that Hines is one of the favourite narrators of the companion chronicles, he approaches the material with such gusto and it is clear he is enjoying every second of it. What’s interesting is the comment that Robson made in his interview in Doctor Who magazine, suggesting that because it is hard work for Hines to play both the Doctor and Jamie they are tailoring the stories so we can enjoy more of his impression of the Doctor. Omitting a villain because it is hard to play a three conversation between the Doctor, companion and nasty and thus making the threat far more conceptual.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘He fell! And I was below him so he fell on me!’ – not a fantastic line in itself but brilliantly capturing the very funny physical comedy that Troughton and Hines loved adding to stories.

‘We’ll present it how it is and people will either believe or they wont.’

‘We can save from disaster but we can’t save them from themselves…’

Great Ideas: Eddie Robson taps into a surreal, poetic form of abstract science fiction that Doctor Who rarely explored. Warriors’ Gate was probably the best example and it shares the same sense of unreal atmosphere. It feels like it is trying mimic Warriors’ in offering what looks to be the same location in different time zones with characters able to walk from one to the other if they fall down with a sickness but that is just a clever ruse to disguise what is really going on which is far more abstract than that. The imagery is extremely memorable, leaping from the audio like it has been drawn in exquisite detail in the strip of DWM – giant metal birds screaming from the sky and swooping in to carry away victims from a broken and desolate city scape. A meteorite is approaching the planet, the impact threatening to be enormous and destroy the city or throw up a dust cloud that will choke everybody and block out the sun. Cleverly Robson ensures that the population of this city are constantly questioning the Doctor and his friends intentions, as happens to be the way in every story when a population is in danger, but once the final twist is revealed it takes on a brand new meaning. It’s essential to the story, rather than merely objections to create some false drama. ‘EVERYONE IS ESSENTIAL! TOGETHER WE CAN BUILD THE FUTURE!’ screams what appears to be propaganda and the populace jeer and deride the message but it turns out to be the lynchpin of what this is all about. The trouble is that people expect the worst from the government, or think they are just out of for themselves. In this case that has a very real effect since both the cities that we see in this tale exist in the same spot. A few years back a group of engineers tested what they called a sympathy engine, the idea being that it would influence the environment and help shape the city into what people wanted it to be. As a side note, I cannot imagine a more dangerous device, given the darker impulses of humanity at it’s worst. It has created two versions of the city, one trying to go forward and one stagnating and the first to cross over to the other version was the engineers. The fracture is driven by peoples perception, they belong either in the decaying one (those who think that they doomed) or the other (those who aspire to a better future). It isn’t a sickness, seeing the other world, as soon as you start thinking about improving things you start to be able to see into the thriving world. Not visions of the past, but glimpses of a better present. It’s a case of changing the way that you think, you can create a better world simply by wanting to.

Audio Landscape: Sonic screwdriver, footsteps on gravel, the gramophones coming to life, climbing a ladder, ringing the doorbell, a beeping scanner, the flapping metal wings of the hawkers, a car screaming to a halt, the scraping of metal as the Doctor examines a hawker, a computer bleeping, the meteorite being destroyed by a laser, applause.

Musical Cues: Fox and Yason provide their usual sterling support, keeping the music quiet as Robson sets his eerie scene and than adding much to the drama of the tale as the hawkers swoop into action and attack the Doctor and friends.

Isn’t it Odd: Again like Warriors’ Gate, whilst a lot of The Apocalypse Mirror is clever and involving, because it is so abstract it can also by cold and uninviting, which little humour to give the proceedings bounce. I’m not sure that any of the guest characters really came alive beyond what the plot needed them to do (some argue, others aid) but this is one of those Doctor Who stories that works because the ideas are so strong and not the characters.

Standout Scene: The usual jeopardy fuelled cliffhanger is turned on its head, this only appears to be a moment of drama because we don’t have all the information to explain where she has gone. The first episode has built up the idea that the sickness and the hawkers being a menacing presence, as seen through the eyes of the frightened people of the city and so our first reaction to Zoe going missing is one of panic. Once the ideas click into place and we realise what is going, the cliffhanger becomes the moment when she was taken to a place of safety. It is sold as Zoe being taken because she found out about the meteorite rather and they wanted to stop her doing anything about it.

Result: Definitely a tale that could only be told in the experimental and daring season six, The Apocalypse Mirror is an attention grabbing fusion of awkward pseudo science, conceptual danger and poetic imagery. Robson takes hold of what could potentially have been a ropey idea (the idea that people can will a better world into existence) and dramatises beautifully, slowly easing us into the concept with some clever foreshadowing in the disquieting first episode before unveiling the idea in the second. It’s a Doctor Who story where fear and doubt and pessimism is revealed to be the most dangerous of weapons and hoping for a better future is the only way to make it happen. It’s certainly a moral that is well worth paying attention to. Compared to some companion chronicles this is quite a subtle tale (there are no singing puppets, people aren’t being burnt at the stake and giant squids aren’t attacking a harbour) but the just makes the impact of the message more important. Lisa Bowerman excels at these unsettling tales, adding much drama by allowing for stillness which in this case helps to drive home the excitement of the hawker attacks. There’s another stunning Fox & Yason score but since they have never disappointed that should be taken as a given. None of this conceptual horror would work if it wasn’t for the performers who are relaying the ideas to us and whilst I might question the use of Wendy Padbury (not because she isn’t any good, heaven forbid, but because she gets very little to do), Frazer Hines’s dual performance as the Doctor and Jamie is so finely honed by this point it genuinely feels like two different actors are sharing the same scene. Hines’ excitement for audio work is expressed in every syllable and he really helps to bring some humanity to this cold, ideas driven, tale. I found this quite absorbing: 8/10

The Invasion written by Derrick Sherwin and directed by Douglas Camfield

This story in a nutshell: The Cybermen invade!

Oh My Giddy Aunt: It's nice the Doctor mentions Professor Travers because it feels as though the Troughton era has developed a continuity of its own (mind you it would have been great had either the Doctor and Jamie mentioned visiting Polly and Ben whilst they are in the area). If a trio that looked like the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe turned up by the side of the road asking for a ride to London would you give them a lift? He hates computers and refused to be bullied by them and he gives a droning answerphone message a piece of his mind. As he should. As well as his general naughtiness he is also the cutest of the eleven incarnations too – when he asks for a cup of tea and a patatcake biscuit I just wanted to give him a big hug. It's those moments of gentle charm that really separate him from the others. I love that he thinks the Brigadier is going to issue him a tank! Vaughn can see right into the heart of the Doctor, past his clumsy exterior to the genius that lies beneath. Packer however lacks that subtlety and when the Doctor acts like a frightened child he is completely hoodwinked, which aids their escape. It's fascinating to strip away all the cuddly bluster and witness the second Doctor as a scientist, poking his nose into the IE equipment and discovering their method of attack. He’s the only actor I have ever seen make looking into a microscope an experience, just watch his facial expressions when we catch up with him in episode six. And despite his intelligence he still has time for a paddy. He comes across as a cowardly man at times (all his ‘oh my giddy aunts!’ and comedy running) but its at moments like when he walks into Vaughn’s headquarters unprotected to discover the strength of their forces that you realise just how brave he is. It's great how Vaughn has thought through every possible contingency once the invasion has begun but the Doctor walking into his lair completely floors him. The second Doctor can also be the most unpredictable of Doctors. Its clear that he has been observing Vaughn very closely and he does the equivalent of poking him all over psychologically, sitting like a naughty schoolboy winding up a teacher. The Doctor is fantastic in the last episode – snapping at how vainglorious Vaughn is, tiptoeing around being hunted by Cybermen, skipping hysterically away from explosions and ducking as a bazooka shoots over his head and takes out a Cyberman! Troughton is such a physical actor and I was laughing my head off as he posed so regally for Isobel’s photos in the aftermath of the action.

Beautiful Brainbox: There are lots reasons why I prefer the Doctor/Jamie/Zoe triumvirate to the Doctor/Jamie/Victoria one that range from the extremely amusing chemistry between Wendy Padbury and Patrick Troughton (its more of a pupil that has outgrown the master vibe than the paternal affection the Doctor had for Victoria - which was sweet but didn’t really go anywhere) to the fact that you get all the lovability with this trio and some added friction that keeps things more interesting. In Wendy Padbury’s Zoe you have a character who is both a great identification figure for the kids (because she does ask all the right questions), a screamer who can get herself into trouble (she sure does plenty of both) and also a strong female character who can outthink even the Doctor (which she demonstrates in practically every story. Somehow she is both brave and cowardly, clever and daft and with a performance this enthusiastic by Wendy Padbury I could have easily have happily enjoyed her for another season or two. Pairing up Zoe and Isobel was a great idea because they both have very distinct personalities and yet together they enjoy a certain frivolous chemistry that is very appealing to watch. Certainly it is long past time we saw Zoe let her hair down and having her enjoy herself modelling for Isobel is great fun. There’s a lovely moment where Zoe tells Isobel if there is trouble to be found the Doctor and Jamie can’t miss it and we cut to the two of them comically running down a road away from sinister pursuers – it sums up this three way relationship of naughty schoolkids beautifully. Isn’t it wonderful that brilliant, beautiful rulebound Zoe has been turned into a bit of an anarchist by the Doctor? She relishes destroying the IE receptionist simply because it wont give her the information that she wants! When it comes to enter the potentially hazardous sewers Zoe sends Jamie down first like a canary down a coal mine! How completely awesome is Zoe when she goes with the Brigadier to Henlow Downs and calculates the trajectory of the missiles to cause a chain reaction of explosions in the Cybermen’s spaceships. She rushes from desk to desk and vehemently believes in her figures and then when her work is done she is sits on one of the desks and swings her legs flirtatiously at the soldier boys. Its this mixture of brains and beauty that makes her so damn appealing.

Who’s the Yahoos: Jamie enjoys teasing Zoe (‘You look like a chicken with all those feathers!’) but she knows with his simple mind there will be a chance to even the score at a later date. Hines and Troughton are so naturally funny together at this point they even manage to squeeze in a laugh during a cliffhanging moment of tension – the way they dash around a corner and back at the climax to episode two is fantastic. Jamie is still adolescent enough to make idle threats when it is clear that Vaughn has the upper hand in every respect. Brilliantly Jamie likes to think that he is a superior male but Zoe and Isobel run rings around him and he has to tail after them just in case they need protecting. It might be a little awkwardly directed but I like the idea of a story where the companion can be shot in the calf and kept out of the action for two episodes (real reason – holiday time for Frazer Hines!). It adds a little touch of real world danger to the story and ups the stakes.

The Guv’nor: The very first appearance of the Brigadier as we know and love him after Nick Courtney flirted with the series in The Daleks’ Masterplan and The Web of Fear. The Doctor is as delighted to be reunited with his old friend and there seems to be a level of respect between them after they faced the ‘Yeti do’ together which is quite infectious to watch. It's wonderful that Sherwin has thought about the events in The Web of Fear and looked at creating an organisation in response to alien threats to Earth. There is subtle shift in the programme because we aren’t just waiting for the Doctor to save the planet, we are helping ourselves too. This tug of war between whose method is right would be one of the selling points of the Pertwee era to come. ‘This is no job for a girl like you!’ says the Brigadier showing off his sexist attitude once Isobel has done all the thinking for him! He later asks Zoe if she fancies any coffee and everything we have seen about this character suggests that he is expecting her to make it! The Brig is a gentleman whose chivalry extends a little too far into sexism, that’s part of his charm. The gentle moment of reflection and romance between Isobel and Jimmy before the invasion begins reminds exactly of what the Doctor is fighting for.

Villainous Vaughn: It comes as no surprise that the two finest villains of the black and white era were both played by Kevin Stoney but what does shock is just what polar opposites these characters are. Mavic Chen was a delightfully egotistical, theatrical and melodramatic dictator who expressed himself with grand gestures of treachery to his own people. Tobias Vaughn is equally power mad but everything is contained and quietly menacing, silky smooth threatening gestures and stillness. He’s the sort of villain that is amused when two young girls stray into his lair and destroy his equipment and issues his threats as an amusing joke to himself. Vaughn only loses his temper when he thinks that control is slipping away from him but otherwise he has a look of content smugness locked on his face when addressing people. All this violence malarkey is a bit beneath him so he merely issues the threat of violence and has his personal pack animal Packer get his hands dirty for him. Unfortunately Packer turns out to be the incompetant better half as the Doctor continually runs rings around him and it is hilarious to watch Peter Halliday getting into more and more of a tizzy as Vaughn lashes out at his useless lapdog! I bet those scenes were marvellous fun to play. Once Vaughn loses his temper he is a little like Violet Boregard from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – screaming uncontrollably that he always gets what he wants! Only somebody with such a high opinion of himself could talk so brazenly about using the Cybermen’s might and then discarding them. When he calls through to the Ministry of Defence to his puppet Rutledge, Vaughn is momentarily taken aback by the pretty young thing at reception so maybe there is some blood pumping around that body after all. The relationship between him and the Cybermen is a tenuous one at best – they know he will betray them once the invasion is completed and he knows that they will betray him. The fun is waiting to see who will make the first move. Like a good Bond villain he gets to survey the Capital and declare that soon it will all by his. Frankly I would have been disappointed if he hadn’t. The sequence where he abuses Watkins is one of my favourite villain moments in Doctor Who – he loses it at Gregory, pumps fear into Watkins and enjoys a little psychological torture by giving him a gun, smacking him round the face and goads him into filling him full of lead. He stands there laughing his head off with smoking bullet holes in his chest and you know this is a very special brand of villain. He’s like a psychotic version of The Meddling Monk and his ‘to do list’, Vaughn sits quite contentedly ticking off the step by step elements of the invasion. Once the Cybermen finally make their move Vaughn is like a defiant child refusing to eat his dinner, stamping his feet and refusing to taken out of the picture. He does the only thing a child knows how to do when they are trapped, he lashes out and destroys the Cyberplanner. Vaughn is a broken man, powerless and angry and concentrates all of that violent emotion to bringing down his former allies. Even when he is on our side he’s still terrifying! He starts ranting on about how the world is a mess of unco-ordinated ideas and that it needs a single mind to rule it – I think I can guess where he gets his inspiration from! Any method of killing a character as strong as Vaughn was going to feel anti-climactic but the way the Cybermen burst through the warehouse doors and gun him down is so sudden it works a treat. RIP Vaughn, you loon.

Dolly Bird: Isobel Watkins can join the elite of guest characters who were custom made to be new companions but never quite made it. I would say that she is one of the most qualified to join the Doctor given that she is fiery, resourceful, independent, plus also a little bit useless and flirtatious. Sally Faulkner walks a fine line between being punch the air brilliant and slightly irritating, making Isobel flawed whilst still being quite likeable and having presence. She’s certainly more enjoyable than some of the characters that actually made it as companions such as Dodo, Adric and Tegan although her 60s glam would have felt out of place in the deadly serious season seven. Her habit of writing everything on a wall is a wonderful quirk but in practice it would make my husband break out in hives! I do however take issue with her choice of music which seems to stretch to the 60s poptastic heights of ‘The Teddy Bear’s Picnic!’ Her burgeoning relationship with Jimmy Walters adds a little touch of romance to the tale and I loved her line ‘Are you stinking rich?’ when he asks her out on a date. I know a few girls that would ask that exact question. Isobel gets the right hump when the Brig tells her that her photographs of the Cybermen that she risked life and limb for to get for him look like fakes! It's great that Isobel gets a happy ending, heading off with her dolly soldier and an exclusive photographic contract.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Let’s see how the Cybermen will react to fear!’
‘Is this what you wanted Vaughn? To be the ruler of a dead world?’
‘Five years…and in less than five seconds…’
‘Yes well this is going to be a long twelve minutes…’

The Good:
· For a start I think I should mention how grateful I am that enough people care about this crazy little show to go to the lengths of animating the first and fourth episode of a missing story like this. As much as I enjoy listening to the soundtracks some of them don’t always translate particularly well onto audio because they are so full of silences where the atmosphere would be generated by the visuals (I would say The Celestial Toymaker and The Wheel in Space suffer the worse for this). Having something as atmospheric as the animation on The Invasion to look at makes this story feel as complete as it is ever going to be unless more episodes are discovered (and I always giggle when more are discovered like the recent episodes of Galaxy 4 and The Underwater Menace because it always makes me think of Ian Levine’s apoplectic fit in the Lost in Time DVD when he guarantees that because he has searched so thoroughly for them no more episodes will ever be discovered, so there) and it allows you to enjoy the story as a whole. The Invasion episode one is another one of those episodes that enjoys a fair amount of silence and the narrator is forced to work overtime to describe everything that is going on – in this version of the story we can enjoy those evocative silences with the correct (and highly evocative) imagery to back it up. Oh and don't listen to Levine's explosive nonsense about adding new imagery and not sticking precisely to the shooting script when it comes to animating this tale - a little creative tinkering never hurt anybody and some of the extra shots are astonishing.
· You have to admire the way that Sherwin brushes the explanations about The Mind Robber under the carpet with a hefty ‘hooray we’re all back to normal!’ moment of blissful ignorance. After the imaginative high jinks of the previous story it would have been disappointing had they felt the need to give us a reason behind it all (although you know Eric Saward would have felt compelled to) and as a result it is a chillingly ambiguous one off. Plus the juxtaposition of a world of fictional characters being destroyed one minute to a rocket being fired at the TARDIS the next is pure Doctor Who – the leap from one genre to another is enough to give you whiplash.
· Episode six shows what a fun idea turning the TARDIS invisible was as the actors get to indulge in some funny business.
· Is there anybody out there who doesn’t love Don Harper’s score for this episode? I can remember the first time I watched The Invasion I had his cues going round and round in my head for days. If you are going to produce a contemporary thriller style Who you need the music to back up your intentions and the wonderfully underhanded and ominous score Harper provides gives this story a unique, almost cinematic, flavour. The way he rests the camera low and lets the Cybermen slowly emerge with St Paul’s dominating the background is what makes this shot so epic.
· Benton makes his first appearance in Doctor Who in true spy film style as he follows the Doctor and Jamie in a black motor. You couldn’t really ask for a more stylish introduction to the show. Had he been the one to try and make a run for it in the sewers it could have been Benton who was a smoking corpse and we would have missed out on sadistic Benton from Inferno, smart Benton from The Three Doctors and some hilarious commentaries courtesy of John Levene! Mind you he throws grenades like a right Nancy boy.
· Isn’t it odd that Doctor Who has always been known for attempting to stretch a tiny budget as far as it can go and yet any material surrounding UNIT automatically feels as though Doctor Who has the budget of a feature film. If you look through the series as a whole (right up to their latest spectacular The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky) the UNIT stories are filled with extras, ammunition, vehicles and resources the likes of which you rarely see elsewhere! Given that this is their first outing it needed to be an impressive introduction and all the stops seem to have been pulled out. There is a secret base inside an aeroplane, helicopter rescues, armed soldiers filling back streets, henchmen with machine guns, canoes in backwaters and a pitched battle between the Cybermen and UNIT with grenades, flame guns and bazookas. I’m not sure about the jaunty UNIT theme though – its much better in season seven.
· Douglas Camfield’s direction is as dynamic as ever but what really drew my eye was the location work which he makes look effortlessly filmic simply by finding exciting angles and methods to shoot it. He creeps down back alleys and onto train tracks to give this story a gritty feel and isn’t afraid of using handheld camerawork or dramatic low angles to spice things up.
· I love the end of episode three which is almost entirely shot in silhouette. That’s the strength of black and white television because it wouldn’t look half as effective in colour.
· Given that in days to come the Cybermen will be vulnerable to any old tat from badges to arrows this is the first and only time a truly ingenious threat has been thought up. Emotion as a weapon is a fascinating concept and it highlights the main selling point of the creatures in the bargain – the chilling idea that they have surgically disconnected themselves from feeling. A deranged Cyberman shrieking hysterically in fear is a terrifying concept on its on but once you shove it down in the dark, dank sewers you’ve got Doctor Who gold. Monochrome was made for the shots of sleek, metallic Cybermen struggling with each other in the sewers as bombs explode around them! Isn’t it so like the Cybermen to crush any kind of resistance with their hypnotising beam before they even begin the invasion? I love the shock moment when the Cyberman’s face fills Vaughn’s communication screen – its surprise moments like that that really make the Cybermen work.
· I love the way this story doesn’t only take the usual approach of telling the story from the point of view of the heroes. We do get to see their reaction to the invasion but we are also treated to a fly on the wall perspective of the villains preparing for the moment to strike. We are as much involved in Vaughn’s story as we are the Doctor’s and that is rarely the case in a Doctor Who story.
· The end of episode six is an absolute peach – the Cybermen apparently taking over the world. Compare and contrast to how it was attempted in Army of Ghosts and see how a little sixties subtlety and paranoia can do it a hundred times better. Well I say subtlety, having the Cybermen marching down the steps of St Paul’s isn't exactly subtle but it looks a damn sight more memorable than superimposing lots of little CGI Cybermen all around the world. The build up has been so good that this sudden release of excitement is edge of the seat stuff.
· I thinks it's wonderful that after all the noise and action of the final battle with the Cybermen the most tense moment of the entire story comes in a long silent sequence as our heroes wait to find out if the Cybermen have managed to drop a bomb. It's not your usual kind of Doctor Who climax (especially when the first attempt to shoot down the bomb fails) and it is conveyed tensely through reaction shots and realistic procedure.

The Bad: Anybody who wanted to call this story padded could happily do so, especially in the early episodes where events reciprocate like Zoe and Isobel searching after the Doctor and Jamie and then the Doctor and Jamie searching after Zoe and Isobel. This might all be tedious if the actors and the director weren’t on razor sharp form but with Dougie Camfield directing and Troughton, Courtney and Stoney on board this material is never less than enthralling. In particular the scenes of the Doctor and Jamie escaping up the lift shaft are total padding but its so beautifully paced and shot in shadows that it is gripping to watch. Old Billy Rutledge is the first of a new breed of officious obstructers that would plague the Pertwee era – from Walker Parliamentary Private Secretary to Dr Lawrence and Stahlman. And a bloody annoying lot they all are! Thank goodness the Cybermen hardly speak because this is the most incomprehensible they have ever sounded. A lot has been said about the off screen rescue of Professor Watkins and the only reason it is so apparent is because elsewhere so much of the action is painstakingly and expensively put on screen. Besides you can’t really complain about a scene that was scripted but unfilmed because they ran out of time. The Cyber fleet going up in flames is hardly spectacular but what else could they achieve at the time? Watching an empty dummy Cyberman take a dive off a roof might have sounded like a good idea in theory…

The Shallow Bit: If you get a chance check out the colour photos of this story and Zoe’s outrageously bright red costume with lime green feather boa! The psychedelic seventies has invaded Doctor Who a few years early! With the Brigadier, Jamie and Jimmy in one room together I was rather spoilt for choice! Black and white TV is a gloriously moody medium but it does annoy for just one moment when Jamie descends a ladder and the camera is right up his kilt but the darkness obscures any detail! That Cyberman emerging from the sewers tries to cop a feel up Jamie’s skirt and the good Captain smothers it back down to prevent him!

Result: Will wonders never cease – a Cyberman story that I really, really like! It's one of only a handful of times that I find them an effectively menacing presence in the show. Because the story takes the psychological approach, both in how they subdue the human race and their antipathy towards emotion which when infected snaps their logical minds and turns them into deranged rogues. There are a stack of compliments to be handed out to The Invasion and I’m not sure where to begin! Douglas Camfield is still to my mind the finest director the show has ever been fortunate to book and this is one of his best stories – the imagery is memorable, the action is exciting and the story is shot in unusual ways that gives it a contemporary visual dimension. Then there is the top notch team of the second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe who all get stellar moments and have developed a supremely watchable chemistry by this point. UNIT is an idea that could have bombed spectacularly but given the resources of this blockbuster they manage to pull it off with real style and Nicholas Courtney’s Brigadier is the perfect face to front this military outfit. Brilliant guest characters like Isobel, Jimmy, Packer and Watkins add a human dimension to the story that is vital and the luxurious length of the tale allows the actors to explore the roles. Whilst I think the whole story is pretty special, episode six happens to be one of my all time favourite single episodes of Doctor Who. Starting with a rogue psychotic Cyberman menacing Jamie and Zoe in the sewers and ending with them bursting from the sewers and marching down the steps of St Paul’s – it's the show at the top of its game. Is this story padded? Yes. Does it matter in the slightest? Nope. The Invasion is a story that deliberately takes it time to build up tension and when the big event finally comes you have some of the most exciting moments of the entire era. Its not one to rush your way through but I find that an episode a night before bed really gets me excited about this story – especially with the brilliant cliffhangers. I can completely see why the production team were sold on this format to push the show in a new direction, its riveting. An expensive blockbuster with one of the finest ever Doctor Who villains in Tobias Vaughn, The Invasion is awesome and to prove how the era wasn’t limping home in the sixth season its only the third best story of the year: 9/10