Line #71 Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion


1	[[WMG:[[center:[-''[[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who]]'' [[Recap/DoctorWho recap index]]\
2	'''Second Doctor Era'''\
3	'''Season 6:''' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E1TheDominators 1]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E2TheMindRobber 2]] \| '''3''' \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E4TheKrotons 4]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E5TheSeedsOfDeath 5]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E6TheSpacePirates 6]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames 7]]\
4	'''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen <<< Season 5]]''' \| '''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace Season 7 >>>]]''']]-]]]
5	!The Invasion
6	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/_41631822_invasion1_416bbc_5135.jpg]]
7	[[caption-width-right:350: Not pictured: Horrifying noises courtesy of The Great Old Ones' grandfathers.]]
8	->Written by Creator/DerrickSherwin\
9	Directed by Creator/DouglasCamfield\
10	'''Production code:''' VV\
11	'''Air dates:''' 2 November - 21 December 1968\
12	'''Number of episodes:''' 8
13
14	->''"You're an evil man, Vaughn. You're sadistic. You're a megalomaniac. You're insane. I pity you. But if I get half a chance, I'll kill you."''
15	-->-- '''Professor Watkins''' tells it like it is
16
17	JustForFun/TheOneWith the WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck Cyberman.
18	----
19
20	The TARDIS arrives in UsefulNotes/{{London}} in 1968 (or 1979), the Doctor and companions are enlisted by Isobel Watkins to find her uncle, a computer scientist working for International Electromatics.
21
22	IE's director, Tobias Vaughn, arouses the Doctor's suspicions-- confirmed by meeting Lethbridge-Stewart again (see "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web of Fear]]"), recently promoted to Brigadier, who says that numerous other IE staff have gone missing. Lethbridge-Stewart now heads the British arm of UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, charged with investigating alien sightings and other such things.
23
24	The Doctor discovers that Vaughn is acting on behalf of the Cybermen, who plan to invade Earth, but is also planning to double-cross them and seize power for himself. The Cybermen send a hypnotic signal through all IE-made equipment, immobilizing most of Earth's population, and start emerging from London's sewers to take over. However, the Doctor has managed to protect himself and the others from the signal and succeeds in defeating the invasion, thanks in no small part to Zoe's phenomenal brain, plotting guidance trajectories for nuclear missiles to destroy the incoming fleet.
25
26	-----
27
28	"The Invasion" presaged the shape of many ''Doctor Who'' stories to come, featuring an alien invasion of Earth aided and abetted by a corrupt industrialist, with UNIT providing cannon fodder and the military connections to fight back. As you might guess, it was conceived partially as a proof-of-concept for the [[Creator/JonPertwee Third Doctor]]'s Earthbound era. It is the only eight-part story in the show's history; only "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames The War Games]]" from the same season (10 episodes) and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan The Daleks' Master Plan]]" from three seasons back (12 episodes) are longer.[[note]]Although Season 23 aired as single 14-episode story under the title "The Trial of a Time Lord", it's clearly four separate stories (with individual titles) held together with a FramingSequence.[[/note]]
29
30	It was also the first incomplete story to be given the animated treatment, with the two missing episodes animated by Cosgrove Hall. Despite the success of the DVD, it would still be another six years before they would try reconstructing episodes with animation again, after which it became a regular event.
31
32	!!Tropes
33	* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Takes place 4 years after "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web of Fear]]" which would theoretically put it around 1979. (See that article for more, and for the beginnings of the infamous "UNIT Dating Controversy".) Oddly, a photo from one of Vaughn's security cameras includes a timestamp dated "E091/5D/78," implying that, unless the camera's clocks are off, the serial is actually set in 1978.
34	* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The Cybermen lurk in the sewer.
35	* AffablyEvil: Tobias Vaughn. Very courteous, even to trespassers, as long as one is not hindering his plans. [[LargeHam But when he gets upset...]]
36	* AllThereInTheManual: Later expanded universe sources, ''Doctor Who: Cybermen'' and its audio adaptation ''AudioPlay/TheArcHiveTapes'', have InUniverse historians identify these Cybermen as the "Early [=CyberFaction=]", the [=CyberFaction=] being the Cybermen who took their upgrades up to eleven and left Mondas behind, explaining how they can precede the invasion seen in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet The Tenth Planet]]". One branch of them, dubbed [=CyberNomads=], later end up appearing in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E5RevengeOfTheCybermen Revenge of the Cybermen]]". Meanwhile, another branch of the Faction ultimately evolves into the Cybermen already seen in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E7TheWheelInSpace The Wheel in Space]]" before turning into the versions from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E6TheMoonbase The Moonbase]]", who [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen eventually settle on the planet Telos]], becoming the "[=CyberTelosians=]".
37	* AnimatedAdaptation: The two missing episodes were remade in an animated format for the DVD release.
38	* ArtEvolution: The TARDIS gains a real, opening telephone box with a handle on the left-hand door for the first time. Between the preceding story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E2TheMindRobber The Mind Robber]]" and this serial, the prop had been borrowed by ''Series/OutOfTheUnknown'', which had installed it for a scene where a character called the police.
39	* BeQuietNudge: The Doctor when Jamie keeps SayingTooMuch to Vaughn.
40	* BigBad: Tobias Vaughn, at least until the Cybermen well and truly prove to be EvilerThanThou.
41	* TheBrigadier: TropeNamer Lethbridge-Stewart returns, and for the first time is actually in the rank that gave the trope its name.
42	* CallBack: There are numerous references back to the events of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web of Fear]] and many mentions of Professor Travers and his daughter Anne. When Lethbridge-Stewart first appears, the Doctor refers to him as "Colonel" before being corrected.
43	* CameraFiend: Isabel Watkins is a professional photographer who always has a camera with her. She persuades Zoe to model for her, and takes photographs of the invading Cybermen, despite being told by TheBrigadier that it is "[[StayInTheKitchen no job for a woman]]".
44	* CorporateConspiracy: Tobias Vaughn, director of International Electromatics, is not only secretly working with the Cybermen to send a hypnotic signal through all IE-made electronics equipment, but also plans to double-cross them and seize control himself.
45	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: In keeping with the spy-thriller feel, Tobias Vaughn is very much a corporate [[Film/JamesBond Blofeld]].
46	* CostumeEvolution: This story introduces the "earmuff" or "square-headed" Cyberman helmet design which would last, with variations, until [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E5RiseOfTheCybermen "Rise of the Cybermen"]] did away with it in 2006. The Cybermen are also five-fingered again for the first time since [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet "The Tenth Planet"]] (having spent [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E6TheMoonbase "The Moonbase"]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen "The Tomb of the Cybermen"]], and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E7TheWheelInSpace "The Wheel in Space"]] only sporting three fingers), and the mouth teardrops are quietly removed in favor of using a thinner, more slit-like version of the original rectangular mouths.
47	* CouldntFindAPen: Isobel has the habit of scribbling notes on her apartment walls using the irrefutable logic, "You can lose a piece of paper, but you can't lose a wall."
48	* CutAndPasteEnvironments: The same set is used for Vaughn's office in two different buildings (with a different view out of the window). {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d.
49	* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Averted. Unlike the usual plot scheme, Vaughn is positively thrilled to have been given a cyborg body and doesn't lose any of his personality.
50	* TheDragon: Packer
51	* DrivingIntoATruck: The Doctor and Jamie are snatched off the street by two men driving an expensive car. Instead of being taken to the BigBad, they're driven to an airport runway and up the access ramp of a Hercules transport aircraft, where the Doctor meets his old ally Lethbridge-Stewart and the newly-formed United Nations Intelligence Taskforce.
52	* EarlyInstalmentWeirdness: The first time we see Benton he's [[TuxedoAndMartini wearing a suit and driving a Jaguar]], as there's more emphasis on UNIT being an international intelligence organization. After this UNIT is always presented as being strictly military.
53	* EvilIsNotAToy: Vaughn really isn’t being very clever.
54	* {{Expy}}: Professor Watkins and his niece Isobel, the SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitutes written in when the creators of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E2TheAbominableSnowmen Professor Travers]] and his [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear daughter Anne]] refused to license out the characters. Professor Travers and Anne are [[PutOnABus said to have moved to America]], and Professor Watkins and Isobel fill their shoes ''extremely'' well. This is quite possibly {{lampshade\|Hanging}}d by the fact that the Doctor and companions mention repeatedly that they were hoping to meet Travers and Anne before finding out that the pair are gone, even though they are otherwise unimportant to the story.
55	* FakeKillScare: A missile is fired at the Tardis, and the Doctor can't get the controls to work! Have our heroes been obliterated before their adventure even begins? Of course they haven't.
56	* ForInconveniencePressOne: The Doctor has to do this with an automated receptionist and doesn't enjoy it. Which Zoe later drops a LogicBomb on.
57	* IdiotBall: Zoe, mainly to annoy Jamie, agrees to Isobel's insanely dangerous plan of photographing the Cybermen. Unlike Isobel, she's encountered the Cybermen before and ought to know better.
58	* ImmuneToBullets: Vaughn, thanks to voluntary partial Cyber-conversion.
59	* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Vaughn's men prove completely incapable of shooting anybody as the Doctor, Jamie, Zoe and Isobel escape via a UNIT helicopter, prompting a UNIT officer named Jimmy to joke that they "couldn't hit a flying elephant".
60	* KidnappedScientist: Professor Watkins.
61	* KilroyWasHere: In Episode 3, scrawled on a wall in the elevator shaft. No real purpose, just set dressing.
62	* LargeHam:
63	** Viewers may remember Creator/KevinStoney from his former role as [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan Mavic Chen.]] His hamminess has seen no decrease whatsoever.
64	** Vaughn's assistant Packer also qualifies; he takes so much pleasure in his actions that he constantly looks like he's holding back a snicker.
65	* LogicBomb: Zoe uses ALGOL to blow up the computer receptionist.
66	* MadEye: Vaughn's right eye is half-closed through most of the serial ([[RealLifeWritesThePlot due to injuries Kevin Stoney had suffered in a car accident]]), then opens wide when he turns against the Cybermen.
67	* MagicSkirt: Jamie's kilt stays in place. This was achieved in the studio by adding small weights to the hem, keeping it from flying as high as cloth normally would.
68	* MeaningfulName: The United Nations ''Intelligence'' Taskforce implies the organisation was formed in direct response to "The Web of Fear", in case the Intelligence struck again. Of course it's also seen fulfilling a role as a UN spy organisation, at least in this story.
69	* MegaCorp: International Electromatics.
70	* ModestyShorts: A photograph taken while filming shows Sally Faulkner (Isobel) wore shorts under her dress for the scene where she's rescued by the helicopter. The animators reconstructing that sequence [[MaleGaze had other ideas]].
71	* MultinationalTeam: UNIT
72	* NoKillLikeOverkill: After the destruction of their invasion fleet, the Cyber Planner intends to destroy all life on Earth with a super bomb.
73	* NumberTwoForBrains: Vaughn has his incompetent henchman Packer -- unusual given his stated desire for efficiency.
74	* NoodleIncident: The Cyber Planner tells Vaughn that he recognizes the Doctor and Jamie from Planet 14, an event we never saw.
75	* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome[=/=]TakeOurWordForIt: Partway through the story, the Doctor says that it's time that they rescued Professor Watkins. The ''very next shot'' features one of Vaughn's men describing in detail the incredible, action-packed rescue operation that UNIT carried out, yet we never got the chance to see (it was scripted, but there wasn't enough time to film it).
76	* OohMeAccentsSlipping: In his first story as Benton, Creator/JohnLevene is battling valiantly with his West Country rhoticism (particularly the word "car").
77	* OutOfGenreExperience: This is a Troughton story that isn't a base-under-siege, features UNIT, a DiabolicalMastermind VillainWithGoodPublicity and Cybermen invading modern-day London, and feels like a test-run for the Pertwee era (because [[PoorlyDisguisedPilot it was]]).
78	* ParentService: Sally Faulkner was a little concerned about the shortness of the skirts, but was told it was "for the dads."
79	* PercussiveMaintenance: The animated version of the first episode has the Doctor hitting the receptionist machine after being frustrated with it when trying to find out where Professor Watkins is. It didn't harmed the machine, though it stopped answering the Doctor's questions afterwards.
80	* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: A rare case of a story being a pilot for ''the show itself'', as it was a test run for an impending huge {{Retool}} - the idea was to drop most of the space travel and GenreRoulette to focus on earthbound adventure stories in a military setting, and bring back Lethbridge-Stewart as a regular.
81	* PutOnABus: A BBC episode intro by the actor who plays Vaughn reveals that the roles of Watkins and his niece Isobel were originally written for [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E2TheAbominableSnowmen Professor Travers]] and his [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear daughter, Anne]]--but the actors weren't available at the time of filming, so Professor Travers and Anne are said to have moved to America, and [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Professor Watkins and Isobel]] fill their shoes. (It has also been suggested that bringing back Travers would have necessitated paying a royalty to the character's creators, Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, which the producers wanted to avoid.)
82	* RankUp: Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart is now TheBrigadier.
83	* RedRightHand: Tobias Vaughn has a heavy squint and, as the Doctor observes, barely ever blinks.
84	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Vaughn. Well, sort of, since he claims he just wants revenge.
85	* SequelEpisode: To "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web of Fear]]".
86	* SeriesContinuityError: The animated first episode depicts Zoe wearing the clothes that she later gets from Isobel when she should be still wearing her glittery catsuit from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E2TheMindRobber The Mind Robber]]". This may have been an error or may have been due to a desire not to have to create a second character model.
87	* ShoutOut:
88	** In the animated first episode, the car that the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe hitch a ride with after the lorry driver is shot has the number plate H 23 63, which is a reference to the date of the original broadcast of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild An Unearthly Child]]", the very first episode of ''Doctor Who'', on 23 November 1963.
89	** In the same episode, the words "Bad Wolf" (the story arc of the 2005 series) are written on Isobel's wall as an in-joke.
90	* TheSlowPath: The Brigadier has lived through four years of normal Earth-time while the Doctor and Jamie only spent a few weeks.
91	* SpoilerOpening: While the title avoids spoiling the monsters, the opening does reveal that Kit Pedler is involved, which fans are gonna know whose gonna be in it.
92	* SpoilerTitle: Unusually for Classic ''Who'', averted. A BBC episode intro by the actor who played Vaughn reveals that the serial was originally going to be titled "Invasion of the Cybermen", but was shortened to avoid spoiling the Cybermen, who don't appear until halfway through the 8-episode serial.
93	* StayInTheKitchen: Isobel learns her lesson against feminist assertiveness after she gets a RedShirt killed.
94	* TheStarscream: Tobias Vaughn is working with the Cybermen to invade the planet, but plans to betray them and rule the world. He ends up helping to defeat the Cybermen but is killed by them.
95	* StockFootage: The exact same footage of missiles pivoting up, then cutting to the behind view, then a single missile rotating across a clear sky, is used three times in three successive episodes. This wouldn't have been so obvious to the audience watching it week-by-week, but is painful in an ArchiveBinge[[invoked]] (it doesn't help that at least two are EngagingChevrons sequences).
96	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: The story is virtually a direct sequel to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web of Fear]]", but has sewer-dwelling Cybermen invading London substituting for Underground-dwelling Yeti invading London, and replaces Professor Travers and Miss Travers with a similar MadScientist & MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter pair. This was because the producer fell out with the creator of the Yeti and the Traverses and wanted to pay them as little as possible. The one returning character created by them is Lethbridge-Stewart, because Creator/DouglasCamfield wanted Creator/NicholasCourtney back and having a Suspiciously Similar Substitute played by the ''same actor'' would just be begging for a lawsuit, and even he gets a promotion from his previous role and is mostly referred to by that rank.
97	* TakeOverTheWorld: This is Vaughn's ultimate goal. Much like Klieg in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen The Tomb of the Cybermen]]", he goes on a rant about how the world is a disorganized mess of conflicting ideals, and only his superior intellect could bring it together to solve all its problems.
98	* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: Zoe reels out a list of coding and orders to a robot receptionist, causing it to break down and catch fire. Even Vaughn had to admit he was "Quite amused"
99	* UncannyValley: The Doctor notices that Vaughn doesn't blink as often as a human should, a sign that he has a cyborg body.
100	* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Unlike most {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s, Vaughn believes in a greater good that justifies what he's doing. He allies with and manipulates the Cybermen into taking over the world for him, so he can then double-cross them and create a utopia where all ideological disputes cease and unity is attained. Unfortunately for Vaughn, the Cybermen were one step ahead and double-crossed him first, leading him to [[EnemyMine ally with the Doctor]] to take down the threat that he himself had led to the Earth in the first place.
101	* VillainousBreakdown: Tobias Vaughn goes from his usual cold and calculating personality to launching a raging freak out at an underling (and once, to the Doctor) in every single episode of the story that he's in.
102	* WhamLine: The Doctor to Tobias Vaughn at the end of Episode Seven (and, by extension, the beginning of Episode Eight):
103	-->'''The Doctor:''' Is this what you wanted, Vaughn?! To be the ruler of a ''dead'' world?!?!
104	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Whatever became of Rutledge? It is believed that he was originally supposed to shoot himself, which is retained in the novelisation.
105	* WholePlotReference: The plot is similar to ''[[Franchise/{{Quatermass}} Quatermass II]]'', though not as much as [[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace some other stories]].
106	* WhoWouldBeStupidEnough: Vaughn lets loose the deranged Cyberman into the sewers, saying that anyone stupid enough to be roaming around in a sewer [[KickTheDog deserves anything that happens to them]]. AnswerCut to Isobel who's planning to do exactly that.
107	* WrittenInAbsence: Jamie and Zoe each miss an episode, due to their actors being on holiday. The in-story reasons are that Jamie was in hospital after being injured, and Zoe was imprisoned by Vaughn after blowing up his computer receptionist.
108	* YearOutsideHourInside: It's been four years since Lethbridge-Stewart last encountered the Doctor, but to Jamie and the Doctor it's only been a few weeks due to their time travelling.
109	* YouHaveFailedMe: Bye-bye, Gregory.
110	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Both Vaughn and the Cybermen are planning to do this to each other, but the Cybermen end up getting the jump on Vaughn.
111	* YoureInsane: Professor Watkins says this to Vaughn about his plans.

Context Recap / DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion