YMMV / Doctor Who S15 E6 "The Invasion of Time"

• Ham and Cheese: The story had No Budget, catastrophic Special Effects Failure, enforced Lighter and Softer tone, truly awful BBC Quarry sets, a mediocre script hinging on an 'event' most people wouldn't care about and a very angry Tom Baker who felt that his show was imploding and was struggling with his personal life. The kicker is that the script required him to act like an insane megalomaniac, which he pretty much was even out-of-character at that point. The result is the biggest, loudest, most swivel-eyed and self-indulgent overacting a Doctor has ever been responsible for, with much of his dialogue openly addressed to the camera. Depending on how funny you find him, it's either making a washout story hilariously watchable or the worst thing in his whole tenure.
• He Really Can Act: Tom Baker's portrayal of the Doctor pretending to go mad with power and yell at all the other Time Lords.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: An alert is put out at the beginning to warn that an "unidentified capsule" (the Doctor's Tardis) is approaching Gallifrey. An amber alert.
• Les Yay: Leela and Radon have a good deal of Security Cling and holding hands moments. It probably would have made more sense if she'd decided to stay on Gallifrey for Radon's sake instead of Andred's.
• Memetic Mutation: The Doctor's hammy grin at the very end of the serial, typically accompanied by the phrase "I can fap to this" in gif versions.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • The Vardans are represented by people with sheets of tinfoil over their heads, Bedsheet Ghost style. The DVD gives you the option of watching it with sparkling CGI humanoids instead..
  • The TARDIS corridors are fairly notoriously represented by a grubby abandoned hospital with a lot of hospital detritus still in it. Sometimes even with binbags taped over the windows to keep the light down.
• Retroactive Recognition: A rather unusual example. Presta was played by a young actress named Gai Smith. These days she’s better known in her home country of Australia as Gai Waterhouse, a very famous and successful trainer of racehorses.
• Signature Scene: The Sontarans materialising on Gallifrey at the end of Episode Four is the most famous moment in this serial.
• Strangled by the Red String: Leela decides to stay on Gallifrey and marry the guard Andred. There's been nothing romantic between them. While the actors tried to suggest attraction in the story with their acting, the script didn't give them much to work with. It was basically, Doctor: "Come on, Leela, let's go." Leela: "No, I'm going to stay here and marry Andred." Doctor: "Okay, bye." This happened because Louise Jameson told producer Graham Williams that she was leaving at the end of the season, and he kept trying to change her mind. The Big Finish audio drama series Gallifrey ends up subverting this relationship in a fairly satisfying way.
• Unexpected Character: No-one was expecting the Sontarans, of all races, to be the masterminds behind the plot.

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