The Invasion Episode Three

The one where Packer's incompetence comes to the fore...

The oily, smug, condescending way that Kevin Stoney delivers the word "Packerrrr" every time is a delight, isn't it? He packs so much superiority and disdain into the delivery of just one word! Stoney was an expert at portraying smarmy villains (his Mavic Chen in The Daleks' Master Plan is just as dangerously urbane), which always makes me extra disappointed with his third and final appearance in Doctor Who, buried beneath make-up and masks in a thankless part as a beardy Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen. He deserved more, and better - I mean, imagine Kevin Stoney as Borusa in The Five Doctors, or perhaps Kane in Dragonfire?

He gives Vaughan a disarming stillness, a calm presence which makes you think he is in complete control, always one step ahead, forever scheming behind that supercilious smirk. But when Tobias Vaughan loses it, he really does go ape-shit! After suffering a catalogue of incompetence by his vicious goon Packer, he explodes into a rage of demands, calling for the Doctor to be captured. Freeze-framing any moment on his face during this apoplectic outburst is a Russian Roulette of monstrous expressions!

Equally, Peter Halliday is fabulous as the sadistic Packer, a man who finds instant gratification in the thought of harming others, especially the vulnerable. He manipulates Professor Watkins by threatening to hurt his niece Isobel ("She's a pretty girl, it'd be a shame to spoil all that," he says), and takes great enjoyment from trying to squash the Doctor and Jamie to death in the lift shaft. Packer is not a nice man, but I think Halliday gets a lot of enjoyment from playing him that way!

Writer Derrick Sherwin and designer Richard Hunt save stacks of cash by having Vaughan's office in the country an exact replica of his office in the city (he bases his successful business model on uniformity and duplication, apparently). It remains to be seen whether he's also got a second alien machine thing behind his wall though!

The Brigadier and UNIT are pretty useless in this episode, deciding to stay at a "discrete distance" from IE until they hear from the Doctor. I'm not sure zipping about the skies in a noisy helicopter is what I would call discrete, but it demonstrates the hardware at UNIT's disposal I suppose. And there's one of those lines that are a real pet hate of mine, where the Brigadier refers to Jamie as "the boy"! Argh! Jamie is at least 22 years old, and also, the Brig's met Jamie before. He's familiar with him, he might even call him a friend. So to refer to someone as "the boy" is so condescending, and unrealistic.

Another of my personal annoyances crops up when Vaughan gives the Doctor an hour in which to decide whether to hand over the TARDIS, or else he'll set Packer onto Zoe. Why wait an hour? Why not just insist right here and now? I've always been irked by this lazy narrative device, which serves to extend the story, usually allowing the heroes to formulate an escape plan. I've said it before, but the best villains would surely make their demands instantly? It gets even sillier when villains award our heroes "precisely seven minutes" or whatever to make a decision.

In this case, that all-important hour allows the Doctor and Jamie to make their escape in a brilliant little scene in which the Doctor discretely informs Jamie about how to operate the lift, then shoves Packer into a wall before making their exit in the elevator! Classic Doctor/ Jamie action!

I must admit to finding Packer's wristwatch communicator very silly. He speaks to his lackeys through the watch, but has to listen to their squeaky-voiced replies by holding his wrist up to his ear. It just looks really silly, especially given the urgency and gravity of the situation!

The Doctor and Jamie escape up the lift shaft into the roof of IE, affording film cameraman Alan Jonas a prime shot up Frazer Hines's kilt (if only it wasn't against a bright white sky, we might be able to make something out in the gloom!). The episode ends with Jamie hiding inside a crate, and discovering that there's something in there with him, wrapped in cloth and writhing! I'm taking a random guess that it's Zoe or Isobel (who were placed inside identical crates when we last saw them in episode 2), but it could quite easily be something far more sinister...

First broadcast: November 16th, 1968

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: "Packerrrr..."
The Bad: "The Doctor and the boy."
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Episode Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Two; Episode Four; Episode Five; Episode Six; Episode Seven; Episode Eight

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-invasion.html

The Invasion is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Invasion-Disc-Set/dp/B000GH2VOK.