The Android Invasion Part Four

The one where nobody's ever quite sure who is Who...

I love Sarah's complete demolition of the Doctor's plan at the top of this episode, in which she points out that, by zooming down to Earth in the Kraal pods, they could be either burnt up in re-entry, suffocated on the way down, or smashed to a pulp on landing. The Doctor refers to these as "tiny flaws", but despite them, Sarah remains as faithful as ever, resigned to the fact it's their best option. "How long before we start all this?" she moans. As ever, Sarah Jane Smith says it like it is.

The Space Defence Station's control room is as wonderfully Doctor Whoey as I expected. Staffed by just four people (one of whom is, refreshingly, a lady of Asian descent), the vast room is quite the opposite of the hubbub of activity you'd expect a space control room to be. And now that we're seeing the real Devesham on the real Earth, we finally get to see the real Mr Benton. Although we think we're seeing the real Harry Sullivan at this point, actually we're not, and he doesn't truly appear until Ian Marter's very last scene at the end of the episode.

I think this is one of the biggest disappointments and frustrations I have with this story. They go to all the trouble of bringing back Benton and Harry, only for them to be duplicates. That's bad enough, but virtually nothing is made of the fact they are duplicate Benton and Harry; they may as well be any old characters for all the mileage Terry Nation gets out of it. John Levene and Ian Marter are given next to nothing to do (Marter probably the least), making the entire enterprise a complete waste of time and potential. Imagine how much more effective it would have been if more was made of a robot Harry or Benton tagging along with the Doctor and/ or Sarah. As it is, they're just people saying lines.

It's nice that Benton gets that brief phone call with his "kid sister" (who he's taking out to a dance) because it's a surefire way of telling that's the real Benton we know and love of old. But the worst of it is that we don't get to meet the real Harry until that final scene aboard the rocket, in which poor Ian Marter is tied hand and foot and given no active role in proceedings at all. Again, it's nice that he gets to call Sarah "old girl", thus telling us it's the real him, but that's it. Poof! Gone. No final farewell, thank you or catch-up. This fourth episode runs to less than 23 minutes, so there was plenty of time to add a quick scene of closure for Harry and Benton. As it is, they just disappear, unheralded, uncelebrated and unloved. Neither will ever appear again in Doctor Who, and it's a crying shame that this is the way they go out. For that, I can barely forgive The Android Invasion.

The use of androids in this final episode is at least creative, I suppose, with a duplicate Doctor snatching viciously at Sarah, before her own robot re-emerges. It's puzzling that the robot Doctor tells the robot Sarah they have "much to do", but then the robot Sarah is never seen again. The mixing up of the real and pretend Doctors in and out of the space station is good fun, and the Doctor reprogramming his copy to attack Styggron a clever twist.

But where are the Kraals in all this? They hardly feature at all in episode 4, with only Styggron making an appearance. His gooey death doesn't pan out either. He falls to the ground, smashing open the killer virus, which starts to make short work of his rhinoceros head, but surely now the virus is out, everybody in the immediate vicinity will die too (the Doctor, Sarah, Harry and Faraday)? Nobody seems bothered by this, and it comes to nothing. A poor resolution if you ask me.

However, nothing can be quite as poor as what Terry Nation does with Guy Crayford. In episode 3 there were indications that Crayford may be an android copy, but this comes to nothing, and it's revealed that he was never injured in space at all, and certainly never reconstructed (all but one eye) by the Kraals. He was perfectly healthy all along, only brainwashed. The moment where he lifts his eyepatch to reveal a perfectly present eye is laughably ill-conceived, meaning that for the last two years Crayford has never once lifted his eyepatch to look beneath. Not when he was undressing, not when he was showering, never. He must never have washed his face! Add to that the fact that he would have been able to see, or at least sense, that he had sight in both eyes. It's one of the silliest twists in the history of not just Doctor Who, but fiction in general!

Some more observations about episode 4:

• Colonel Faraday is awful, and certainly no replacement for the Brigadier. Neither is Patrick Newell an adequate replacement for Nicholas Courtney, and overplays his modest part terribly. This might be technically classed as a UNIT story, but it doesn't feel like UNIT at all. Mr Benton does not a proper UNIT make (Harry was never a permanent member of UNIT), and the absence of the Brigadier and Yates just makes this feel like a sorry, damp squib.
• Why does nobody comment on the fact Crayford is wearing an eyepatch when they see him on the control screen during re-entry?
• I'm glad to see the real Space Defence Station has a receptionist who can answer those four telephones!
• Terry Nation seriously expected us to believe Crayford landed his XK5 rocket safely back on the roof of the Space Defence Station without any damage or error?
• It's interesting that, given the chance, Sarah wants to go home rather than with the Doctor. But her will is weak, and when offered a lift in the TARDIS (rather than by taxi), she gives in, no doubt knowing full well that she won't get there straight away. The girl just loves time travel too much!

The Android Invasion is a very disappointing story. Disappointing because, after a strong first episode, it degenerates into a tedious runaround and fails to meet its potential. Disappointing because the return of Harry and Benton is wasted, and is particularly unsatisfying for Ian Marter. And disappointing because the Kraals are so rubbish, and hardly make an appearance as their invasion plan begins to take shape. Monsters that can't even be bothered to turn up for their own conquest of Earth! Plus, there's bland production design from Philip Lindley, unimaginative lighting from Duncan Brown, and lacklustre plotting from Terry Nation. After a run of very strong stories in Season 13, this really takes a nosedive.

First broadcast: December 13th, 1975

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The robot Doctor is quite scary. Look at the way he snatches at Sarah before she runs away, or how he hisses "Satisfied?" at Benton when he shoots him.
The Bad: Crayford's eyepatch. Oh dear.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆ (story average: 6 out of 10)

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 05

NEXT TIME: The Brain of Morbius...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Three

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/2014/06/the-android-invasion.html

The Android Invasion is available on BBC DVD as part of the UNIT Files box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-U-N-I-T-Invasion-Dinosaurs/dp/B006H4R8W6/