The Android Invasion Part Three

The one where the pretend Devesham is destroyed...

Any time a companion is brainwashed or duplicated and appears to be trying to kill the Doctor, I get nervy. I don't like it, and I suppose that's why it works narratively, because we're seeing our hero's best friend turn against him. It happens a few times - brainwashed Ben in The Macra Terror, brainwashed Dodo in The War Machines, evil Harry in Terror of the Zygons, duplicate Clara in The Zygon Invasion - but it's particularly rattling to see Sarah Jane try to kill the Doctor, as she does here. Or rather her android double does, when it sits up and starts firing at the fleeing Time Lord. The fact her face looks laughably like Sid the computer from Galloping Galaxies does undermine it somewhat though!

We learn an awful lot in this episode, including the fact that Styggron is one of the keenest project managers in the galaxy. He's a stickler for scheduling, and throughout this episode is obsessed with countdowns and timings, stating exactly how many minutes are left until the next phase of the Kraal plan happens. "Nothing will go wrong!" he insists when the Doctor challenges him, the plaintive cry of the ultimate Prince 2 trained project manager!

We learn that the pretend Devesham is actually a training ground for the Kraal invasion, where they practice depositing androids as human replacements, which will then disseminate a deadly virus which will wipe out all of humanity within three weeks. Why the Kraals need to bother at all with androids is puzzling. If they have a virus which is so deadly, why not just send a Kraal (or, if they're feeling self-conscious, just one android) to Earth to release the virus, then just wait a few weeks in orbit?

Of course, they've told their human conspirator Guy Crayford a very different story in order to get him on their side. Guy is sympathetic to the Kraals because they rescued him from certain death when he was lost in space two years previously. He's turned against his own race because they abandoned him, and it was the Kraals who were his saviour, reconstructing him after he was "torn apart" by gyro-failure. All except his left eye, which "couldn't be found". Hmmm... this is ringing very loud alarm bells to me already. Crayford claims to have been "reconstructed" by the Kraals, who are experts in android duplication. Could this be a not very subtle clue that Crayford isn't as human as he seems?

Praise to Milton Johns for a lovely, sensitive performance though. Crayford is a bit of a whinger, and it's hard to like him seeing as he's betrayed the entire human race. But when he's trying to justify his allegiances to Sarah and a clearly appalled Doctor, Johns plays it utterly straight, squeezing as much truth out of the lines as he can. Although he's clearly misguided, you can understand why Crayford feels the way he does about the Kraals. Admittedly, when he says the Kraals intend to occupy Earth's northern hemisphere and live peacefully with the humans restricted to the southern hemisphere, it's obvious his monocular condition isn't his only blindness.

Towards the end of the episode the Doctor is subjected to Styggron's mind analysis procedure, and when Sarah manages to release him, we get some classic Tom Baker when, disorientated, the Doctor starts to recite a story he knows about three sisters who live at the bottom of a treacle well, called Olga, Masha and Irina, and he refers to Sarah as Tillie. This is a delightful mash-up referencing the nonsensical story the Dormouse tells at the Mad Hatter's tea party in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (in which the sisters are named Elsie, Lacie and Tillie), as well as Anton Chekhov's play Three Sisters. Classic Tom Baker!

The end of the episode sees the Doctor and Sarah escaping from Oseidon aboard Crayford's XK5 rocket, represented via some pretty ropy back projection (the photo used isn't even in focus) and good old stock footage. As the rocket takes off, the Doctor bundles Sarah into a Kraal pod but the G-force is too great, and we're treated to one of the most unflattering cliffhangers in the history of Doctor Who as Elisabeth Sladen's face is stretched and contorted (reminding me of the time they did the same to Jon Pertwee in The Ambassadors of Death episode 5 - that wasn't pretty either!).

Episode 3 is an improvement on episode 2, mainly because we get more information about the Kraals' plans, and the Doctor and Sarah spend more time together, but all in all, the story has been going downhill since the end of episode 1.

First broadcast: December 6th, 1975

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Milton Johns works wonders with a character it's hard to like.
The Bad: That dodgy CSO of the XK5 rocket.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

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

NEXT TIME: Part Four...

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

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/