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.

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!

The Android Invasion Part Two

The one where Harry and Benton come back... or do they?

What a fall from grace this serial takes with part two. After a highly intriguing and quite surreal first episode, this second installment degenerates very quickly into a dull runaround populated by some extremely unconvincing and generic monsters of the week. I've never been the greatest admirer of Barry Letts' work as a director, but his efforts in the first half of this episode to tease the appearance of the aliens (first their nobbly boots, then their hands) pales in comparison to the work of Douglas Camfield on Terror of the Zygons.

You can't help but compare this to Terror of the Zygons because it's all so painfully similar. As well as the rural location, and the presence of a quaint village and a local pub, you've got aliens trying to invade the Earth by stealth, using the duplication of humans as their "bridgehead", and secreting closed circuit cameras inside wall-mounted ornaments. The big difference though, is that the Kraals are rubbish and the Zygons aren't. The monster masks are poorly fitted to the actors, whose moving mouths can be seen quite clearly within, and although they look suitably thuggish and unusual, these space rhinos aren't a patch on their Judoon cousins!

The Android Invasion Part One

The one where a quaint English village isn't all it seems...

The Android Invasion has an odd opening. It starts with a UNIT soldier looking quite zombified, his right arm twitching like he's lashed up to jump leads, walking inexorably through bushes and brambles. He is glassy-eyed and empty, and obviously on his way somewhere, but we then cut away to the TARDIS materialising in a forest clearing and the twitchy soldier's forgotten about for a few minutes.

Mind you, that TARDIS arrival is beautiful, isn't it? What Doctor Who fan doesn't adore seeing that gorgeous blue police box fade into view, then wait expectantly to see who comes out first? It's a rite of passage for all fans, I reckon: you're not a true fan until you feel your heart skip a beat at a TARDIS materialisation! This time, it's in a sunny woodland glade, one of the most perfect environments for it to happen. And then the Fourth Doctor steps out swigging from a bottle of ginger pop. Does Doctor Who get any purer than this?