The Seeds of Death Episode Two

The one where the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe fly to the moon in a rocket, but don't need to...

I'm watching The Seeds of Death just days after the death of Alan Bennion has been reported, so it's timely that I should mention what a fantastic vocal performance he puts in here. Cleverly, director Michael Ferguson continues to hold back on showing Slaar too much, and we're treated to sparing glimpses of his pock-marked, fanged face, adding to the mystery. Bennion's hoarse, whispering voice depicts Slaar as an intelligent but dangerous creature, and he oozes gravitas despite limited screen time.

On the other hand, Ferguson is more than happy to show the Ice Warriors fully, which in some ways works against them, because they're terribly slow and cumbersome. These 20th century Ice Warriors always walked so gingerly, due to the unwieldy nature of the costumes, and the strident ferocity of the 21st century versions excels in that sense. The scene where the Ice Warrior searches for Phipps in the store room - so beautifully framed in a slow zoom out by Ferguson - is slightly undermined by the fact the Warrior struggles to heft his bulky frame through the door. Moonbase door frames aren't made for Martian physiques, I suppose!

The Seeds of Death Episode One

The one where the Martians invade the moon...

Right from the very outset, this serial screams AMBITION! It starts off with different episode title credits, which although not a unique difference, demonstrate an attempt to add scale to the piece. The model planets, and the way the camera passes them to reveal other celestial bodies beyond, is pretty snazzy for the time, and along with Dudley Simpson's melodramatic score, tells the viewer instantly that this is a futuristic space epic.

Director Michael Ferguson returns for his second Doctor Who story, having made a huge impact with his debut, The War Machines, three years earlier. The ambition and flair in Ferguson's work is breath-taking, especially after some of the more pedestrian efforts of recent stories, and although it can sometimes become distracting and self-conscious, the injection of enthusiasm for what Ferguson's shooting stands the test of the decades.

The Krotons Episode Four

The one where the Gonds are finally liberated from the Krotons...

In episode 3, Eelek claims that the Gond Council has taken a vote in Selris's absence and elected him as leader, thus ousting ol' scrunchy-face. But here, Selris claims that leadership of the Council is hereditary, and so his son Thara will be next leader. If this is the case, then how and why did the Council hold a leadership election at all? If they were looking for a new, young, fresh, robust, strong and stable leader, why not just turn to Thara, who has been just as outspoken about the Krotons - if not more so - than Eelek? A bit of muddy world-building from Robert Holmes there, I fear.

For the first time in the story, the Gonds get to lay eyes on their Kroton masters when one of them comes out of the Dynatrope to demand that the High-Brains (the Doctor and Zoe) are bought to them. Why they didn't just use the booming voice we witnessed in episode 1, I'm not sure, but the emergence of this crystalline creature certainly strikes awe into the people. Seeing the Kroton shuffle down the gangway, its skirt swishing, struck me as terribly silly. They really are terrible in long-shot!

The Krotons Episode Three

The one where the indigenous Gonds foment a rebellion against the alien Krotons...

Writer Robert Holmes continues to develop his debut story into a quintessential Doctor Who plot by having the Gonds form a rebellion against the oppressive Krotons. It's only taken them thousands of years to get around to this, and only then when the Doctor has turned up to coax questions out of them. Although it has to be said that Thara was onto something from the very first scene, before the TARDIS even arrived.

Which makes it a little puzzling why it is Eelek who suddenly emerges as the rebel leader, seizing control of the Gond Council from Selris to lead his people into war. The last time we saw Eelek - in episode 1 - he was a resolute supporter of the Krotons and the Gonds' subservience, insisting that "no one defies the Krotons". Now, suddenly, he's changed his tune completely and wants to launch an all-out attack on them. Nothing has happened to show why Eelek has had such an about-turn in allegiance, and his role in events seems forced and unnatural. Surely it should be Thara leading a revolution, seeing as he's been questioning the Krotons from the very start? And wouldn't it be more fitting for leader Selris's son to be the one to depose him and lead the revolt? It seems like a major narrative misstep by Holmes.

The Krotons Episode Two

The one where the Doctor and Zoe accidentally create the Krotons...

I've never really thought about it much before, but the title The Krotons is really pointless, isn't it? It tells you absolutely nothing about the story, because the word "Kroton" doesn't mean anything to anyone, unless you're a Brazilian educationalist. You might guess that there's an alien species in the story called the Krotons, but you can't be sure, and even their name doesn't tell you what sort of alien they are. It's actually a rare example of a Doctor Who story being named after a monster we know nothing about, and learn nothing about from their name.

The Daleks is the obvious similarity, but stories such as The Sensorites, The War Machines, The Ice Warriors, The Dominators, The Daemons, The Sea Devils - even Doctor Who and the Silurians - all tell you a little something about the titular creatures, whether they be sensitive, war-like, domineering, aquatic, demonic or icy! I can only think of Meglos as another example of a story title named after a monster which means nothing before you've watched it. And let's be honest, Meglos doesn't really mean very much after you've watched it either...

The Krotons Episode One

The one where the TARDIS lands on a planet that smells of rotten eggs...

Oh no, not another futuristic sci-fi story with bland humanoids in rubbish costumes. I had quite enough of that with The Dominators, and right from the very first scene this is looking like it's going to be more of the same. OK, Bobi Bartlett's costumes could never be as downright awful as Martin Baugh's curtain skirt abominations, but these people look like a cross between Thals and Xerons, with a splash of Sensorite thrown in. And we all know that a splash of Sensorite is never a good thing...

The first scene made me instantly wary, compounded by the pretty poor standard of acting on display too, particularly from James Copeland's Selris (does every planet have a Scotland?) and, after meeting him later in the episode, James Cairncross's Beta. It's all so stagy and heightened, everyone is pronouncing and declaring rather than performing. The most natural performer is Philip Madoc, but he's kind of gone to the opposite end of the spectrum and seems like he's on Valium.

The Invasion Episode Eight

The one where UNIT and the Cybermen finally clash - on screen!

"We must destroy all life on Earth completely," mumbles the Cyber-planner at the start of the episode, a clip I remember vividly being in BBC2's 1992 documentary Resistance is Useless. Back then I wondered what the bloody hell it was, and 26 years later I'm still wondering...

After Zoe gets the overwhelming approval of every male in the British military thanks to her sharp intellect and figure-hugging catsuit ("Can't we keep her, Sir, she's much prettier than a computer!"), we're subjected to a few more interminable walkie-talkie exchanges between platoons and bases before the real action for the serial finale kicks in.

The Invasion Episode Seven

The one where the Cybermen seem to totally disappear...

Ah, so the Doctor's OK and will be in this episode after all! I suspected that Patrick Troughton was due an untimely week off when I saw the Doctor collapse toward the end of episode 6, but it was just a bluff! However, numerous other characters do take a substantial back seat in this episode, namely Jamie, Isobel and Professor Watkins. After they've escaped the attack on Travers' house early on, none of them appear again.

It's a strange turn of events, some of which makes sense, some of which doesn't. Frazer Hines had a week off during episode 8, and so only appears in pre-filmed inserts for that episode, but quite why he's totally removed from the action here is a little bewildering (plus, Packer's men shoot at Jamie four times, but if one bullet hit him at that proximity, surely all four could have?). Isobel is said to be tending to her wounded uncle, who we still haven't seen speak to one another, and it seems we never will, because Edward Burnham doesn't appear at all in episode 8. All very curious...

The Invasion Episode Six

The one where the invasion finally begins...

"Isobel, where are yoooooo!" hoots plummy thesp Robert Sidaway as Captain Turner and his men search the sewers for Jamie, Zoe and Isobel. I like the tentative romance that Derrick Sherwin has sketched in between Turner and Isobel, and although it doesn't go very far, there's an obvious attraction, and it makes a pleasant change for Doctor Who to take moments to flesh out characters like this, such as in the scene near the end where Turner joins Isobel at the window at dawn.

The scenes in the sewers are directed and lit beautifully by Douglas Camfield and Robbie Robinson, and the silver giants look truly eerie emerging from the gloom, their chest plates flashing and their powerful, implacable silhouettes picked out in the dark. I've always maintained that the Cybermen looked their best in black and white, and never quite recaptured their 60s spookiness in colour, and this is a prime example.

The Invasion Episode Five

The one where the Brigadier's sexism shows through...

It's always a bit of a thrill to see what I've seen first in cartoon form (because the episode is missing) "recreated" as the live action original, and although Douglas Camfield's version isn't lit quite as beautifully by Robbie Robinson as it was by Cosgrove Hall's animators, it's still an effective sequence. It made me laugh when the Doctor said to Jamie: "Come on, let's go back to the canoe", as if it's the latest version of the TARDIS!

After the revivification of the Cyberman, I was kind of hoping that the silver giants would start to feature a bit more in the story, but in actual fact, they remain quite low key as they move inexorably toward the most tentative invasion of Earth ever staged. However, what we do see of them is very effective, especially the scene where Vaughan and Gregory use the cerebraton mentor to instill a sense of fear in the Cyberman, and it goes mad.

The Invasion Episode Four

The one where the identity of the invaders is revealed...

It's back to animation for the missing fourth episode, and it's a real shame that this particular edition is lost as the action-packed helicopter escape scenes would be thrilling to watch (plus, it's Doctor Who's fifth anniversary episode). Douglas Camfield was one of the best action directors Doctor Who ever had, and I am sure this sequence would have been shot with class and pace (remember his work on the Yeti invasion of Covent Garden in The Web of Fear?). It's not often you get a UNIT helicopter rescuing the Doctor and his companions from the roof of a multi-storey tower block, while being shot at.

Which reminds me, Packer and his men really are incompetent fools. They're armed with machine guns and pistols, but can't seem to hit a single one of their targets. As Captain Turner jokes: "Fortunately, Vaughan's jackboots couldn't shoot a flying elephant!" I think even I, with zero experience and training in artillery fire and weapon-handling, could probably manage to shoot down a person dangling from a rope ladder, or even just blow a hole in a helicopter's fuel tank.

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!

The Invasion Episode Two

The one where Zoe blows up an answering machine using the power of algorithmic language...

I wonder why designer Richard Hunt decided to have Vaughan's secret wall open on an awkward hinge rather than simply slide aside? It wouldn't have taken half as long to open, and would make more practical sense. However, this awkwardness doesn't prevent Tobias Vaughan from activating the wall at every possible opportunity, waiting patiently for the wall to fold away before his latest verbal tussle with, well... whatever that machine is! Again, Hunt has made some bizarre design choices when it comes to this machine, and it looks like it's made from washing-up bowls, colanders and plastic cups! Also, it talks like Rocky Balboa on Xanax.

His relationship with who or whatever is behind the machine is interesting in that Vaughan believes he is in charge, that he leads the operation (ie, the impending invasion). Who or what is intending to invade is a mystery for now, but Kevin Stoney gives Vaughan such a sharp self-confidence, in one scene his anger bubbling over as he demands information from his shadowy allies. They don't tell him very much more, but it seems the invaders have knowledge of the Doctor from a previous encounter on Planet 14... whatever that is.

The Invasion Episode One

The one where Zoe becomes a fashion model...

For the first time in Season 6, there's an episode missing from the archives, and it's a real shame it's the first episode. We've had a straight run of 11 extant episodes, a stroke of luck not seen since The Ice Warriors 4 through to The Web of Fear 2. In fact, it's been the joint longest run of extant episodes since Season 2, and for that we must be grateful.

Instead, The Invasion's missing first and fourth episodes were animated for DVD by Cosgrove Hall, and while I'm not going to focus on the visual cartoon, I must say that the work they did was beautiful, and remains by far the best Doctor Who animation to date. It's really atmospheric and noirish, adding incredible style to the already classy soundtrack. And I particularly admire the way they animated the ill-fated lorry driver in episode 1, played by Murray Evans. I mean, cor!