Invasion (of the Dinosaurs) Part One

The one where the Doctor and Sarah arrive in a deserted London...

Before we start, I'm making it clear that I watched the black and white version of this episode, as I find the colour-recovered version rather sub-standard. Also, this absolutely marvellous episode looks and feels so much better in monochrome, and I'm sort of glad the colour master tape is lost as watching it in black and white makes it more powerful, in my opinion.

From the moment the episode begins, you can tell this is going to be something a bit different, a bit special. The shots of the empty streets of London - the wet Thames embankment, the deserted Trafalgar Square - are really eerie and atmospheric, helped enormously by Dudley Simpson's mournful music. We continue to see shots of abandoned cars, stray dogs and derelict houses, but the key absence is people. There's not a single human being to be seen. These scenes are fantastic - among the best ever shot for classic Doctor Who - and instantly give the story a post-apocalyptic feel reminiscent of (although presaging) programmes like Survivors and Threads.

Into this desertion materialises the TARDIS. The Doctor and Sarah step out and take in the quietened surroundings (the abandoned picnic says more than words ever could), and it's at this point I realised just how weird it is seeing Jon Pertwee in black and white! It makes it feel like an episode has timeslipped back into the 1960s, but it's also fantastic. It's that grainy, monochrome film look that location scenes had in the Harnell and Troughton eras that I find quite intoxicating. It feels like it ought to be the First Doctor and Dodo stepping out of that police box! It's interesting what the loss of colour does to the Doctor Who fan's brain! It feels almost documentary.

It's all so wonderfully atmospheric, and as the episode progresses, and the Doctor and Sarah explore the deserted capital, I couldn't help but be reminded of Survival, where the Seventh Doctor and Ace wander round Perivale on a quiet Sunday ("Great Britain always closes down on Sundays"). The introduction of the looter on the abandoned high street zapped my Doctor Who brain straight into Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD, and then to Attack of the Cybermen. Everything feels so different from regular Doctor Who that my reactions were unsure where to settle!

I mean, you just don't expect to see the Third Doctor waiting for a bus, using a telephone box, or trying to stop a jewel robbery. Actually, the looter's sawn-off shotgun is disturbingly "real-world", like the Doctor and Sarah really have tumbled sideways into another, much grittier, programme, like a 1970s cross-over with The Sweeney. The death of the looter in the car - which seems to have driven headfirst into a very large, very solid immovable object - is pretty grim too. No wonder Sarah turns away from the grisly scene.

One of the most disturbing aspects of this deserted London, which would have been even more unsettling in 1974 than today, is the absence of the police. They don't answer when Sarah dials 999, and the local police station is locked up and empty. Where are the police? If there are criminals on the streets, surely there are law enforcers?

So it's rather reassuring when UNIT turns up, and the sight of the Brigadier, Yates and Benton is a most comforting one, even if there does seem to be a terrible emergency going on. The criminals are forming organised gangs, there's mention of detention centres, and we hear machine gun fire on the streets. Something has gone terribly wrong since we were last in 20th century London in The Time Warrior part 1. "The looters are a detail. It's these we've got to worry about," says the Brigadier, pointing to a myriad of markers on a map of the capital. Whatever are "these"?

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Sarah are trying to return a carpet bag full of loot to the police, but are struggling to find anybody in authority. They wander into a warehouse in pursuit of a jeep they spotted, only to be attacked firstly by criminals, and then by what looks like a giant bat! Again, the black and white works in the story's favour here, because the effect of the creature in flight is quite unconvincing, but Paddy Russell directs the pterosaur's relentless attack with great urgency. The creature bites, snaps and k-klaks its razor-toothed jaw at Sarah and the Doctor with merciless violence, until the Doctor manages to drive the jeep through the closed warehouse doors and away. It's a thrilling scene, worthy of The Sweeney or a glossy ITC action series!

We meet General Finch, a man who cares very little for the welfare of his fellow man, and more for keeping law and order in the deserted capital. Eight million people have been evacuated, but Finch resents this humanitarian displacement: "These wretched people have to be fed, sheltered and cared for." He orders the Brigadier's UNIT men to shoot looters if they refuse to surrender. A state of martial law exists, and the power seems to be going to Finch's head.

The Doctor and Sarah are taken prisoner by the authorities, which is the point where the episode just elevates itself even higher than before. Jon Pertwee is wonderful as the Doctor reacts to the soldiers' taciturn orders (I love the moment he gives his name: "Dr John Smith... no relation"), and the scene where he and Sarah Jane are photographed for mug shots is classic. Pertwee has the Doctor go along with their orders in order to get to the bottom of what's happened, and all the business with the Doctor humouring the photographer and pulling a big, smiley face is so funny ("Now what about one of us both?"). It's almost like he's morphing into the Fourth Doctor before our very eyes...

I mentioned the attack by the pterosaur, but of course, we don't know that's what it is when it happened. But when there's mention of "the monsters", and we cut to outside where a Tyrannosaurus Rex is demolishing a suburban street, we finally click as to what exactly has invaded London! The T Rex is a puppet which has extremely limited mobility and flexibility, not to mention credibility, but seen here, in black and white, it's not so bad. It's probably no better or worse than what you'd expect Doctor Who to be able to achieve in 1974, so I wonder whether contemporary viewers were all that taken aback by what we now see as pretty dire puppet dinos? I mean, yes they're awful, but wouldn't you expect them to be?

When Benton spots the Doctor and Sarah's mugshots, he refers to Sarah as "that journalist girl", which is very good writing as, of course, Sarah is barely known to UNIT. We may know her as the plucky new companion of Dr Who, but from UNIT's point of view, she was just a young girl who went missing around the same time as all those scientists from the research centre. They don't know everything she's been through in medieval times.

The Doctor and Sarah are on their way to a detention centre (it all feels very Russell T Davies, ie Turn Left or Years and Years), but their vehicle is stopped in its tracks by the appearance of a great hulking T Rex in the middle of the road. It's one of those wonderful WTF moments, but perhaps for the wrong reasons. It's great to see our heroes' startled reaction to seeing a dinosaur in central London, but said dinosaur is so laughable that perhaps WTF has never been so apt!

Dinosaurs aside though, this first episode is absolutely marvellous, dripping with style and atmosphere, intrigue and humour. I'm going to score it a 10, putting it on a par with the very best of Doctor Who, because I simply cannot allow those dinosaurs to overshadow what wonderful work Paddy Russell did.

First broadcast: January 12th, 1974

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Paddy Russell's atmospheric location filming makes the first 15 minutes of this episode eerie, spooky and downright unsettling.
The Bad: Well, the T Rex.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★★

"Now listen to me" tally: 30
Neck-rub tally: 14

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two; Part Three; Part Four; Part Five; Part Six

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/invasion-of-dinosaurs.html

Invasion of the Dinosaurs 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