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Post by Future-Diver on May 13, 2022 11:59:46 GMT
"You think I'm mad, that all I want is power for its own sake. No, I have to have power. The world is weak, vulnerable, a mess of uncoordinated and impossible ideals. It needs a strong man, a single mind. A leader!"
Arguably the best of the '60s Cybermen tales, The Invasion is quite an epic, at 8 episodes long. Lethbridge-Stewart has been promoted to Brigadier and we get our first proper look at UNIT, while Tobias Vaughn and his vicious but inept henchman Packer make a great villainous double-act (I love the cool jazz/lounge music - Muzak - that plays whenever we are in Vaughn's snazzy offices). Sally Faulkner as Isobel Watkins is an absolute delight and the very definition of a '60s Dolly Bird- why didn't she become a full-time companion? The famous scene from Episode 6,where the Cybermen emerge from the sewers, to march through the London streets with St Paul's Cathedral in the background, is a truly iconic Who moment and Don Harper's very cool, Spy-Fi soundtrack helps makes this serial a stone-cold classic. The animated missing episodes from 2006 represent the best Doctor Who animation we've seen so far - absolutely smashing. 9/10
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Post by Black Orchid on Jun 8, 2022 23:24:11 GMT
Dominators / Mind Robber / Invasion / War Games
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Post by Black Orchid on Jun 17, 2022 15:55:30 GMT
"Lime Grove D on Friday 20th September 1968, where Wendy, Pat & Frazer are taping the first episode of The Invasion." Clayton Hickman twitter
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Post by Cyggy on Jul 9, 2022 19:01:54 GMT
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Post by Cyggy on Jul 11, 2022 9:49:18 GMT
"Invasion" Cyberman Head Restoration
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Post by johnnybear on Jul 13, 2022 7:34:38 GMT
What a genius this guy is!!! Plus what a piece of beauty The Invasion Cyberhead truly is! JB
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Post by GC on Jul 24, 2022 17:08:08 GMT
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Post by Black Orchid on Sept 25, 2022 15:32:58 GMT
"Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury & Patrick Troughton at Williamstrip Farm, Coln St Aldwyns, Gloucestershire on Tuesday 3rd September 1968, filming the invisible TARDIS scenes from Episode One of ‘The Invasion’." Clayton Hickman twitter
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Post by Future-Diver on Oct 1, 2022 17:49:24 GMT
I showed my wife the two animated episodes from The Invasion DVD, and she agreed that the animation style was much better than later attempts (she's seen The Macra Terror, The Evil of The Daleks and Galaxy 4). If only Cosgrove Hall had animated more missing episodes...
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Post by Black Orchid on Mar 8, 2023 14:06:34 GMT
Retro film poster by Oliver Arkinstall-Jones (twitter)
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Post by Cyggy on Apr 11, 2023 15:16:41 GMT
From a 2020 rewatch of the Missing Episodes only...
Episode 1:
(Using Loose Cannon Recon on Dailymotion)
Opted to watch the recon of this episode over the animation. I guess this rakes up the whole "Animation or Recons" debate. I kind of like both, but had never seen the recon, so...
One thing that strikes me, based on Episode 1, is that Derick Sherwin, while having a tight grip on plotting and suspense, could, imo, probably not write the kind of scene that we discovered in Episode 3 of THE SPACE PIRATES, due to not having the lightness of touch necessary? I think he writes nasty and authoritarian people very well, along with brutally mindless guards, but whimsy and banter don't seem to be his forte. That's not really a criticism, just an observation.
As (fellow rewatcher) Yartek noted, I also think his Nigel Kneale, QUATERMASS II, roots are showing, with a local community fenced in in some kind of compound, while something dark and unearthly is going on behind the scenes.
Don Harper's music is fantastic imo and it's a shame he did not score more stories.
The shooting of the milk float driver is quite harsh - and I do wonder if this exists as a censored clip in some folder somewhere, yet to be rediscovered? It's surely the sort of thing that would run the risk of being snipped out before an airing? Ian Marter made a right meal of this scene, with blood and brains all over the eggshells etc. :death: I remember a quite critical review of the novelisation, taking Marter to task for his glorifying of the violence, in DWM. Might even have been a Gary Russell review. Would have to check.
I love the script-editing sleight of hand that swaps Travers and his daughter for Watkins and Isobel with the minimum of fuss.
After reading that "teaser" in the Radio Times it's a wonder anyone bothered watching the episode. Talk about spoilers!
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Post by Cyggy on Apr 11, 2023 15:23:31 GMT
Episode 4
Watched the animation this time, as I am a bit less familiar with this episode. Nice filler episode, with escape in the lift, escape in the helicopter and a nice cliffhanger ending. Hope the animators weren't Cyberfans, since after all the hype they get to animate a Cyberman for just a few seconds at the end. I don't blame them for cheating by sticking plenty of Cybemen in the animated trailer to make up for it. Can't think of much to say about it beyond that. For a fourth segment of an eight episode story I think it does it's job nicely. Voted for Episode 1, as 4 is still pretty much quality filler more than anything, imo, but 1 sets out the story's stall and we could do with seeing that a little more urgently. But as you say, Yartek, this is so well animated that any wound that was caused by the loss of the two episodes has been healed somewhat with the very well done animations. I imagine viewers at the time were wondering, "Daleks?" at first (in the conversation between Packer and Tobias Vaughan), but when the emotions thing comes up, it does narrow it down somewhat. Funnily enough, while watching, even though I know it would never have been allowed to happen, I did think how awesome (if appalling) it would have been to see Jamie fall to his death from the helicopter after being hit by bullets, with Hines leaving at that point instead of hanging on (literally) to survive into THE WAR GAMES. But while the show at the time was willing to show sadistic henchmen like Packer and Benik and the Doctor and his friends being fired at more and more with real bullets, it wasn't quite ready to kill off a companion in a Cyber-story. Thank goodness really, I don't think it would have been much fun watching a vengeful Troughton going all Time Lord Victorious on Vaughan.
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Post by GC on Apr 22, 2023 23:03:20 GMT
"Lime Grove D on Friday 20th September 1968, where Wendy, Pat & Frazer are taping the first episode of The Invasion." Clayton Hickman twitter Seems he got the first one wrong...
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Post by GC on Apr 23, 2023 0:01:44 GMT
Newspaper cutting.
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Post by Black Orchid on Apr 27, 2023 15:16:55 GMT
At the beginning of episode 1 in the Tardis:
What does Zoe mean when she says “I remember seeing this before.”"
________________________
ZOE: Are we actually on our way, Doctor, or are we stuck somewhere?
DOCTOR: Well, let's see shall we?
(The Doctor switches on the scanner to show a cratered body in the foreground and a blue and white planet further away.)
JAMIE: Where are we? What's that?
ZOE: It's the moon, isn't it, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes, yes. That's the dark side of the moon. We seem to have stopped in space.
ZOE: I remember seeing this before.
DOCTOR: Shush, Zoe. That light on the Moon's surface. Do you see it?
ZOE: Doctor! It's getting bigger! It's coming towards us!
DOCTOR: Zoe, that's a missile!
JAMIE: A what?
ZOE: It's a missile? Somebody's fired a missile at us, Jamie! Oh Doctor, come on, let's get out of here.
DOCTOR: Now don't fuss me, Zoe.
ZOE: Well, what's happened?
DOCTOR: Well, it's the landing circuit. It seems to have jammed. That's why we're stuck in space. Ah.
________________________
Perhaps Wendy Padbury just fluffed her line?
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