Broken Frontier

In 1968 Patrick Troughton’s third and final series as the Doctor was nearly half over. Script and writer problems led to a need for a big story – eight parts – in order to give the writers a little breathing space. By happy accident what was crafted is something that is considered one of the best stories of Troughton’s era.

All the Doctor wants to do is repair some circuits for the malfunctioning TARDIS. Instead he gets entangled with a mysterious company, International Electromatics and its mysterious CEO Tobias Vaughn. As things become complicated the Doctor must rely on his friends: companions: 18th century Highlander Jamie and astrophysicist Zoe from the distant future as well as recent friend Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stuart and his UNIT forces (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce). The Doctor will need every bit of his brains and ingenuity because Vaughn is intent on world domination and he has help. His partners are none other than the implacable Cybermen and they have a nearly foolproof plan for invasion!

Three years earlier, the first actor to play the Doctor, William Hartnell, finally agreed to retire as his health and temperament deteriorated under the grueling shooting schedule. As the series was still very popular cancellation seemed out of the question but how do you change lead characters and who do you get to replace the originator of the role? In the latter case, highly regarded and well-known character actor Patrick Troughton was approached. Initially reluctant out of deference to Hartnell’s stellar work, Troughton eventually agreed on condition that he be allowed to make the character his own and not be forced to ape Hartnell’s style (something he felt would be a great disservice to Hartnell). Troughton took over in 1966 and the idea of the Doctor being able to regenerate (or as it was termed back then: "Renewal") was set. After three seasons of the grueling schedule, however, Troughton made clear his intension to leave the show at the end of the 1968-1969 series.

Ratings had slipped somewhat recently and the show’s producers were pressured to economize. An idea was floated to change the show’s format – make the Doctor’s adventures entirely Earth-based and surround him with a supporting cast. The hope was that this would make the character "more relatable" and boost ratings and having a standing cast, standing sets, and a more contemporary setting would reduce costs. But would people watch it? It was decided to make "The Invasion" a test for the new format (which ended up being adopted with a few alterations for the 1970-1971 series).

"The Invasion" is also notable for its wonderful cast. After three years Troughton may have been wearying of the pace but it never shows in his performance which is as energetic as ever. His version of the Doctor is smart, whimsical and cheery and yet all of that masks a ruthlessness when the situation calls for it. Of the other members of the regular cast, Frazer Hines as Jamie had been on the series nearly as long as Troughton and the two had an easy camaraderie that comes through clearly on the screen as does the sense of humor Hines infused his portrayal of Jamie with. Wendy Padbury (Zoe) was the newest member of the cast – only having been on about a year but she had already slipped perfectly into both the on and off screen chemistry of the group. Padbury perfected making Zoe brainy and not ashamed to say it but with a kind of innocent arrogance that made the character endearing instead of annoying.

The guest cast was also superb. Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stuart) was an old hand at Doctor Who by this time. His first role had been in the William Hartnell story "The Daleks Master Plan" and he had played Colonel Lethbridge-Stuart in the earlier Troughton story "The Web of Fear" – and his charismatic and pitch-perfect portrayal led to him reprising the role here. He would go on to become a regular cast member throughout Jon Pertwee’s tenure as the Doctor. Eric Burnham played Professor Watkins and while his role in the story was not large he made the most of his scenes. Under his influence Watkins comes across as an interesting mix of strength and weakness.

Actress Sally Faulkner took on the role of Isobel Watkins, Professor Watkins’ niece. While her role has certain elements of stereotype today, the young actress brought a spunk and verbal directness to the character that takes quite a bit of the sting out of the stereotype. Best of all, though, is Kevin Stoney as the villainous Tobias Vaughn. Like Courtney, Vaughn was a Who veteran – also of "The Daleks Master Plan". Stoney’s turn here, however, is genial, coldly calculating, arrogant, insane, and only occasionally ranting. He realistically sells Vaughn’s reasons for doing what he does and plays off not only Troughton but the rest of the guest cast beautifully. There is a little bit of the modern interpretation of Lex Luthor here – that of a businessman who thinks that he can run the world better than anyone else.

Unfortunately, like many stories from the Troughton era, this one suffered from the BBC’s tape wiping program of the 1970s. Out of the eight episodes, two were destroyed – the first and the fourth installments. In more recent times the BBC had worked with the animation studio Cosgrove Hall on a couple of occasions – most notably on the web-based Flash animation story Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka (for Doctor Who’s 40th anniversary year) which played on the BBC’s website (it’s still there at http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shalka/ if you haven’t seen it). James Goss, a BBC producer, had the idea then to attempt to use Flash animation to replace the missing episodes of "The Invasion" and approached Cosgrove Hall with the idea.

As it happened, the animators were eager for the challenge and particularly keen on the idea of doing the animation in black and white even though they were offered the option of color. Having off-air audio recordings of the missing episodes along with a surviving shooting script and some photo references the animators rebuilt the missing episodes. It takes a moment to get used to the rather caricature-dependent Flash-style of animation but once the story gets moving it truly manages to capture the spirit of the characters. Patrick Troughton, in particular, comes out excellently in the animated sequences.

In addition to the restored animation the DVD features a host of extras. There is a delightful and witty commentary from Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, Nicholas Courtney and production assistant Chris D’Oyly-John and the first animated episode has commentary by animation director Steve Maher, James Goss, and audio restoration expert Mark Ayers. There are two short documentaries -- one on making the animated episodes and one on the off-air recordings which are, sadly, all that is left of some episodes and entire stories. There is also an insightful longer documentary on how "The Invasion" was made. In the 1990s the surviving episodes of "The Invasion" were released to VHS with Nicholas Courtney giving short descriptions of the missing episodes and now those linking narration pieces are included in the extras package. There are also examples of Cosgrove Hall’s character designs for the story and the original, animated trailers Cosgrove Hall created to publicize the DVD release. On top of all of that there are the usual production stills and trivia track.

This 2006 DVD release is a little bit pricier than some others due to the fact that it is a double disc set. It is well worth the price, though, with all of the extras, the new animated episodes to fill in what was lost, and the usual restored picture and sound. In truth, the focus of this story may not be so much on the Cybermen themselves but it is still a delightful story with a perfect balance of comedy, drama, action and adventure and sterling acting by all involved. When the Cybermen are used they appear to great effect and many of the sequences are sure to leave a lasting impression even on American audiences.

Over the years there have been a great many stories featuring the Cybermen – behind the Daleks they are probably Doctor Who’s most popular monsters – and "The Invasion" is one of the best Cybermen stories in the classic Doctor Who line-up. The Beatles invaded America in the first "British Invasion" in the 1960s – now it’s the Cybermen’s turn…

The Invasion is available on BBC DVD priced $34.98