White jumpsuits = androids!
Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) and the Doctor (Tom Baker) return to Earth in Devesham, England, but find something is wrong. Robots patrol the city and everyone appears to be in a trance. As Sarah Jane and the Doctor fight to uncover the truth and warn UNIT, an alien race known as the Kraals led by an alien named Styggron working with a human named Guy Crayford (Milton Johns) reveal that they have plans for Earth. The Doctor and Sarah Jane are separated from the TARDIS and find they need to warn UNIT about the Kraals’ plans.
Doctor Who: The Android Invasion falls within the thirteenth season of Doctor Who. It was a four part serial that ran from November 22, 1975 to December 13, 1975. It followed Doctor Who: Pyramids of Mars and has been collected in The Tom Baker Years as Story #83.
Die, Doctor! Die!
This episode of Doctor Who was pretty fun. I love bad androids and these androids are great bad androids (they remind me of the Fembots from The Bionic Woman). It is also always fun to see the actors and actresses play out of character (since they are the Robot Doctor and the Robot Sarah Jane…aka both characters with less emotion). The story goes on and on, and it seems like both the Doctor and Sarah Jane are pretty slow on the draw to realize when people are androids or if they are being tricked, but you got to draw out the series for four episodes so what can you do.
That’s right Doctor…I’m coming for you!
I always like the less set based episodes of Doctor Who, and this one used more natural sets and locations (of course that rock quarry was there). This had a few sets and some great “rocket” stock footage. Most of the show was set in the forest and the village so it looked a bit more real than episodes set in spaceships which always have awful generic sets.
Doctor Who: The Android Invasion was a kind of fun episode and one of the better ones. It keeps moving enough to be entertaining. I am a fan of the scarier Doctor Who episodes and this really isn’t one of them. It is still a fun Who and very typical of the series from that period. Doctor Who: The Android Invasion was followed by Doctor Who: The Brain of Morbius.
Preceded By:
Doctor Who: Pyramids of Mars (Story #82)
Followed By:
