The Android Invasion

Sarah: So, providing we don't burn up on reentry and aren't suffocated on the way down, we'll probably be smashed to a pulp when we land.
Doctor: Exactly. Sarah, you've put your finger on the one tiny flaw in our plan.

The Android Invasion is Terry Nation's first contribution following The Genesis of the Daleks and only his second (and final) non-Dalek story for Doctor Who. It's something of a divided story among fans with some enjoying it and others referring to it as the worst story of the Philip Hinchcliff era. The first time around I don't remember being overly enamored with it but I'm not sure I would call it the worst story of the era.

Plot Summary

The Doctor and Sarah arrive on what they think is Earth. Looking for UNIT headquarters, they run into a group of space-suited figures who start shooting at them. The run away but Sarah slips and slides down an embankment. The Doctor rescues her just as they see a UNIT soldier walk off a similar cliff.

They investigate his body and find that all his money is brand new and of the same year. They run again from the suited figures and into the nearby town, which Sarah is familiar with, having done a story two years prior. The town is empty and also uses new coins of the same year. When Sarah tells the Doctor of a nearby Space Center, the Doctor postulates that an accident may have happened and the town evacuated.

The suited figures arrive with the UNIT soldier who had fallen off the cliff. A moment later, a truck arrives with the townsfolk, who all move to established places within the town. The Doctor decides to head to the Space Center while Sarah stays in town. He gives her the TARDIS key and tells her to wait inside if anything happens. He leaves and Sarah enters the pub. The people all stop and stare at her. The UNIT soldier chases her off when she tries to mingle. As she leaves, she sees that the suited figure is actually a robot of some kind. Sarah heads back to the TARDIS and puts the key in but is distracted by a pod. The act causes the TARDIS to disappear just as the pod opens and a man gets out and tries to grab her.

The Doctor arrives at the Space Center and also finds it deserted except for one man, a former astronaut named Guy Crayford. Crayford tries to arrest the Doctor but he runs off and the chase attracts Sarah's attention. She sees the Doctor finally apprehended and locked into a cell in the facility. She sneaks in and rescues the Doctor, observing a pair of alien eyes looking at her through a panel.

They sneak to the front of the building where they see Benton. As they identify themselves, Benton raises his gun to them. Before he can shoot, an alien named Styggron signals Crayford that the intruders are to be taken alive. Crayford counters the original kill order and Benton tries to arrest the Doctor and Sarah. They elude him and dash out, trying to get back to the town and warn London.

Outside, the UNIT guards begin to track them with dogs and Sarah slips, spraining her ankle. The Doctor takes her scarf and hoists her into a tree. He runs along, creating a false trail and then hides in the water. The dogs lose the scent and the guards double back, thinking they had swam across the river. Sarah unfortunately gets out of the tree just before the guards double back and capture her.

The Doctor gets back to town but finds all the phones dead. He waits in the pub with the barman until he receives a call from Sarah. She tells him she was captured but managed to escape and is now hiding in another part of town. The Doctor leaves the pub, noting that the phone has gone dead again, and makes his way to where Sarah is hiding. After finding her, the Doctor theorizes that they are in a test where she was allowed to escape and given access to a phone.

The two make their way back to where the TARDIS was and find it gone. Sarah doesn't seem to know where it is but the Doctor tells her that the real Sarah must have put the key in the lock which overrode it's brake and it went back to Earth. He points out that the whole town is artificial and that she's not the real Sarah as the real Sarah had given her scarf to the Doctor and didn't like Ginger Pop, which the Doctor had offered the fake Sarah. Fake Sarah draws a gun but the Doctor knocks it out of her hand and shoves her down, where her faceplate falls off, revealing the android circuitry. He runs off as she get up and fires at him.

The Doctor runs back to town where he observes the androids being recollected and taken back to the space center. The aliens, called Kralls, are recalling them and preparing to destroy the fake town, which has been built as a testing ground for their planned infiltration of Earth. The Doctor is captured by Styggron as he is planting the bomb and tied to the monument at the center of the square with the bomb.

Prior to this, Sarah had lain on the bed where she had had her mind scanned, pretending to be unconscious. When Styggron left to plant the bomb, she slipped out the door after him and snuck out another tunnel. She emerges in town and finds the Doctor tied to the monument. Unable to cut through the vines holding him, she uses his sonic screwdriver to loosen them. They then rush back to the tunnel just before the bomb detonates, destroying the town.

They're actions alert the guards who take them to a cell. Styggron is inclined to kill the Doctor outright but Crayford appeals to keep him alive and harvest his knowledge now that the invasion plan is underway. Styggron agrees but does not tell Crayford that he intends to kill to the Doctor after scanning his mind. Meanwhile, the Doctor loosens a panel in the floor with his sonic screwdriver, revealing an electrical cable. He and Sarah devise a plan to short out the android guard with it if they can get a conductor.

Android Harry Sullivan comes in and takes the Doctor away, leaving Sarah with some food and a pitcher of water. Unknown to her, the water has been laced with a biological contaminent that the Kralls intend to use to kill humanity and are going to properly test on Sarah. However, on a hint from the Doctor before being taken away, Sarah pours in on the floor and sets fire to her scarf with the electrical cable. Noting the smoke, the guard comes in and as he steps in the water, Sarah stabs him with the cable. The android shorts out and Sarah leaves the cell.

Styggron hooks the Doctor up to the mind scanning machine but leaves it on after doing it's initial run. He leaves the room, informing the Doctor that the machine will eventually burn out his mind, killing him while Styggron accompanies Crayford in his rocket back to Earth. Sarah frees the Doctor after Styggron leaves and the two sneak aboard Crayford and Styggron's rocket just prior to take-off.

The Doctor and Sarah hide themselves in two android pods which are to be launched to Earth prior to Crayford's rocket landing, unaware that Doctor and Sarah androids are also loaded. As Crayford prepares to descend to Earth, the pods are launched and appear on the scope as a dense meteor shower. The Doctor finds himself alone and makes his way to the Space Center. Sarah also lands and finds the TARDIS. Taking the key, she also discovers the android versions of herself and the Doctor.

The Doctor arrives at the Space Center after Crayford's rocket has landed and as Harry Sullivan and Colonel Faraday have gone up to meet him. The Doctor signals them to come back at once. While he waits for them, he draws out an electrical sketch and gives it to the head technician to configure. He takes Harry and Colonel Faraday to Faraday's office to explain the situation to them. He also pulls out an android detector which goes off immediately. He realizes that Harry and Faraday have already be substituted. The fake Doctor also appears behind him with a gun as androids move in and replace other workers and soldiers, including Sargent Benton.

The Doctor dives out the window and runs away with the fake Doctor ordering a search of premises to find him. The Doctor finds Sarah and tells her he has to get to the control room to stop the androids. He heads back to the control room and bluffs his way past android Benton. Sarah meanwhile sneaks around the gantry and climbs up to Crayford's rocket, hoping to free Harry and Faraday.

The Doctor arrives just as the technician has finished making the alterations. The changes will lower the radar dish and scramble the android's functions. The technician activates the system but before the radar dishes are locked into position, the fake Doctor shoots him in the shoulder and deactivates the radar. Attracted by the sound of gunfire, Crayford enters the control room angry as he had been told there would be no killing. The fake Doctor scoffs at this, informing Crayford of the plague that Styggron is planning to unleash on humanity. Crayford denies this but the real Doctor points out that Crayford has been lied to from the beginning and tells him to remove his eye patch. Crayford does so, discovering that his eye was not lost at all but still there.

The Doctor attacks the fake Doctor while distracted but the fake Doctor throws him back against the panel. This allows the Doctor to reactivate the radar which shuts down all androids in the area. Meanwhile, Sarah has found Harry and Faraday and untied them. Styggron appears with the vial of the virus and threatens the three of them with it. Crayford confronts Styggron and manages to knock the vial of virus out of his hand before Styggron kills him with his anti-android gun.

The Doctor then arrives and attacks Styggron. Styggron shoots him as well with his weapon but not before he is knocked into the vial of virus which swells around his face and kills him. The Doctor falls over, seemingly dead, but the real Doctor appears and informs them that he reprogrammed the android Doctor to attack Styggron.

The Doctor and Sarah walk back to the TARDIS where Sarah informs him that she has plans to go home. The Doctor offers to give her a lift and she accepts, knowing that it will result in more adventures.

Analysis

For me, and I think for other fans, The Android Invasion is actually a pretty good story for the first three-and-a-half episodes. It has it's cheesy moments and it's fairly full of Terry Nation tropes but it flows well and has that slightly unsettling vibe that you also get from The Prisoner or Westworld. Then everything comes crashing down at the end. I'd be very curious to know if Terry Nation ran out of time or he got into a corner and then just threw up his hands and said "plot holes be damned." This is a real shame because they are such strong undercuts to an otherwise entertaining adventure.

Let's go ahead and discuss the major flaws first. Some folks gripe about the inconsistency of the realism of the fake town with obvious tells like the single day calendar. Some even complain that the town itself is rather pointless. I would disagree on both counts as I see this as a Krall equivalent to the nuclear bomb test done in the 1950's. The fake towns they built could be highly detailed on one hand but also leave other things in the cardboard cutout stage depending on the needs and time involved. That doesn't bother me and while others might quibble, I think those that do are just going after additional nits when there are greater flaws to examine.

The really big one is the convincing of Crayford because he actually is not missing an eye. This is dumb for so many reasons. First, in the two years he was with the Kralls, he never once took off the eye patch to shower or sleep? That's just ludicrous. Second, if you've ever placed a hand over an eye, you can feel the body of the eye move in the socket, even if you can't see anything. Did Crayford never wonder at all why he could feel something moving under the eye patch? Third, if Styggron wanted to convince Crayford that he had saved his life and that his missing eye was evidence of the extensive work he did to save him, why not cut out his eye from the beginning? Crayford could easily have been knocked out, especially in the mind scanning process since it is painful to begin with. Styggron could have easily performed the surgery and never had to worry about Crayford accidentally discovering the ruse. The whole thing is just the cheapest and laziest way to get Crayford to realize he's been used and to have him attack Styggron for a fight at the end. The holes it creates far outweigh any benefits that it brought in my opinion.

The second major flaw is the fake out of having Styggron "kill" the Doctor at the end. This is doubly flawed and there is no benefit except as a quick gasp moment where the audience might think the Doctor has been killed. The first flaw is timing as Crayford was racing back up the stairs to confront Styggron. When would the Doctor have had time to reprogram the Doctor android? A simple little device or the sonic screwdriver wouldn't do the job in the 15-30 seconds given for when he could have done it. The second flaw is that the Doctor had just deactivated the androids by scrambling their brain functions through the radar broadcast. So how did he isolate the Doctor android so that it could function while all the other non-reprogrammed androids stayed frozen? The benefit of it also is so not worth the pains that it puts the story through. The Doctor could easily have been shown to knock the weapon out of Styggron's hand just as he fires and have the blast go off just past the Doctor's head. It would have been just as exciting and could easily provided the moment where an off-balance Doctor knocks Styggron into the plague. It's a bad bit of writing that is not worth it at all.

There is a third thing and although it's not a major flaw, I would have liked to have seen a resolution and that is what happened to the Sarah android. We see the Doctor android doing most of the threatening with a little thrown in from androids Benton and Harry. But we never see Sarah again after the android Doctor lifts her out of her travel tube. Presumably she is disabled along with the others but it would have been nice to see her around. I frankly would have liked a parallel scene to the Doctor's where Sarah is pursued up the rocket ship by her own android. She could even kick it off the ladder to destroy it or at least explain how it failed to catch up before the Doctor disables all the androids. But again, that's more of a want than a significant flaw in the story.

Outside of those two major problems, there is a lot to like about this story. The location is quite nice and the direction is fairly good. It's not stellar and Barry Letts is still clearly in love with CSO, but there's nothing bad about it either. There were no shots I considered bad and the high number of filmed location shots just makes the story look that much better. Of course, given that most of Episode Four is back in studio, it just makes it look that much worse.

All the actors do well here. The Doctor is quite good both as himself and his evil twin. In fact, the contrast between the two shows how much the Doctor uses natural charm and humor to put people at ease. The coldness he displays in the android version is quite sinister even though its nearly the same characteristic as the regular Doctor. The Doctor also has a number of good lines in this story and the banter between him and Sarah has a real nice balance, which again leads me to believe that Nation either ran out of time or just gave up to have the story fall so flat at the end.

Sarah is good as far as her acting, though her character is a bit up and down throughout the story. On one hand, she rescues the Doctor at least three times in this story and she gives him a great deal of background that he would have been lacking. But on the other hand, she falls badly twice and has several severe brain farts, the leaving of the key in the TARDIS lock being the most egregious. Still, you can't help but enjoy Sarah and her enthusiasm throughout the story.

Crayford was rather odd in this story. I suspect that I know what he was trying for but I'm not sure he carried it off properly. Episode One Crayford is worried about the plan that will get him to Earth so he is more violent there. Once he feels the plan is safe, there is an almost schizoid friendliness towards Sarah and the Doctor that is a bit manic. I suspect that it's supposed to be the reaction of one who is desperate for the company of his own kind and that an overbearing creepiness would be expected. I think the only spot where it didn't quite work was just after the Doctor and Sarah were captured and he asks for the Doctor's life to be spared. They were trying to lay the groundwork for Crayford not being that bad of a guy but it came across as a rather ham-fisted way to keep the Doctor and Sarah alive.

The Kralls themselves were not bad. They were a bit heavy in their design but looked different enough that I didn't have a problem with their design. They did remind me a bit of the Sontarans in their insistence in adhering to the great research being done and to the time tables already planned. I did appreciate that they were fairly ruthless, ordering death most of the time and only delaying it to pacify Crayford and to conduct additional experiments. Of course, Styggron was leaving in the rocket with Crayford so his planned deaths for both the Doctor and Sarah didn't make a lot of sense. The Doctor was at least a planned death but Sarah was an experiment you think he would have liked to have seen the results of. Given that he wasn't going to, having her die via the virus was something of a waste. Why not just shoot her and be done with it? But, I thought they worked better than some other villains who would occasionally make irrational decisions just to ensure the Doctor survived.

The rest of the cast did well but the famous callbacks were rather wasted. There was no real reason that Sargent Benton or Harry Sullivan needed to be in the story and given that they were usually found at UNIT headquarters, it would have made a bit more sense to have the base be completely populated by people unknown to us. Perhaps I might feel differently if the Brigadier was there but clearly Nicholas Courtney was either unavailable or unwilling so his role was given over to Colonel Faraday who played the role with a bit more foolish pomp. It's not bad but it just doesn't have the zip that you expect from the Brigadier.

Overall, I think this a solid and entertaining story that falls apart at the end. It is entertaining but the laziness and contrivance of the ending just leaves a sour taste in your mouth and a feeling like you've been cheated a bit. I think younger viewers would go along with it without any real problem but for older viewers, it's just a bridge too far. For the first three and a half episodes, I could easily give a 4 and even consider a 4.5 based on the witticisms thrown between the Doctor and Sarah. But the flaws at the end are just too large to overlook. More's the pity.

Overall personal score: 3 out of 5