The Last UNIT Story... and It Ends with a Faceplant
The Android Invasion is a UNIT sendoff so weird, even the androids were confused.
Plot summary
A brainwashed astronaut betrays the Earth to a hostile race with plans to take over the planet with android duplicates.
Notable for:
Rare Terry Nation story to not feature the Daleks. (He also did The Keys of Marinus.)
Story was influenced by Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Last story to feature UNIT until The Five Doctors (though it’s mentioned in The Seeds of Doom, Time-Flight and Mawdryn Undead)
Last story with any UNIT regulars: RSM Benton, Harry Sullivan
The second story of the season where aliens use duplicates to invade Earth, the first being Terror of the Zygons.
They shot the Devesham scenes in East Hagbourne, Oxfordshire. Tom Baker was mobbed for autographs.
The Brigadier character, though mentioned, is replaced by Colonel Faraday because Nicholas Courtney was unavailable.
Pete commentary:
The Android Invasion is more of a fun concept than a story. “Let’s do a story where people are duplicated.” “What’s the story?” “Alien invasion, I guess? Easiest thing.” “OK, sure. Who’s invading? What’s their deal? And how are they using the duplicates?” “We’ll figure that out later.”
It’s a strange, almost meta experience watching The Android Invasion now. It seems to have been made to be taken at least semi-seriously, and is representative of a time when the idea of human-looking robots was in the air. A lot of the storytelling beats are really obvious in hindsight, which probably gave it the reputation of aging poorly for a good, long while. Today, though, it comes across as more camp than unsophisticated. Add to that the appeal of the Doctor and Sarah’s relationship, and you can appreciate it more today.
Ep 1 is good: so eerie
Episode 4 is a great culmination of the adventure, with lots of double action, especially with the Doctor, and all kinds of misdirection as things heat up.
Androids!
The glitching UNIT soldier is a cool way to start the story. Familiar, but unsettling, like most of episodes 1+2. I like the clues that suggest something is very wrong (bone-dry weather, the money all being the same year.
Finger guns are cool! Shame they’re forgotten about.
Sarah
Split decision on whether this is a good episode for Sarah. She gets to save the Doctor a couple of times, plus holds her own in the village pub. But she also gets herself captured a lot, and ends up yelling “over here” to the Doctor from behind a corner at least one too many times.
Worst of all: Sarah’s ankle injury is such an eye-roll moment. How come the Doctor never twists his ankle?
That said, it’s fun to see Lis Sladen playing the android version of herself.
Fembot Sarah reveal is fun, and it’s the moment that epitomizes why The Android Invasion is enjoyable silliness so many years later. Seeing the ripped-away face, which has been done and spoofed and done again all over the place (Austin Powers being the most notable) transports you into a meta state of dramatic irony while watching this. You don’t just know things the characters don’t—you know things the production team doesn’t.
Sarah the android is a bad shot. I never like this—robots should be perfect shots, really.
The Kraals
I know I asked for more ambitious aliens, but the Kraals are really unmemorable, and those masks do not work. They look like someone punched a Sontaran way too many times.
The Kraals are pretty undeveloped as an evil race. Apparently their planet has lots of radiation, so they want to leave. But, hold on, they don’t seem to mind the radiation? And the Doctor and Sarah seem OK, though they mention they shouldn’t stay long. It brings up the question: Why didn’t the TARDIS detect this?
Love that Styggron gets to yell “SCIENCE!”
Crayford
Crayford is a cardboard cutout of a character. His motivation is paper thin: The script calls for a human to help the Kraals, so he’s extra pissed off that Earth just wrote him off (which they didn’t) and thinks the Kraals should just be given the entire Northern Hemisphere?
How does the Doctor know Styggron lied to Crayford about being wounded and saved?
And Crayford really didn’t take his eyepatch off until now? Even once?
Misc
The TARDIS gets a “500 year service?” Guess we’re way out of warranty now. Also, it’s kinda nuts that the key makes it “continue” to Earth, though it does work narratively that it puts the TARDIS out of reach for our leads until the end.
Excellent choice to take away the TARDIS. It’s almost a requirement in much of Doctor Who: take away their refuge so you can have real stakes.
The Doctor is a fan of “libertarian” causes—takes on a slightly different meaning today.
The matter-dissolving bomb is a cool moment. I like how the village becomes a desolate landscape. It’s very eerie.
“That’s stealing!” Wonderful Tom Baker line.
That said, the Doctor android is pretty dumb to betray itself so quickly to the real Sarah. All of these androids should be programmed for maximum subterfuge.
Nice moment when Harry and Benton talk about expecting the Doctor and Sarah. You think the script might be making a mistake except you get reminded that the TARDIS went on ahead.
It’s nuts that UNIT doesn’t put a guard on the TARDIS, especially with the key still in the lock!
The Doctor has a robot detector? First, how would that even work. Second, where did he get this all of a sudden?! Would have come in handy earlier.
Doctor jumping out of a window is nuts, but good nuts.
Great bit where the Doctor fools android Benton.
It makes no sense that Styggron and the androids don’t just kill everybody, though. Benton and the IT guy get knocked out. The colonel and Harry get tied up. The Doctor android has the jump on a whole bunch of people in the final episode (including the Doctor), but doesn’t shoot them when it has the chance. If Styggron were competent, he’d order everyone killed. Maybe he wants Crayford’s cooperation still?
Freeze frame is hilariously bad, though it nicely mirrors the villagers holding perfectly still in the first episode. I also like how they do a shot with the android Doctor from behind to commit to the bit.
The ending is a little confused. The Doctor is unusually violent, but then we realize it’s the android, but THEN we learn the Doctor reprogrammed it. So the Doctor wants to have his cake and eat it too with regard to violence—committing a violent act without getting his hands dirty. Isn’t this what you accuse villains of doing, Doctor?
Nice banter with the Doctor and Sarah at the end. We all know she doesn’t really want to go home, including the TARDIS. Fantastic that it was ad-libbed!
Er… what’s the Kraal fleet doing now?
What did Pete’s family think?
Grace liked it, thought the misdirection as to who is who was pretty clever.
Four Questions to Doomsday - Pete
Why did the Randomizer take us here? I did ask for more creative aliens, and I got the Kraals. Be careful what you wish for. Mostly, though, I think the Doctor using the android to do his violent dirty work echoes what he does in The Interstellar Song Contest. In both cases, the Doctor uses a duplicate of himself to be the violent one.
What if the evil plot had succeeded? Let’s say the Kraals and the androids actually get properly violent and kill everybody they duplicate. Even though the scientist can reposition the dish, the Doctor is dead (maybe a Davison regen), so the Kraals are able to send the androids to dispatch the virus. Perhaps Crayford has a change of heart once he sees the Kraals’ true plan and decides to throw the switch to freeze the androids, but he’s killed by Styggron, though it might give Sarah a chance to escape. Thus begins the first “long invasion” as the androids slowly wipe out chunks of the Earth with the virus with the Brigadier and Sarah fighting on the other side.
Where's the Clara splinter? A UNIT scientist who worked on a robot detector based on the Doctor’s research. When she hears about the Doctor’s TARDIS turning up, she sends over the robot detector to the Space Centre for him to pick up in the lobby.
Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, Lady Cassandra, or Zarbi? We’re deep in Zarbi territory. The Android Invasion is a warmed-over version of a lot of the android stories at the time—The Stepford Wives, The Bionic Woman, Star Trek’s What Are Little Girls Made Of? While at the time I’m sure they thought they were doing something quite tense and scary, everything is quite obvious now, especially given the title. That said, the motions are so telegraphed, with such stereotypical iconography (the fembot faces, all the clockwork noises) that it’s become camp to the extreme. I challenge anyone to not have a good laugh at Benton shooting Baker’s android in episode four. Nothing makes sense, but it’s great fun.
Chris commentary:
Aggressive lack of continuity: Autons, Ambassadors, and Sontarans could all have been mentioned. And the Marie Celeste! You'd think the writer of the Chase would have the Doctor mention he'd been there …
Doctor doesn't get a full pint, that should have been a tip off
11-12 million watched this! Including me on my 2nd birthday. This was the closest to Xmas Who!
The Cheese poster! And I had that dartboard
G-Force and rocket shots
Doctor robot should have been cliffhanger … also reference the Chase???
Android Doctor has holographic clothes?
Sutekh is learning ridiculous evil scheme – make copies, eh?
One Question to Doomsday - Chris
Why did the Randomizer take us here? From Grun to Styggron … eenie meenie minie moe …