Why Invasion of the Dinosaurs Is More Than Just Bad Puppets
It’s remembered for the lousy FX, but Invasion of the Dinosaurs is notable for its wild conspiracy, shocking UNIT betrayal, and social commentary.
Plot Summary
The Doctor, UNIT and Sarah must evade prehistoric beasts to thwart a group of radicals who have infiltrated the government to actualize their dangerously regressive view of the world.
Notable for:
Was the Doctor Who story airing on TV when host Pete Pachal was born. Considering I spent much of my childhood obsessed with both Doctor Who and dinosaurs, it might not be a coincidence.
Dinosaurs! This is the first time Doctor Who tries to do dinosaurs in a big way. Although it dabbled in The Silurians, here they try to make the dinosaurs central to the story and the action. The poorly realized puppets ended up being infamous.
The story immediately follows the events of The Time Warrior.
The script makes the bold decision to have Captain Yates betray UNIT and the Doctor.
The first episode is simply titled “Invasion,” ostensibly to preserve the surprise of the dinosaurs, even though the Doctor is attacked by a pterodactyl about halfway through the episode. Hulke didn’t like the choice, and the Radio Times spoiled things anyway.
The first episode was lost, but a black-and-white copy was recovered, so the story is complete. The DVD includes a colorized version. Omnibus versions sometimes entirely omitted episode one.
First appearance of the Whomobile.
Sarah’s age is stated: 23.
Working title was Timescoop, a noun the show would use later for Borusa’s equipment in The Five Doctors.
Pete commentary:
The conspiracy is real! Invasion of the Dinosaurs is such an interesting story to return to in the modern day. With all the focus on conspiracy theories these days, it’s fun to see a story indulge the conspiracy that goes to the highest levels.
Politically, it’s got layers. Even though the Doctor is sympathetic to Grover and Whitaker’s cause, he condemns their extremist ways. In an era where it’s anathema to ever tell your own side “you’ve gone too far,” this is a refreshing appeal to rationality. The Doctor correctly identifies greed as the true villain, though it’s a bit on the nose—even by Gatwa era standards.
Funny that the Doctor thinks it’s Sunday when they first land. The source of his aversion to Sundays? (I don’t think they ever confirm that it’s Sunday.)
The Doctor is surprisingly compromised physically a couple of times in this story. First in ep 1 when he’s hit by the looters, then by all the explosions around the T-Rex attack at the end of ep 2/beginning of ep 3.
Shout-out to the animal guest cast: not the dinosaurs, but the stray dog in th ep 1 and the kitty cat in the window in ep 6.
The soldiers attacking the T-Rex at the end of episode 1 feels like an odd choice. Have bullets been proven effective against dinosaurs? Why not just drive away?
The Doctor’s statement that the T-Rex is the “largest and fiercest predator of all time” dates the story a bit, since it’s been proven incorrect in subsequent years. Giganotosaursus, Spinosaurus and arguably the Therizinosaurus from Jurassic World: Dominion are all better contenders, though T-Rex is up there, and is still the most famous.
The moment when the Doctor is about to give the Brigadier a Venusian high-five is pretty priceless—it almost looks like Pertwee breaks a little. Some other moments of humor, “Ah, there you are, Doctor, now what are you up to?” It’s a little OTT, but I’m glad they did it.
Pertwee looks good in blue. I guess he changed in the TARDIS after The Time Warrior?
The Whomobile would be great if it did anything. Instead, we need to wait until Planet of the Spiders before we see it in real action. Here, it’s just a big tease—a Chekov’s gun that never gets fired. Love that new car, Doc, but what does it DO?
There was an opportunity to do more with it in episode 5, but instead we get a long, boring “chase” with the Doctor driving a jeep, often backing up to do a 3-point turn. If you think parking at Home Depot is exciting, has Doctor Who got the adventure for you!
Story+guest cast:
Peter Miles (who would later play Nyder in Genesis of the Daleks) does a decent job as Whitaker, but you don’t get much there. He’s just cold scientist guy.
Better are Grover and Finch. It’s almost a giveaway that Grover is going to be the bad guy, given how much the Doctor says he admires him in ep 2. But his performance is very good, believably selling the warmth and intelligence of a successful and empathetic politician.
The file room is also the lift?! Lol. I’ll buy it for the story, but omg it’s inadvertently funny. I guess the idea is that, if anyone gets too close, Grover will show them the file room, entice them with the (real?!!!) file, and then escort them into the base? And then why not just kill them? Why put Sarah on the “ship” to make trouble? Why capture her at all when you could just show her the fake file? Why have the file or the file room at all? Why why WHY?
I kinda don’t get how the Stegosaurus appearing at the hangar automatically means the Doctor is behind everything. How did he do it? With what equipment?
Why do the guys in the base let the Doctor go in episode 4? Why not take him prisoner? I guess they figure Finch will neutralize them?
Except Finch doesn’t. The biggest turning point for the story is when Finch is about to take the Doctor back into custody in ep 6, but backs down when the Brigadier and Benton show up. Why do that? OK, you don’t have overwhelming force, but it’s your job to hold these guys. Finch just seems to trust that the Brig will do that, which is really dumb.
The resolution is a little bit of a cop-out, with the Doctor relying on his Time Lord-ness to reverse the beam or whatever. It’s the Pertwee equivalent of the end of the Star Beast, which was essentially the same idea, just with better special effects.
The Dinosaurs:
Yes, they’re terrible looking. The sad thing is, they’re also not really characters. The T-Rex that they capture is the closest thing to a “role,” but there’s nothing particularly interesting about what they do—they mostly just plod in the background.
I don’t expect feathers or even a realistic walking pose given the time this was made, but THREE FINGERS on the T-Rex?! Pick up a book, guys. I’m sure kids all over Britain were like, “That’s wrong!”
Also, partly because the cast is mostly acting to nothing, there is no moment where someone pauses to take in the awesomeness of these beasts from the past. There’s also zero mention of any interest in studying them, or that—by virtue of seeing real dinosaurs—scientists have finally filled in many blanks.
Benton dutifully describes the color code for the dinos, but makes no mention of what the yellow pins are. Speaking of, why only four species of dinosaurs? My guess: they are able to predict the behavior of these specific species, and mostly it’s about mass. Bigger dinosaurs are better for calibrating the machine.
At least Hulke and Letts understood that, if you’re going to have an adventure called “Invasion of the Dinosaurs,” you need to have dinosaurs in every episode. Episode 5 comes close to violating that, but then the T-Rex is back at the end.
They really overuse that T-Rex cliffhanger, though: It’s the threat at the end of episode 1, 2, and 5. Three out of five cliffhangers!
As bad as the T-Rex is, the pterodactyl is less convincing. At one point the Doctor swats it with a mop. You use what you’ve got, I guess.
Great episode for Sarah:
This is an excellent adjunct to The Time Warrior as an introduction to Sarah. She gets to do a great deal of questioning, logical thinking, and sleuthing as a journalist. Love the moment where Finch asks what her sources are on whether Whitaker was a crank or not—his colleagues at Oxford, other ministers, and the science guy at the Times. Thorough and credible!
She also reasons her way out of the ship, convincing Mark in the process. I would have liked it better if they had played up the moment where she opens the door—showing her thinking, “Oh God, I hope I’m right,” or something like that. But the act is very Doctorish and earns her even more cred as a companion.
She of course makes the mistake in ep 3 of asking permission to take pictures of the dinosaur, rather than forgiveness.
Finch of course helps her out, but it’s a bit odd that she doesn’t think it suspicious at all that Finch has suddenly become her best friend after dismissing her in the previous ep.
Nice moment early on between Yates and Sarah, suggesting a friendship that they return to in Planet of the Spiders.
Sarah’s denim outfit with the huge collars is the most ’70s thing she ever wears. Also, it means that someone undresses and dresses her while she's unconscious, which we really don’t want to think about.
Sarah also begins her long career sneaking through vents! Thank goodness that secret base needs A LOT of ventilation.
The “We left Earth 3 months ago” is by far the best cliffhanger.
UNIT:
This is the last story that “feels” like a UNIT episode. You have the main three all back, and they’re all given good material. The Brigadier is good at helping the Doctor even when he shouldn’t, gets to be a bit patronizing to Sarah, but generally comes across as the man in charge because of the respect he commands.
This is an outstanding episode for Benton. He has his charm, plus the later episodes get to showcase his loyalty: first by allowing the Doctor to subdue him with a little Venusian aikido, then by punching out(!) Finch.
Yates' betrayal is what makes this episode so memorable. Credit to the team for doing it and going (almost) all the way with it. He definitively puts his lot in with Operation Golden Age in episode 6, and it’s extremely apt that Benton is the one who subdues him. The good soldier vs. the traitor.
What did Pete’s family think?
Watched this one alone 😭
Four Questions to Doomsday - Pete
Why did the Randomizer take us here? Similar to The Android Invasion, we’ve got some eerie home-but-not-quite vibes. Perhaps also a reminder to Twelve that when dangerous stuff is afoot in a heavily populated area that perhaps an evacuation is in order?
What if the evil plot had succeeded? The most obvious turning point is if Finch doesn’t back down when the Brigadier pulls up. There’s a firefight, and even if the Doctor escapes, he loses access to the explosives they need to break into the base. He can’t get there in time, and he’s not there when Whitaker throws the switch. The Earth is regressed to sometime pre-civilization.
The big question: Is the Doctor still there? It’s shown that, as a Time Lord, he has a great deal of immunity to the effects of Whitaker’s machine. Can he put things right? Sarah would still have created the rebellion, and the people seem to not like what they’ve done. But if there was no going back, they’d have to accept it.Where's the Clara splinter? She’s the one at Operation: Golden Age who undresses and redresses Sarah to put her on the ship.
OR She works for the Home Secretary for the UK, and doesn’t trust Finch. She’s influenced the secretary to limit the number of troops Finch can personally commandeer, allowing the Brigadier to stand up to him.
Dalek, Ogron, Professor Hayter, Viscount Banger, Fixed Point in Time, Lady Cassandra, or Zarbi? Paging Professor Hayter. If you overlook the horrendous dinosaurs, the story is quite engaging early on, and Lis Sladen is so good you completely forget Katy Manning (sorry, Katy). This is the last time the whole UNIT gang is really together, and they’re in top form. But it goes on too long, and the whole thing is a bit too linear. Would have been acceptable as a four parter, but six activates the boredom meter and pushes it down into Hayter territory.
Chris commentary:
Malcolm Hulke done dirty and getting so angry about his original idea getting lumbered with dinos and Yates the traitor, he phones in his last script. Letts dreaming of Drashigs but so checked out with Moonbase 3. Dicks focused on training his protege Holmes, casually wants to kill off Yates. No actor understanding the villains aren’t supposed to be played like villains. Everyone asleep at the switch. The dinosaur model can kicked down the chain to a model maker who went out of business. Pertwee having a mid life crisis, and no wonder. Sladen having her hair did against the rules. Is *this* the most soap opera Who has been behind the scenes? Sorry Ncuti, whatever your reason for leaving the show is, it isn’t as drama as this!
The conspiracy is misunderstood – it's actually reactionary. Environment used to be a solid right-wing issue.
VERY British to have the resolution depend on the soldier making tea
Would benton have been better?
Four Two Questions to Doomsday - Chris
Why did the Randomizer take us here? The Doctor DOES land on Sundays! Hulke vs Moffat and there’s only one timey wimey winner. It knows I haven’t finished Godzilla Minus Zero. It wanted me to meet this puppet.
What if the evil plot had succeeded? HOW COULD IT?