Doctor Who: The Invasion (1968)

Date(s) of Broadcast: 2 November 1968 - 21 December 1968
Number of Episodes: 8
Average Episode Running Times: 25 mins
Format: black and white
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: BBC
Producer: Peter Bryant

SCRIPT
Script: Derrick Sherwin
Story: Kit Pedler
Story Editor: Terrance Dicks

DIRECTION
Director: Douglas Camfield

PHOTOGRAPHY
Studio Lighting: Robbie Robinson
Film Camera: Alan Jonas

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Film Editor: Martyn Day

MUSIC
Title Music: Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Title Music Arranged By: Delia Derbyshire
Incidental Music: Don Harper

SOUND
Studio Sound: Alan Edmonds, Bryan Forgham
Special Sounds: Brian Hodgson

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Sylvia James
Costumes: Bobi Bartlett

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects: Bill King / Trading Post

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Designer: Richard Hunt

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Assistant: Chris D'Oyly John
Assistant Floor Manager: Sue Willis

CAST
Episode One
Patrick Troughton (Dr Who)
Frazer Hines (Jamie)
Wendy Padbury (Zoe)
Murray Evans (lorry Driver)
Walter Randall (patrolman)
Sally Faulkner (Isobel)
John Levene (Benton)
Geoffrey Cheshire (Tracy)
Kevin Stoney (Tobias Vaughn)
Peter Halliday (Packer)

Episode Two
Patrick Troughton (Dr Who)
Frazer Hines (Jamie)
Wendy Padbury (Zoe)
Sally Faulkner (Isobel)
John Levene (Benton)
Geoffrey Cheshire (Tracy)
Kevin Stoney (Tobias Vaughn)
Peter Halliday (Packer)
Ian Fairbairn (Gregory)
Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart)
James Thornhill (Sergeant Walters)
Robert Sidaway (Captain Turner)

Episode Three
Patrick Troughton (Dr Who)
Frazer Hines (Jamie)
Wendy Padbury (Zoe)
John Levene (Benton)
Kevin Stoney (Tobias Vaughn)
Peter Halliday (Packer)
Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart)
James Thornhill (Sergeant Walters)
Robert Sidaway (Captain Turner)
Edward Burnham (Professor Watkins)

Episode Four
Patrick Troughton (Dr Who)
Frazer Hines (Jamie)
Sally Faulkner (Isobel)
Kevin Stoney (Tobias Vaughn)
Peter Halliday (Packer)
Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart)
James Thornhill (Sergeant Walters)
Robert Sidaway (Captain Turner)
Edward Burnham (Professor Watkins)
Sheila Dunn (phone operator)
Edward Dentith (Rutlidge)

Episode Five
Patrick Troughton (Dr Who)
Frazer Hines (Jamie)
Wendy Padbury (Zoe)
Sally Faulkner (Isobel)
John Levene (Benton - uncredited)
Kevin Stoney (Tobias Vaughn)
Peter Halliday (Packer)
Ian Fairbairn (Gregory)
Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart)
James Thornhill (Sergeant Walters)
Robert Sidaway (Captain Turner)
Sheila Dunn (phone operator)
Edward Dentith (Rutlidge)
Peter Thompson (workman)
Dominic Allan (policeman)

Episode Six
Patrick Troughton (Dr Who)
Frazer Hines (Jamie)
Wendy Padbury (Zoe)
Sally Faulkner (Isobel)
John Levene (Benton)
Kevin Stoney (Tobias Vaughn)
Peter Halliday (Packer)
Ian Fairbairn (Gregory)
Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart)
James Thornhill (Sergeant Walters)
Robert Sidaway (Captain Turner)
Edward Burnham (Professor Watkins)
Stacy Davies (Private Perkins)
Pat Gorman, Ralph Carrigan, Charles Finch, John Spradbury, Terence Denville (Cybermen)

Episode Seven
Patrick Troughton (Dr Who)
Frazer Hines (Jamie)
Wendy Padbury (Zoe)
Sally Faulkner (Isobel)
Kevin Stoney (Tobias Vaughn)
Peter Halliday (Packer)
Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart)
James Thornhill (Sergeant Walters)
Robert Sidaway (Captain Turner)
Edward Burnham (Professor Watkins)
Pat Gorman, Ralph Carrigan, Charles Finch, John Spradbury, Peter Thornton, Richard King (Cybermen)
Clifford Earl (Major Branwell)
Norman Hartley (Sergeant Peters)

Episode Eight
Patrick Troughton (Dr Who)
Frazer Hines (Jamie)
Wendy Padbury (Zoe)
Sally Faulkner (Isobel)
John Levene (Benton)
Kevin Stoney (Tobias Vaughn)
Peter Halliday (Packer)
Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart)
Robert Sidaway (Captain Turner)
Pat Gorman, Ralph Carrigan, Charles Finch, John Spradbury, Peter Thornton, Richard King (Cybermen)
Clifford Earl (Major Branwell)
Norman Hartley (Sergeant Peters)
2nd Battalion of teh Coldstream Guards (UNIT soldiers - uncredited)

PLOT SUMMARY

The Doctor becomes involved in the search for a scientist, Professor Watkins, missing somewhere in 1970s London. He is reunited with Colonel (now Brigadier) Lethbridge-Stewart, newly promoted to head of the Unit Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT) who are investigating a number of disappearances from Watkins' place of work, International Electromatics. Managing director of IE, Tobias Vaughn, is secretly in league with the Cybermen, both helping the prepare for a full-scale invasion of Earth, and also planning to double-cross them. Using a machine built by IE, the Cybermen are able to broadcast a signal that immobilises most of teh Earth's population - the invasion has begun...

Although they don't appear until half way through and then barely say a word, this is one of the very best of the Cybermen stories, rivalling even the great and revered Tomb of the Cybermen (1967). The sight of Cybermen marching down the steps near St Paul's Cathedral or bursting up through storm drains was terrifying at the time and still carries a considerable frisson, thanks to Douglas Camfield's outstanding direction. The Cybermen wouldn't be anywhere near as scary or menacing as this again.

UK
Television Distributor: BBC
Video Distributor: BBC Video

1968
November
2: UK - episode one television broadcast (on BBC1)
9: UK - episode two television broadcast (on BBC1)
16: UK - episode three television broadcast (on BBC1)
23: UK - episode four television broadcast (on BBC1)
30: UK - episode five television broadcast (on BBC1)

December
7: UK - episode six television broadcast (on BBC1)
14: UK - episode seven television broadcast (on BBC1)
21: UK - episode eight television broadcast (on BBC1)

BOOKS

Doctor Who: The Television Companion pp.159-162
credits, synopsis, review (by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker)

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

KEYWORDS

aliens; time travel; alien invasions; cyborgs; the future; military; london; businessmen; gadgets

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009