The Invasion Of Time (1978) Review

K-9: Honorary Lord President of Caninefree!

The Invasion Of Time might be Doctor Who's first major "season finale", or at least that's how it seems to me. Although we've had some terrific season closers before(The War Games and The Talons Of Weng-Chiang immediately leap into mind), this is really the first time that I feel like the stakes are being specifically upped to close off the year.

PLOT

Under the constant surveillance of the evil Vardans, the Doctor returns to Gallifrey and finally assumes the role of Lord President as part of an elaborate plan to defeat his latest foes with the unwitting help of his own people.
However, in a double-cross, the Doctor's own plan is part of the plan that releases a more familiar enemy into the sacred world of the Time Lords...

ANALYSIS

It's really hard to decide whether this story is good or bad. The best I can say is that it's a great story... but with so many crap decisions surrounding its production.

First of all, this is one of the lamest six-parters ever. People generally seem to find the appereance of the Sontarans towards the end to be the story's highlight. However, for me, it's the serial's downfall. I don't mind them on their own(although they're nowhere near as good as Kevin Lindsay's versions), but the way they just replace the Vardans as villains is pure baloney and dumbs the story down to a runaround and not even a good one.

I love the idea of The Invasion Of Time. The Doctor's unexplained behaviour and the appereance of Gallifrey immediately gives the story much urgency and separates it from the other, ordinary adventures that the Doctor has. Besides Leela, there's really no one that the viewer can trust. Even K-9 seems to be acting strangely and the Time Lords themselves are a complete enigma, of course. We also learn more about Gallifreyan culture and their laws, which is awesome for any fan.

But the more we find out, the more disinterested the story seems to become with itself. Apart from some excellent performances, there's nothing to convey the true meaning of what is happening: Gallifrey, the home of the TIME LORDS themselves is being violated. And whilst I can understand that the budget was effectively depleted, the people behind the scenes were not.

The serial's two largest mistakes is not compensating for its budget and not directing the actors to convey genuine shock as change is forced upon Time Lord culture in a way that easily surpasses any previous story. The sheer significance of The Invasion Of Time is completely ignored. As a result, the story just becomes sillier and sillier until no one seems to have a clue what's going on anymore. By the last episode, it's literally just Tom Baker fumbling about in an abandoned building("the TARDIS interior") until he's knocked off all the Sontarans.

CHARACTERS

Tom Baker carries this entire story on his pinky finger. His scheming and repartee with Borusa is exquisite and really makes this story look far better than it is. But even better, this can be called the first episode of the legendary "Tom Baker Show". Some diehard fans try to excuse his behaviour away by saying that he's full-on acting and keeping his mind messy, but it's obvious that the actor's just screwing with everyone and it is glorious. He is the ultimate troll. 

John Arnett's controlled, subtle performance as Borusa is a great foil for the utterly unhinged Baker and he even manages to be somewhat eccentric in his own super-logical way. There's a great scene where Borusa recognises the intelligence behind the Doctor's way of thinking and he acknowledges how the roles of teacher and student have reversed. 

Milton Johns returns as yet another crooked character, Castellan Kelner(if the name sounds familiar, it's because a much nicer old guy held the same title in The Deadly Assassin). What I like about Kelner is his lack of villainy. He never directly tries to gain power and doesn't even show any sadistic tendencies. He's an oppurtunist, pure and simple who, kind of like that weasel race from the new series who get conquered every other day, tries to use every situation to his advantage. 

The Vardans are an absolute waste of scriptwriting existence. They are boring bad guys, who first inexplicably appear as giant silly-looking menhirs, then turn into marginally acceptable tin foil and finally appear as the most generic henchmen ever. And their point in the story is never explained as they are immediately defeated and replaced by the Sontarans for no good reason. 

And the Sontarans themselves, whilst infinitely better than the Vardans, are still crap by Sontaran standards. They talk in a weird, clipped off fashion instead of the whispery growl that has identified them before and since and the masks are not very high-quality either(and there's only one of them). Still, I kind of like Stor's hunter personality and his confrontations with the Doctor. 

Andred is likable, but becomes too goofy later on, especially when he's around K-9. I'll get to him and Leela in a second.

K-9 is just loaded with snark in this story. Whatever happened to not having emotions? He's on fire! 

And then there's Leela. I don't think there's a single fan out there who likes her departure in this story. And I'm not going to change history today. Her departure isn't even laughable or lazy. It's just bizarre. Her "romance" with Andred isn't undeveloped... it just doesn't exist. They are two completely separate characters who happened to meet up a few times and at the end, she stays behind for him?? 
She had way more chemistry and thematic relevance with Cordo(who appeared to be her exact opposite until they met) from The Sun Makers!

But aside from that baloney, Leela was great in this story as usual. I loved her confusion at the Doctor's vocabulary and worry at the end over whether or not he was going to be lonely. More on her in the Season 15 retrospective below.

NOTES

*Was the Doctor's hopscotching scripted or another one of Baker's moods?

*I have to admit I love every time he breaks the fourth wall. There's something about meta moments in Doctor Who that I enjoy tremendously. It's such a crazy show it actually fits for it, I think.

*Even Andred's comedy fourth-wall break was kind of funny in a Christmas pantomime sort of way.

*Considering that we've seen people casually living outside the Citadel in the new series(and it's strongly implied that the Doctor grew up with them), how is it so impossible and rare for Time Lords to be outside? And I get that the Time Lords are all-important and so forth, but if they get their recruits from outside, there has to be a society living there(as we see in Listen and Hell Bent). But in this story, the Time Lords make it sound like the Outsiders are crazed rebels and unique(as they can only muster up very few men to attack the Citadel). Even the regular Gallifreyans like Radon live inside!

*How exactly is it safe for the Chancellor to hold the Great Key? Hasn't there been an evil Chancellor before? Or a Chancellor who became Lord President? Maybe it's another case of "you said it the last 15 times" where the Matrix constantly erases such events from history.

*Speaking of which, since when did the Matrix actively start altering people's minds? In The Deadly Assassin, it was just a really wacky storehouse of Time Lord knowledge. If it can actively mess with their heads, why didn't Rassilon just wipe the Master's memory or something?

*At least this explains what Rassilon has been doing all this time in his Tomb(to those of you unaware, I became a classic Who fan through The Five Doctors, but don't think I know all the spoilers!).

*Did they actually explain Rassilon at any point? If they did, I must have missed it. They just seemed to suddenly bring him up like "Rassilon is doing this..." without clarifying at all who Rassilon is. 

*Where the heck did the Doctor get a K-9 Mark II at the end? If he can build them, why did he? And when?

*I've always boycotted stories about how Tom Baker hated the Leela character(since Jameson made it clear that they never had a problem after filming Horror Of Fang Rock), but "Goodbye, savage." is a horribly acidic final thought on her and just taking out a K-9 Mk II box makes the Doctor look incredibly selfish. "Oh, did that leather-wearing primate really think she got my toy? HA!"

*Every moment with Lord President Tom Baker is gold. Just everything.

*Time Lord lunch = fruit drops. 

*So, the forcefield surrounding the entire planet of Gallifrey is controlled by one old factory-looking place?

*How did the Outsiders break into the Citadel without anyone noticing?

*Why do the Guards wave keys over the TARDIS door in special fashions? It looks like they're breaking apart some sort of seals, but then they just give up and start using one key.

*Here's an obvious one: why is the TARDIS desktop set on "ugly brick hospital"?

*The Doctor keeps killer plants in the TARDIS?

*This is the first story to introduce the huge interior of the TARDIS. Before, the implication was that there were a few rooms beyond the console room, but not much else(it seemed to be the size of a good flat, basically).

*Why is this ridiculous story still so many leagues ahead of Hell Bent?

BEST QUOTE

"You are a very stupid machine!" - K-9 said to the poor TARDIS.

CONCLUSION

A madhouse production prevents it from reaching its full potential, but A+ for trying.


At last. I thought I'd never be done with that review. Anyway, season 15 was quite enjoyable and I'd say on par with the Pertwee years(where the seasons usually had around two really good stories and three mediocre ones). Graham Williams has proven to be a dab hand at comedy and not much else(no offense). He lacks the firm grip on production that Barry Letts and Philip Hinchcliffe had, but manages to compensate by matching the haphazard state of the show with irreverent frivolity. It just about works.

We now say goodbye to one of my favourite companions, Leela. I didn't talk about her often in the character section due to my rule about having main cast members there(unless they are related to the plot or have some big moment, they're not going to be brought up). She was always lovely, combining childlike innocence with steely loyalty in the most - pardon me - the most sexy of ways. Louise Jameson never once disappointed with her acting and when the stars in the sky aligned with the stars in the sorcerer's hat, she had a terrific rapport with co-star Tom Baker. I'll definitely miss her. 

And her costume.