Who Review: The Android Invasion
The TARDIS materializes on what appears to be Earth. The trees and vegetation suggest Sarah’s home planet, but something’s not quite right. Suddenly, a soldier strides past them and falls off a cliff. Horrified, the Doctor and Sarah go to check on him. At the bottom of the cliff, they find a large pod and people dressed in white shooting at them from their fingers. The Doctor and Sarah escape to a nearby village, but they are surprised to find it deserted. Even the pub is empty, though the cash register has money–newly minted coins, all from the same year. When the villagers finally arrive, it’s in the back of a truck escorted by the white-suited people from earlier. And one of the villagers is the soldier they saw fall to his death. It seems an alien force is replicating humans, but that’s just the start of their invasion plan. The Doctor and Sarah need to put an end to the whole scheme before every human being is wiped off the face of the planet.
SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen this serial. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!
“The Android Invasion” had a lot to live up to, following on the heels of as great a story as “Pyramids of Mars.” While not a complete disaster, it does ultimately fall short. The deserted village and android replicas all echo the movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” so it is in-keeping with the production team’s desire to give the show a darker spin, and touch on familiar horror themes. The deserted village is certainly eerie, and the android humans are creepy, but the overall story isn’t well thought-out. The alien Kraals want to use the androids to spread a virus that will wipe out the human race, which seems very inefficient. To accomplish this, they have to create android humans, pack them all in pods, and distribute them to key locations around the world, hoping that nothing goes wrong with the pods, or the androids’ programming, along the way–assuming the pods make it to Earth and aren’t blown out of the sky by various military forces on Earth. Wouldn’t it have been better to send the virus in small capsules that burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, releasing the deadly contagion into the air?
The story does have some good moments. The episode two cliff-hanger, when android Sarah falls over and her face falls off, was well done. Even though we knew it wasn’t the real Sarah, seeing that mask fall off was very unnerving. I must have watched this when it was first broadcast because that’s the one scene I remember most vividly. And, as usual, the acting is first rate, especially the leads. Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen manage to convey a distinction between the Doctor and Sarah and their android doubles with looks, expressions, and other subtleties. They don’t need to put on robot voices, or walk strangely. You can tell which is which just by watching them.
This is the last Doctor Who serial to feature Benton and Harry Sullivan of U.N.I.T. The Brigadier was supposed to be in it too, but actor Nicholas Courtney was unavailable. The Brig will turn up again in 1988’s “Battlefield.”
There’s really not much more to say about “The Android Invasion,” aside from a couple of other points that bothered me. First, when the Doctor and Sarah “examine” the soldier who fell off the cliff, they check his pockets, but don’t notice that there’s no blood? Not even a scratch? And yet his head is resting upon rocks. Surely that would be the first thing to tip them off that he isn’t real? And when the Doctor and Sarah are hiding in the Kraal ship, it’s too convenient that there are pods available for them to hide in. Why didn’t they check the other pods? If they did, they would have seen Doctor and Sarah androids, among others. Finally, when the Doctor jams the Kraals’ signal, turning off all the androids, how does he operate the Doctor android independently of the others?
Unless you’re a completist (like me), don’t feel compelled to watch “The Android Invasion.” It’s okay, good enough, but it’s not particularly special. The effects are nothing to write home about, and the Kraal costumes are a bit underwhelming (they wear boots with laces?!). Perhaps the most compelling reason to watch this if you’re not a die-hard Whovian is the fact that Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen are on fine form. But then, they usually are.
