Doctor Who:
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
By Malcolm Hulke
Reviewed By Paul Bowler
MARK: We're on our way. Soon we shall arrive on the planet that's to be our new home.
SARAH: Planet? Spaceship? What are you talking about?
MARK: We left Earth three months ago.
The TARDIS returns the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Sarah Jane
(Elisabeth Sladen) to Earth, materialising in a strangely deserted London, where
the military are struggling to cope with attacks by dinosaurs that have suddenly
begun appearing all over the capitol. After being mistaken for looters and
arrested by the military, following a close encounter with a pterodactyl, the
sudden appearance of a tyrannosaurus rex gives the Doctor and Sarah a chance to
escape. Taking refuge from their pursuers, the Doctor and Sarah encounter a
Peasant (James Marcus) who has been displaced by a time eddy. Thinking the
Doctor is a wizard, the Peasant moves to attacks him, but suddenly vanishes.
Afterwards they are found by the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) and return to the
base UNIT has set up in a school, where they learn more about the dinosaur
invasion.
When the Doctor’s attempt to capture a dinosaur is sabotaged he
begins to suspect there might be a traitor at UNIT. That traitor is in fact
Captain Mike Yates (Richard Franklin), who has teamed up with two scientists,
Professor Whitaker (Peter Miles) and Butler (Martin Jarvis), who have been
experimenting with a time travel, using dinosaurs from the past to cause panic
so the city would be evacuated. Sarah Jane investigates while the Doctor is busy
and discovers that General Finch (John Bernnett) and Sir Charles Grover (Noel
Johnson) are also involved in the conspiracy, only to be captured herself and
taken to a secret underground bunker beneath the city streets, where she later
wakes up on board a spaceship bound for a distant planet.
Sarah Jane quickly realizes that the spaceship is a fake. She
manages to convince the colonists they have been deceived, that they are not
heading for a new “golden age” on a planet free of pollution, and leads them
through the air lock and back into the underground base just as the Doctor and
the Brigadier attack the secret headquarters. Sir Charles Grover tries to use
the time travel device to transport London back to prehistoric times, but the
Doctor has altered the controls, and instead it sends Grover and Whitaker back
to the time of the dinosaurs. With the crisis over the Brigadier oversees
Captain Yates resignation from UNIT, while the Doctor tries to persuade Sarah to
go on another adventure in the TARDIS and visit the planet Florana.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) offers an intriguing slant on
the ecological concepts that often featured strongly throughout Barry Letts time
as producer of Doctor Who. This six part story is written by Malcolm Hulke, and
forms part of Jon Pertwee’s final season as the Doctor. After the tragic death
of Roger Delgado and Katy Manning;’s departure as Jo Grant, the UNIT family was
slowly beginning to go their separate ways.
Season Eleven was indeed the end of an era, script editor
Terrance Dicks and producer Barry Letts were ready to move on, along with Jon
Pertwee, who had also decided to leave the show. Needless to say, Pertwee is on
fine form during Invasion of the Dinosaurs, but it is Elisabeth Sladen who
really gets a chance to shine here as new companion Sarah Jane Smith, and her
skills as a journalists are well used to drive the plot. Sgt Benton (John
Levene) is also around to help out; being one of the few officers trusted to
remain by the Brigadier’s side; he even lets the Doctor knock him unconscious so
he can escape from custody after General Finch frames him for the Dinosaur
attacks. We also get to see the Doctor’s new car, the futuristic Whomobile, as
it glides around the deserted streets of London. Jon Pertwee had the car
specially built for the show, and while it may not be quite as memorable as
Bessie, it’s still a very impressive vehicle.
One of the best aspects of Invasion of the Dinosaurs is how
Captain Mike Yates turns out to be the traitor who has been working against
them. Richard Franklin has some great scenes in this story, even though Mike
Yates betrays the Doctor and UNIT, he still rushes in to help the Doctor when
his act of sabotage leaves him at the mercy of a tyrannosaurus rex. His desire
to help build a better world for mankind is admirable but his loyalty to his
friends proves to be his undoing, which is perhaps why the Brigadier affords
Yates the chance to resign from UNIT.
Sadly the weakest aspect of Invasion of the Dinosaurs are the
dinosaurs themselves. Having been convinced by freelance effects designer,
Clifford Culley that he could produce highly realistic model dinosaurs, Barry
Letts and Terrance Dicks went ahead and commissioned the story. Unfortunately
Westbury Design and Optical Ltd were unable to realize the demands of Malcolm
Hulke’s scripts, leaving the production team stuck with some truly woeful
special effects. By then it was too late to do anything about it, although it
has to be said that the model backgrounds are highly effective, and the CSO used
to overlay them into each scene is quite impressive, it’s just when the
dinosaurs arrive that the illusion is completely shattered.
Throughout the course of this story the Doctor and Sarah Jane
encounter a number of prehistoric monsters: including a tyrannosaurus rex,
triceratops, stegosaurs, brontosaurus, and even a pterodactyl, but it is the
tyrannosaurus rex that often earns the most scathing criticism. This puppet is
actually far too cute to even be remotely frightening, bobbing around the model
sets and flapping his tail, the T-Rex roars at everything and anything - it even
seems to say “ROAAARRRR” rather than roaring properly! When the T-Rex is caught
and chained up in a disused building, Sarah Jane sneaks in to take some
photographs, but the flash on her camera wakes the creature up. This leads to
one of the finniest scenes ever in Dr Who as T-Rex goes on the rampage. Well, he
does manage to smash a window after a couple of wallops from his tail, and head
buts a couple of polystyrene girders, before finally popping his head through a
wobbly cardboard wall with a hearty “ROAAAARRRRR” as the Doctor and Sarah escape
in a jeep.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs may be beset by awful special effects
but director Paddy Russell more than makes up for these shortcomings,
particularly with some great location filming to portray the eerily deserted
streets of London. Unfortunately only the black and white version of the first
episode of Invasion of the Dinosaurs is currently exists in the BBC Archives,
with the rest of the story in colour, this startlingly atmospheric first episode
is a real gem. Seeing the Doctor and Sarah Jane return to the evacuated London
is quite unnerving: stray dogs roam the streets, a football rests untouched in a
children’s playground, a looter gets horribly killed when his car encounters a
dinosaur, and the brutal way martial law is enforced is quite unlike anything we
have seen before in Doctor Who. The first episode also included a terrifying
encounter with a pterodactyl as the Doctor and Sara try to escape in a jeep.
It’s a fantastic scene, laced with a real sense of horror as the creature swoops
in to attack, smashing through the driver’s window before the Doctor drives the
jeep through the lockups doors to escape.
This first episode was digitally remastered and coloured for
its DVD release in 2012, although the footage could not be fully restored, so
the colours do look a little washed out and unnatural. I prefer the black and
white version of this episode (you have the option to watch either version on
DVD), Paddy Russell’s direction is superb, and her brilliantly filmed location
scenes really enhance the story.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs is a classic case of Doctor Who
punching well above its weight and being let down by some truly abysmal special
effects. However, it’s funny to think how nearly four decades later Dinosaurs on
a Spaceship (2012) would see the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) facing
incredible CGI dinosaurs, albeit in a story that makes the 3rd
Doctor’s first encounter with the prehistoric creatures in Invasion of the
Dinosaurs look like a masterpiece in comparison. Invasion of the Dinosaurs is a
worthy addition to any Dr Who fans DVD collection, the two disk set is packed
with extra features, and proves how a good story can outshine the glossy sheen
of CGI any day of the week.
Well, almost…
“ROAAARRRRRR!”
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