Doctor Who:
The Invasion of Time
By David Agnew
“I claim the inheritance
of Rassilon. I claim the titles, honor, duty and obedience of all colleges. I
claim the Presidency of the Council of Time Lords.”
The Doctor is in league
with the Vardans to take over Gallifrey or is he. To make his ruse more believable he exiles
Leela out to the wasteland after he claims his right to be Lord President of
the Time Lords. He claims his right and
puts his plan into motion as he prepares for his coronation. As the
Vardans invade because of the destroyed transduction barrier and take over
Gallifrey The Doctor lets Borusa into his ruse.
The Vardans want the great key which is a key element for the D – mat gun.
He plans on using Gallifrey as a vessel
to get rid of the Vardans forever by putting their planet in a time loop as
they are too viscous of a race to be left unchecked.
Trouble still lurks as
with the transduction barrier around Gallifrey has been destroyed by K - 9 to
let the Vardans in it appears The Sonatarans have found their opening to invade
Gallifrey after the Vardans have been vanquished. Soon chaos ensues as The Doctor takes everyone
into the TARDIS to try and stall the Sontarans as he has Rodan build the forbidden
Time Lord weapon the D – Mat gun. So it’s
up to The Doctor to save his own planet yet again from an alien threat.
The Invasion of Time is a
strange story in that it is actually two stories in one. First you have the story involving the
Vardans. They actually succeed first in
taking over Gallifrey. The Vardans are
one of the silliest races as for most of the time they are shimmering aluminum
foil constructs. It is one of the
cheapest looking things the BBC has ever created. What is even worse is that when they appear
they are just humans nothing more.
What I did like about the
first four parts is that Leela has been given something to do. She actually gets to be in her element in the
wasteland and rallies the Time Lords into taking back their planet. It is her last story after all so it was good
to see her do something. Unlike the
previous stories that Robert Holmes wasn’t script editor for it seemed like
they pushed her to the background.
When Leela was used right
when they first introduced her she was pretty good and The Doctor was trying to
teach her to and help her break away from her violent ways. I always liked her character and thought it
was a good idea to have a primitive person travel with The Doctor and have him
teach her and make her a better person.
Louise Jameson played her really well and still does in the Big Finish
audio adventures. I do think her departure was kind of
lame. She only meets Andred for a couple
of moments in the last two episodes and she falls in love with him and decides
to stay on Gallifrey. Not the way I
pictured Leela leaving actually.
I like the last two parts
even if it is just everyone running away from the Sontarans. What is really good is that you get to see
different rooms in TARDIS and we go deeper than ever before inside the great
ship. It is great seeing everyone
running from the Sontarans inside the many corridors and rooms of the TARDIS. My favorite is the garden room where a
Sontaran gets engulfed by a huge plant mouth.
Castellan Kelner wins Time
Lord of the year in this story. He is
such a worm that first he sides with the Vardans and then when they are
vanquished he sides with the Sontarans. What a turncoat and such a lousy Time
Lord. Kelner is such a worm and I guess that
the story needed a human villain to counter balance The Doctor and put doubt in
his fake evil ways to the Vardans. He
quickly changes alliances and sides with the Sontarans and turns on his race
yet again. He must really have a grudge
against his fellow Time Lords to do that.
The Invasion of Time is a
decent story that has some fun moments and is also fun to watch. It isn’t the best story or the worst but we
also get to learn some more Time Lord mythology in the process. We also get one
of the worst Sontaran masks ever and one of the worst portrayals also. It is also the last appearance of the first
K- 9 and Leela and we also get another Gallifrey story So there is something
for everyone.
Grade B -
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