Oh I lucked out with the randomizer on this one. The Invasion is arguably one of Troughton’s best stories. At eight episodes, rather than feeling over long, the story uses it’s length to slowly build tension and mystery. Even the two missing episodes are well animated and fit the rest of the story nicely.

It features the creation of UNIT, the return of the Brigadier, the debut of Benton, and at the heart of the story, a cat and mouse game between the Doctor and Tobias Vaughn. Vaughn is one of the most entertaining and charismatic villains the franchise has ever produced, and it all hinges on Kevin Stoney’s fantastic and commanding performance.

Which is only backed up by Troughton’s equally mesmerizing acting. It’s truly a tragedy that so much of Troughton’s work in Who is lost. His performance is so physical, so much so that most of his stories simply don't translate to other mediums, even with decent animation. Watch his movements, his understated facial expressions. The Doctor is a character who is always thinking, and Troughton arguably conveys that aspect of the character better then any other who has played the part.

If I have any complaints about the story they’re all very minor.

For starters, some of the pseudoscience and fake military jargon is silly sounding to anyone who is remotely familiar with the real stuff. A machine that forces you to feel emotions is pure fantasy, but it’s also very Doctor Who so I can’t dock the story for it too much.

Also poor Jamie isn’t well served in this outing. He brightens any scene he’s in and gives the characters someone to bounce off of, but he himself accomplishes very little. However, Zoe gets tons of cool things to do so I guess it balances out.

And finally, I just don’t like the character of Isabelle all that much and she’s sadly everywhere in the story. She’s less than useless, flighty, stupid, and infuriatingly stubborn, turning her nose up at everyone save for Zoe. Worst she gets two people killed trying to ‘help’, and she still makes no impact on the plot as her endeavors wind up being pointless. Let’s just say I’m glad the show brought Benton back and not her for the next season.