Invasion of the Dinosaurs

Invasion of the Dinosaurs is thoroughly underrated and in many ways I'm glad, as its taken me twelve years of being a fan before I've seen it, and there is nothing better than watching a wonderful Doctor Who story for the first time.

This story had me on the edge of my seat, the deserted London streets were fantastically shot. The domestic scenes shot on film reminded me of Spearhead from Space (which made me happy). They built up the story with a pleasing, foreboding, dystopian view of a future London. I really enjoyed the first story simply being titled Invasion. I can imagine that this made the dinosaur reveal all the more pleasing to its original audience.

I'll address the dinosaurs "look", as I understand that this seems to be a fixation for most people reviewing it. Personally, I don't understand how you could be a fan of Doctor Who and rely on utterly convincing special effects in order to be able to enjoy it. Regardless, in all honestly I've seen worse and I commend the production team for delivering on a very difficult technical challenge.

Sarah Jane and The Doctor continue to be on fine form, thrown into the action with an attacking pterodactyl. For me, dinosaurs, looting and abandoned streets is real gritty drama! I enjoyed the UNIT soldiers treating The Doctor and Sarah Jane as thieves - Jon Pertwee particularly suits acting out these scenes with righteous indignation. I laughed hard at "so much about honour among thieves". This is the Third Doctor I really enjoy watching, as opposed to the boring "this wine is of an excellent vintage" persona we see plenty of in his third and fourth seasons.

I praised The Green Death for its inventive use of the UNIT regulars. Invasion of the Dinosaurs takes this a step further - after returning from a leave of absence Mike Yates chooses to betray UNIT and The Doctor whilst managing to not lose sight of the character that we are familiar with. The character always believes he is doing the right thing and acting in a way which will benefit his friends in the long run. This creates an interesting tension scenes such as where he had to interfere with The Doctor's plans undetected.

There were so many things going on in this story, when Sarah arrived on the fake spaceship travelling to new Earth I was struck by yet another brilliant element being thrown into the mix - admittedly it didn't keep up this pace for the latter half of the story.

Perhaps the most interesting element was the idea of left wing values being taken to an undesirable extreme. The misguided travelers find themselves part of a global conspiracy to stop pollution by any means possible - in this case removing nearly all of modern humanity from existence by moving the Earth back in time! Why they had to go all the way back to dinosaur times is not addressed - but it made for an interesting setting!

Another day, another Malcolm Hulke banger. This man WILL not miss.

This has a good script, about ideological cultism and doomerism, and to my eyes, white supremacy and genocide. I don't read it as having an anti-environmental message at all (even before the Doctor's little speech at the end), but rather a warning about how easy it is for people across political and ideological lines to fall into fascism. And despite Lis Sladen's sense that Sarah was too passive in it, I think it shows her as a really strong character, largely by keeping her separate from the Doctor. We also see some of her journalism background at work.

It is, however, too damn long. Four episodes, omitting some of Sarah's and the Doctor's repeated captures and escapes, would have been much more suitable.

Lot of reviews criticising the appearances of the dinosaurs in this serial. Frankly, I think everyone needs to let go of ideas like "good special effects" and "scientific accuracy" and have some fun.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs has an excellent plot, a good point it's making, a great supporting cast, and strong performances from the main characters. It's a shame how the cliffhangers frequently depend upon the ugliest looking dinosaur models you've ever seen in your life, but I was nevertheless deeply endeared to said beasts. Let the dinosaurs into your heart and you'll have a blast with this one

i genuinely do not trust anyone who doesnt find mike yates at all redeemable or sympathetic after this episode. yes, operation golden age was objectively wrong and immoral, im not arguing that at all. what i am arguing is that mike was deliberately chosen to be radicalised towards this cause because he was already fragile mentally and isolated from his peers. that's how radicalisation starts. they deliberately pick on people who dont have a support network but desperately need one - trust me, i know this shit. did he decide of his own accord to join the group? probably. was he in a good frame of mind to be making that decision? i dont think so. lots of people seem to think that his involvement makes him inherently evil but i fully believe he was just vulnerable and targeted because of that. im absolutely going to go on another wild tangent about this when i watch invasion of the spiders, but for now i just need to emphisise that hes not irredeemable. yes hes made bad decisions but hes not evil. no i dont project my own feelings onto doctor who characters wtf are you on about.