The Invasion

Runtime

200 minutes

Time Travel

Present

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Invisibility, Earth Invasion, Milkman

Inventory (Potential Spoilers!)

Recorder

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Earth, England, London

Synopsis

The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe return to Earth and meet up with an old friend, former Colonel and now Brigadier, Lethbridge-Stewart - now in charge of the newly formed UNIT who are investigating electronics manufacturer International Electromatics. IE's managing director, Tobias Vaughn, is working with the Cybermen. He is planning to transmit a hypnotic signal through IE's products, leaving the Earth paralysed and allowing the Cybermen to emerge from the London sewers and take over...

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8 Episodes

Episode One Missing

First aired

Saturday, November 2, 1968

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Directed by

UK Viewers

7.3 million

Appreciation Index

Synopsis

The Doctor and the newly formed UNIT must stop a Cybermen Invasion and a Sinister Industrialist in league with them

Episode Two

First aired

Saturday, November 9, 1968

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Directed by

UK Viewers

7.1 million

Appreciation Index

Synopsis

The Doctor and Jamie are taken prisoner by their mysterious observers and have a reunion with an old friend while Zoe and Isobel carry out their own investigation of IE.

Episode Three

First aired

Saturday, November 16, 1968

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Directed by

UK Viewers

7.1 million

Appreciation Index

Synopsis

The Doctor and Jamie return to the IE factory in search of Zoe and Isobel, where they meet with Professor Watkins and fall foul of Vaughn.

Episode Four Missing

First aired

Saturday, November 23, 1968

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Directed by

UK Viewers

6.4 million

Appreciation Index

Synopsis

The Doctor and Jamie enlist the help of UNIT to rescue Zoe and Isobel before trying to find out what Vaughn is really up to.

Episode Five

First aired

Saturday, November 30, 1968

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Directed by

UK Viewers

6.7 million

Appreciation Index

Synopsis

The Doctor and Jamie tell the Brigadier about the Cybermen but with Rutledge under Vaughn's control he is powerless to act.

Episode Six

First aired

Saturday, December 7, 1968

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Directed by

UK Viewers

6.5 million

Appreciation Index

Synopsis

Captain Turner manages to rescue Jamie and the others, while the Doctor begins working on a way to protect everyone from the Cybermen's hypno-sound signal.

Episode Seven

First aired

Saturday, December 14, 1968

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Directed by

UK Viewers

7.2 million

Appreciation Index

Synopsis

With the entire world unconscious apart from the Doctor and his friends, the Cybermen are poised to invade and only Zoe, the Brigadier and a missile crew can stop them.

Episode Eight

First aired

Saturday, December 21, 1968

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Directed by

UK Viewers

7 million

Appreciation Index

Synopsis

The Cybermen have launched their deadly megatron bomb which will destroy all life on Earth unless the Doctor can deactivate the homing signal.

Characters

Second Doctor

Patrick Troughton

Jamie McCrimmon

Frazer Hines

How to watch The Invasion:

Watch on iPlayer

DVD

The Cybermen Collection

DVD

The Invasion

VHS

The Invasion (VHS)

Reviews
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11 reviews

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.

bethhigdon

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Review last edited on 18-06-25

jamie hates women💯

murkanium

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Review last edited on 18-05-25

A largely well-paced 8 episode serial, which came as a pleasant surprise! Vaughan and Packer make a fantastic double-act, and I really liked Isobel too.

I feel like this could've been any story though - there was nothing that made it a Cyberman story rather than something that just happened to feature them. I wish we'd spent more time on the fact that Vaughan got a bit converted, because I had no idea about that going in and genuinely went aloud my god!. It was a very strong choice that I think we'd moved on from too quickly

greenLetterT

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Review last edited on 8-04-25

Tobias is a hilarious villain with his sidekick "Packer!" Seeing the Brigadier back was great, Benton's first appearance too, who we'll see many more times with the Brigadier in the next Doctor's tenure. The Cybermen get a new look helmet, better than the previous Troughton ones imo. Overall, a good serial, just slightly too long.

Scottybguud

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Review last edited on 22-03-25

I have mixed feelings on this one. There's a lot that I really like about it! But my GOD the pacing. This serial is eight episodes long, and it is an AGONIZING eight episodes. At least those good things help make up for it.

Azurillkirby

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Review last edited on 14-03-25