The Invasion

Invisibility, Earth Invasion

Runtime

200 minutes

Time Travel

Present

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

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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9 reviews

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

This review contains spoilers!

“The very essence of business efficiency”

C’est daté et quand même assez génial.

Sherwin écrit en effet un morceau d’action d’une précision remarquable, et avec une ambiance tout de suite assez unique.

Mais surtout, ce qu’il comprend c’est que très souvent (tout le temps), c’est le système le problème.

En effet, Londres attire encore des monstres et des vilains pas beaux, mais le pire d'entre eux ici reste un magnat capitaliste prêt à réduire l’humanité en cadavres de métal.

“The very essence of business efficiency”

It's dated and still quite brilliant.

Sherwin indeed writes a piece of action with remarkable precision, and with an immediately quite unique atmosphere.

But above all, what he understands is that very often (all the time), the system is the problem.

Indeed, London still attracts monsters and ugly villains, but the worst among them here remains a capitalist magnate ready to reduce humanity to metal corpses.

(Translation generated by AI, so mistakes are possible).

Dogtor

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Review last edited on 22-11-24

I enjoyed this story a lot. I felt that it was gripping, tense and well-paced with some good moments of suspence and action. Despite its length, I didn't feel that it dragged at all. The characters are compelling and interesting.

Bongo50

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Review last edited on 20-09-24