SEASON ELEVEN AT FIFTY: 'INVASION OF THE DINOSAURS'
Extinct no more, as the Invasion of the Dinosaurs begins. Art by Daryl Joyce.
Arriving back on modern-day Earth, the Doctor and Sarah discover London is deserted and under martial law. They eventually find an army patrol but are arrested as looters, and are sent to a detention centre as prisoners. But as their journey begins, their transport comes under attack by a tyrannosaurus rex. Dinosaurs have invaded London!
UNIT has been called in to assist the army with the running of the city, and to try and find a solution to the problems. Released from captivity, the Doctor takes up his old role of UNIT's scientific advisor in order to help try and discover why dinosaurs keep appearing and disappearing from London's streets.
The Doctor suspects a deliberate plan is causing the dinosaur menace, but who is behind the scheme? Who amongst his allies can be trusted? And when Sarah vanishes, just how does she find herself on a spaceship carrying hundreds of people in suspended animation towards a new life on a distant New Earth...??
BBC VHS official release sleeve synopsis - 2003
Invasion of the Dinosaurs has a special place in this writer's heart, being the first Doctor Who story that I can pretty much fully remember seeing back during its original transmission. As a near four-year old I was discovering the magic of the series starring Jon Pertwee, alongside my beginning obsession and fascination with dinosaurs at that early age (as all children especially do for the intriguing and powerful creatures between the impressionable ages of four and eight years old). I wouldn't fully enjoy the whole of Malcolm Hulke's splendidly conceived tale again until young adulthood in the mid-eighties (thanks to Australian copies of copies on VHS) but I never in 1974 thought that the now-derided special effects work was of a poor standard. I was intelligent enough to know that the dinosaurs weren't real, of course, and that they were puppets or models, but that didn't mean I didn't enjoy seeing them in slow, very slow action over the course of the next month of Saturdays, especially the T-Rex versus the Brontosaurus confrontation. All-in-all, the story rightly remains a fan favourite, and there will be a fully CGI makeover at some point when Season Eleven comes to Blu-ray as part of The Collection Range. I just hope that I'll still be alive to see that at the rate the range release is going of two seasons a year...
This story was also a great one for actor Richard Franklin, whose character of Captain Mike Yates was developed further and even became a traitor of sorts opposing the Doctor and UNIT in his quest, alongside other renegade scientists, to bring to reality their plans for Operation Golden Age on planet Earth. I was very sorry to hear of Mister Franklin's sad passing at this past Xmas, and after a long illness. I met the actor and writer/director several times, once in 1985 and in 2007, where he was always very amiable and talkative about all kinds of things, and not just about his four year tenure on Who. He will be missed, though his contribution to the series will be forever celebrated and remembered as part of its own very special Golden Age linked to the 1970's.
Back in present day London, the Doctor and Sarah are caught up in violent past time incursions.
The classic image of the Doctor being terrorised by a Pterosaur.
Sarah, now brandishing a continuity conflicted hairstyle after The Time Warrior, is also terrorised by the creature in a classic image.
Reunited with UNIT, our heroes try to find out who is behind the Dinosaurs appearance.
The Doctor soon locks horns with the bullish General Finch (John Bennett) and his liaison Captain Mike Yates.
Jon Pertwee debuts the Whomobile as he searches London for the culprits behind the time scoop operation.
Great image of a Triceratops trapped in the London Underground.
Sarah watches the Doctor at work developing a weapon that should stun a dinosaur.
Another classic posed image from the story, promoting Jon Pertwee in his now confirmed final season.
Though prior captured, the T-Rex escapes thanks to human sabotage, and almost kills Sarah Jane.
A T-Rex and Brontosaurus clash in a memorable scene.
Conspirators gather in their underground base - Butler (Martin Jarvis), Yates, and Professor Whitaker (Peter Miles).
Having been prior captured, Sarah tries to convince new friend Mark (Terence Wilton) that he and others have been duped into finding a New Earth from a fake spaceship.
Sarah tries hard to convince another space ship believer in Ruth (Carmen Silvera) of the fraud.
Posed shot of Pertwee and Sladen especially taken on set for a UK Doctor Who Holiday Special magazine for 1974.
Classic Radio Times artwork promoting the story, whose first episode was originally transmitted under the truncated title, Invasion. Art by Peter Brookes.
Wonderful art by Chris Achilleos for the first Target printed adaptation of the story. With such memorable art, its no surprise that the original book release was a huge sales success.
Equally striking cover art for a later 1978 reprint edition, by Jeff Cummins.
1993 Target Books reprint cover by Alister Pearson.
American Pinnacle Books paperback releases art, by David Mann, that is equally memorable.
T-Rex unleashed in this fine cover for An Adventure in Time and Space issue 86. Art by Steve Rogers.
One of the last UK VHS releases with photo montage cover.
The unusual but interesting art for the US VHS release.
Clayton Hickman's ingredients packed UK DVD release photo composition.
Doctor Who Magazine issue 335 celebrates the story with a fine cover.
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