The Invasion of Time [TV/1978.2.4 ~ 3.11]

★★★☆☆

  I may give The Invasion of Time only three stars, I may talk about how parts of it disappointed me, but let's face it — it's a miracle this didn't turn out as a complete disaster. Last-minute replacements are a huge gamble for any TV show, let alone something as wildly variable in quality as Doctor Who, and I applaud Graham Williams and Anthony Read for dishing out a six-parter that, for the most part, thrills and entertains quite admirably.

  The Vardan portion of the serial is the definite winner here. No offense to them Sontarans, but I'll take creepy invasions through taking over the ruling class and warping their minds (yes, aluminum foil and all) over the bad prosthetics day we see in the latter two episodes any day. Besides, this has got to be one of the Sontarans' most embarrassing portrayals. Grunting and whispering their lines in a barely audible way? Not one single interesting line between all of them? Tripping over pool chairs? Oh no no, this won't do at all. The Vardans may lose a bit of their luster once they become corporeal, but they at least managed to turn the Fourth Doctor into an actual villain for the first few parts. Watching Tom Baker roar (yes, actually shout with unbridled rage) and spit his lines with maximum acidity is something you're not likely to forget. The energy wave form tinfoils achieved that, at least.

  The Invasion of Time has a surprising amount of ambition for a last-minute replacement script, and production wise mostly everything's put together nicely. I know a lot of people rag on about the factory/hospital hallway sets for the innermost portions of the TARDIS, but I've always found the cheap stand-ins rather charming. My one grave point of disappointment from the serial, surpassing the shoddy effects and the weak final two episodes, is the departure of Leela herself. She had nowhere near the amount of shared screentime with Andred for their romance to be interesting, come on!

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ  

  I always say this. If you like surrealism and mystery with a little bit of political thriller, go to the direction of The Deadly Assassin. If you're more into long games, action-packed adventure and a tinge of space opera, check out The Invasion of Time. It's fascinating how Gallifrey can be used so similarly and yet so completely differently. The Invasion of Time starts out as a slow-burning mystery in which our usually dependable protagonist is no longer trustworthy, reaches a bombastic, exciting climax, and buggers off into hallways and dusty laboratories on a rather disappointing conclusion. Still, it's more than worth a watch.