Doctor Who (1963) 11.02.01

Invasion of the Dinosaurs - Part One

The Doctor and Sarah arrive back in London only to find it deserted. The first person they spot almost runs them over in a car. They eventually find a couple more people who also are very unfriendly and try to do them harm.

The Doctor and Sarah find a land rover but they are attacked by a large flying reptile as they are getting into the vehicle. They drive away from the creature but they are stopped by soldiers before they get very far. The soldiers arrest them for looting. The Doctor and Sarah try protesting that they weren't looting but that gets them nowhere.

Mug shots are taken of the Doctor and Sarah. The mug shots work their way back to the Brigadier who is responsible for dealing with the looters. He thinks that the Doctor will know what to do and sends someone to find the Doctor and Sarah.

The Doctor and Sarah are found guilty, by a military tribunal and sentenced to internment in a detention camp. They try to escape but they are quickly recaptured and loaded on a vehicle headed to an detention camp. The episode ends with a large reptile, presumably a dinosaur, stopping the vehicle.

Thoughts

The title at the beginning of this episode is Invasion, presumably so as not to spoil the dinosaur aspect of the story. The color version of the first episode was destroyed years ago. A 16mm black-and-white version of the first episode is all that is known to exist. The first episode has been colored but on the DVD it can be watched in its original format or in color.

There are just two people on the commentary track for this episode: Toby Hadoke and director Paddy Russell. Russell is not a big fan of science fiction and doesn't have a lot to say about the making of this story. Hadoke does what he can to get her to talk about her time working on Dr Who. This is the second of four Doctor Who stories that she directed. One of the others was Horror of Fang Rock.

Toby Hadoke also appeared in extras on the DVDs for Robots of Death and Inferno. I think this is the first DVD where I have heard him on a commentary track.

This is okay, not great. The special effects for the monsters are not good. There is no real explanation or attempt at an explanation as to where the dinosaurs came from.