Doctor Who (1963) 11.02.02

Invasion of the Dinosaurs - Part Two

The Doctor and Sarah escape from the soldiers who are too busy dealing with a large dinosaur to notice their prisoners running away. The Doctor and Sarah escape into a garage where the Doctor finds some tools and removes the handcuffs that join them. They encounter a man who seems to come from the distant past. He attacks them but then he disappears. The Doctor thinks he was sucked backward in time.

The Brigadier finds the Doctor and Sarah and takes them back to his command post. He and Sgt Benton explain everything they know about the current situation. They are interrupted by General Finch who doesn't care for the Doctor's theories about what brought the dinosaurs to 20th century London. The Doctor comes up with a plan to capture one of the dinosaurs so that he can study it. 

Captain Yates is revealed to be working with a couple of scientists, Professor Whitaker and his assistant Butler, who have nothing to do with UNIT. They are working on something called Operation Golden Age. Professor Whitaker instructs Yates to sabotage the stun gun the Doctor is building and plans to use to capture one of the dinosaurs. Whitaker gives Yates a device which when attached to the stun gun will render it useless.

The Doctor and the Brigadier hear a report that there is another dinosaur nearby. Captain Yates goes with them and uses the device that Professor Whitaker gave him. The stun gun does not work. The dinosaur is closing in on the Doctor as the episode ends.

Thoughts

The dinosaur scene at the end of this episode looks very much like the one at the end of the first episode.

The commentary track for this episode includes Terrence Dicks (script editor), Richard Franklin (Captain Yates), Peter Miles (Professor Whitaker), and Richard Morris (designer). It was recorded just after Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) passed away (Feb 2011) and they spend a little bit of time talking about their memories of him.

This story is moving faster than a snail's pace but it isn't moving much faster than that. The supporting cast seem alright but they aren't being given much to do. 

So far this story isn't wining me over but it also isn't quite as bad as I feared.