nvasion of the Dinosaurs is a fun, albeit visually badly aged, adventure with one of the more fascinating plots hiding behind the fake dinosaur puppets.
Story: 10
Malcolm Hulke uses the classic opening of having the Doctor and his companion arrive in the middle of mysterious events without having the faintest clue of what is going on. It's like the opening to The Invasion (1968). After that, he creates a pretty exciting action-adventure also in the vein of the earlier Cyberman invasion story.
Similarly to several Moffat era episodes, Invasion of the Dinosaurs has somewhat of a timey wimey plot, with different parts of history crashing into one point in time (or "time eddy" as Hulke calls it). And then he throws in a couple of pretty unexpected twists to make the story more fleshed out. The twist at the end of Episode 3 is particularly shocking.
There's some well-crafted tension, counterplot and treachery among the UNIT personnel and the other involved people. It makes the struggle seem more difficult ant not oo simple. The way everything is resolved is disappointingly simple.
Now, what feels like a draw-out cop-out is UNIT being convinced of the Doctor being guilty for everything, despite everything he has helped them with over the years. Isn't that jumping to conclusions?
Acting: 8
Jon Pertwee couldn't be any better in his portrayal of the Doctor, but it is Elisabeth Sladen who just keep getting better for every story. She shows unusually high levels of confidence and bravery very early on and Sladen captures her journalistic and feministic attitudes perfectly.
Peter Miles is back as yet another estranged scientist, after his turn as Professor Lawrence in The Silurians. Everything in the way he looks to the way he speaks screams suspicious crook. John Bennett appears as General Finch and looks very menacing and creepy with that moustache and pale face.
The Doctor: 8
I love it how the Doctor confidently takes the situation he suddenly finds himself in with Sarah very lightly. Then, once he is finally believed for who he is, he starts taking things more seriously.
The Companions: 10
Sarah proves to be of great use here, both for the Doctor and UNIT. She uses her experience as a journalist to dig up relevant information, even though she has a tough time making herself heard. That being said, she has quite some skills in persuasion. No companion has done their research the way Sarah does.
The Monster/Villain: 8
What makes Sir Charles Grover such a good villain is the fact that he only does what he believes is best for Earth and in a way, he's not evil. There are people in real life who also believe in returning life on Earth back to a pre-human state to save the ecosystem. In this story, the monsters are merely a gimmick, and the true menace is the idealistic human.
I've always hated the producers of the show for suddenly making Yates betray UNIT and just lose his mind entirely. It creates more tension, but it just feels so sudden and it's a shame for such a good character.
Production: 4
This serial has the questionable dishonour for having huge dinosaurs run around London, brought to life with terribly aged puppetry and CSO work. And while that is the case, I don't find the visual effects quite as bad as people say. Sure, the dinos are more ridiculous than scary, but the idea is still pretty interesting. Nut perhaps this story was just ahead of its time.
Too bad, unlike other directors who have been conscious about the technical limitations of their serials, Paddy Russell seems happy to include several lengthy sequences with the ropey dinosaur effects and even worse sound effects. That's kind of what takes away from the believability of the serial.
What Russell and the production crew have succeeded to do is to make central London seem dead and deserted. It gives the serial a spooky atmosphere.
Pacing: 8
This serial doesn't save up on dinosaur encounters creating tense (and often unintentionally hilarious) scenes that keep the story flowing at a better pace than the average sic-parter. Yates' betrayal and the unusual conditions also keep it interesting.
Atmosphere: 7
At best, some of the dinosaur encounters are intense and somewhat creepy, but most of them are ridiculous. Frustration and annoyance over Yates' actions also loom strong over the story.
The second half has that sensation of creeping tension and endless political backstabbing that gives the final episodes more of an edge over the first three.
Impact: 6
Invasion of the Dinosaurs is one of those stories that isn't well-regarded among fans, mostly due to the terrible visual effects. But if you can overlook the effect and look deeper into the core of the story, you'll see that it present several interesting ideas not explored on the show earlier.
Replay Value: 7
This is a pretty fun one if ridiculous and slightly dragging at places. Not one I wouldn't want to rewatch now and then.
Random Observations:
Unusually, the first episode of the serial is simply titled "Invasion" onscreen to preserve the twist that it is dinosaurs who invade. But since everyone watching today sees the title of the entire serial anyway, that doesnät work for modern viewers.
The first episode of this serial exists only in black-and-white. Without colour, the dinosaurs don't look too bad.
The reportedly expensive Whomobile, paid for by Jon Pertwee himself and intended to replace Bessie as the Doctor's cool new vehicle, makes its first appearance here. Sadly, it only reappears in Planet of the Spiders before being scrapped.
The Brigadier: "Well, don't just stand there Benton! Go and put yourself under arrest!"
Review by Theo KallströmVIP 6BlockedParent2020-06-18T06:06:23Z
nvasion of the Dinosaurs is a fun, albeit visually badly aged, adventure with one of the more fascinating plots hiding behind the fake dinosaur puppets.
Story: 10
Malcolm Hulke uses the classic opening of having the Doctor and his companion arrive in the middle of mysterious events without having the faintest clue of what is going on. It's like the opening to The Invasion (1968). After that, he creates a pretty exciting action-adventure also in the vein of the earlier Cyberman invasion story.
Similarly to several Moffat era episodes, Invasion of the Dinosaurs has somewhat of a timey wimey plot, with different parts of history crashing into one point in time (or "time eddy" as Hulke calls it). And then he throws in a couple of pretty unexpected twists to make the story more fleshed out. The twist at the end of Episode 3 is particularly shocking.
There's some well-crafted tension, counterplot and treachery among the UNIT personnel and the other involved people. It makes the struggle seem more difficult ant not oo simple. The way everything is resolved is disappointingly simple.
Now, what feels like a draw-out cop-out is UNIT being convinced of the Doctor being guilty for everything, despite everything he has helped them with over the years. Isn't that jumping to conclusions?
Acting: 8
Jon Pertwee couldn't be any better in his portrayal of the Doctor, but it is Elisabeth Sladen who just keep getting better for every story. She shows unusually high levels of confidence and bravery very early on and Sladen captures her journalistic and feministic attitudes perfectly.
Peter Miles is back as yet another estranged scientist, after his turn as Professor Lawrence in The Silurians. Everything in the way he looks to the way he speaks screams suspicious crook. John Bennett appears as General Finch and looks very menacing and creepy with that moustache and pale face.
The Doctor: 8
I love it how the Doctor confidently takes the situation he suddenly finds himself in with Sarah very lightly. Then, once he is finally believed for who he is, he starts taking things more seriously.
The Companions: 10
Sarah proves to be of great use here, both for the Doctor and UNIT. She uses her experience as a journalist to dig up relevant information, even though she has a tough time making herself heard. That being said, she has quite some skills in persuasion. No companion has done their research the way Sarah does.
The Monster/Villain: 8
What makes Sir Charles Grover such a good villain is the fact that he only does what he believes is best for Earth and in a way, he's not evil. There are people in real life who also believe in returning life on Earth back to a pre-human state to save the ecosystem. In this story, the monsters are merely a gimmick, and the true menace is the idealistic human.
I've always hated the producers of the show for suddenly making Yates betray UNIT and just lose his mind entirely. It creates more tension, but it just feels so sudden and it's a shame for such a good character.
Production: 4
This serial has the questionable dishonour for having huge dinosaurs run around London, brought to life with terribly aged puppetry and CSO work. And while that is the case, I don't find the visual effects quite as bad as people say. Sure, the dinos are more ridiculous than scary, but the idea is still pretty interesting. Nut perhaps this story was just ahead of its time.
Too bad, unlike other directors who have been conscious about the technical limitations of their serials, Paddy Russell seems happy to include several lengthy sequences with the ropey dinosaur effects and even worse sound effects. That's kind of what takes away from the believability of the serial.
What Russell and the production crew have succeeded to do is to make central London seem dead and deserted. It gives the serial a spooky atmosphere.
Pacing: 8
This serial doesn't save up on dinosaur encounters creating tense (and often unintentionally hilarious) scenes that keep the story flowing at a better pace than the average sic-parter. Yates' betrayal and the unusual conditions also keep it interesting.
Atmosphere: 7
At best, some of the dinosaur encounters are intense and somewhat creepy, but most of them are ridiculous. Frustration and annoyance over Yates' actions also loom strong over the story.
The second half has that sensation of creeping tension and endless political backstabbing that gives the final episodes more of an edge over the first three.
Impact: 6
Invasion of the Dinosaurs is one of those stories that isn't well-regarded among fans, mostly due to the terrible visual effects. But if you can overlook the effect and look deeper into the core of the story, you'll see that it present several interesting ideas not explored on the show earlier.
Replay Value: 7
This is a pretty fun one if ridiculous and slightly dragging at places. Not one I wouldn't want to rewatch now and then.
Random Observations:
Unusually, the first episode of the serial is simply titled "Invasion" onscreen to preserve the twist that it is dinosaurs who invade. But since everyone watching today sees the title of the entire serial anyway, that doesnät work for modern viewers.
The first episode of this serial exists only in black-and-white. Without colour, the dinosaurs don't look too bad.
The reportedly expensive Whomobile, paid for by Jon Pertwee himself and intended to replace Bessie as the Doctor's cool new vehicle, makes its first appearance here. Sadly, it only reappears in Planet of the Spiders before being scrapped.
The Brigadier: "Well, don't just stand there Benton! Go and put yourself under arrest!"
Score: 76/120