Episode #97 : The Invasion of Time

Borusa : "You have access to the greatest source of knowledge in the universe."

The Doctor : "Well, I do talk to myself sometimes."

Episode 97:   The Invasion of Time.
Companions: 4th Doctor, K9 and Leela.
Air Date:       Six episodes. 4th February to 11th March 1978.

After a meeting in space with a group of unseen aliens the Doctor returns to Gallifrey and claims the presidency of the Time Lords. Leela meanwhile tries to work out why he is behaving out of character. At his induction, the Doctor is 'crowned' with a device giving him access to the Matrix. He then arranges for the transduction barriers around Gallifrey to be put out of action by K9. When this is done, his alien 'friends' materialise. They are telepathic invaders called Vardans. The Doctor finally springs his trap and the Vardans are banished. Then, however, Gallifrey is invaded by Sontarans who, unknown to the Doctor, were using the Vardans to enable them to conquer the Time Lords. The Doctor uses knowledge extracted from the Matrix by K9 to construct a forbidden de-mat gun, activated by the Great Key of Rassilon. He then uses this to kill the Sontarans, although his memory of recent events is wiped in the process.

The Invasion of Time is in my opinion one of the worse if not THE worst story in the classic series. The production values are just truly shocking in this one. The Vardans appear initially as floating sheets of tin foil and then solidify into space age British colonial soldiers complete with pith helmets. Then the Sontarans arrive and the make up for them is absolutely terrible. Finally, during a chase sequence through the corridors and rooms of the TARDIS brick corridors and warehouse looking sets are used, completely destroying the mystique. Just shockingly bad.

The only positives that come out of this adventure are more information on the Time Lords and their political ways, more time with Borusa - setting him up for his next appearance and some hints about Rassilon, the founder of Time Lord society on Gallifrey. But that is it.

Sadly we see the departure of Leela and the K9 mark 1 at the end of this. Leela elects to remain on Gallifrey to marry someone who hardly knows and K9 decides to remain with her. It does make me wonder why Leela is allowed but the Doctor had to abandon Sarah Jane Smith at his last visit. I do miss Leela though. As the primitive/noble savage type companion I felt that she added a bit to the show that more capable companions lack.

The Invasion of Time is so dreadful that I recommend avoiding it altogether.