The Invasion of Time (TV story)

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The Invasion of Time was the sixth and final story of season 15 of Doctor Who. It was memorable for its extensive use of the TARDIS interior, as well as its additions to the mythology of Gallifrey. It featured the final appearances of Leela and K9 Mark I — though it also immediately implied that the Doctor was merely replacing K9 with a new model.

Its script was a last-minute replacement, quickly written by script editor Anthony Read and producer Graham Williams when the original season-ender by David Weir was abandoned. Contemporary viewers of the programme who participated in the Doctor Who Appreciation Society's season 15 poll voted it the best story of the season. (REF: The Fourth Doctor Handbook) Narratively, it established that Sontarans were a major, credible threat to the Time Lords, hence laying the groundwork for their knowledge of Gallifrey's demise in The Sontaran Stratagem.

Synopsis

The Doctor returns to Gallifrey, and his behaviour is somewhat unusual. He claims presidential rights and is inaugurated President. It soon turns out that he has led a group of aliens called Vardans to the planet, in order to eradicate them completely. After they are destroyed, the Sontarans take their opportunity and follow them in their invasion, before being destroyed by the Doctor.

Plot

Episode one

The Fourth Doctor returns to Gallifrey after meeting a group of aliens in space, bringing Leela and K9 with him. He is behaving very strangely and when the Chancellory Guard under their Commander, Andred, arrive at the Panopticon Chamber to interrogate him, the Doctor demands to be taken to Chancellor Borusa, who is now in charge of the Time Lords.

The Doctor signs the aliens agreement.

The Doctor claims the vacant Presidency of Gallifrey having previously been a candidate and, after the demise of Chancellor Goth, is now automatically elected. Under law this request cannot be refused. The aliens watch him keenly, stating that they have chosen well. The Doctor then chooses a Presidential chamber and asks it be decorated with lead lining throughout. Shortly afterward a ceremony is held to swear him in as President of Gallifrey and he is presented with the various trappings of office. However, when the circlet connecting him to the Matrix, repository of all Time Lord knowledge, is placed on his head, the Doctor collapses in pain.

Episode two

Leela attempts to break in.

The Doctor is taken to the Chancellory to rest and recover. When he regains consciousness he reminds the Time Lords that no aliens are allowed on Gallifrey and instructs that Leela be expelled from the Capitol Citadel, where she will have to fend in the wastelands.

She tries to avoid banishment, but the Doctor is serious about this banishment. The Doctor now retreats to the TARDIS where he shares a secret plan with K9, but is obviously very concerned about the situation he has found himself in.

He is planning to aid an invasion of Gallifrey itself and to this end sets about destroying the transduction barrier that defends the planet from external threat. K9 sets about this task while the Doctor returns to the Panopticon, the great hall of the Time Lords, and laughs cruelly as three alien beings start to materialise.

Episode three

Leela and Rodan explore the wastes.

The invading beings are known as Vardans. They appear as shimmering manifestations who made an alliance with the Doctor some time ago, and the Doctor advises the Time Lords, including the stubborn Borusa, to submit to their new and powerful masters. The Doctor then asks Borusa to meet him in his office, and when this happens the Doctor explains he has had the lead walls installed to prevent the Vardans entering the room on thought waves and reading his mind. He sent Leela away to protect her, he explains, and is now able to work with Borusa to defeat the Vardan threat.

A new problem has emerged, however, with the ascendancy of the obsequious and compliant Castellan Kelner, who is being far too co-operative with the Vardan occupation. The toadying yet ambitious Castellan soon has Borusa placed under house arrest and starts a process of expelling trouble-making Time Lords from the safety of the Capitol.

Leela has meanwhile kept her faith in the Doctor and reasons that if he wishes her to leave the Capitol it is with good reason, so she departs for the wastelands. She is accompanied by Rodan, a Time Lady who previously maintained the transduction barrier. They are welcomed warily by a tribe of outsiders who have rejected Time Lord society and live in the wastelands. Their leader, Nesbin, explains some of the background to his tribe. Back in the Capitol, however, things are looking grim for the Doctor when Andred corners him and decides to execute him in the name of liberty.

Episode four

The Doctor consults the Matrix.

K9 helps the Doctor overpower Andred, and then explains the danger and abilities of the Vardans to Andred, with his TARDIS providing a shield to his thoughts. The Doctor is hoping to persuade the Vardans to reveal their true form so that he can time loop their planet. Leela has also organised her own resistance movement in the wastelands, comprising Nesbin’s people and the exiled Time Lords, all of whom are drilled into a fighting force which soon launches an assault on the Capitol.

The aliens and Kelner have meanwhile decided the Doctor is behaving in an untrustworthy manner. The Doctor reaffirms his loyalty to them by agreeing to dismantle the final force field protecting Gallifrey from attack. He does not fully disable it, but rather places a large hole in it. The Vardans use the hole to properly invade Gallifrey and appear as humanoid warriors. Their manifestation enables K9 to track down their home planet and supply the Doctor with the correct co-ordinates.

He uses this to beam the Vardans back to their home world and then traps it in a time loop. At about the same time Leela and her warriors reach the Panopticon, but celebrations are short-lived when a Sontaran warrior appears in the chamber.

Episode five

Kelner and Stor talk.

Gallifrey has now been invaded by the Sontarans, led by Commander Stor, who finds Kelner ever ready to pledge support, even if the other Time Lords remain resistant. The Doctor and his party escape and the Doctor uses his freedom to try and pressure Borusa into revealing to him the location of the Great Key of Rassilon, a missing item of the Presidential regalia. They then regroup at the TARDIS where Rodan is put to work using the TARDIS’ controls to repair the hole in the forcefield. However, Kelner imperils their resistance when he manipulates the stabiliser banks of the Doctor’s TARDIS to try and destroy the resistance force within by hurling them to the heart of a Black Star.

Episode six

The Doctor presents the De-mat Gun.

The Doctor manages to override the threat, so their enemies change tack. The Sontarans, assisted by Castellan Kelner, gain access to the Doctor's TARDIS and try to hunt down the President and his friends, pursuing them through the labyrinthine corridors. Stor is after the Great Key too, knowing the Doctor has now persuaded Borusa to yield it to him. The Doctor uses distractions to buy time while Leela and the outsiders kill the remaining Sontaran troopers. On the Doctor’s instruction, a hypnotised Rodan and K9 construct a special forbidden Time Lord weapon: the Demat Gun. Powered by the Great Key itself, the De-mat Gun erases its victims from time itself. The Doctor takes the Gun and confronts Stor in the Panopticon. Stor intends to destroy the Eye of Harmony with a bomb, but the blast is cancelled out by the Doctor with the Demat Gun which obliterates Stor, wipes the Doctor’s mind of recent events, and also destroys itself. Kelner is arrested and Borusa begins the process of rebuilding Gallifrey.

The Doctor is ready to leave, but Leela decides to stay on Gallifrey because she has fallen in love with Commander Andred, leader of the Chancellory Guards. K9 decides to stay behind to look after Leela, and they both watch as the TARDIS dematerialises. Inside the TARDIS the Doctor pushes out a box labelled "K9 MII." He then grins mischievously.

Cast

Crew

References

Gallifreyan artefacts

Gallifreyan culture

  • Those who live outside the Citadel are the Outsiders.

Gallifreyan locations

Gallifreyan weapons

K9

Planets and Timeline

Psychic powers

Races and species

  • The Vardans can travel along any broadcast wavelength and are telepathic. Their planet has the co-ordinates 3052 alpha 7, 14th span.

Spacecraft

Time Lords

Story notes

  • Leela remains on Gallifrey in the conclusion of this story. This was Louise Jameson's final ongoing onscreen appearance; she reprised the role in Dimensions in Time and later in the Big Finish Productions Gallifrey series of audio dramas.
  • Leela's romance with Andred is undeveloped in the story. Jameson was invited to continue her role. She was unsure whether she would stay until the end of recording, so a plot device had to be ready to allow her to stay on Gallifrey.
  • The Sontarans return in this story, making it their third appearance on TV and their last (save flashbacks) until DW: The Two Doctors.
  • This story had a working title of The Invaders of Time.
  • Rodan is the first female Gallifreyan to appear on screen since Susan Foreman more than a decade earlier.
  • Other than K9 Mk II, The Doctor is without companions at the end of the story, making the period between this story and the next (The Ribos Operation), one of the few plausible spots during the show's run which allows for placement of any number of additional Doctor Who stories in literature, audio, or comics.
  • According to Into the Unknown, a featurette on the DVD release of the preceding story, Underworld, the budget on that story was so tight consideration was given to cancelling it and allotting the story's budget to The Invasion of Time.
  • This story provides one of the most extensive views of the interior of the TARDIS ever provided in the original series (or the revival), although rather than following the established white-and-roundel designs in place since 1963, much of the inside strongly resembled Earth locations such as an indoor swimming pool and an industrial building. The traditional designs returned the next time viewers were given a major "tour" in DW: Castrovalva.
  • Allowing Humans on Gallifrey is possibly no longer a problem as The Doctor doesn't get in trouble for bringing Leela, who is a descendant of a human, to Gallifrey, while he claimed that Sarah Jane couldn't come with him due to Human's not being allowed on Gallifrey. The Doctor does have Leela expelled after he is invested (in part 2), allowing her to bring the Outsiders to his assistance (in part 4). In part 2:
    • The Doctor: What's she doing here?
    • Leela: You brought me here.
    • The Doctor: Impossible! No aliens are allowed in here.
  • This story replaced the canceled "Killers of the Dark" story.

Ratings

  • Part 1 - 11.2 million viewers
  • Part 2 - 11.4 million viewers
  • Part 3 - 9.5 million viewers
  • Part 4 - 10.9 million viewers
  • Part 5 - 10.3 million viewers
  • Part 6 - 9.8 million viewers

Myths and rumours

  • Rodan was the prototype for Romana. Related rumours include actress Hilary Ryan being unavailable for the following season, which resulted in Romana being created as a replacement for Rodan.

Filming locations

  • Beachfields Quarry, Cormongers Lane, Redhill, Surrey
  • St Anne's Hospital, Redstone Hill, Redhill, Surrey
  • British Oxygen, Blacks Road, Hammersmith
  • Bray Studios, Slough
  • BBC Television Centre (TC8), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • When the Doctor hops down the corridor in part two, he knocks the camera as he goes past.
  • When the Doctor is on the spaceship at the beginning of the story, he has his hat and scarf with him but when he enters the TARDIS, they are on the hat stand, and not with the Doctor.
  • During a chase sequence within the "bathroom" of the TARDIS, a Sontaran is seen tripping over a chair.
  • In one scene there is a dirt mark one side of the Doctor's face, but in the next scene it is on the other side of his face.
  • In the end scene of Part 4 Commander Stor holds his gun between his fingers, but at the start of Part 5 his grip is different.
  • In Part 5 you can clearly see that the TARDIS console is made of wood.
  • One of K9's ears gets knocked off centre.

Continuity

Timeline

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

Bonus features:

Notes:

  • DVD Region 2 UK cover

    DVD Region 2 UK cover

  • DVD Region 4 Australian cover

    DVD Region 4 Australian cover

  • DVD Region 1 US cover

    DVD Region 1 US cover

Boxed set release

This story was released in the Bred for War DVD boxset on the 5th May alongside all the classic series Sontaran stories (The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Experiment, The Invasion Of Time and The Two Doctors). The DVD is the same as the one sold seperately. Released 8th July in Australia.

  • DVD Region 2 UK cover

    DVD Region 2 UK cover

  • DVD Region 4 AUS cover

    DVD Region 4 AUS cover

VHS releases

Released as Doctor Who: The Invasion of Time

Released:

  • VHS UK cover

    VHS UK cover

  • VHS Australian cover

    VHS Australian cover

  • VHS US cover

    VHS US cover

Novelisation

Invasion of Time novel.jpg
Main article: Doctor Who and the Invasion of Time

Novelised as Doctor Who and the Invasion of Time by Terrance Dicks in 1980.

See also

Concerning Gallifrey being invaded or destroyed

External links

Template:Season 15

v • e
Sontaran stories
For the purposes of this list, a "Sontaran story" is one in which one living, authentic Sontaran plays a part within the confines of the story, outside of flashbacks to previous stories and cliffhangers that lead into the following story. For this reason, stories such as The Halloween Apocalypse and Survivors of the Flux are not counted due to the Sontarans' appearance being defined by their importance to following stories. Stories like The End of Time and The Time of the Doctor are also not included due to the Sontarans' appearance being no consequence to the plot of the story. Stories featuring Strax of the Paternoster Gang are only included on the Paternoster Gang story template.
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