N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
Yes, the dinosaurs are pants – let’s get that out of the way immediately — at one point it looks as though the Doctor is being attacked by Rod Hull and Emu and the rest seem more cuddly than terrifying — but in contrast with a certain other Doctor Who story with the word ‘Dinosaurs’ in the title, at least the special effects are the only thing that is rubbish about the story.
“Great Britain always closes on Sundays.”
The Doctor, Invasion of the Dinosaurs:
Part One
Part One, with its scenes of an eerie desolate London, is particularly impressive.
You know things are bad when the emergency services aren’t answering! There’s a rather bloody car crash scene and the seriousness of it all is enough to put you in mind of the doom-laden seventh season.
“There never was a golden age, Mike. It’s all an illusion.”
The Doctor, Invasion of the Dinosaurs:
Part Six
The soldiers are terrible shots, mind. They couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo let alone a ruddy great T-rex — it’s the sort of thing that would never happened back in the HAVOC days — but to compensate for that we get a really cracking bit of character development for Mike Yates. His treachery is both a shock and actually sadly plausible ‘after all that business in Wales with the giant maggots‘. It’s a nice twist in Part Two when you expect the big reveal to be that it’s General Finch (who, it turns out, is also in on Operation Golden Age).
I also like how Sarah Jane gets into scrapes and troubles by following her journalistic instinct (and, as she recognises herself, her own too-trusting nature), although Grover must have the smoothest elevator in the existence for her not to notice she’s been taken down to the bunker.
“We left Earth three months ago”
Mark, Invasion of the Dinosaurs:
Part Three
However obviously and quickly the spaceship sub-plot unravels — Jeremy Corbyn and Edith Artois hardly make for the most terrifying of adversaries — it still makes for a cracking cliffhanger to Part Three and a welcome break from model dinosaurs leaning toward the camera.
As for Grover and Whitaker — where do they end up? As dinosaur munchies? How far back do they go — the Stone Age? Perhaps the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara bumped into them all those years ago? Maybe that’s why the cave dwellers spoke such good English?
I was born during the original transmission of Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Whilst I’m sure it wasn’t high on my Mum’s priorities to get back to the sofa for Doctor Who on the Saturday following my birth, from here (at least until The Five Doctors), it’s possible (if unlikely) that I could have seen the episodes on first transmission.
For all my apparent flippancy, Invasion of the Dinosaurs remains a serious tale and its assertion that greed is the cause of pollution of the mess humans have made of the world is one I find hard to dispute. Wobbly effects aside, it continues the strong start to the Third Doctor’s final season.
My daughter had great fun drawing all the dinosaurs. She said she’s going to give the Daleks and Peladon a miss but she’ll be back for the Spiders at the end of the season!
"The dinosaurs are so scary … well, the T-Rex is a bit freaky."
"For the first episode the title is just Invasion, not Invasion of the Dinosaurs because they didn't want to spoil it."
"In this story the Doctor gets a futuristic-looking new car that has not been named yet."
Son of UT Rating: 8/10
