Comments on: The Invasion

By: Tom Beck

Tom Beck — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:14:32 +0000

“The Invasion” is indeed a superb episode. What is interesting is, even before they replaced the missing episodes with animation, a bootleg of the suriving 6 copies was circulating among fandom starting in the late 1980s (I have a copy somewhere) – and it was perfectly followable, even missing parts 1 and 4 (which I think are the destroyed episodes). It’s one of the rare stories where Troughton played it (mostly) straight with very little of his stock-in-trade (at least as the Doctor) silliness. One of his best.

By: Doctor Memory

Doctor Memory — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 06:05:21 +0000

Vivian: every once in a while it’s still in a quarry. I think it’s intended as a nostalgic touch.

By: harry b

harry b — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 03:04:52 +0000

Vivian—its a different league, honestly. This is high-tech high-octane sci-fi, no expense spared (well, except for the fact that Cardiff is cheap). You have too watch it. If you watch The Invasion you gradually realise that there are, in fact, only 6 actual cybermen. IN the new series season 2 2-parter story about the cybermen there seem to be thousands of them. Its spectacular.

Of course, I’d have said all of the above about the old Dr. Who, but I’d have been being ironic.

By: vivian

vivian — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 01:44:00 +0000

Is it still always in a quarry, or would that be a spoiler?

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 04:54:36 +0000

In current series, the aliens have shifted their focus to Cardiff.

By: alphie

alphie — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 02:39:18 +0000

Is this the same story that was shown in the new Dr. Who series where the cybermen and the daleks engage in smack talk?

By: harry b

harry b — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 02:33:23 +0000

PS; hidari’s right, by the way, and no self-respecting Doctor Who fan would deny it.

By: harry b

harry b — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 02:32:18 +0000

joel; there’s no real need to watch the Doctor in any sort of order (apart from the occasional series, like the Keys to Time, Trial of a Time Lord, etc, but those are close to incomprehensible anyway, so once you accept that watching them out of order has its own rewards).

vivian: carelessness? That’s my reason, anyway. But, I could justify it after the fact, having recently gone through a lot of DM, by observing that there is a limit to how often one can hear that song go through one’s head without wanting to bang it against a brick wall (the head, not the song).

By: vivian

vivian — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 01:41:08 +0000

Harry, why do you link to Dangermouse seasons 1-6 and not the “complete” set? Looks like most “people who view this” agree with you but I can’t tell why.

Joel, didn’t your social assumptions distinguish between “asexual” (or unaware) and “gay”?

By: Gdr

Gdr — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 12:32:44 +0000

missing-episodes.com has a survey of the BBC’s destruction of its own archives: among the losses are Z-Cars, Hancock’s Half Hour, Dixon of Dock Green, the 1964 adaptation of Madame Bovary, the 1965 adaption of Charles Kingsley’s “Hereward the Wake” …

By: Hidari

Hidari — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 10:33:32 +0000

The most notorious and grotesque act of this cultural vandalism (sorry, Dr Who fans!) was losing most of the first two series of ‘Not only but also’. Yes that’s the best two series of the greatest show ever made by (by popular consent) the greatest comedian the UK has ever produced. Well done BBC.

However the Beeb still has a complete and full copy of every episode of Eastenders so that’s the main thing.

By: Doctor Memory

Doctor Memory — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 05:31:45 +0000

c.l.: yeah, the BBC in the 60s was notorious for tossing entire warehouses of their old programming (.75” videotape, film, audio) into landfills and incinerators. Large chunks of lots of shows are gone forever as a result: Doctor Who gets a bit more press because of obsessive fans, but it’s far from alone.

To be fair, much of it isn’t missed, and in the pre-digital age preservation of A/V material was a much more expensive proposition: it took not only space, but preferably climate-controlled space.

By: Joel Turnipseed

Joel Turnipseed — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 05:13:15 +0000

Hmmm… this explains, in part, why the BBC still haven’t come out with a good comprehensive set? I like to buy my TV series’ in one shot, if I can (e.g., boxed sets of West Wing and M*A*S*H were terrific; the Star Treks are in the Wish List, etc.). The scattershot nature of the Dr. Who issues (not unlike Fraggle Rock and the Muppet Show) has put me off reliving one of the long-forgotten pleasures of my youth.

As for the impression of Americans: I fondly remember many a junior high/high school night whiled away with PBS re-runs of Dr. Who (accompanied, in junior high with Tester’s paints and model kits—and in high school with the fresh aroma of incense and herb), and I never thought of any Englishmen as gay, except for Paul Weller and Morrissey. No, it was the American kids who couldn’t leave well enough alone watching Dr. Who—but who had also to dress like him (Tom Barker clones, all), whom I thought impossibly queer.

By: c.l. ball

c.l. ball — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 02:38:55 +0000

victims of the BBC’s recurrent vandalism, part of the criminal destruction of a good deal of its output in the fifties and sixties, even into the seventies.

I’m sorry but is Harry B. saying that the BBC destroyed its own video archives!? And of Dr. Who?!!

By: harry b

harry b — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 23:18:01 +0000

Oh, no, I think that’s a mistake. I’d be amazed if more than one of the offenders in the extra are public school. I know for sure, too, that I have frequently been assumed to be gay by Americans—mainly men, but sometimes, too, by female students (I know that because several have just straightforwardly said it to me).

nicholas, your site is amazing.