A very fast paced start to the episode picking up from episode 2's classic cliffhanger, what has happened to Sarah Jane? The music helps to add to the suspense. The Doctor and Sarah now know what's happening and once she's rescued him from the village bomb they are captured in the Kraal base, the guard brings in water and there's the classic line 'if we can lure that guard in and give him a good stiff jolt' I wonder if that was in the script or added in by Tom? A very good episode which was slightly down on the calibre of eps 1 and 2. Someone who probably wasn't watching was Kenneth Williams who had described episode 2 as silly in his diary. The finale next....
4 Reviews
"So this is where you put Crayford together, careless of you to lose his eye." Good third episode.
poolandrews17 July 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Doctor Who: The Android Invasion: Part 3 starts as the Doctor (Tom Baker) & Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) are captured by the Kraal androids, they are imprisoned. Then the evil Styggron (Martin Friend) decides to use the Doctors knowledge by transferring his memories into a computer using a machine which scans the brain, Styggron tells the Doctor that the Kraals are planning to escape their own planets rising radiation levels by taking over Earth using his androids to replace prominent figures & a deadly virus that will wipe out the human race within three weeks. The Doctor must find a way to stop them or it's curtains for us...
Episode 15 from season 13 this Doctor Who adventure was originally aired here in the UK during December 1975, directed by Barry Letts I've rather liked The Android Invasion so far. The script by Terry Nation has some neat ideas in it, there's the Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) side of things as well as your typical sci-fi alien invasion flick. In fact there seems to be too much going on here with duplicate villages, deadly virus's, aliens & android replacements all juggled around. It doesn't quite fit together perfectly but so far it's a decent effort, again Tom Baker gets all the good lines here & he's just very watchable. This episode has a strange cliffhanger ending in which Sarah Jane looks ridiculous & gets to pull a funny face like she's pressing her lips against a sheet of glass. We never get to see what happens to the Sarah Jane android either for some reason, anyway I've enjoyed this all the way through so far & it's as simple & straight forward as that. Perhaps one of the lesser know Doctor Who stories, it's still better than a lot of the stuff from the 80's.
Until this episode the special effects had been fine with good monster masks (except for the mouth movements) & good production design but there just had to be at least one terrible effect didn't there? Here we see an absolutely awful toy spaceship with the Doctor & Sarah Jane superimposed in front of it, then when it cuts to the thing taking off it looks nothing like the silver toy ship in the previous shots & is represented by NASA stock footage of a Saturn V taking off. It looks terrible & I'm not one of those who think the bad special effects help Doctor Who, sure they add a little charm & unintentional comedy value but just think how more effective these stories would have been with good, not even brilliant but just plain good special effects? Then again one bad special effect within three 25 minute episodes isn't too bad I suppose.
The Android Invasion: Part 3 is a good third instalment to a story that I'm personally liking, it hasn't quite managed to retain the mystery or intrigue of parts 1 & 2 but it was always going to have to reveal itself at some point.
Episode 15 from season 13 this Doctor Who adventure was originally aired here in the UK during December 1975, directed by Barry Letts I've rather liked The Android Invasion so far. The script by Terry Nation has some neat ideas in it, there's the Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) side of things as well as your typical sci-fi alien invasion flick. In fact there seems to be too much going on here with duplicate villages, deadly virus's, aliens & android replacements all juggled around. It doesn't quite fit together perfectly but so far it's a decent effort, again Tom Baker gets all the good lines here & he's just very watchable. This episode has a strange cliffhanger ending in which Sarah Jane looks ridiculous & gets to pull a funny face like she's pressing her lips against a sheet of glass. We never get to see what happens to the Sarah Jane android either for some reason, anyway I've enjoyed this all the way through so far & it's as simple & straight forward as that. Perhaps one of the lesser know Doctor Who stories, it's still better than a lot of the stuff from the 80's.
Until this episode the special effects had been fine with good monster masks (except for the mouth movements) & good production design but there just had to be at least one terrible effect didn't there? Here we see an absolutely awful toy spaceship with the Doctor & Sarah Jane superimposed in front of it, then when it cuts to the thing taking off it looks nothing like the silver toy ship in the previous shots & is represented by NASA stock footage of a Saturn V taking off. It looks terrible & I'm not one of those who think the bad special effects help Doctor Who, sure they add a little charm & unintentional comedy value but just think how more effective these stories would have been with good, not even brilliant but just plain good special effects? Then again one bad special effect within three 25 minute episodes isn't too bad I suppose.
The Android Invasion: Part 3 is a good third instalment to a story that I'm personally liking, it hasn't quite managed to retain the mystery or intrigue of parts 1 & 2 but it was always going to have to reveal itself at some point.
Disappointment in Devesham - after a great start.
A_Kind_Of_CineMagic25 November 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Review of all 4 episodes:
Review of all 4 episodes:
This is a very solid serial overall but in the otherwise incredible Season 13 this story ends up being the one 'disappointment'. That does not start out to be the case though as Part 1 is really intriguing and well executed with so much interest, difference and promise. It is reminiscent of a John Wyndham story with a village where strange things are going on and people act in extremely odd ways with obvious sinister interference from a mystery force. That leads on to a very good second episode and a reasonable but slightly disappointing third episode then it all rather falls apart in the 4th episode which causes the plot to make no sense.
The Doctor and Sarah arrive in the village of Devesham after a run in with some threatening figures in helmets and boiler suits. At this point it seems like a Terror of the Autons follow up. They find the village deserted but then residents return acting very strangely as if in a trance before all suddenly acting more normally at precisely the same time. It has a wonderful eerie quality, intelligent dialogue and fascinating ideas. It feels like a Midwich Cuckoos/Stepford Wives type story and I love it. It turns out to be an invasion plan by alien race the Kraals using androids and a deadly virus.
The eeriness and mystery of the first episode draws you in and there is good fun and entertainment in the second episode. There is great interplay between The Doctor and Sarah with some funny scenes and some very good dialogue. The atmosphere created in the first episode is diminished gradually once the Kraals turn up and the mystery begins to be lifted but the second episode is still strong. The Kraals are actually a decent enemy at first, mixing military menace with science. They do not look impressive at all but I do not judge just by effects/makeup and the threat they pose seems good at first. Part 2 also has a really fun and striking cliffhanger that adds further quality. There are not many faults in these first two episodes and it looks like almost maintaining the standard of season 13 which had been incredible up to this point.
The third episode starts to show some cracks in the story writing, however, as the plot-holes begin to become apparent. You begin to realise the plans of the Kraals make no sense as they destroy their carefully created fake village, fail miserably to deal with the Doctor and reveal a plan to use a virus to attack mankind rather than androids. At this stage things are still seeming possible to be salvaged but then there is the rather dodgy rocket journey which I felt was the start of things going rapidly downhill. The plot does not make sense in Part 4 and we learn Crayford supposedly never realised he had an eye under his eye patch. The dialogue and story in Part 4 just goes wrong. Also, as Nicholas Courtney was unavailable the Brigadier had to be replaced in the story by a Colonel who is unconvincing and a very poor substitute for the wonderful 'Brig'. We do get the final appearances for Benton and Harry Sullivan in Doctor Who which is notable but all the more sad as their final episode is pretty disappointing with them as mere spare parts.
This adventure sadly ultimately makes little sense when you reach the conclusion but Tom Baker and Lis Sladen are fantastic throughout and the first episode is great. There is plenty of quality up til the latter parts of the story so overall it is an enjoyable, interesting serial but with 2 episodes which are a let down compared to the superb standard of Season 13.
My ratings: Part 1 - 10/10, Part 2 - 9/10, Part 3 - 7/10, Part 4 - 5.5/10. Overall - 7.88/10.
Review of all 4 episodes:
This is a very solid serial overall but in the otherwise incredible Season 13 this story ends up being the one 'disappointment'. That does not start out to be the case though as Part 1 is really intriguing and well executed with so much interest, difference and promise. It is reminiscent of a John Wyndham story with a village where strange things are going on and people act in extremely odd ways with obvious sinister interference from a mystery force. That leads on to a very good second episode and a reasonable but slightly disappointing third episode then it all rather falls apart in the 4th episode which causes the plot to make no sense.
The Doctor and Sarah arrive in the village of Devesham after a run in with some threatening figures in helmets and boiler suits. At this point it seems like a Terror of the Autons follow up. They find the village deserted but then residents return acting very strangely as if in a trance before all suddenly acting more normally at precisely the same time. It has a wonderful eerie quality, intelligent dialogue and fascinating ideas. It feels like a Midwich Cuckoos/Stepford Wives type story and I love it. It turns out to be an invasion plan by alien race the Kraals using androids and a deadly virus.
The eeriness and mystery of the first episode draws you in and there is good fun and entertainment in the second episode. There is great interplay between The Doctor and Sarah with some funny scenes and some very good dialogue. The atmosphere created in the first episode is diminished gradually once the Kraals turn up and the mystery begins to be lifted but the second episode is still strong. The Kraals are actually a decent enemy at first, mixing military menace with science. They do not look impressive at all but I do not judge just by effects/makeup and the threat they pose seems good at first. Part 2 also has a really fun and striking cliffhanger that adds further quality. There are not many faults in these first two episodes and it looks like almost maintaining the standard of season 13 which had been incredible up to this point.
The third episode starts to show some cracks in the story writing, however, as the plot-holes begin to become apparent. You begin to realise the plans of the Kraals make no sense as they destroy their carefully created fake village, fail miserably to deal with the Doctor and reveal a plan to use a virus to attack mankind rather than androids. At this stage things are still seeming possible to be salvaged but then there is the rather dodgy rocket journey which I felt was the start of things going rapidly downhill. The plot does not make sense in Part 4 and we learn Crayford supposedly never realised he had an eye under his eye patch. The dialogue and story in Part 4 just goes wrong. Also, as Nicholas Courtney was unavailable the Brigadier had to be replaced in the story by a Colonel who is unconvincing and a very poor substitute for the wonderful 'Brig'. We do get the final appearances for Benton and Harry Sullivan in Doctor Who which is notable but all the more sad as their final episode is pretty disappointing with them as mere spare parts.
This adventure sadly ultimately makes little sense when you reach the conclusion but Tom Baker and Lis Sladen are fantastic throughout and the first episode is great. There is plenty of quality up til the latter parts of the story so overall it is an enjoyable, interesting serial but with 2 episodes which are a let down compared to the superb standard of Season 13.
My ratings: Part 1 - 10/10, Part 2 - 9/10, Part 3 - 7/10, Part 4 - 5.5/10. Overall - 7.88/10.
Nothing Will Go Wrong...
Xstal30 June 2022
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