477 The Invasion of Time Part Four

EPISODE: The Invasion of Time Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 477
STORY NUMBER: 097
TRANSMITTED: 25 February 1978
WRITER: David Agnew (a.k.a. Graham Williams and Anthony Read)
DIRECTOR: Gerald Blake
SCRIPT EDITOR: Anthony Read
PRODUCER: Graham Williams
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Invasion Of Time

K-9 stuns Andred and when he recovers the Doctor tells him he's trying to get the Vardans to materialise so he can trace their planet then time loop it. He believes the Matrix has been invaded. Kelner tells the Vardans that the Doctor has been behaving oddly, but they have suspected him for some time. Beyond the capital Leela is training the Outsiders in the use of weapons. The Doctor decides to dismantle the forcefield to force the Vardans to materialise. With the forcefield down the Vardans assume the humanoid physical form. The Outsiders enter the citadel and begin to attack. K-9 & Andred await the Doctor in his office and once he is inside the Vardans deduce that the Doctor has betrayed them. K-9 is given access to the Matrix as Leela & the Outsiders arrive and using it's power to send the Vardans back to their own planet. The Doctor is delighted at having beaten them but as they celebrate four Sontaran warriors appear in the Pantoptican!

A cavalcade of smut and unintentional innuendo from "if you cannot pull of a simple palace revolution what can you pull off?" through to trying to work out what that Vardan is up to under the bacofoil as it sits it the chair. We laughed our way through it.... well apart from when we weren't despairing at the actual appearance of the Vardans. Rippling Bacofoil or humans in drab uniform? Worst Monster *EVER*. Thankfully the entire shimmery monster thing will be done a bit better when they try it next year.

The Outsiders came is filmed at Beachfields Quarry in Redhill, previously a location in planet of the Daleks.

Anyway they're gone now and in their place we have our old friends the Sontarans. Having been advised by Robert Holmes to structure a six parter as Four and Two, similar to how Holmes had Robert Banks-Stewart structure Seeds of Doom, Graham Williams and Anthony Read use Holmes' own creations to finish the serial off and in the process neatly bookend the season which opened with their eternal foes, the Rutans, in Horror of Fang Rock.