OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 224
STORY NUMBER: 046
TRANSMITTED: 30 November 1968
WRITER: Derrick Sherwin & Kit Pedler
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Peter Bryant
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The Invasion
Seeing the Cyberman reactivated the Doctor & Jamie leave, returning to their canoe. Back at UNIT HQ Captain Turner asks Isobel out for dinner as the Doctor & Jamie arrive and tell them that the Cybermen are here. The UFOs sighted are Cyberman spaceships homing in on Vaughan's deep space dishes. The Doctor speculates if the people observed going into IE are now controlled by the Cybermen. Major General Rutlidge tells the Brigadier not to investigate IE any further. The Brigadier wants to know what hold Vaughan has on Rutlidge. The Brigadier says he will over Rutlidge's head and go to UNIT HQ in Geneva to allow him to proceed. When he leaves Rutlidge calls IE. Vaughan has ordered Gregory to work with Professor Watkins on the Cerebration Mentor. When Rutlidge calls he reports tat there will be UNIT interference. Vaughan instructs him to come to IE, worrying that his control over him is weakening. Vaughan interrogates Rutlidge, wanting to know how long it will take UNIT to take action: Rutlidge says one day. Vaughan orders the Cerebration Mentor taken to the warehouse where the Cybermen are being revived. Vaughan reports to the Cyber Machine in his office that he needs the invasion plans advanced to dawn tomorrow. More Cybermen are revived and told to proceed through sewers the to their positions. Examining maps of the area the Doctor concludes that the Cybermen are hiding in the sewers, but the Brigadier thinks that they need proof. The Doctor once again examines Jamie's radio, and asks the Brigadier if UNIT has any IE equipment. Vaughan has a Cyberman revived and uses the Cerebration Mentor on it to produce fear. The Cyberman goes mad and follows other Cybermen into the sewers. Isobel comes up with idea of going into the sewers for photos of the Cybermen. The Brigadier won't let her do it as she's a woman but she, Jamie & Zoe go anyway, getting Benton to take them to London. The Doctor finds additional circuits in all of UNIT's IE equipment and on examination finds the same circuit in every one. The Cyber machine plans for the conversion or destruction of all humans but Vaughan disagrees: This is not as planned, he will be in control of Earth and it's population after the Invasion. He says that while his body is now cybernetic, his mind stays human. Vaughan tells Packer that the IE staff will protected from Cyber control by an implanted capsule. The Doctor needs use Professor Watkins laboratory facilities at his home to analyse the circuits he has found. Preparing to leave for London he realises that Jamie, Zoe & Isobel missing. Benton has dropped them off but is ordered to find them and Capitan Turner is sent to help. Jamie, Zoe & Isobel descend through a manhole into the sewers but are spotted by a policeman. Benton arrives as the policeman also enters the sewers. The policeman calls out for them attracting the attention of a group of Cybermen who kill him. Jamie, Zoe & Isobel find themselves trapped between these Cyberman and the deranged Cyberman that is wandering the sewers......
With the mystery element removed there's a little bit of sag this episode until the trip down the sewers at the end. Sadly even though the Cybermen are revealed you still don't see that much of them with most of the communication still being done through the machine in Vaughan's office. The Cybermen in the sewers are obviously reminiscent of the Yeti in the Underground but although comparisons are frequently made between The Invasion and it's predecessor The Web of Fear, especially the element of having the army/UNIT with the Doctor, they're quite different. In Web the Invasion has happened and London stands isolated. In the Invasion we're witnessing the build up to the alien invasion and trying to prevent it.
Following his appearance in the office Rutlidge completely disappears from the story. The insinuation is Vaughan's had him killed.
The canoe scenes at the end of the last episode and the start of this were filmed on the Regent's Canal while Fore Street, near Moorgate tube station provides the entrance to the sewers. I'm pleased to see there's still a manhole cover in the same street. The "Cybermen in the sewers" element is resurrected in the Eric Saward/Ian Levine "Attack of the Cybermen" along with elements from Tenth Planet and Tomb of the Cybermen.
This episode is the first of a run of 14 episodes. It's the best run since the 23 episode run (1-3-6-2-4-6-1) at the end of season 1/start of season 2. The start of the series has a run of 13 existing episodes to Edge of Destruction 2, there's a 19 episode run from the start of Keys of Marinus to episode 3 of Reign of Terror. Episode 6 of the same story starts the 23 episode wrong, the longest in the sixties, which ends with Crusade 1. The Space Museum 1 to Time Meddler 4 give a 14 episode run. After that the longest run of episodes in seasons 3-5 is the 5 episodes made of the last of the Celestial Toymaker to the last of The Gunfighters. There's 11 episodes from the last episode of season 5, Wheel in Space 6 to Mind Robber 5. This current run takes us through the end of the Invasion, through the Krotons to the end of Seeds of Death. The following story, The Space Pirates, has one exiting episode, the second. After that we reach the War Games and from there onwards every episode exists.
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