by Ian Marter
- UK
- Hardback
- WH Allen
- May 1985
Other Editions
Doctor Who: The Invasion
UK / Paperback / Target Books / October 1985 / No.98
UK / Paperback / Target Books / September 1993 / No.98
Back Cover Blurb — Target Books (1985)
Materialising in outer space, the TARDIS is attacked by a missile fired from the dark side of the moon.
Back on Earth, the newly-formed United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, led by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, is disturbed by a series of UFO sightings over Southern England.
Meanwhile a large consignment of mysterious crates is delivered to the headquarters of International Electromatix, the largest computer and electronics firm in the world.
Three seemingly unconnected events — but in reality the preperations for a massive Cyberman invasion of Earth with one aim — the total annihilation of the human race.
Television Story
The Invasion
Script Writer: Derrick Sherwin
8 × 25 Minutes / BBC1 / Black and White
02/11/68 Episode 1
09/11/68 Episode 2
16/11/68 Episode 3
23/11/68 Episode 4
30/11/68 Episode 5
07/12/68 Episode 6
14/12/68 Episode 7
21/12/68 Episode 8
Audio Download (UK)
Episode 1 and
Episode 4 are currently not known to exist, although the remaining six episodes are all held as 16mm telerecordings. The story has been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK and on Region 1 DVD in the United States, with the two missing episodes being represented by newly-created animations from
Cosgrove-Hall which used off-air audio recordings of the episodes for their soundtrack. The complete story was released on CD by
BBC Worldwide in January 2006 with linking narration by Frazer Hines.
Regular Characters
Second Doctor / Jamie McCrimmon / Zoe Heriot
Familiar Faces / Returning Characters
The Cybermen / Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart / Corporal Benton / Tobias Vaughn
Notes
- The Invasion was the last of Ian Marter's three Second Doctor novelisations to be published, after Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World and The Dominators.
- The Invasion featured the second appearance in the television series of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart — now promoted to the rank of Brigadier and in charge of UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) in the UK. In many respects, the story is very much a template for the Third Doctor's era, being set on Earth and with UNIT battling against an alien invader. It also introduced the character of Corporal Benton, played by John Levene, who would eventually be promoted to Sergeant and go on to be one of the regular supporting characters from Inferno onwards.
- Tobias Vaghan made an unexpected re-appearance as the bad guy in the 1995 novel Original Sin, which introduced the characters on Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester.
- The Invasion was the last of the four stories during the Second Doctor's era to feature the Cybermen. Apart from a brief glimpse of several Cybermen inside the Miniscope in Carnival of Monsters, they wouldn't return to the television series until 1975 in Gerry Davis' Revenge of the Cybermen.