Oh, there are just so so many things to say about The Invasion, which I started today. It's a slow-burner of a story (although not originally intended to be), and contains a long list of firsts for the show. But before I get there, just a bit about my progress -- after fighting mightily to break below the 280 mark, I had a very rapid drop of weight in what seemed like a very short time. It felt like I dropped from 280 to 274 virtually overnight. As generally happens whenever I have a rapid drop like that, it is followed by a short bounce-back, which is where I have been the past few days. The good news is, although the five day moving average still went up a bit again today, I am very much back on a downward trend in the daily numbers. I expect to see it turn around again tomorrow. In the grand scheme of things I am very much on pace with where I want to be. As a matter of fact, tomorrow I need to go shopping for a new belt because I have already punched one extra hole in my current belt and now that's too loose. How's that for a happy problem?

Anyway, getting back to The Invasion... let's talk about that.

The Invasion - Episodes 1 & 2

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

This story marks the start of Terrance Dicks' amazing tenure as script editor for Doctor Who. He would continue in the job throughout Jon Pertwee's era as the Third Doctor, and even when he handed the job over to Robert Holmes with the changeover to Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor he still continued to write many more scripts up into 1977. On top of that, he was far and away the most prolific author of the Target novelizations plus a number of original novels. He is certainly one of the most influential writers in Doctor Who history, and created some of the most fundamental elements in the show's official canon. So, kind of a big deal here.

Also, this story has the return of Lethbridge-Stewart, who has now been promoted to Brigadier and been placed in charge of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT). On that count, this story provides the template for the next several years of the series. It was actually intended to be a demonstration of how having Earth-based stories would be more cost effective, unfortunately it failed miserably on that count - it actually wound up becoming the most expensive story in the show's history, and would remain so for many years. Then again, it was originally intended to only be a four-parter but was expanded to eight when the next story fell through.

Another major character makes his debut here, that being Sergeant Benton. Originally another actor was cast in the role, but the part was given to John Levene when the original actor was fired for being repeatedly late to set and screwing up the shooting schedule. Levene had previously been a Cyberman in The Moonbase and a Yeti in The Web of Fear, and had been hired to play a Cyberman again in this story before he got the promotion. He went on to play the character of Sergeant Benton on a regular basis for the next decade. Pay attention, kids, that's what happens when you show up on time and have a good work ethic.

There's one more first, but I won't get there until Monday when the Cybermen finally make their first appearance in the story.

As for the story itself, it opens with the TARDIS first materializing in space over the dark side of the moon. Something or someone on the moon's surface fires a missile at them, and although the Doctor manages a last-second escape it is not without damage. They materialize in a field in rural England, but the ship is in need of some repaired circuits. The Doctor decides that the most logical solution will be to track down Professor Travers (of The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear) and enlist his help. Unfortunately they have landed inside the compound of International Electromatics (IE), the eeeeevil corporation at the heart of this story. They escape with the help of a truck driver, who is later shot dead by the bad guys for his trouble.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and companions arrive at Professor Travers' flat only to find that either the characters of Travers and his daughter were not contractually allowed in the story, or that neither of the actors were available. As such we meet the daughter of Professor Watkins, who is a photographer and who rapidly loops Zoe into becoming a model for a photo shoot while the Doctor and Jamie go skulking about in the IE corporate headquarters in search of the missing Professor Watkins. There they meet a very JamesBondian kind of villain, complete with a lazy eye.

Seriously, this dude came straight over from Bad Guy Central Casting

After they finish their proper skulk and meet-cute with the bad guy, and after the bad guy has a private conversation with the mysterious bigger bad guys via a secret hidden room behind his office, the Doctor and Jamie get swept up by a bunch of JamesBondian secret agent men. It turns out, however, that they are all working for the Brigadier and UNIT, and we get our big happy reunion. Unfortunately, while the men are having their sausage party the ladies get bored back at Professor Watkins' house and decide to go down to IE headquarters themselves.

There is a glorious scene in which Zoe manages to blow up a giant computer-receptionist in the lobby simply by feeding it an ALGOL computer program specifically designed to cause a runaway process. There's just something magnificent about watching a mathematical genius bring a computer to its metaphorical knees. As a side-effect, however, both women are captured by IE security and taken to the evil boss man. Of course he decides to use them as bait, having been instructed by the mysterious bigger bad guys to eliminate the Doctor as a dangerous enemy. This leads to the Doctor and Jamie being surrounded in a warehouse by a bunch of armed IE lackeys while the two ladies are passed out and helpless. Roll credits!

So yeah, on the one hand a slow-burner -- the Cybermen aren't even going to show up for a couple more episodes. But on the other hand, there is just so much going on and it is all awesome. This right here is why I love this show, and really this right here is the beginning of where the show finally begins to build the DNA that will guide everything for decades to come. Yay!

STATS:

Doctor(s): Second
Companion(s): Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe Heriot
Episode(s): The Invasion - Episodes 1 & 2
Steps Walked: 6,202 today, 755,186 total
Distance Walked: 3.15 miles today, 364.27 miles total
Weight: 275.42 lbs (five day moving average), net change -32.24 lbs