Welcome to another glorious Sci-Fi Reflections post!! Today’s episode : Invasion of the Dinosaurs, which seems at first to be just another simple monster story, but has quite an interesting plot, as do most of Pertwee’s stories.
Before watching this episode, the main thing that I expected to see was a whole bunch of shots of obviously fake dinosaurs; a puppet that moves his head and arms slightly and makes grimacing noises that sound more like a bad case of indigestion than a ravenous T-Rex about to rip your head off. And lo and behold, once I started watching the episode, I discovered that I was absolutely right. If you can’t take super cheesy monster special effects, this episode is not the one for you (although if you already watch classic Doctor Who, this is probably not the case to begin with). You might as well have a sock puppet to do the job. I suggest you squint your eyes every time a “dinosaur” comes onto the screen, and just pretend that they look more real than they actually are.
Another slightly disturbing point about this episode is the disconcerting behavior of Captain Yates. Although I have never been extremely impressed with Yates, I never believed him to have the potential to become a traitor. It seems out of character and completely out of left field by the writers. I think we are left to assume that business with the giant maggots in The Green Death hit him hard, being hypnotized by the BOSS as well as having his first contact with “green earth” philosophy. We also learn that he had to take some time off after this incident to recover, as he tells Sarah Jane, who, by the way, had another brilliant part in the story despite being captured frequently. Do you think this was a bad idea by the writers to have Yates be the villain? Or do you think the show needed a shocker, and you believed Mike had the potential all along? I wonder what will happen to him, or if he will even be in the show again.
All this is not to say that this was a poor episode. For the most part it was a very good story, and the UNIT team really had to work together to get out of this one in one piece. Benton especially had to pick up the slack, considering Yate’s betrayal. He was very impressive; he never lost faith in the Doctor’s ability and resourceful, and he also showed his fighting ability, as he dispatched both Yates and General Finch when he needed to. Without him, the day might have been lost.
Next episode coming up is… Death to the Daleks. To be honest, I can’t wait to see what will happen in this one. Who is going to kill the Daleks? How? Is it referring to the whole species or just a few? Come back next time and find out at Sci-Fi Reflections!! Thank you for visiting.
Before watching this episode, the main thing that I expected to see was a whole bunch of shots of obviously fake dinosaurs; a puppet that moves his head and arms slightly and makes grimacing noises that sound more like a bad case of indigestion than a ravenous T-Rex about to rip your head off. And lo and behold, once I started watching the episode, I discovered that I was absolutely right. If you can’t take super cheesy monster special effects, this episode is not the one for you (although if you already watch classic Doctor Who, this is probably not the case to begin with). You might as well have a sock puppet to do the job. I suggest you squint your eyes every time a “dinosaur” comes onto the screen, and just pretend that they look more real than they actually are.
Another slightly disturbing point about this episode is the disconcerting behavior of Captain Yates. Although I have never been extremely impressed with Yates, I never believed him to have the potential to become a traitor. It seems out of character and completely out of left field by the writers. I think we are left to assume that business with the giant maggots in The Green Death hit him hard, being hypnotized by the BOSS as well as having his first contact with “green earth” philosophy. We also learn that he had to take some time off after this incident to recover, as he tells Sarah Jane, who, by the way, had another brilliant part in the story despite being captured frequently. Do you think this was a bad idea by the writers to have Yates be the villain? Or do you think the show needed a shocker, and you believed Mike had the potential all along? I wonder what will happen to him, or if he will even be in the show again.
All this is not to say that this was a poor episode. For the most part it was a very good story, and the UNIT team really had to work together to get out of this one in one piece. Benton especially had to pick up the slack, considering Yate’s betrayal. He was very impressive; he never lost faith in the Doctor’s ability and resourceful, and he also showed his fighting ability, as he dispatched both Yates and General Finch when he needed to. Without him, the day might have been lost.
Next episode coming up is… Death to the Daleks. To be honest, I can’t wait to see what will happen in this one. Who is going to kill the Daleks? How? Is it referring to the whole species or just a few? Come back next time and find out at Sci-Fi Reflections!! Thank you for visiting.