071 - Invasion of the Dinosaurs

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This is one of those stories where the special effects of the day, which were pretty good at the time, let the show down a bit by today's standards. Still, I gave it five stars because aside from the wonky T-Rex, this is a great serial.

The story is well written by Malcolm Hulke, one of the best writers of that era, and has a surprise plot twist in regards to one of our gallant heroes from UNIT. The drama gets pretty tense at times and the cast, especially Peter Miles and John Bennet, are superb.

I particularly love the scene in episode one, when the Doctor and Sarah are being "booked" and get their mug shots taken. The glee the Doctor takes on the absurdity of their wasted time is priceless. I like how he and Sarah pull up chairs and make themselves comfortable, too.

I really thoroughly enjoy this otherwise unloved story. Look past the rubbish T-Rex and enjoy the great drama the story tells behind it.


SeaDevil

New effects from the current team that does dinosaurs for Doctors 11 & 12 should come in and update this story to a Special Edition in the style of the Nicholas Briggs voice of Daleks version of Day of the Daleks. The story is innovative for it's day, and remains compelling still. But, the puppets don't serve it well.

This was an awesome story!! Post-apocalyptic, government corruption, ideological oppression, brainwashing, deception, espionage, kidnapping, framing and betrayal. This is the PERFECT political sci-fi thriller.

There is a big twist with one of our UNIT family members that I shall not ruin; one needs to watch to enjoy. I was thoroughly surprised when this happened, having no foreknowledge of it. I guess the whole pollution business in The Green Death really got him thinking. You can sympathise with his desire for the ends, but as the Doctor said, the ends did not justify the catastrophic means. I do hope this doesn't mean that we won't see him again though!

There's also some really, really funny scenes, like the Doctor getting stressed at everyone interrupting him, and the ending of the serial with the Doctor trying to tempt Sarah to travel with him in the TARDIS with poetry. Just brilliant.

The dinosaurs were cool and I personally didn't mind the crappy effects. It didn't ruin my enjoyment of the story even in the slightest. It would be cool to see an updated special edition, but I'd probably only keep the original on my shelf.

This is an great piece of TV drama. There's a sense of real struggle and threat for the Doctor and Sarah, fighting against all odds to reveal the truth. It also has a great social commentary: we shouldn't run away from the world's problems, we should make the most of the earth we have and look after it. To quote the Doctor, "Take the world that you've got and try and make something of it. It's not too late."

All in all, this is a new favourite, and I can't understand why people don't like it that much - the bad effects are the only problem I can think of, and even then they are easy to look past when the rest of this serial is pure gold.

5/5.