The Invasion of Time (TV story)

"What are you looking at?!"

- The Doctor

The Invasion of Time was the sixth and final story of Season 15. It marked the final appearances of Leela and K-9 Mark I.

Synopsis
The Doctor returns to Gallifrey but is arrested after bringing the Vardans to the planet, this breaks out into a bit of a battle until the Sontaran invasion force arrives and attempts to take over Gallifrey.

Plot
After a meeting in space with a group of unseen aliens the Doctor returns to Gallifrey and claims the presidency of the Time Lords. Leela meanwhile tries to work out why he is behaving out of character. At his induction, the Doctor is 'crowned' with a device giving him access to the Matrix. He then arranges for the transduction barriers around Gallifrey to be put out of action by K9. When this is done, his alien 'friends' materialise. They are telepathic invaders called Vardans.

The Doctor links K9 to the Matrix in order to determine their point of origin. His plan is to place a time loop around their home planet, but he must avoid arousing their suspicions - hence his erratic behaviour. He banishes Leela to the wastelands of outer Gallifrey for fear that she might unintentionally jeopardise his plans. There she meets a group of Gallifreyan outsiders, and together they organise an attack on the Capitol to fight off the invaders.

The Doctor finally springs his trap and the Vardans are banished. Then, however, Gallifrey is invaded by Sontarans who, unknown to the Doctor, were using the Vardans to enable them to conquer the Time Lords. The Doctor uses knowledge extracted from the Matrix by K9 to construct a forbidden de-mat gun, activated by the Great Key of Rassilon. He then uses this to kill the Sontarans, although his memory of recent events is wiped in the process.

Leela announces that she wishes to stay behind with Andred, one of the Chancellery guards, with whom she has fallen in love. K9 elects to remain with her. Inside the TARDIS, The Doctor constructs another robot dog-K9 II/ The Doctor smiles as the adventure ends.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Tom Baker
 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * Voice of K-9 - John Leeson
 * Andred - Christopher Tranchell
 * Borusa - John Arnatt
 * Ablif - Ray Callaghan
 * Rodan - Hilary Ryan
 * Stor - Derek Deadman
 * Sontaran - Stuart Fell
 * Vardan - Stan McGowan
 * Vardan - Tom Kelly
 * Bodyguard - Michael Harley
 * Castellan Guard - Eric Danot
 * Gold Usher - Charles Morgan
 * Guard - Christopher Christou
 * Jasko - Michael Mundell
 * Kelner - Milton Johns
 * Lord Gomer - Dennis Edwards
 * Lord Savar - Reginald Jessup
 * Nesbin - Max Faulkner
 * Presta - Gay Smith

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Terry Winders, Romey Allison
 * Costumes - Dee Kelly
 * Designer - Barbara Gosnold
 * Film Cameraman - Ken Westbury
 * Film Editor - Chris Wimble
 * Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
 * Make-Up - Maureen Winslade
 * OB Cameraman - David Goutier, Alan Hayward
 * Producer - Graham Williams
 * Production Assistant - Colin Dudley
 * Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
 * Script Editor - Anthony Read
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Lighting - Mike Jefferies
 * Studio Sound - Anthony Philpott
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - Colin Mapson, Richard Conway

Story Notes

 * Leela remains on Gallifrey in the conclusion of this story. This was Louise Jameson's final ongoing onscreen appearance; she reprised the role in Dimensions in Time and later in the Big Finish Productions Gallifrey series of audio dramas.
 * Leela's romance with Andred is undeveloped in the story. Jameson was invited to continue her role. She was unsure whether she would stay until the end of recording, so a plot device had to be ready to allow her to stay on Gallifrey.
 * The Sontarans return in this story making it their third appearance on TV.
 * This story had a working title of The Invaders of Time.
 * Rodan is the first female Gallifreyan to appear on screen since Susan Foreman more than a decade earlier.
 * The Doctor breaks the fourth wall at the end of Part 6, by looking directly at the camera and smiling to the audience.

Ratings

 * Part 1 - 11.2 million viewers
 * Part 2 - 11.4 million viewers
 * Part 3 - 9.5 million viewers
 * Part 4 - 10.9 million viewers
 * Part 5 - 10.3 million viewers
 * Part 6 - 9.8 million viewers

Myths and rumours

 * Rodan was the prototype for Romana. Related rumours include actress Hilary Ryan being unavailable for the following season, which resulted in Romana being created as a replacement for Rodan.

Filming Locations

 * Beachfields Quarry, Cormongers Lane, Redhill, Surrey
 * St Anne's Hospital, Redstone Hill, Redhill, Surrey
 * British Oxygen, Blacks Road, Hammersmith
 * Bray Studios, Slough
 * BBC Television Centre (TC8), Shepherd's Bush, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * It is painfully obvious that the Vardans in their dematerialised form are sheets of cellophane. Even their material forms are hardly impressive and almost comical. They do not convey a sense of the great power they are meant to possess. A version was produced which substituted CGI human-like images.
 * There are gaps around the collar of Stor's armour.
 * Stor also has a cockney accent. If, as the Ninth Doctor says, "lots of planets have a north" then it's quite conceivable that many planets, including the home of the Sontarans, can have different accents.
 * The Doctor forgets his induction, though in later Gallifrey stories such as Arc of Infinity and The Five Doctors, he seems to remember the events very well. He was faking forgetfullness to get out of it. Alternatively, Leela, Andred, or K-9 could have explained what happened between the scene in which the Doctor returns to the warehouse after having stopped Stor and the scene in which the Doctor prepares to leave.
 * What happens to the Sontarans waiting to invade Gallifrey? They are trapped outside Gallifrey when the transduction barrier goes back up.
 * Why don't the Sontaran ships just come in one at a time? The first one got through alright. The Transduction Barrier went back up.
 * After taking ages wandering round the TARDIS, they find their way out rather quickly.
 * Just after the Doctor takes something similar to fit when the Crown of Rassilon is placed on his head Borusa said "This is unearthly" Even though they are Gallifreyan Unearthly could be a phrase in many cultures
 * If the Doctor has lost all memory of becoming President after he uses the disintegrator, why does he return to Leela and the others who are waiting for him in the TARDIS workshop?
 * Why did the Doctor contact the Vardans in the first place? If the Transduction Barrier prevented their invading, why take it down? Even as a ruse to trap them, it makes no sense, for Gallifrey was impenetrable. He felt they were so dangerous that they needed to be preemptively stopped; thus, he used the pretext of serving them to identify their homeworld and trap it. This, of course, raises a host of moral issues the story fails to deal with.
 * The final two episodes of this story are blatantly 'tacked-on' to the end to make it up to a six-parter. Why would aliens as powerful as the Vardans require to ally themselves to the Sontarans?
 * The Doctor tells Borusa that the Vardans have 'more power than you could possibly imagine'. If so, why do they want the Great Key?  Again, the Doctor may just be using the Vardans' inflated egos to manipulate them, and for it to work, he may need the others to believe the Vardans are as powerful as they themselves believe. 
 * It is not explained why the Matrix attacked the Doctor. (He was involved in an attempt to invade Gallifrey, albeit somewhat unwillingly.)

Continuity

 * The Vardans reappear in NA: No Future.
 * In NA: Timewyrm: Genesys the Doctor receives a message from his past self, sent during this story.
 * Leela and K9 re-meet the Doctor in NA: Lungbarrow and BFA: Zagreus.
 * Lord Savar is mentioned in EDA: Seeing I and seen in PDA: The Infinity Doctors.
 * The Doctor is again offered the Presidency in DW: The Five Doctors after putting himself up for presidency in DW: The Deadly Assassin.
 * Gallifrey is invaded again in BFA: The Apocalypse Element.

Timeline

 * This story occurs after VD: People of the Trees
 * This story occurs before TVC: The Snow Devils

DVD, Video and Other Releases
DVD releases
 * Region 2 5th May 2008
 * PAL -


 * Region 4 3rd July 2008
 * PAL -


 * Region 1 2nd September 2008
 * NTSC -

Bonus features:
 * Commentary:Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Anthony Read and Mat Irvine
 * Out of Time: the making of this story.
 * CGI effects: new CGI effects to accompany this story.
 * The elusive David Agnew: a feature on the writer (who is, in fact, a house pseudonym used by several Doctor Who writers)
 * The Rise and fall of Gallifrey: a feature on the planet of the Time Lords.
 * Deleted Scenes: scenes removed from this story.
 * Continuity Compilation: continuity announcements from the BBC.
 * Radio Times billings: artwork and articles for this story from the Radio Times.
 * Photo Gallery: a selection of rare production photos from this story.
 * Coming Soon: a preview of the K-9 Tales Box set.

Notes:
 * Editing for DVD release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.

Boxset release This story was released in the Bred for War DVD boxset on the 5th May alongside all the classic series Sontaran stories. The DVD is the same as the one sold seperately. Released 8th July in Australia.

Video Releases

Released as Doctor Who: The Invasion of Time

Released:


 * UK March 2000 (Double tape set)
 * Australia August 2000 (Single tape set)
 * US August 2000 (Same as UK edition)

Novelisation

 * Main article: Doctor Who and the Invasion of Time

Novelised as Doctor Who and the Invasion of Time by Terrance Dicks in 1980.