'Doctor Who: Invasion of the Dinosaurs' (1974)


It feels like ages since we've had a 'Saturday Doctor Who Post' here (it's actually barely a month since the last one but it feels like ages...) so I thought I'd spend last night finishing off the box set that I got for my birthday. And eating pizza. It was great, just what I needed after being back at work for all of a day before the weekend... ;o) Without further ado, let me tell you all about it.

Returning to London, the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith find a city almost completely deserted. The civilian population has been evacuated in the wake of an unimaginable event. Somehow, dinosaurs are walking the streets of the capital.

As the Brigadier and UNIT fend off increasingly vicious attacks from gigantic prehistoric reptiles the Doctor investigates just how these monsters are appearing without warning. But when Sarah Jane is kidnapped, the Doctor realises that perhaps even his oldest friends can't be trusted...

We're looking at a show from 1974 that has dinosaurs in it, there's only one place where I can start this post and you know what? I didn't think the dinosaurs were that bad actually. I mean yes, the T-Rex was awful but it was more than balanced out by the Stegosaurus and Brontosaurus. Even the Triceratops wasn't that bad. And however it was that they set the dinosaur models up to interact with the human actors, it did the job and enabled those actors to get on with theirs. That was the main thing and it was fun to watch at the same time. Honestly, who really cares what the T-Rex looks like when we've got soldiers throwing grenades at it? I couldn't ask for a lot more than that (not until we get real dinosaurs anyway and we're a long way away from that) so I was more than happy with it. There were clearly limitations to what they could achieve with the models but that didn't detract from the story.

Talking of the story... It was just this crazy mixture of a litle bit of everything really, all wrapped up in a mystery that suddenly erupts into this situation where suddenly, the Earth's entire history hangs in the balance. Seriously, it's like the producers thought, 'well... we already have dinosaurs, what else can we throw at it and will it stick?' Well, the good news is that it does. I'll be honest, the story could have benefitted by dropping an episode (or two) and tightening up a bit but it's still a lot of fun with dinosaur encounters, Sarah Jane constantly trusting the wrong people and a bunch of incredibly guillible people on a 'spaceship'... There's always something going on and it all has the welcome affect of keeping the Doctor on his toes and always looking for a way past whatever the plot throws at him. It's good to see 'Action Doctor' back, by the way, with the Third Doctor more than willing to deploy a little Venusian Akido and put dynamite to the use which it was intended. I'm always happy to see some of that ;o)

'Invasion of the Dinosaurs' has it's shortcomings but if you're prepared to take them in your stride... Well, it very soon becomes a story that rewards that approach. I'd only ever read the book until now, I'm actually really glad that I finally got to watch it.

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