WWW. Invasion Of The Dinosaurs

Season Eleven - 1973/1974

Script Editor: Terrance Dicks
Writer: Malcolm Hulke
Produced by: Barry Letts
Director: Paddy Russell
Designer: Richard Morris
Incidental Music: Dudley Simpson

Synopsis

When the TARDIS materialises on twentieth century Earth Sarah and the Doctor step out into a deserted London. Unsure where they are in London the Doctor tries to telephone the Brigadier, but the phones aren't working. After waiting at a bus stop for bus that is not coming they spot a car travelling down the road, but speeds past them. With London deserted the driver easily pulls up to rob a jewellers shop. Deciding to walk into London the Doctor and Sarah see the car, and the Doctor confronts the driver in the shop. The Doctor asks what is going on, but the man just runs out of the shop.

Sarah tries to call police, but there is no answer. When they visit a police station they find it locked. Seeing a Land Rover go past they follow it to a warehouse. The Doctor is attacked by looters, but they run off when they hear gunfire outside. When the Doctor recovers the looters have gone, but at least they now have transport. Sarah has trouble opening the warehouse doors, and as the Doctor helps they are attacked by a pterodactyl. The Doctor drives the Land Rover at the doors to escape.

At a temporary UNIT HQ the Brigadier, with the help of Sergeant Benton and Captain Yates are plotting more sightings, and Yates is tasked with setting up more detention centres to house the looters who are becoming more organised. The Brigadier asks General Finch of the army for more troops to help with looters. Finch agrees, but with orders that any looter who does not give themselves up will be shot.

Driving round London the Doctor and Sarah are met by armed soldiers, and their Land Rover is searched. When they find stolen goods they are taken to Detention Centre 5 and held for a military trial. The Doctor asks a man who has also been caught what is happening, and why the military are in control, and he says it is because of the monsters. Elsewhere in London a house is destroyed as a dinosaur materialises, and UNIT troops try to destroy it.

At UNIT HQ Benton is handed the latest looter files, and inside he finds pictures of the Doctor and Sarah. The Brigadier sends a rider to fetch them. Before the rider arrives Finch finds the Doctor and Sarah guilty of looting and sentences them to spend time in a detention centre. After Finch leaves only one soldier is left behind. The Doctor and the looter stage a fight and when the soldier comes to stop it the Doctor overpowers him. As the looter goes his own way the Doctor and Sarah try to take another Land Rover, but are caught by more soldiers.

As they are being transported a dinosaur materialises in front of the Land Rover. When she soldiers start firing at it the Doctor and Sarah escape on foot. They hide out in a garage as the soldiers look for them. Whilst they are discussing London and the dinosaurs a man in primitive clothes tries to escape, accusing the Doctor of being a wizard. When Sarah asks the man who the King is he replies Richard, and asks the Doctor to send him home. The man attacks the Doctor. A high pitched buzzing noise sounds and the man disappears.

The Doctor and Sarah hear soldiers outside, and in walks the Brigadier. Back at UNIT HQ the Brigadier explains that since the Doctor left there have been dinosaur sightings in Central London, and the area has been evacuated. The Brigadier admits that they don't know what to do when the dinosaurs arrive, or where they do. The Doctor surmises that the dinosaurs are being brought from the pasts, and are also returning there. When a new sighting is reported the Doctor asks the Brigadier to take him to it for study.

The latest sighting is a Stegosaurus, and asks the UNIT troops to capture it. As they try to do so the sound is heard again and the dinosaur disappears. Back at the UNIT HQ Finch is sceptical about the Doctor's story, and believes time travel is not possible. The Doctor says that someone is still in Central London to control the dinosaurs, and must be making their own power as most of it has been turned off.

There is a control bunker in London, and the Doctor starts to build a device to track where the signals are coming from in order to track it. However, Captain Yates already knows about it, and warns the person in charge, Butler, about the Doctor. Professor Whitaker is not concerned about the Doctor, but Butler reminds him that if Yates is right then it could be the end of Operation Golden Age. Whitaker tells Yates to sabotage the stun gun that the Doctor is creating.

At UNIT HQ the Doctor is introduced to the Right Honourable Charles Grover MP. Grover has written books on saving the planet, and the Doctor is happy to meet him. Having had more time to think the Doctor speculates that whoever is behind the dinosaurs has done so to clear out London, but he is not yet sure why. When reports about a Brontosaurus come in the Doctor takes his device to capture it. Yates meets the Doctor and the Brigadier at the location of the sighting, and attaches something to the Doctor's stun gun. When the Doctor fires the gun nothing happens, and the dinosaur disappears. A second dinosaur appears closer by and starts to go towards the Doctor. When the gun still does not fire Yates grabs it and removes the device from the gun, and stuns the dinosaur.

The dinosaur is taken to a hangar where the Doctor can run his experiments and wait for it to disappear. He would have preferred the Brontosaurus as it is a vegetarian, unlike their current dinosaur which is a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Whilst they wait Sarah tells the Doctor she has heard of a Professor Whitaker who is a leading scientists in the field of time travel - and he has disappeared. They return to UNIT where the TARDIS has been brought, but Sarah makes her way back to the hangar. As a journalist she is after pictures of the dinosaur.

As she is taking pictures the dinosaurs wakes. The Doctor returns to the hangar and finds Sarah trapped in an office whilst the dinosaur tries to break in. The office door had been bolted from the outside: someone had tried to kill her. When the Doctor checks his equipment he realises it has been sabotages, and that the dinosaur chains had been cut. Sarah has been thinking about the power source, and she has an idea. Left on her own she goes to visit Grover in his office and asks about bunkers that were to be built during the Cold War that were to have their own nuclear generators. Grover says that none were built, but Sarah suggests that maybe one was.

When Sarah says she is keeping her idea quiet until she has evidence Grover lets her into a filing room. Grover finds records about a bunker that was built under the building they are in. Sarah doesn't realise was inside a lift until the doors open, and they are met by Butler. Sarah is left in a room and flashing lights put her in a trance. When she wakes she finds herself on a spaceship that is three months into a journey to find a new home. She is met by other people, some of which she knows of. They tell her they are on their way to New Earth, a planet like Earth but in an earlier time where they can make sure the planet is not spoiled like Earth has been. They also tell Sarah that there are over 200 people on the ship, and that there are seven ships, and that the journey is almost over. But when Sarah starts talking against their plans the people on the ship, Mark, Ruth and Adam, take her to the re-education centre.

At UNIT HQ the Doctor builds a smaller, portable device, to track power usage. He also has a new vehicle which he uses to trace the power source, and driving round the deserted streets finds a reading from an Underground station. Inside the station he can feel air coming from the vents and hides as Butler goes past. A lift is hidden in a maintenance cupboard. The Doctor goes down in the lift and enters the bunker. As the Doctor walks around the bunker Butler and Whitaker are watching, and close various doors behind him and direct the Doctor back to the lift. In the Underground station the Doctor is attacked by a pterodactyl brought forward in time by Whitaker. The Doctor escapes and returns with the Brigadier.

When the Doctor shows the Brigadier the lift it is no longer a lift - it's just a cupboard. When the Doctor and the Brigadier tell Grover he dismisses them, and says no bunkers were ever built. The Doctor asks about the whereabouts of Sarah, and Grover tells him that his chauffeur took her back to UNIT HQ - and his chauffeur, Butler, confirms it. Back at the bunker Grover meets Yates, Finch and Whitaker to discuss the Doctor and UNIT. Yates does not want the Doctor harmed. Finch can stop UNIT, and Grover decides the best way to stop the Doctor is to discredit him. Whitaker calls the Doctor and pretends he was working under duress, and tells the Doctor he is hiding at the hangar, and that the Doctor should go there alone. At the hangar there is no sign of Whitaker. As the Doctor watches a stegosaurus appears, shortly before Finch and UNIT arrives, and Finch accuses the Doctor of being the monster maker.

Back at UNIT Yates orders the Doctor to be locked in a cell, and the Doctor realises Yates has been working with the group controlling the dinosaurs. Left in charge of the Doctor Benton gives the remaining soldiers orders to fix up a cell and allows himself to be overpowered by the Doctor.

In the spaceship reminder room Sarah is watching films about the damage man has done to the planet Earth and the pollution that has been caused. Ruth thinks Sarah could be a disruption, and if the re-education does not work should be destroyed. Mark goes in to see Sarah and tells her she is danger from the 'Elders', and she runs past him into the spaceship. Sarah makes her way to the ship's controls, but nothing she does has any effect. She shows Mark that the controls are just blinking lights and do not actually do anything. Mark still doesn't believe her, and Sarah deliberately steps through an airlock to the outside.

Outside is the bunker, and she finds the lift that takes her to Grover's office. The office is empty, allowing Sarah to escape and make it back to UNIT. There is only Private Bryson at the HQ who insists on seeing Sarah's pass. He tells her that the Doctor is the suspect and that everyone else is out on a manhunt looking for him. Finch returns and vouches for Sarah. Sara tells Finch what the knows about Grover and the bunker, and they go back to Grover's office. In the lift Grover raises his gun against Sarah, and she is led back into the bunker art gunpoint.

Grover explains to Sarah that they are planning to take the Earth back in time, and that people in the 'spaceship' will think they are on a new planet where they can start again. As part of the final phase Whitaker makes more dinosaurs appear to drive out any remaining people from London.

The Brigadier and Benton find the Doctor in London and they return to UNIT HQ. The Doctor tells the Brigadier that Finch and Yates are also in on the conspiracy. The Brigadier does not believe Yates is in on it until he holds them at gunpoint. Yates tells the Doctor that Whitaker is planning to roll back time to a Golden Age. Yates is later overpowered by Benton when he distracted by Bryson entering the room.

In the bunker Sarah returns to the spaceship and tells Mark that the whole ship is a fake. She tries to tell the people on the ship that it's all a fake, but they refuse to believe her. Some have even sold their houses to be one of the selected. Mark believes her, but Ruth has them both taken away. Adam uses the controls to call for Grover, who pretends to travel via shuttle from another spaceship, and arrives in a space-suit. Grover goes to see Mark and Sarah about the truth. From outside Adam eavesdrops on the conversation. When Grover leaves Adam frees Sarah and Mark, and Sarah demonstrates she is right by opening the airlock. Seeing the truth Ruth leads everyone out into the bunker.

In the Underground station the Doctor and the Brigadier uses explosives to blast their way into the lift shaft, and the Doctor climbs down whilst the Brigadier radios for reinforcements. In the bunker the Doctor finds everyone in the control room, followed by the Brigadier and UNIT. Whitaker quickly activates the machine but the Doctor is able to stop it before it fully activates. As Whitaker and Grover try to reactivate the controls they, along with some of the controls, disappear back into the past.

The Brigadier prepares the Court Martial for Finch, and for Yates he offers him a chance to resign before facing his Court Martial.

Regular Cast

  • Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: Nicholas Courtney
  • Sergeant Benton: John Levene
  • Captain Yates: Richard Franklin
  • Sarah Jane Smith: Elisabeth Sladen

Guest Cast

  • General Finch: John Bennett
  • Private Ogden: George Bryson (1-2)
  • Lieutenant Shears: Ben Aris (1)
  • Corporal Norton: Martin Taylor (1)
  • Sergeant Duffy: Dave Carter (1)
  • R/T Soldier: John Caeser (1)
  • Phillips: Gordon Reid (1)
  • Lodge: Trevor Lawrence (1)
  • First Warehouse Looter: Terry Walsh (1)
  • Charles Grover MP: Noel Johnson (2-6)
  • Professor Whitaker: Peter Miles (2-6)
  • Butler: Martin Jarvis (2-6)
  • Peasant: James Marcus (2)
  • UNIT Corporal: Pat Gorman (2)
  • Mark (John Crichton): Terence Wilton (3-6)
  • Ruth (Lady Cullingford): Carmen Silvera (4-6)
  • Adam (Nigel Castle): Brian Badcoe (4-6)
  • Private Bryson: Colin Bell (5-6)
  • Robinson: Timothy Craven (6)
Uncredited:
  • Second Warehouse Looter: Alan Bull (1)
  • Dispatch Rider: Ken Tracey (1)
  • UNIT Typist: Richard King (1)
  • Milk Float Looter: Leslie Noyes (1)
  • Reminder Room Voice: Martin Jarvis (4-5)
  • Voice of Grover's secretary: Peter Miles (4-5)
  • Golden Age men and women: (all 6) Geoff Brighty, Lyn Howard, Rory O'Connor, Annette Peters, Judy Rodger, Barry Summerford, Ken Tracey
  • Army Drivers: ruce Cox, Robin Dixon, Colin Hamilton, Ted Heath
  • UNIT Soldiers: Leslie Bates, David Billa, John Cash, Ian Elliott, James Muir, Brian Nolan, Dennis Plenty, Louis Sanchez, Geoff Witherick
  • Army Soldiers: Tim Blackstone, Ian Elliott, Ronald Gough, Steve Ismay, Pat Milnber, Kevin Moran, Roy Pearce, Cy Town, Kelly Varney, Nigel Winder
  • Army Corporals: Leslie Nates, Mike Stevens
  • Extra: Peter Dukes

Original broadcast on the BBC

Channel Title Date Viewers Rating
BBC 1 360. Part One Saturday, 12 January 1974 17:30 - 17:55 11.0M 62%
BBC 1 361. Part Two Saturday, 19 January 1974 17:30 - 17:55 10.1M
BBC 1 362. Part Three Saturday, 26 January 1974 17:30 - 17:55 11.0M 63%
BBC 1 363. Part Four Saturday, 2 February 1974 17:30 - 17:55 9.0M
BBC 1 364. Part Five Saturday, 9 February 1974 17:30 - 17:55 9.0M
BBC 1 365. Part Six Saturday, 16 February 1974 17:30 - 17:55 7.8M 62%

Studios

  • Television Centre Studio 3
  • Television Centre Studio 6
  • Television Centre Studio 8

Outside Locations

  • Numerous locations withing Central and West London
  • Southall
  • Wimbledon, Surrey

Bloopers

Part 2: When Mike Yates is about to sabotage the Doctor's gun, he glances down at it in the back of the Brigadier's jeep - and it can be seen that the sabotage device is already on it. (Although we don't see him put it on until on shortly afterwards).

Part 2: When the UNIT soldiers are shooting at the tyrannosaurus, the CSO is very badly lined up - making it seem like their rifles are aimed at the building beside it.

Part 4: As the Doctor is being herded through the underground complex, watch the right wall when the second door falls. It wobbles quite badly.

When Sarah is hit on the head by a beam knocked loose by the dinosaur it hits the back of her head and yet it's her forehead that appears bruised and scratched!

Notes

The first episode is just called Invasion Part One to hide the presence of the monsters.

Australian transmissions of the story ignored the first episode (which only existed as a black and white film print) and start with Part Two of the story, calling it Part One.