Doctor Who - U.N.I.T Files (Invasion of the Dinosaurs and the Android Invasion) [DVD]

Although a box set, as others have said, it is best to think of it as 2 different, but excellent stories (Terror of The Zygons would have made a much more satisfying second story if these were truly UNIT files).

Never mind though - for me Invasion of the Dinosaurs was a revelation, and is EVERYTHING that is best about Who - The Archetypal Doctor, heroic, cerebral, but very much a man of action. UNIT representing a 'higher good' that was above petty nationalism, a solid science-fiction plot, false flag terror and a shadow government whose plan is slowly uncovered by a fearless Sarah Jane. Was not expecting this to be so good after some negative reviews, but it blew my mind and is now quite possibly my favourite Dr Who story.

The Android Invasion is a different affair, but has some very effective moments that are genuinely unnerving in The Prisoner/Avengers mold. For a variety of reasons. I'd set aside any UNIT connection, but some great performances set against 'a quaint English Village' (Daemons, anyone?) tick the box for me.

Highly recommend!

Another box set containing two old Doctor Who stories on DVD with a somewhat tenuous linking connection.

Invasion of the Dinsoaurs runs for six parts and was the second story in Jon Pertwee's final season as the Doctor.

The Android Invasion runs for four parts and was the fourth story in Tom Baker's second year in the role.

Both feature appearances from U.N.I.T. Although they don't play much of a part in the Android Invasion.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs sees the Doctor and Sarah return from a trip to the past to present day [as it was then London] only to find the place evacuated of civilians and under marshal law as the military act to stop looters. The reason for the evacuation comes in the first cliffhanger. London has been invaded by Dinosaurs. The Doctor's investigations uncover radical science and fanatical humans, who are convinced they can save the human race. Whether people want it or not.

Best remembered for the very poor visual effects used for the Dinosaurs. But also quite a popular story because there's a lot of meat to it. Various social and political issues of the time are discussed in a thought provoking manner. And unlike many six parters, it never really drags.

The first episode only survived for many years in black and white, but now it has been colourised. This hasn't succeeded quite as well as with other recent colourisations, thus you can choose whether you want to watch it in black and white or colour. The latter isn't perfect but it's still perfectly watchable.

The Android Invasion sees the Fourth Doctor and Sarah find themselves in a seemingly deserted village. Where sinister figures in white spacesuits with deadly fingers lurk in the trees. When they meet the locals they find they're acting strangely. And alien eyes are watching....

Written by Dalek creator Terry Nation, but only his second story for the show not to feature his most famous creation, the story features excellent location work and creates a strange village setting in a manner not unlike an episode of the Avengers. There are good surprise moments on the way. But the aliens of the piece aren't quite as well realised as they could be. And it doesn't use U.N.I.T. as well as it could. This was the final appearance of Mister Benton and Harry Sullivan, but neither get a proper exit. And Nicholas Courtney wasn't available to return as the Brigadier thus he's replaced by a totally new character.

One key plot point remains unexplained, which may leave you wondering about something at the end.

It comes from a time in the show's run when the production team and all involved were at the top of their game though, and thus it's a very good story in a great era. It doesn't quite measure up to what surrounded it, but it's still very good nonetheless.

Both dvds have the following language and subtitle options:

Languages: English.

Subtitles: English.

And both are English audio captioned.

They have the usual:

Radio times listings as PDF files.

Production information subtitles [the Invasion of the Dinosaurs one giving one fact about about the show that you will not previouly have been aware of....]

A trailer for the next release in this dvd range.

And photo galleries of the production of both stories and stills from them.

Both have easter eggs. Which can be found by watching the discs on a computer and moving the pointer over the screen till a hidden logo lights up. On Invasion of the Dinosaurs this can be found on the main screen of disc two. It's a one minute long shot of a clapperboard. Several of the easter eggs in this range have been like this, but do watch this one and listen carefully to the sound for an interesting vocal exchange.

On Android Invasion it's on the special features screen, and is eight minutes of sound rushes from the location filming. Worth listening to if you want to hear Elisabeth Sladen say 'so the androids have taken over' several times in relatively quick succession.

Both stories have a commentary from various members of cast and crew. Dinosaurs also has an extra ten minutes of solo commentary on one part from John Levene, who played Sgt. Benton.

Other extras:

Dinosaurs has a thirty minute long [approx] making of feature, which considers the issues that the story raises, and is a very absorbing watch.

Doctor Who stories part one: Is thirteen minutes worth of an interview with Elisabeth Sladen [originally recorded for a 2003 documentary] about her time on the show. As with these usually it covers her stories and time with a short bit about each. And it's very good.

Billy Smart's circus: one minute worth of footage of Jon Pertwee appearing at the circus in car and character back in 1974.

Deleted scenes: six minutes of so of scenes cut from the story. Including the original opening to part one.

Now and then: thirteen minutes showing some of the London locations for the story as they were then and as they are now. Some have changed a fair bit.

The Android Invasion has:

A thirty minute long making of feature. Another very good and watchable one.

Life after Who; The show's producer of the time, Philip Hinchcliffe, interviewed about his work after he left the show. An excellent interviewee and an excellent interviewer produce a fascinating thirty minute journey through lots of tv that you may have forgotten but which should bring back many memories and demands for dvd releases. This is an excellent watch.

A one minute long 1977 advert for Weetabix, which was giving away Doctor Who material at the time.

Said material is on the dvd as a PDF file.

These are not the greatest stories ever, but they're both very good, and that makes for a very good box set.

"A variety of prehistoric reptiles began to appear in the general London area. There was, as you can imagine, considerable panic and some loss of life."

Best known to many as the one with the shonky dinosaurs, Invasion of the Dinosaurs is one of the most anarchically anti-establishment Doctor Who stories of them all, the dinosaurs that mysteriously appear and disappear in the streets of an evacuated London merely a smokescreen for an elaborate conspiracy involving time travel, genocide and a rather overzealous approach to ecological issues. The conspiracy may have the usual suspects - politicians, scientists and the army - but they appear to be a curious mixture of extreme left-wingers and right-wingers who want to save the planet from the human race by wiping them out and starting all over in a golden age.

At the time of the show's production in 1973, green matters were still an issue led more from the extreme right than the left, but despite being written by a former communist the show also takes plenty of swipes at the dogmatic nature of the far left, with their `reminder room' and determination to kill anyone they can't successfully re-educate. Indeed, even its deceived `idealists' whose `guidance' will prevent the New Earth from making the same mistakes as the old are a narrow minded lot who are ultimately more angry at being tricked than at the prospect of human history and the entire human race - with a few politically correct exceptions - being `painlessly' erased. Even more intriguingly, one regular and very sympathetic character in the series at the time is in on the plot and is so devoted to the cause that he'll happily be erased himself if it helps usher in the new golden age. It's all the more surprising considering how many of the Jon Pertwee stories were driven by ecological issues to see the show offer villains with a similar agenda and technology, albeit much more ruthless methods, to the Doctor himself. Few long-running shows have ever challenged their hero's assumptions in quite the same way even if the point is played down.

None of which makes the dinosaur puppets any more convincing even if they are the work of veteran 007 special effects man Cliff Culley, though thankfully they're used fairly sparingly, as is the Whomobile, Pertwee's short-lived space-age replacement for the much-loved vintage car Bessie that was introduced in this story. But the strengths outweigh the problems, from the decent performances (including a very amiable Noel Johnson, once a huge star himself as Dick Barton on radio) to its willingness to slyly subvert the show's own formula. There's a good extras package too: the obligatory group audio commentary, five deleted scenes, an extended 2003 interview with Elisabeth Sladen about her time o the show, a location comparison, a brief extract from Billy Smart's Circus featuring Pertwee and the Whomobile and a very good half hour documentary on the making of the show and its subversive undertones. There's also the option to see the opening episode in black and white or in a highly inconsistently colorized version (the other five episodes are all colour, but the first only survives in a poor black and white copy).

The Terry Nation-scripted The Android Invasion is a more conventional affair and, despite being packaged as part of a UNIT collection, has only the most superficial UNIT presence (the last brief appearances of Ian Levine's Sergeant Benton and Ian Marter's Harry Sullivan) as Tom Baker's Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith arrive in a mysteriously deserted English village near a space defence centre. Not that it's deserted for long, but there's definitely something wrong about the inhabitants and the place itself, with the few familiar faces they encounter ready to kill them without a second thought, though it's not the androids who are regimenting their behaviour who turn out to be the ones with invasion plans. It's a decent enough story even if it is one of the ones that doesn't do much more than fill a four week part of the schedule between more memorable stories (in this case sandwiched between the excellent Pyramids of Mars and the enjoyable gothic Brain of Morbius) in the show's strong thirteenth season.

UNIT is completely absent from the extras, too: the usual audio commentary, a half hour making of that focuses on Terry Nation's return to the series with a nod to the similarities between this story and his work on The Avengers (the show even features `Mother' himself, Patrick Newell), a half hour overview of producer Philip Hinchcliffe's prestigious non-Doctor Who television work, an Easter Egg of some location sound rushes and a tie-in Weetabix commercial.