I've just watched this for the first time.

Its absolutely brilliant, not sure what all the fuss was about re the SFX, the Dinos were more than adequate. I was expecing just wobbly rubby dummies but there was a good amount of animation, entirely expected of DW of the time.

I saw it for the first time a few weeks ago and loved it - and I'm not a big fan of the Pertwee era, to be honest.

I think having Sarah Jane in the story (my all time favourite companion) lifted it for me.

And, you're right, the dinosaurs are actually pretty good all in all.

I thought episode two had an astonishly unexpected cliff hanger!

Well I think the production team themselves were disappointed with the results - though it beggars belief that they went and repeated/outdid the mistakes in "Robot" a few months later.

The SFX are not that bad considering the reputation it seems to have, I agree Sarah Jane does lift this one. She has most of the better parts of the story and helps move along a slightly sluggish story. I don't really get all the people thinking there in space, it just smacks of fleshing out the plot. However, I liked Captain Yates being one of the bad guys. Still it's a decent Pertwee adventure.

I think this is a fantastic story, and one of the best Pertwees. A shame it gets slagged cos of rubbish monsters (which are only sometimes rubbish).

There is enough story to last six episodes, which is a rare treat for a Pertwee. the characters are well realised. the deserted London stuff is great. The spaceship stuff is a real shocker. Really, i don't see what's not to love about this one.

I completely agree on every point! I've never understood why Invasion of the Dinosaurs is so poorly regarded. Maybe some people would like to downplay the stories with "dodgy" special effects because it's one of those things that people who know nothing about Doctor Who always sneeringly associate with the series. Yet there are plenty of things in Invasion of the Dinosaurs - great performances all round, a well-written script full of twists - that sum up the often great things about Doctor Who, the things the sneerers never mention. As you say, the monsters aren't as rubbish as they're made out to be anyway. OK, we're not talking Jurassic Park here, we're talking 1973 BBC budgets, but in comparison to the, erm, "less successful" shots in Dinosaurs, there are actually far, far worse special effects in, say, the previous season's The Green Death (the fly, some awful CSO, Dinky car Bessie with plasticine model passengers trundling across the screen - for my money, one of the worst shots in the history of Who) and yet The Green Death is considered a great story (which, of course, it is; so is Invasion of the Dinosaurs). And it's a fantastic story for Sarah. Any story which gives Lis Sladen lots of stuff to do is definitely worth watching.

They looked pretty on par for contemporary Who too me. Some shots were dodgy but Terror of the Zygons was worse.

Not to mention a few months later and the appalling use of the Action Man Scorpion Tank in 'Robot'

I half expected to see a gripping hands Action Man appear from the tank with a painted on 'Brig' moustache.

As for Invasion of The Dinosaurs, I love it. The crap dinos make it great TV for me.

BUT it was a better class of crapness!

I'll take a great story and crap effects over a weak story and overblown CGI any day.

Quite right too!

The thing about Terror of The Zygons is that it has one of the best visually realised monsters of the era in the Zygons themselves. The costumes are still impressive today. But then we get to the final act with a Loch Ness Monster purchased at Hamleys (or some other such toy retailer of the time. )

Invasion of the dinosaurs is brilliant. I think the story is that good that for me the bad dinosaurs aren't important. I like the space ship twist, Mike Yates going bad, the empty london streets in episode one. Lots of Pertwee stories lag after episode four but this one sustains the momentum well and never gets boring. For me its not just one of the best Pertwee stories but one of the best 70's stories.

Wouldn't say it was brilliant, can think of ten better Pertwee's than this, it's got enough to be good. Not really into the Space ship being a shock, it was shoved in IMO. But the London being deserted feel and Yates going bad is it's best points.

Lots of people have said Yates went bad!

I don't think he did at all, I think he was acting for what he believed was the greater good. Misguided and naive yes, bad, I don't think so!

Bad in he was disrespecting orders and manipulating events under the influence of the (can't remember the name of the group now). He didn't turn into the Master or anything!!!

BUT in the context of its reputation, it is more than good, imo brilliant.

I don't think anyone is saying its the best Who or even Pertwee story ever written or made.

No you are misreading my posts, I am giving my opinion as to were it ranks according to my tastes, nothing more.

Fair enough

I think the Dinos deserve a better press, not bad at all.

As there have been two recent threads on this story, I thought is rather silly to start another one so decided to resurrect this thread instead. Anyone who hadn't been able to add to either thread can add there comments to this one.

This is the other thread:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showt...s#post58987313


For me, this story is another one of those that's a bit of a mixed bag. There is a lot of double crossing, being captured, escaping to be captured thing going on. It's clear the whole Sarah in a 'spaceship' is a sub-plot to fill out the later episodes.

The dinsoaurs look crap and as I mentioned the other day, that little speech of The Doctor's at the end is another cringe-worthy, over moralistic one.

It is however, an enjoyable story, especially with The Doctor on the run in the later episodes. The Yates storyline is an interesting one that is worthy of the New series, was an unusual amount of character development for the show at the time.

His betrayal is neatly counterpointed by Benton who's has many funny scenes, including asking The Doctor to knock him out and punching the General, but it's the ones with the Brigadier that always amuse me the most. And The Brigadier himself seems a lot closer to his earlier interpretation in this one and isn't such a buffoon as he had been in recent stories.

Overall not a bad story but it is one of those where you wondered if CGI had been invented thirty years earlier, how much better it could have looked. Fortunately the story is just about good enough to distract from the toy monsters but only just.

again another 2 episodes to long story the model dinosaurs dont really bother me and over all it's a pretty enjoyable story.

I watched this recently courtesy of Lovefilm. I enjoyed it too, and yes, had a laugh at the dinosaurs! There is more than enough material in this story to enjoy, with a good storyline and characters.

I always think the golden oldie Doctor Whos were far more enjoyable than the recent episodes which, quite frankly, I found tedious and dull.

It was also good to see the late Elizabeth Sladen again, she was lovely.

Some things never change!

Just a couple of points to add to the above comments. Just watched this story including the recoloured first episode and I think it's brilliant that the whole Pertwee Era can now be watched in colour. I often used to feel you could never start watching Doctor Who properly in colour until you watched this episode as it was the last episode chronologically to be in black and white. It's also great you're given the chance to still watch the first episode in B&W on the DVD but I plumped for the colour as I hadn't seen it before.

As for the story, I think the whole spaceship storyline was just ridiculous. It was just a repeat of what happened in The Enemy Of The World where Salamander did something similar in tricking a group of people into a situation but in that story at least it appeared feasible as it was underground. The idea of a vast group of people on a 'spaceship' and not one person sussing it until Sarah came 'aboard' was absurd.

Jon Pertwee put another reasonably funny performance in this one. I like the way he funnily poses for pictures in the first episode and the scene where he keeps getting interrupted was amusing as well. And the ironic line of 'Britain always closes on a Sunday.', so true back in the 70's, always brings a smile to my face.

Just to elaborate more on the Yates storyline. There's a really different dynamic between the three UNIT regulars because of Yate's going over to the dark side slightly in this. I like the scene where General Finch demands an investigation after The Doctor has escaped, thanks to Benton. You can see on Yate's face that he knows what has happened even though he's on the other side and The Brigadier too. I also like the fact Yates still retained some loyalty to The Doctor and he didn't go completely bad. I thought the whole arc with him from The Green Death to Planet Of The Spiders was an unusual piece of character development that wouldn't be out of place in the New Series.

And The Doctor 'knocking' out Benton is just my favourite scene from the entire story. The way he just closes his eyes, anxiously knowing what is to come always makes me chuckle!