With the announcement of a new classic Doctor Who season getting released on Blu-Ray as apart of the beloved The Collection range. It was only about right that to get us even more excited for this upcoming Blu-Ray release that I take a look at an episode from this season and after trolling BBC IPlayer to find the perfect story tom review I think that i've found a really good episode and so the join me as I review the episode that sees not one but two companions leave the show for good with the episode in question being called simply just "The Invasion Of Time" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when some aliens invade Gallifrey The Doctor has to try and stop it but someone far more sinister lurks in the shadows. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad altho that's also the issue as this episodes plot isn't that good either with the plot of this episode being very weak at worst and quite hard to follow along with at best as the plot has so many twists and turns that it leaves you confused as to what's actually going on but at the same time tho I will very much admit that the plot of this episode is also really rather entertaining and also really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Tom Baker as The Doctor , Louise Jameson as Leela and John Leeson as The Voice Of K9 Mark I. Also starring in this episode is John Arnatt as Chancellor Borusa , Milton Johns as Castellan Kelner , Chris Tranchell as Andred , Charles Morgan as Gold Usher , Hilary Ryan as Rodan , Dennis Edwards as Lord Gomer , Reginald Jessup as Lord Savar , Max Faulkner as Nesbin , Ray Callaghan as Ablif , Michael Mundell as Jasko , Gai Smith as Presta , Derek Deadman as Stor and Stuart Fell as A Sontaran.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. Which is really nothing new for this series as this series has always had some really good acting in it with this especially being true for the Tom Baker era of the show and as such to expect bad acting from this episode wouldn't have been wise but what does let the acting down quite a bit is the fact that the script for this episode just isn't that good as the script doesn't really give the newer actors alot to work with interms of what there respective characters personalities are even meant to be and as a result of this is the fact that the acing in this episode isn't as good as it really could have been as the episodes script just really won't allow for a good performance..
This is the episode that sees technically two companions leave the show for good with the first of which being Leela. With the character having only been in the show just over one season of the shows run and yet even so she very rarely got any development as a character with her character being in the same place that she was in when she first started travelling with The Doctor which does make sense as the character forced her way onto the TARDIS with The Doctor never really taking a liking to her but at the same time there should have been moments in this episode where she expresses her desire to leave the TARDIS for good and yet she doesn't as she just chooses to leave at the end of the episode after apparently falling in love with Andred something which was also never even hinted of at all during the events of the episode.
Leela wasn't the only companion to leave the TARDIS tho as K9 Mark I also left altho this one both could and couldn't be considered a companion departure. As at the end of the episode The Doctor is seen with a box labelled K9 Mark II which implies that The Doctor had every intention of replacing the original K9 with an updated model but at the same time given that K9 did spend most of this series as a companion to both The Doctor and Leela it is possible that this could also count as a companion as well as he does choose to leave the TARDIS to stay with Leela in order to keep her safe and where as Leela's departure came out of nowhere it makes sense for K9's departure to come out of nowhere as he after all a robot and would there for not really express the desire to leave as that's not something that he's programmed to do.
For some strange reason this episode has alot of comedy moments and comedy music in it all of which just clash with the episodes tone. While the show has always had more lighthearted moments in it it was never to this extent with the characters frequently making jokes and with the show now adding in comedy music with the shows more lighthearted moments coming in not at the start or near the end of the episode which is when you'd want these more lighthearted moments but they come right in the middle of the story when they story is meant to be it's most serious and yet the episode has the characters frequently cracking jokes or doing something that's meant to be funny and all it does is create tonal whiplash as the episode flip flops between having a deadly serious moment in one moment to something more lighthearted the next with this episode even stopping the plot just to tell what might be a fairly bad joke.
To put it bluntly the villains for the first half of this story The Vardans just don't look that terrifying at all. With them looking badly greenscreened in pieces of tin foil that have been lazily put on something to make them float as that's how bad the characters look granted classic Doctor Who was always made on a very small budget but they very easily could have come up with some better looking designs for these creatures as there current design just makes them look like jokes and while granted they aren't the main villain of the story but you still have to make them look them good in order to make the actual reveal of who the real main bad guys are even more shocking having these characters look as bad as they do doesn't make them look threatening and it doesn't make them look scary and as a result of that is the fact that the reveal of who the real bad guys are isn't as shocking as these villains just look incredibly weak.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember what this episodes exact grand total running time even was I do know that for a fact that this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly two hours. Which is a fairly solid running time for this episode to have as this episode is made of six episodes with the episodes really being a story of two halves with the first half dealing with The Vardans as the main enemy and the second half dealing with The Sontaran's as the main enemy all of which doesn't really work as it makes the second half feel like it was added on late in the day as the main story was all wrapped up by the end of episode three but for some reason the makers of the show chose to add an extra three episodes to this one episode which means that the main story does start to get spread really thin which is a shame as the idea of The Sontaran's trying to steal the TARDIS is a really good but it's one that's not as fully developed as it really could have or even should have been for that matter but it's not that's given the time that it needs tho but I will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. Granted classic Doctor Who has never really had great looking action scenes in it and what little action we do get in this episode is indeed really good for the time that it was made in it's also alot more slow with the character of Leela doing all of her moves really slowly which is something that does bring down the overall quality if the action in this episode as all it does is take you out of the episode but when we do get a good action scene in this episode you really do know about it in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this episode wasn't a bad but it's central idea isn't as fully developed as it really should have been with the episode being a very confusing and tonal mess for alot of it's running time in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6 out of 10 from me.
Now then ado for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page , Amazon . Co . Uk and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episode that I used in this very review being the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that alot of the images that are on the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page are really all really fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.