Invasion of the Dinosaurs
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Template:Doctorwhobox Invasion of the Dinosaurs is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from January 12 to February 16,1974.
Synopsis
The Doctor and Sarah arrive in 1970s London to find that it has been evacuated, due to the mysterious appearance of dinosaurs. It turns out that the dinosaurs are being brought to London via a time machine in order to further a plan to revert London to a pre-technological level.
Notes
- Doctor Who, the Television Companion (Howe and Walker, 1998) quotes a contemporary review that rather unkindly describes the dinosaur special effects thus: "After escaping they [the Doctor and Sarah] came up against the first dinosaur and, oh dear, shades of Basil Brush! A glove puppet nervously skiing about London streets didn't exactly fill me with fright..."
- The first episode of the serial is in black and white, as the original colour master tape was wiped. It had been rumoured that this was because it was mixed up with an episode of the Patrick Troughton serial The Invasion, though this is probably not true as The Invasion had already been wiped when Invasion of the Dinosaurs was first transmitted. The rumour might have started due to the first episode being transmitted with the title Invasion in an attempt to conceal the central plot device. See: Doctor Who story title controversy
- The 625-line colour PAL transmission master videotapes for the serial were scheduled to be wiped and reused, but only Episode 1 was erased. The serial remained incomplete in the BBC Archives until 1983, when a damaged monochrome print of Episode 1 made for internal use was found and returned.
- Guest stars in this serial include John Bennett as General Finch, Martin Jarvis as Butler and Carmen Silvera as Ruth.
External links
- Cast and Crew list, on the BBC website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/episodeguide/invasiondinosaurs/castcrew.shtml)