Doctor Who (TV Series) Invasion of the Dinosaurs: Part Six (1974) User Reviews

A solid conclusion

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 1 October 2017]

London is fully evacuated, as Finch and Grover plan to put their plan into action.

The start to this episode is a terrible one, the fight scene between the two dinosaurs is one of the worst I can think of, it looks so cheap, once that nonsense is dealt with, you're left with a thoroughly enjoyable episode. The scene with the Brig and the triceratops looks slightly better due to the lighting, perhaps this should have been the case throughput. The conflict between Lethbridge Stewart and Finch is brilliant, two excellent performances throughout.

We naturally get that phrase 'he's revered the polarity,' much to the delight of many fans.

A brilliant script, with some truly amazing concepts, if only those dinosaurs had been better executed in think many would see this serial as a real classic.

A very good episode, once again there's that political message, 8/10

"There you go Doctor, blow your way into the bank of England with that lot." The final part to a good story.

[poolandrews · 7/10 · 3 March 2007]

Doctor Who: Invasion of the Dinosaurs: Part 6 starts with the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) managing to escape the T-Rex & Brontosaurus & meeting up with his alie Brig. Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) from UNIT, he convinces him to wage an all out attack on the underground bunker where Professor Whitaker (Peter Miles) is holed in preparation to wipe out all humanity on Earth so he & his misguided backers can start civilisation again afresh. Meanwhile Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen) is doing her best to convince the unwitting participants involved in operation 'Golden Age' to rebel against the lies that they have been told, but will the combined efforts of the Doctor & Sarah Jane be enough?

This Doctor Who adventure was episode 10 from season 11 & aired here in the Uk during early 1974, directed by Paddy Russell I actually rather liked this six parter even though I prefer the shorter stories. The script by Malcolm Hulke rounds things off nicely, it retains it's reasonably effective moral message about pollution & even the Doctor comes out with a speech on the subject at the end as he reelects on the events that have just happened. There's enough treachery, monsters, action, light hearted humour, near misses & just plain childish fun to have kept me entertained throughout the six episodes although Part 1 seems like a long time ago now...

The special effects have generally been pretty poor throughout Invasion of the Dinosaurs & it's a shame that most people will probably remember & refer to it simply as 'the one with the awful dinosaurs' as the basic concept is good. The fight between the T-Rex & Brontosaurus is awful, it reminded me of when I was a kid & had plastic dinosaur toys which I would hold by the tips of their tails & just sort of push them into each other & make roaring noises to simulate a fight!

Invasion of the Dinosaurs overall is a fine story that one has to remember was made during the early 70's & as such isn't going to have Jurassic Park (1992) quality special effects, all I'll say is just enjoy it for what is. I'm going to give it 7 stars out of 10 over it's six episodes although I felt it maybe ran for one episode too many.

71: Invasion of the Dinosaurs

[Tom-Gentile8 · 8/10 · 24 June 2018]

"Take the world that you've got and try and make something of it. It's not too late."

Going into this, I expected to find a story similar to Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, where a gimmick or "cool idea" was quickly and sloppily turned into a full fledged plot. This was not the case. Surprisingly, it was one of the funniest bunches of episodes I had witnessed so far. The story, after a couple parts, also took a turn into a more existential conversation of morals. Maybe the astonishment I felt was due to the modern staleness of dinosaur related media I've come to know and live in. Either way, Malcolm Hulke delivered a playful and entertaining script that brings many interesting narratives to the beloved U.N.I.T family.

Part One/Two/Three/Four/Five/Six - June 24th

S11: Invasion of the Dinosaurs: Ropey effects, but quite fun and with interesting plot

[bob the moo · 24 May 2015]

Returning to London from the Middle Ages, the Doctor is sure he is not too far off the time that he and Sarah Jane left, but an abandoned London suggests he cannot he right. Encountering only looters and hooligans, they seek out the support of a passing military patrol, but find themselves under arrest as looters and are sentenced to a detention camp until such a time that a civil system returns to sentence them properly. Meanwhile UNIT have little time to be trying to deal with the looter menace, since a much bigger threat to London is randomly attacking before vanishing without trace.

The Time Warrior was an enjoyably brisk start to the eleventh season, and it was with some doubts that I saw the next serial was back to being a fuller 6 episodes – which often means that a 4-part story is delivered over 6 episodes rather than there really being 6- parts there. Despite this, I really quite enjoyed Invasion of the Dinosaurs, despite the obvious weaknesses that it has. It is a sort of game of two halves. In the first we have the focus being on an abandoned London (the novelty of which is increased by having the Doctor bazzing around the streets in a souped-up bumper car), and of course we also have the dinosaurs. In brief glimpses and far-off shots, the effects are not too bad – indeed the opening episode I saw was only in black and white, which masked the effects and gave it a horror-feel; however the more it shows and the more it tries to do, the more laughable they become. There is still a certain amount of fun to be had with them, but it is hard to avoid that the T-Rex looks like a terrible plasticine version of Homer Simpson in his Tracey Altman days. The plot around the dinosaurs in particular fills a few episodes, despite recycling the same cliffhanger at least twice.

This gives way to a more interesting plot, which is a bit over the top perhaps, but allows for the idea of "greater good" rather than just being pantomime villainry. It is perhaps not a moral issue that is debated or poses a real quandary, but it is an interesting change to the usual plots, and it is a welcome and unusual find to have such a narrative mixed with the dinosaur action. This being 6 episodes, there is still too much padding around the edges, but generally it works and the cast have good fun – Pertwee enjoying his wry moments and action moves, while Sladen makes good on the script giving her plenty to be involved in, and lead on in some cases. Frankling delivers a good turn as Yates, while Courtney and Levene are both solid. The support cast didn't totally make the most of the material, but generally are okay.

Not perfect by any means, but for its flaws it is entertaining with some interesting elements in the plotting, continuing a very good start to this season.

The 'story with the rubbish dinosaurs' actually has a lot of great stuff in it.

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 9/10 · 14 November 2014]

Review of all 6 episodes:

The first episode is titled simply 'Invasion; Part One' so does not give away the content of the story. That works well as when the creatures appear late in the episode it would be surprising to an audience unaware of what to expect. The remainder of the story is given its full title of Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Many people know this story as 'the one with the rubbish dinosaurs' and it is used as an embarrassing example of poor special effects in the series. I do agree that the dinosaurs are very poor indeed, particularly the T- Rex which is simply awful. But I do not judge such effects too harshly as I understand the limitations of the age and the low budget. Anyway, this can be rectified by being re-released with well done CGI dinosaurs which would certainly improve the production and impact of many scenes. The dinosaurs are used purely for fun, for spectacle and novelty value. When they cannot have been certain (despite assurances from the company supplying the models) of good quality, they should probably never have included dinosaurs at all. However, if done with really good effects they would certainly add a lot of fun and dramatic scenes. If you overlook the effects it is very enjoyable indeed and an interesting twist on a monster invasion. Malcolm Hulke has, as usual, done a great job as writer.

It seems a little far-fetched I suppose that 1970s Earth scientists could manage to achieve the power of moving dinosaurs through time or returning the Earth to the state it was in millions of years ago. A more sensible and logical plot would have had a devious non-Earth villain providing the scientific know- how for this (as The Master used to be involved in many previous stories). That is a very minor issue though as much of Doctor Who and most science fiction has such far-fetched ideas, you cannot really complain unless it is clearly illogical and I don't think it is. It is not much to ask that we just accept the scifi/fantasy concept that a scientist might somehow find a way to rewind time just as they did later in the much loved 4th Doctor classic City of Death (although that was done with advanced alien knowhow). If you overlook that and the rubbish dinosaurs there is so much in this story that is entertaining and interesting.

The acting, script and many scenes are of great quality. In the first episode where The Doctor and Sarah Jane find themselves in an eerily quiet London not knowing that dinosaurs have started appearing it is intriguing and effective. The dialogue and performances remain excellent throughout with so many superb scenes of fascinating science fiction but also lots of humorous exchanges. It is a great idea to have environmental/political extremists feeling they need to take drastic action to save the Earth and their selected section of humanity from the ecological damage and wars that ravage our planet. The way they are duped to thinking they are travelling to a new planet is really good and all of the characters are very well written and very well acted. Grover, Finch, Butler, Whitaker, Ruth and Robinson are all superb, convincing guest characters wonderfully performed by the whole cast. The ideas presented are really interesting. I must say that the way the damage humans are doing to the world is shown in films in the 'Reminder Room' and the way the 3rd Doctor explains that he agrees with the views of the extremists but not with their methods and almost looks into the camera saying how we should "make the best out of the world we have, it's not too late" is a very overt ecological message which makes a mockery of those who try to say this era of Who was much more subtle in its messages than any later eras. It also makes a mockery of those who say this story portrays the 'lefties' as the villains. In fact it just suggests that if we keep destroying our planet we will push people to extreme measures. Their cause is shown to be correct but the methods of the leaders is condemned as too cruel and extreme.

The main cast are terrific:

Lis Sladen in only her second story establishes herself as the best possible companion. She is brave, intelligent, takes the lead in acting to save others, hugely strong minded, tough but compassionate, she is an absolute joy! Her acting is flawless and there are beautiful moments of humour from her too.

John Levene has one of his finest stories as he shows wonderful loyalty and puts his neck on the line to help save the day with several enjoyable physical interventions and funny lines.

Nicholas Briggs is on absolute top form as the Brigadier and is fantastic in every scene.

Richard Franklin acts perfectly as Mike Yates as his character is taken in a brave new direction. It is shocking and very cleverly done bringing a real depth and emotion with the dark character development.

Jon Pertwee is at the top of his game as the Doctor with his intellect, morality, bravery and martial arts all shown off well.

So, is this story perfect? No. Is it a fun, interesting, thoroughly entertaining story with great ideas, dialogue and acting? Yes!

My ratings: Parts 1 & 2 - 9/10, Parts 3, 4 & 5 - 8.5/10, Part 6 - 9/10. Overall - 8.75/10.