The Invasion is an eight-parter from the Second Doctor era which had two episodes missing. In this edition the two episodes, 1 and 4, have been reconstructed as animations with digitally remastered sound track. That in itself makes this a must have DVD for Doctor Who fans. Especially since 2 Entertain announced they would not be commissioning any further animated reconstructions in the foreseeable future.

The animated episodes are very well done. The characters look very much like the actors, even the animated Sergeant Benton when we see him near the end of the first episode.

The story is a convoluted one, being in eight parts and it isn’t until the fourth episode that the invaders – Cybermen – even appear. But it doesn’t drag too badly. There are some very good scenes such as Zoe defeating the International Electromatics computer by talking to it in Algol. It is the first time we see U.N.I.T. at work, too, with the Brigadier in full charge of operations. Interestingly, there are several U.N.I.T. officers named in this story, such as Captain Turner, Sergeant Peters and Sergeant Walters who seemed like well rounded characters, but we never hear from them again. Sergeant Benton and Captain Mike Yates become the established U.N.I.T. regulars. Presumably the actors playing Turner, Peters and Walters weren’t available to reprise their roles.

Incidentally, the story is split over the two discs, episodes 1-4 on the first disc and 5-8 on the second. This caused some initial confusion for us, when the story seemed to end just as the Cybermen arrived on the scene.

10/10

Extras.

Very good commentaries by Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury and Nicholas Courtney on the live action and James Goss from the BBC, Steve Maher from Cosgrave Hall and Mark Ayres who did the audio cleanup discussing the animated episodes, including many technical details of how it was done.

10/10

Flash Frames – the creation of the animated episodes with interviews with the Cosgrave Hall team. Well made, but a bit heavy going if you aren’t into animation techniques.

9/10.

Love Off-Air – This documentary talks to ordinary members of the public who recorded the episodes of Doctor Who long before video, using reel to reel and cassette tapes, and including all the coughing, sneezing and background conversations of the family. Ironically, these ‘illegal’ recordings have become the backbone of the restoration of the ‘lost’ episodes.

10/10

Trailers – Two animated trailers created by Cosgrave Hall.

8/10

Character Design – Steve Maher’s character designs before they were animated

9/10

Evolution of The Invasion. – Making of documentary that covers some of the same material as the commentary but includes sequences of the filming and locations, including the old Guinness factory and railyard which was used for several important scenes, and the fun had with the free samples at lunchtime.

10/10

VHS links. – On the 1993 VHS video release the missing episodes were ‘filled in’ by Nicholas Courtney talking to camera.

10/10

Photo Gallery and Production Subtitles – as standard on Doctor Who DVDs. And of course pictures and soundtrack are digitally remastered.

10 out of 10.