Just tried to access it; got an error saying 'the title you are looking for is not available in the New Zealand store'. Bastards!
THE INVASION 8/10 Having seen this serial twice on VHS I opted not to listen to the existing episodes, merely 1 and 4 only. It's a pity they're missing as they're actually very good. From the shock tactics of the IE guards with the lorry driver to the Doctor's reaction to computers and Jamie and Packers banter in part 1, plus the helicopter escape in part 4, they sound very good. As for the serial as a whole, both times I watched it I found it overly long and grew tired by the end, though I guess this can be chalked up to the scripting issues in season six and how this was originally going to be just six episodes (if it had it might've been considerably better). So a good story, just long. The Crusade next.
^Episodes 1 & 4 of "The Invasion" have been restored in animated form, so it is possible to see the whole serial after a fashion. It's Flash animation of mid-level quality, reminiscent of the limited animation of Filmation shows in the '70s (like the animated Star Trek).
It's pretty easy for me to slip into a long paragraph raving about "The Invasion." It's my favorite Doctor Who story ever. Tobias Vaughn is such an excellent villain, and I love it whenever he starts berating Packer. The 2nd Doctor, Jamie, & Zoe are among my all-time favorite TARDIS teams ever, and Isobel Watkins could have easily been an excellent companion in her own right. (I keep hoping she'll show up on the new series sometime.) Plus, it's the frickken Brigadier & UNIT! And I really liked the animation work done on Parts 1 & 4. On the one hand, they weren't able to quite capture the nuances of Patrick Troughton & Frazier Hines' performances. However, the animation actually makes the story look better as far as the variety of camera angles, more frequent cutting, and the generally more noirish feel.
We'll see. I wasn't sure what to make of the preview animation I saw online. It looked like it was trying too hard to be photo-real and to stick with the limited framing of the TV series. What I liked about the "Invasion" animation was that it wasn't apologizing for being animation. It was just doing its own thing and doing it very well.
Plus it helped fill in the plot hole about 'seeing the alien ship'. Although they did get Zoe's outfit wrong.
THE CRUSADE 7/10 As brilliant as the script was, and the added influence of the excellent Julian Glover (who brought much needed presence to the important character of King Richard), I didn't really find the story very engaging. Barbara disappears 10 seconds after leaving the Tardis and is on her own for pretty much the entire story, meanwhile The Doctor is largely removed from the 'action' as he spends most of his time with Vicki in the royal court. Only Ian seems to do a greater amount (brooding over Barbara, becoming a knight, being captured by a thief, menaced by ants and finally taking on a group of knights in a battle of wits), but despite this his seems to do most of in the background of the other three Tardis companions. Whittaker's scripts are - as always - rich in detail and full of character interaction. I'm not sure what it is, but for me the story didn't seem to match the sum of it's parts. Right... I only have two left. For Troughton I have The Wheel in Space. Not my first choice to end this campaign of mine but I misjudged how many Troughtons I had left after The Web of Fear, and in retrospect probably should've swapped them. I'm already two episodes in and aren't enjoying it very much, and I don't really care for the surviving episodes of the story either... For Hartnell I have The Savages. I don't mind as I know next to nothing about it but it includes the final appearance of Steven, who I consider my favourite companion of the sixties. I may end on a very nostalgic note which will take me back to 1994 when I heard my first missing story adventure; listening to a recently-acquired copy of the Tom Baker-narrated version of The Power of the Daleks. I sold mine a few years ago but always wanted to hear it again.
I though "The Crusade" was largely excellent, feeling like a pastiche of a lost Shakespeare play about Richard I and Saladin. But it suffered in the last episode due to the fact that the Doctor and his companions ultimately couldn't have any direct impact on historical events, so all the big, important historical drama of the first few episodes just fizzled out unresolved as we switched focus to the main characters escaping from their comparatively petty crises. That was perhaps an endemic problem of the historicals.
I always felt the key strands in Crusade were the Barbara & Doctor stuff - Ian's story isn't really important at all. Barbara may be on her own but her storyline is very well done. Episode 3 contains some of the best performances in the series with Jackie Hill, Julian Glover & Jean Marsh all on top form. As Christopher says though it does fall apart slightly as the regulars really can't have any significant impact on what goes on. That can often be a problem with the historicals but seems more obvious here I feel. That said I still love this story.
I'd get Wheel in Space out of the way (aside from anything else, part one is possibly the least audio-friendly episode of the lot, even more than Space Pirates 1), as Savages might prove a pleasant surprise to end on. At least, when Tavern discussions about 'What story would you like back most?' get underway, about 20 minutes in, once the usual suspects have all been mentioned, someone will usually say 'You know, I think The Savages might be rather good actually,' and everyone else tends to say 'Me too...'
And the TARDIS circuits that the Doctor gives to Tobias Vaughn were different too. Although, the thing about Zoe's outfit kinda makes sense if you only used the surviving episodes of "The Invasion" for continuity and neglected to check what she was wearing at the end of "The Mind Robber." It doesn't help that no one ever mentions in dialogue that Zoe has changed outfits while in Isobel's apartment. (Although, in retrospect, when Isobel remarks on Zoe's outfit in Part 1, her line makes a lot more sense if Zoe is wearing her sparkly jumpsuit at the time.)
Depends who you speak to I guess. For me The Savages is one of those unknown stories which hardly gets a mention; not overly praised and yet not slammed into the mud either. I look forward to hearing it. Almost up to Wheel Ep 5.
THE WHEEL IN SPACE 5/10 Average tale. The level of "space dialogue" was above average here. 60s plot devices don't really work in the 10s (a star going nova generates a meteor shower in a matter of days??). For the most part there's only two Cybermen in the whole story, and that's from episode 3 onwards. Zoe is good, strong first performance from her. One to go...
Journey's end... THE SAVAGES 8/10 While not a ground-breaking epic, a story far better than some of the other 'completely-missings', a story of a class struggle rather than a base under siege or a monster runaround, a story Star Trek would nick three years later! Ian Stuart Black does a great job but I can't help but feel it needed someone like David Whittaker to bring the characters to life. In terms of what is good, the swansong for Steven was handled well, if rather abruptly, given Steven is probably my favourite sixties companion I'll probably always have a soft spot for this serial. Makes the events in Sierra Leone even harder now. Welll... that's it. 25 stories (with two still to try and finish when I get better quality audios). Only taken me since May to complete. I've managed to also get copies of some of the other 90s cassette releases (Power, Evil and Fury all narrated by Tom, and Tomb by Pertwee) so hopefully they're more audible than the Macra Terror was. I'll review them as well. Gotta keep the thread going somehow.