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Christmas just came early for fans of the classic ‘60s era of BBC TV’s Doctor Who as an eagerly awaited classic story featuring stunning animation arrives on DVD.

Doctor Who - The Invasion

What’s this? A mix of live action footage and animation re-imagining a much-loved 1960s icon? But this isn’t Alan Moore’s latest reinvention via a Japanese anime house it’s classic ‘monster’ period Doctor Who, regenerated in downtown Chorlton...BBC DVD and 2 Entertain have unveiled the previously incomplete Cyberman story The Invasion - available to view in its entirety, probably for the first time since it was originally broadcast on two shining DVDs.

First transmitted in 1968, this eight-part story sees the Doctor - played by Patrick Troughton, the second incarnation of the Timelord (Jason & The Argonauts, The Omen), his travelling companions Jamie - played by Frazer Hines (TVs Emmerdale Farm) and Zoë – played by the very elfin Wendy Padbury - arrive in London at some point in the near future.

The Doctor and co. soon learn that all is not well in this future Britain. A mysterious and powerful global company is running a sealed-off community like its own very country. The time travellers have the misfortune to land in this ‘state within a state’ and almost instantly find themselves looking for a way of escaping from the regimes’ jackbooted armed guards.

They soon learn that the barbed wire fenced company town they have only just escape from with their lives is one of the centres run by International Electromatics (IE) - the world’s leading electronics multinational, run by the urbane, but evidently treacherous Tobias Vaughn.

It emerges that Vaughn is under investigation by the newly formed ‘UNIT’ (the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce - a sort of pre-X Files paramilitary investigative group led by a character from the Doctor’s pasts - Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart). An eminent computer scientist has been kidnapped and a host of eminent figures have begun to act strangely after visiting the IE headquarters. With the help of UNIT the Doctor discovers he is being held by the managing director of IE who would appear to be in league with the Cybermen in a plan to take over the Earth. Once successful, the double-crossing Vaughn intends on seizing power for himself...

Hardcore

When the BBC decided to release more episodes of cult classic Doctor Who on DVD they ran into a problem that’s an all-too familiar one for Sixties television series: some of it no longer exists, having been junked long before anyone realised the potential for re-using archive material, beyond the odd BBC2 repeat. Indeed, although the soundtracks remain to every ‘Who adventure (thanks in part to the diligence of ‘home tapers’ – fans recording the shows off-air in the early years), over 100 episodes – mostly from the Patrick Troughton black and white period of the show are gone. Some of these incomplete stories had already been released as incomplete stories on VHS in the 1990s, sometimes married with an audio CD of the soundtrack to the missing episodes and featuring specially recorded linking material to tell the viewers what they were missing and plug the plot gaps. Quite a few have also been issued as CD only releases – again using linking narration to fill in the gaps.

This fairly unsatisfactory ‘ad-hoc’ arrangement was always destined to be something for the hardcore fans only – and although those tapes and CDs sold well the casual buyer was always going to look askance at an incomplete story – no matter how iconic, re-mastered and extras-packed the remaining episodes might be. Waiting for the action to suddenly stop to be told by an actor to camera that ‘this is what happened next’ was never going to sit well with the DVD buying public newly switched on to the flashy new series starring David Tennant. Furthermore this was always going to be a particular problem with The Invasion of all the incomplete 'Who adventures - as of those two missing episodes one of them happens to be the all important opening instalment.

With today’s technology however, all was not lost. BBC Interactive Drama and Entertainment set to work with Manchester based animators Cosgrove Hall (famous for Danger Mouse and the BBCi webcast starring Richard E. Grant Scream of the Shalka) to recreate the two missing episodes from the story. Using a striking, stylised black and white animation format Cosgrove Hall have recreated the two missing episodes based on the original soundtracks and set designs, filling in the gaps as seamlessly as possible. The end result brings the second Doctor’s era back to life as a beautifully rendered broadcast quality animation.

The end result is a first for both the BBC and Cosgrove Hall. Lead Animator Steve Maher says: “Working in Black and White animation is dramatic and graphic; it gave us the opportunity to employ the kind of noir lighting that only really works without colour. It’s a slightly surreal experience using digital technology to recreate the visual qualities inherent in a TV show from 1968 but a treat was Patrick Troughton's Doctor - he has a wonderfully animatable face so he was a gift. With the history and following the Doctor has – the whole project has been a bit of a special treat!”

Head of BBC Interactive Drama and Entertainment, Sophie Walpole added: "In the year that the Cybermen have returned to Doctor Who” (as the major villains in no less than four episodes of this year’s series starring David Tennant) “it seemed a good idea to complete one of their finest outings from the 1960s. The original two episodes of the series are lost forever but we have found a unique and innovative way of presenting this classic adventure by lovingly restoring the soundtrack and setting it to new animation. It's a gripping adventure which still remains faithful to the original."

Hardware

This being shot by the BBC on the streets of the capital at the end of the Sixties of course, the ‘near future’ turns out to look like a very recognisable London of mini skirts, new tower blocks and the sorts of military hardware that definitely places the British soldiers’ on view as contemporary to the production. The only real oddity technology-wise is the use of a two way videophone and the appearance of a fully computerised office lobby in the early episodes – although these might easily be thought of as the products of the super-science being deployed by the villain of the piece: Tobias Vaughn.

Despite good use of locations to show the loading and unloading of UNIT land rovers from the backs of the transport ‘plane being used as the Brigadier’s mobile HQ we get no real sense of it being airborne – a few shots of the aircraft in flight or taking off and landing peppered through the episodes would have helped ‘sell’ this idea much better. As it is it’s very easy to forget (particularly if you watch episodes over a few evenings, let alone a week apart each, as these would have originally been viewed) that this isn’t meant to be a building you’re looking at. These niggles aside (and they are very minor) this is a rollicking mystery adventure featuring some absolute classic imagery: the cybermen emerge from the sewers, they burst out of coccoons, stalk through the streets of The City of London and do battle with the Army in the grounds of a Guiness factory, to name just a few.

The animation works wonderfully - and it is only to be hoped that the BBC have such a huge success with this release that they consider funding the restoration of some more incomplete classics in the same way: Nigel Kneale's The Quatermass Experiment perhaps? Or for Doctor Who itself, how about completing the final William Hartnell (and coincidentally first Cyberman) story: The Tenth Planet?

Written by Derrick Sherwin, directed by Douglas Camfield and produced by Peter Bryant, with a running time of around 192 minutes The Invasion includes the following superb extras:

Commentary tracks featuring animation director Steve Maher, BBC producer James Goss and audio restoration expert Mark Ayres (episode 1) and actors Wendy Padbury, Frazer Hines, Nicholas Courtney and production assistant Chris D'Oyly-John (episodes 2-8)

'Flash Frames' - a featurette on the creation of the animated episodes by Chorlton based Cosgrove Hall

'Love Off-Air' featurette - an affectionate tribute to all those people who ever held a microphone to the TV speaker to capture the audio in the days before video recorders

'Character Design' - a short featurette showcasing Steve Maher's character design drawings and animation test for the animated episodes

'Evolution of The Invasion' - a fifty minute ‘making of’ feature with the cast and crew of The Invasion talking about the production background to the show, the cooperation of the RAF and the British Army in making the UNIT organisation look robust and talking affectionately of filming helicopter stunts, rooftop death scenes and battles on the streets of London. Sound wizard Mark Ayres talks about the process of restoring the soundtrack of the two missing episodes and the problems of sourcing DVD sound from such low quality originals.

1993 VHS Links - Nicholas Courtney's links to camera from the 1993 VHS release, in which he fills in the story from the two missing episodes

Photo Gallery – featuring some striking rarely seen photographs from the production – including a number of location shots taken in colour – among them the famous shot of the Cybermen walking down the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral.

2 animated trailers

Subtitled production notes

So, whether your appetite has been whetted by the new Cybermen’s appearance on screen in the new series of Doctor Who or you’re looking for a touch of sixties nostalgia, this makes for first-rate viewing. A perfect cyber stocking filler for all the family this Christmas (while awaiting this year’s new ‘Who Christmas broadcast – The Runaway Bride). An essential purchase.

Doctor Who - The Invasion is in the shops now as a two DVD set priced £19.99 or can be purchased directly from the BBC Shop, just by following this link.

More information available in DVD / Home Video, TV & Radio