Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Story: Invasion of the Dinosaurs – Season 11, Story 71Year: 1974
Written by: Malcolm Hulke
Directed by: Paddy Russell
Synopsis: Sarah and the Doctor arrive in the present day to find London a deserted wasteland. A mistaken arrest, an escape, a recapture and a release later, they are reunited with UNIT and hear that London has become infested with dinosaurs which appear and disappear seemingly at random.
While the Doctor follows the dinosaurs around to find out who has been bringing them from the past, and discovers a conspiracy to return the Earth to a prehistoric state, Sarah does some investigating of her own and finds herself on a spaceship heading to a new world!
Sarah works out pretty quickly that the space ship is a fake, and manages to convince the other travellers of it too. The Doctor works out that Mike Yates, a member of UNIT, is a member of the conspiracy, and finds the Timescoop which has been bringing the dinosaurs forward in time.
When the Doctor, Sarah and the space ship travellers confront the scientists at the head of the conspiracy, a fight breaks out, and the scientists are sent back in time by their own machine.
After the fuss dies down, Mike Yates is allowed to resign from UNIT, and the Doctor offers to take Sarah on a well-deserved holiday.
Sarah Moments:
• She and the Doctor are arrested for looting
• She and the Doctor are handcuffed together!
• She flirts with Mike Yates
• She researches time travel and works out who’s behind the dinosaurs, but nobody believes her
• She wants to take pictures of the T-Rex, but the Brigadier says no
• She sneaks back to take pictures of it anyway
• The Doctor tends to her head wound, bless him
• She goes to visit Grover to find out about nuclear generators – he takes her down into the bunker and locks her in a room with blue flashing lights that send her to sleep!
• She wakes up on a space ship after three months have passed! It’s on a journey to a new, unspoiled planet. Apparently.
• She rebels against the authority of the leaders of the expedition, so they lock her up and make her watch doom-laden documentaries to ‘re-educate’ her
• She escapes from re-education, and then goes out of the airlock to prove to Mark that the space ship is a fake. Luckily she’s right.
• She gets back to UNIT HQ, and tells General Finch everything she knows. Naturally he turns out to be a bad guy, and takes her back to Grover who locks her right back up again
• She escapes through an air vent and goes back to the ‘ship’
• She tries to persuade everyone that the ship isn’t real, and gets locked up again for her trouble
• Adam learns the truth and lets Sarah and Mark out
• Sarah goes out of the airlock again to show everyone that the ship is a fake
Capture, Rescue and Mortal Peril:
• She and the Doctor nearly get run over by a looter
• Five minutes later, they’re held at gunpoint by the same man
• She jumps on a guy who attacks the Doctor
• They’re attacked by a pterodactyl! They escape in a stolen jeep
• They escape from the detention centre transport when a T-Rex causes a distraction
• Another guy attacks the Doctor, and she jumps on him too!
• Somebody sets a T-Rex on her! And a plank falls on her head. The Doctor gets her out.
• Ruth plans to destroy Sarah if she doesn’t respond to re-education!
Quotes:
• ‘That wretched General of yours – he’s trying to have me evacuated!’ ‘You’re a civilian – you’ve got no official status.’ ‘Oh, nonsense, I’m the Doctor’s assistant! Aren’t I, Doctor?’ ‘Hmm? Yes, yes, anything you like.’ ‘There you are!’ - Sarah, Mike Yates and the Doctor
• ‘What did you say that thing is?’ ‘I didn’t.’ ‘Can I help at all?’ ‘No.’ ‘Oh, come on, Doctor – if I’m supposed to be your assistant, there must be something I can do!’ ‘Well, there is!’ ‘What?’ ‘Go away.’ ‘Oh. All right. I’ll go and chat up that nice Captain Yates!’ ‘Yes, I’m sure he’ll enjoy that!’ - Sarah and the Doctor
• ‘The trouble is the Blinovitch Limitation Effect – if they could overcome that...’ ‘I think someone has.’ ‘What, on this planet?’ ‘This is the only one I’ve been able to check up on, Doctor!’ - The Doctor and Sarah
• ‘I’m sorry, Miss Smith – this whole affair’s under strict security blackout. You can take your photographs when the crisis is past.’ ‘When the crisis is past, there won’t be anything to photograph!’ - The Brigadier and Sarah
• ‘Isn’t it marvellous – the one real clue to this whole business, and they totally ignore it!’ - Sarah is cross that nobody pays her any attention
• ‘I’m not going to let go of this.’ ‘Well, what can you do?’ ‘Keep looking until I find him – I’ll make them believe me!’ - Sarah and General Finch
• ‘Typical! "Run away and play, while the grown-ups get on with the real work"!’ - Sarah, still moaning
• ‘Can you get me some transport?’ ‘Oh, no, I couldn’t do that...’ ‘Oh, they told you to look after me! Come on!’ ‘Well, where do you want to go? And what should I tell the Doctor?’ ‘Tell him… tell him I’ve gone out to play!’ - Sarah persuades Benton
• ‘And you were a journalist.’ ‘I still am!’ – Ruth and Sarah
• ‘Don’t you think people have a right to choose what kind of life they want?’ ‘People on Earth were allowed to choose – and see what kind of a world they made! Moral degredation, permissiveness, usury, cheating, lying, cruelty!’ ‘Well, there’s also a lot of love and kindness and honesty! You’ve got a warped view of things.’ ‘You mustn’t say such things!’ ‘I’ll say whatever I like.’ - Sarah and Ruth
• ‘Oh, boy. I really do choose my friends, don’t I?’ - Sarah, after yet another of her confidants turns out to be a bad guy
• ‘Alien monsters, robber barons, then dinosaurs! It’ll be a long time before I get in that TARDIS again!’ ‘Oh. Well, it’s a pity, that.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Well, um, I was rather thinking of making a trip to Florana.’ ‘Where?’ ‘Florana. Probably one of the most beautiful planets in the universe.’ ‘Well, count me out!’ ‘It’s always carpeted with perfumed flowers...’ ‘I’m not listening.’ ‘Its seas are as warm milk, and the sands are soft as swan’s down...’ ‘No, Doctor.’ ‘The streams flow with water and are clearer than the clearest crystal...’ - Sarah and the Doctor
From the Target Novelisation:
Novelised by Malcolm Hulke
• 'Look,' she said, keeping up with the Doctor, 'Woolworths!'
'What is so special about Woolworths?'
'Nothing,' said Sarah, 'but it's nice to see. It means we're back home.' - Sarah misses the comforts of home...
• 'Those pills from the machine?' She pulled a face. 'I'd like something real to eat. - Sarah's hungry, but the Doctor's food apparently isn't good enough!
• Her mouth watered and she went straight to the ham. - She's still hungry...
• 'I'm hungry,' said Sarah. 'Is starvation part of the punishment?' - And... still thinking about food.
• 'Doctor!' exclaimed Sarah, quite shocked, 'we mustn't do anything of the sort! We'll get ourselves into even more trouble!' - Sarah doesn't want to escape from custody for fear of getting into trouble, although it never stopped her before...
• 'Could it be something that we're all imagining?' asked Sarah hopefully. 'A kind of mass hallucination?' - She'll find this excuse useful in years to come...
• 'I were about to slaughter a pig with this knife.'
Sarah recoiled. 'Perhaps this is a vengeance on you for killing a poor defenceless animal.' - Bit hypocritical, Sarah, considering the earlier business with the ham...
• 'The people who created the maggots put me under some hypnotic spell.' He smiled, very charmingly Sarah thought. - Wow, Mike Yates, what a chat-up line...
• It became aware of a noisy midget only a few yards away. - A T-Rex's view of Sarah
• Sarah paced angrily about the tiny room. How stupid to have walked straight into the trap! It was the same with that tyrannosaurus rex – she had brought it all on herself. - Perhaps Sarah's being a bit too hard on herself?
• Sarah turned her back on him. She didn't want him to see her close her eyes and pray as she yanked back the lever. If they really were in space, the moment the hatch opened all the air would leave her lungs. Her lifeless young body would float away into a black nothingness, lost forever. - Woo, that's actually pretty scary!
• Sarah Jane Smith, the journalist girl, walked in. - Everyone in UNIT calls Sarah this
• 'Want a cup of tea?' The corporal had been feeling lonely, and liked the look of Sarah. - Creeeeepy...
• 'You'd be quite handsome without that scar, you know. […] Still, maybe you like being ugly.' - She disses a henchman. Harsh, Sarah, harsh...
Wardrobe Appreciation
Since the action in this episode directly follows The Time Warrior, Sarah is still wearing the same outfit as she did then. But in the first episode of this, we see it in black-and-white, which is interesting, I think.
The second episode is back to colour, and we get a slightly closer look at the outfit.
Both with the jacket and without...
Slightly later on, for goodness knows what reason, Sarah changes her jacket. But the new one is cool and makes her look quite bikerish, so it's all good!
And here's a very blurry look at the boots, which I'm sure are lovely...
Of course, when you wake up on a strange space ship, some kind of slightly futuristic-looking space-garb is obligatory. Sarah's comes in blue.
The Panel Said...
Style Watch:
paranoidangel: Her first outfit was the same thing she wore in The Time Warrior, which apart from being very 70s, is alright. The blue thing is strange and 70s. 6/10
Llin: I love that blue thing! 8/10
Sarah_JaneSmith: Brown suit is brilliant again, and i love the blue space outfit, so 70's! not too keen on the leather jacket though and i dont like her haircut. 8/10
Sarah Watch:
paranoidangel: I do like that she pretty much does whatever she wants, no matter what anyone says. And so she's the one who knows more about what's going on than anyone else, even if she isn't good at picking the right people to tell. 8/10
Llin: She gets captured a lot, but she escapes a lot too. Plus she does what the hell she likes, and she cottons onto the fake spaceship right away. 8/10
Sarah_JaneSmith: Ooooooh she's a clever little minx isnt she, she figures out everything! Plus i love her scenes with Benton and Yates. 9/10
Story Watch:
paranoidangel: Apart from the dinosaurs looking fake and plastic and not at all there, it is quite an interesting story. 8/10
Llin: The only thing that spoils this is the actual dinosaurs, the rest of the story is really interesting. 8/10
Sarah_JaneSmith: A bit too long i have to short an attention span for 6 parters and the dinosaurs are awful but i like the story behind this episode it's very interesting. 7/10
Bonus Pictures
Isn't she pretty?
The Brigadier and Benton
"Hang about, this isn't the TARDIS!"
"What's this in my eye?"
Mugshots
Terrifying dinosaurs!!!
The Doctor isn't having a lovely day
Look, it's Nyder!! ... I mean Whittaker...
The Whomobile
Mike, no!!
"We have to stop meeting like this..."
Sarah and Benton
Aren't they sweet?
< Previous Next >
Feeling clever? Find out how well you really know this story with the Invasion of the Dinosaurs Quiz!
|
|