 This story is renowned for being one of the least fondly-remembered stories of the Third Doctor’s era. In particular many fans feel this story suffers from a good story let down by awful special effects. An effects company, Westbury Design & Optical, had sold the production team on their ability to create dinosaurs, but the finished product fell far below expectations.
Despite being planned as the second story of Season Eleven, this story was the first to be made as part of the eleventh recording block ("The Time Warrior" having been recorded at the end of the tenth block). It was also the second story in a row which Producer Barry Letts found himself wanting, but unable, to direct because of his responsibilities to the science-fiction series Moonbase 3. Instead, the director's chair was assigned to Paddy Russell - whose last Doctor Who work had been the 1966 First Doctor story "The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve" seven years earlier.
For the first time in the shows history, a ‘Gallery only’ day followed the recording of this story. This was a session involving none of the cast, allowing Paddy Russell and her team to assemble the story and complete the work required on the electronic effects.
The working titles for the story included: "Bridgehead from Space" (as the original story-line featured aliens behind the monsters' appearances). It was later changed to "Timescoop" when the alien portion of the story was removed and the ‘Operation Golden Age’ plotline was created. Before becoming "Invasion of the Dinosaurs". Writer Malcolm Hulke protested against the use of the title "Invasion of the Dinosaurs", preferring "Timescoop".
After recording had been completed Producer Barry Letts decided to keep the identity of the story's monsters a secret by airing the first episode under the truncated title "Invasion". This change in title for the first episode also met with displeasure from writer Malcolm Hulke (who thought that the abrupt change of moniker with episode two, combined with the possible loss of ratings due to the boring and generic title, was injurious to his reputation). Ironically this attempt to hide the main plot element was undermined anyway by the BBC listings magazine Radio Times who gave the full story title. Script Editor Terrance Dicks later agreed that the contraction of the first episode to "Invasion" was a decision he now regretted.
The change in title for episode one also lead to one of the most widely-believed myths in Doctor Who folklore, with fans later believing that the reason behind the destruction of only the first episode of this story was because it had been erroneously identified as part of the 1969 Second Doctor story "The Invasion". This is, however, a myth; the junking had nothing to do with the earlier story – which had been partially deleted before "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" was recorded.
This story would transpire to be Malcolm Hulke's final Doctor Who story. He would though continue to have an involvement in the show writing novelisations for Target's Doctor Who range. He later died in 1979.
Martin Jarvis, who plays Butler, had previously portrayed Hilio in the 1965 First Doctor story "The Web Planet". He went on to make one further Doctor Who appearance, as the Governor in the 1985 Sixth Doctor story "Vengeance on Varos".
John Bennett, who plays General Finch, would later return to the show as Li H'sen Chang in the 1977 Fourth Doctor story "The Talons of Weng-Chiang".
Peter Miles, who plays Professor Whitaker, previously appeared as Doctor Lawrence in the 1970 story "Doctor Who and the Silurians". He went on to make one further Doctor Who appearance, as Nyder in the 1975 Fourth Doctor story "Genesis of the Daleks".
This story features one of Doctor Who's most curious plot twists: the sudden change of sides by Captain Mike Yates (as played by Richard Franklin), one of The Brigadier's most trusted operatives and a semi-regular character; Captain Mike Yates would be written out in this story into forced retirement, though he would get the chance to redeem himself in the final story of Season Eleven, "Planet of the Spiders".
This story establishes companion Sarah Jane Smith as being 23 (three years younger than actress Elisabeth Sladen), from which it can be inferred that she was born in 1951, however the UNIT stories may have taken place later than the dates they were broadcast.
Interestingly a clip on the website of The Sarah Jane Adventures refers to the events of this story as having been explained as mass hallucinations caused by a contaminated water supply.
This story includes the first appearance of The Doctor's futuristic new car, named ‘The Alien’ by its makers but referred to generally as the Whomobile (though never referred to onscreen as such). It had still to be fully completed by the time the filming for this story took place, and so is seen with no roof and only a makeshift windscreen.
When the TARDIS first materialises in the park, it is without its top 'Police Public Call Box' signs. Instead, the normally illuminated panels are dark rectangles.
The Doctor is heard to mention the Blinovitch Limitation Effect in relation to the development of time travel.
At the end of this story The Doctor offers to take Sarah to the planet Florana - which he describes as 'probably one of the most beautiful planets in the universe'. This invitation leads into the next story "Death to the Daleks". The Ninth Doctor and the Tenth Doctor both also described a wonder of the universe in glorious detail in order to encourage a companion to stick around ("Aliens of London/World War Three", "The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords" and "The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky").
An alternative version of the events of this story is mentioned in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who Unbound audio play "Sympathy for the Devil".
Sarah Jane Smith refers to her encounter with real dinosaurs in a conversation with Rose Tyler during the 2006 Tenth Doctor story "School Reunion". The Seventh Doctor also mentions the events of this story to Ace in the 1988 story "The Happiness Patrol".
The 625-line colour PAL transmission master videotapes for this story were scheduled to be wiped only a few months after the story's initial transmission. For some unknown reason only the first episode was actually erased. This was one of the latest Doctor Who episode to have ever been junked by the BBC (surpassed only by episode one of "Death to the Daleks", which aired a few months later). This story therefore remained incomplete in the BBC Archives until June 1983, when a damaged black and white engineering print was recovered by a film collector. While this print was severely degraded, it did complete the archive of Jon Pertwee episodes.
An unofficial Doctor Who restoration team re-mastered this story for transmission in 1998; the re-mastering of the damaged episode one was enough to warrant its transmission. It has been rumoured that an unofficial team of fans are attempting to re-colourise this black and white episode which is the last episode that does not exist in its original form.
This was the final complete story to be released by BBC Worldwide on VHS, in 2003 – albeit with the first episode only being available in its black and white format.
A novelisation of this story, written by Malcolm Hulke, was published by Target Books in February 1976 as "Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion". The cover art, by Chris Achilleos, for this release was controversial for featuring the comic book style ‘K-Klak!’ on the cover. A later version, released in June 1978, featured a blood-dribbling T. Rex. This novelisation features a prologue about the dinosaurs and ends with The Doctor consulting the ‘Book of Ezekiel’ to determine the final fate of the Golden Age time travellers.
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The Firsts:
The first appearance of the Whomobile - The Doctor's futuristic new car.
Robert Holmes' first involvement in the show as Script Editor (all-be-it uncredited).
The first story to be recorded that included a ‘Gallery only’ day to complete work required on the electronic effects
The first story to have one of its episodes being transmitted with a different story title.
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(Position = 119 out of 159)
(Position = 131 out of 200)
