The first of two really, really stupid story titles from Hinchcliffe-Holmes, which give away a major plot point and thus help ruin the story overall.
The story opens with a UNIT soldier walking off a cliff to his apparent death - only to be seen a short time later by the Doctor and Sarah quite unharmed.
This ought to have set up a mystery which the story could have prolonged as much as it wanted - or to the first cliff-hanger at the very least. However, we have been told since the week before that this story is about androids. Tension, mystery and drama go out the window.
It's a Terry Nation story, but one of only two of his not to feature his most famous creations - so we're denied the "surprise" reveal of a Dalek at the end of Part One.
What we do get is another example of his total ignorance of the TARDIS and its modus operandi.
It was always patently obvious that Nation never actually watched Doctor Who, perhaps not even his own episodes. When he submitted his scripts for Season 10, he had included episode titles - despite them having been dropped in 1966.
This time round the Doctor is unable to tell that the ship has not landed in present day England - despite it having been his base for several years.
Sarah leaves the key in the lock of the TARDIS, and we are told that it has a procedure to carry on to its programmed destination when this happens. As a defence measure, this is particularly stupid.
Basically, the Doctor can be left stranded anywhere if he is interrupted in unlocking the doors.
I have occasionally allowed massive coincidences to pass in these posts, as they have been necessary for the drama. However, here we are expected to believe that the TARDIS, out of every single planet in the universe, has landed in an exact replica of the place the Doctor planned to go to.
And, purely down to a hitherto unseen technological quirk, the TARDIS goes off by itself to the location which the aliens happen to be heading for. If the TARDIS was programmed for Devesham, why does the Doctor not know where they are when they first arrive - before he discovers it's a fake on an alien planet.
The Kraals make replicas of Devesham village and its nearby Space Defence Station, plus the villagers themselves. Why do they not also make copies of the station's personnel. Why only Harry and Benton and a couple of soldiers? Why not the Brigadier? Why not the mission control staff?
They've lifted their replicas from the mind of astronaut Guy Crayford. Bit of a coincidence that Harry and Benton just happened to be there, both when he took off and when he returns several years later - despite them never being permanently based there.
If they are raiding Crayford's memories, why do they not know that coins in a pub are likely to be mixed chronologically (with the odd franc or peseta mixed in), calendars have more than one date, and dartboards are full of holes?
If you think this is being pedantic - why have they made real ginger beer for a village full of androids?
Why do the Kraals destroy the village, when it's on a planet they are abandoning anyway?
Why do the Kraals employ a "Disorientation Chamber" - an unwanted side-effect relating to human beings only?
Styggron's little spy hatch. Why? Who is he expecting to spy upon? You'd think he half expected visitors to turn up...
The one everyone comments on - Crayford's eyepatch. Seems he has gone a couple of years without realising he still had an intact eye under it. Why did the Kraals even bother to make him believe otherwise? He's loyal to them because they saved his life - but he is going to think that anyway (presumably through some form of mental conditioning - unless they really did rebuild his body).
Maintaining the eye delusion simply leaves the door open for him to realise he has been duped - and so puts the entire invasion plan at risk. All for a meaningless action.
Why do the Kraals turn tail when their android scheme fails? They still possess androids and a supply of the poison, so presumably can use the former to spread the latter somewhere else. They must also have conventional weapons.
The Doctor knows Sarah has been copied because she is wearing her scarf - but she was copied after she lost it, so shouldn't have been wearing it anyway.
As with nearly all the alien invasion stories - why come to Earth at all? Surely there must be equally suitable planets closer to home which are uninhabited or have populations which don't threaten them.
How does the android Doctor continue to function after the real Doctor has deactivated them all?
The last we see of Benton in the series is him lying lifeless on the floor. If it wasn't for a mention of him in Mawdryn Undead, he might be dead for all we know. A dreadful finale for a popular character who was such a big part of the UNIT Family - despite this being directed by the UNIT Family producer.
Behind the scenes, Philip Hinchcliffe was unhappy with the Kraal costume design - arguing that Rhino-like creatures with thick stubby fingers didn't match the notion of a race capable of intricate robotic circuitry.
The same piece of stock footage of a rocket launch is used as was seen in Revenge of the Cybermen. At least there, the rocket looked a bit like the Skystriker, but Crayford's ship looks nothing like a Saturn 5 rocket. And why would either ship have "United States" written along its flank anyway?
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