The Art of... The Invasion

The Invasion was novelised by Ian Marter and first published in hardback in May 1985, with the paperback following that October. The artwork, depicting a lone Cyberman and the UNIT logo, was by Andrew Skilleter. He has used an airbrush to give the Cyberman its metallic look.

Derrick Sherwin had originally intended to novelise his own story. When this fell through, Marter stepped in as he had already covered a Cyberman story - Earthshock - despite his dislike of writing for the monsters.

He made a number of changes, some controversial. He altered the name of Vaughn's company to International Electromatix, and the Russian rocket base was given the name Nykortny, after Nicholas Courtney. The actors had become very good friends through the convention circuit, for which they wrote and performed a double act for the evening cabarets. 

The opening TARDIS sequence was consigned to a prologue.

He included some swearing from Packer, but most noticeably gave Rutlidge (renamed Routledge) a rather graphic death.

This is the first time that an Invasion-style Cyberman has actually accompanied the correct story on a Target novelisation, having previously featured on the covers of both Doctor Who and the Cybermen and Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen.

The book was reissued, with new cover art by Alister Pearson in September 1993, using a mirror image of a Cyberman from the St Paul's location shoot. The Troughton portrait derives from a publicity image from The Power of the Daleks, of the Doctor looking at his 500 Year Diary.

A collector offered the original painting for sale on Ebay for £3000 in 2017. It failed to get a buyer.

According to DWM issue 97, artist Mark Bentham was in talks to provide artwork for the Target range and came up with sample covers for The Invasion and for The Mind of Evil. His work had been spotted in the Peter Haining book Doctor Who - The Key to Time. Nothing would come of these discussions. Here he used a portrait shot of Kevin Stoney as Tobias Vaughn, and the iconic Cyberman portrait previously used by Chris Achilleos for Doctor Who and the Cybermen. The image above was reproduced in Telos Publishing's The Target Book.

With two of the eight episodes missing, the story was given a soundtrack release as part of the BBC Audio Collection in November 2004 with linking narration from Frazer Hines, who also supplied an interview.

It has the usual photomontage cover, featuring some explosive action and a lot of Cybermen. One looks like it's popping up from a manhole behind Isobel Watkins, whilst she photographs a bunch of its dead comrades.

The surviving six episodes were released on VHS in a double pack in June 1993. The missing instalments were covered in condensed fashion by Nicholas Courtney, narrating events to camera. The artwork is again by Andrew Skilleter, who once more concentrates on a single Cyberman image, backed with a fleet of Cyberships.

For its DVD release, the decision was made to animate the missing episodes - the work going to the Cosgrove Hall company. This was the first of the incomplete stories to be presented in this way. Perhaps disappointed at the lack of Cybermen in their episodes, the company produced a trailer which reproduced the famous St Paul's scene, but set against a rainy, overcast sky.

The DVD was released in the UK in November 2006. The cover is the work of Clayton Hickman, and features Vaughn and the Brigadier prominently along with Cybermen and St Paul's, but also includes an action shot of the Doctor from the final episode.

The Region 1 release came in March 2007 with its own photomontage cover - which isn't anywhere near as satisfying as the more dynamic Region 2 version. The Troughton portrait is the same one used by Skilleter for the VHS cover.

Marter's novelisation was released as an audiobook in April 2016, using the original Skilleter artwork. As you can see, the reader was David Troughton, whilst Nicholas Briggs provided the Cyberman vocals. The image is sharper than the version used on the book, and benefits more from the stark black background.

Finally, Don Harper's music for the story was released on CD in September 2019. It also includes Brian Hodgson's radiophonic contributions to the score. The label was Silva Screen Records.

Harper's master tape of his score was actually lost soon after production, but the composer had luckily retained a personal copy.