'The Invasion' (8 Parts) Story Code 'VV' by Derrick Sherwin from a story by Kit Peddler

The TARDIS lands in England in 1975 - and is invisible! Calling at the home of his old friend Professor Travers, the Doctor and his friends find that he is away, and has leased it to a computer scientist named Professor Watkins. They meet Watkins' daughter, Isobel, who is very concerned, as her father has recently gone missing. The Doctor offers to track him down, starting at the last place that he worked - the London HQ of International Electromatics, the world's major supplier of electronics equipment. The Doctor meets IE's managing director, Tobias Vaughn, whose actions arouse his suspicions; these suspicions are later confirmed after the Doctor meets up with Lethbridge-Stewart, whom he met in the Yeti incursion in the London Underground a few years previously. Lethbridge-Stewart has been promoted to Brigadier, and now is in charge of the British branch of UNIT - the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. The Doctor learns that there have been other disappearances on IE premises, and that Vaughn is in league with the Cybermen, in a plan to invade the Earth. Vaughn is also plotting to double-cross the Cybermen, with the aim of seizing power for himself. Watkins is being forced by Vaughn to develop a device known as the Cerebration Mentor, which is able to generate emotional impulses, which he will use as a weapon against the Cybermen. The Cybermen immobilise most of the Earth's population, by sending a hypnotic signal through special circuits that have been incorporated into all of IE's electrical goods and equipment, and they then launch their invasion, bursting out of the London sewer system where they have been hiding. The Doctor has managed to make himself and his friends immune from the effects of the signals, and teams up with Vaughn, using the Cerebration machine to stop the Cybermen by turning them mad. Vaughn destroys the beacon guiding in the Cyberfleet, but is killed, while Zoe's mathematical skills help the Doctor to accurately launch missiles into space to destroy the oncoming fleet.

Patrick Troughton (Dr Who), Frazer Hines (Jamie), Wendy Padbury (Zoe), Murray Evans (Lorry Driver), Walter Randall (Patrolman), Sally Faulkner (Isobel), John Levene (Benton), Geoffrey Cheshire (Tracy), Kevin Stoney (Tobias Vaughn), Peter Halliday (Packer), Ian Fairbairn (Gregory), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), James Thornhill (Sergeant Walters), Robert Sidaway (Captain Turner), Edward Burnham (Professor Watkins), Sheila Dunn (Phone Operator), Edward Dentith (Major General Rutlidge), Peter Thompson (Workman), Dominic Allan (Policeman), Stacy Davies (Private Perkins); Pat Gorman, Ralph Carrigan, Charles Finch, John Spradbury, Derek Chaffer, Terence Denville, Peter Thornton, Richard King (Cybermen); Clifford Earl (Major Branwell), Norman Hartley (Sergeant Peters)

Produced by Peter Bryant
Directed by Douglas Camfield

TX:
Part 1 - 2nd November, 1968 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm
Part 2 - 9th November, 1968 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm
Part 3 - 16th November, 1968 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm
Part 4 - 23th November, 1968 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm
Part 5 - 30th November, 1968 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm
Part 6 - 7th December, 1968 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm
Part 7 - 14th December, 1968 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm
Part 8 - 21st December, 1968 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe and the Brigadier, and introducing Benton and the UNIT organisation

*Parts 1 and 4 are missing, but audio recordings exist

*Working title: 'Return of the Cybermen'

*For the November 2006 DVD release of this story, the two missing episodes were recreated in animated form by the by world-renowned studio Cosgrove Hall, creators of such classic shows as 'Danger Mouse', 'Count Duckula', 'Chorlton and the Wheelies', 'Jamie and the Magic Torch' and 'Noddy'