Invaders From Mars

“My mother taught me two important lessons in life; never wash taffeta with cotton and never put all my eggs in one basket. I must say that the latter has proven to be of most use to me.”
Story 28
Written by Mark Gatiss
Released January 2002

For his first series, McGann traveled to the past and saved Charley Pollard from the doomed airship the R-101, battled with the Cybermen, saw the last days of Venice and even met the Brigadier. It struck me recently that the first two ‘series’ of McGann on Big Finish are generally similar to series 15 and 16 with the variations in genre, outlandish situations and witty dialog. It’s a pleasant change from the grim NA McCoy era and also provide some much-needed depth and character to the Eighth Doctor who was only on screen for a portion of the 1996 TV Movie. A reckless romantic bubbling with intelligence, this new Doctor strikes me as just what the BBC Wales series attempted to portray in their 10th Doctor, an incarnation that never really worked for me. The second series opener for Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor is a fanciful and imaginative ‘romp’ in the comedic vein of the Graham Williams era.

Set on Halloween 1938, Invaders from Mars is a dyed in the wool radio science fiction yarn complete with dramatic explosions of horns braking up the scene transitions and fast-talking caricatures more at home in a Dick Tracy comic strip. A pair of two such characters are attempting to sell alien weaponry on the black market only to find that they have been rumbled by gumshoe JC Halliday. Halliday gets zapped for his troubles, leaving quite a mystery for the Doctor and Charley who stumble upon the crime scene. A search for clues leads the Doctor to Halliday’s office where, after meeting a leggy blond with the unlikely name of Glory Bee, he takes on the role of hard-boiled detective. Glory Bee is desperate to find her uncle, an atomic scientist. The Doctor senses an adventure and is eager to take part. When he catches a radio broadcast of the War of the Worlds, all of the pieces start to fall together for him, and he couldn’t be more pleased. As he performs the legendary broadcast, Orson Welles is unaware that his transmission contains secret coded signals and that a genuine alien arrival is underway.

Spaced stalwarts Jessica Stevenson and Simon Pegg are on hand and offer their charismatic vocal talents to perform Don Chaney and Glory Bee, a dubious femme fatale. The guest cast are quite good and the direction strong, but the mixture of drama and comedy along with the camp musical cues are a bit too much, interrupting the enjoyment of a strong series opener. Writer/actor Mark Gatiss has strong ties to pulp science fiction and the Hammer Horror franchise which shows in this story. I enjoy his material and still say that based on his acting ability in the League of Gentlemen and the short Doctor Who skit Web of Caves that he would make a perfect Doctor. Invaders from Mars thinks its funnier than it actually is, however and sometimes falls flat in the comedy department. The saving grace in this department is John Arthur as the traitorous Cosmo Devine, a character that peppers the four-parter with Oscar Wilde-like witticisms.

All the flaws aside, Invaders from Mars is a fun and light-hearted adventure with some very inspired ideas, a great cast and a thoroughly ideal setting – the ‘faked’ alien invasion scare of Halloween 1938. Some plot points continue to develop from this story based on the Doctor’s rescue of Charley from the R-101, an action that could cause havoc in the web of time, yet the Doctor adamantly refuses to accept that he cannot save just one person. The series-long thread involving Shakespeare and the alterations in the timeline is well played. Russel T Davies and Steven Moffat could both learn a few lessons from this idea.

Doctor Who – Invaders from Mars can be ordered from local retailers like  Mike’s Comics and  online from Big Finish.

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