Players
Samantha Bond (Mrs Wormwood); Nicholas Courtney (Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart); Anthony O’Donnell (Kaagh) and Simon Chadwick (Major Cal Kilburne).
NOT South Croydon
We learn that Gita works in a flower shop called Bloomin’ Lovely, which presumably is also in Ealing.
Blink and You’d Miss It
For very obvious reasons there are lots of flashbacks to Invasion of the Bane and The Last Sontaran in this serial. A reference is made to Tunguska, where a well documented but mysterious explosion occurred in 1908, referenced in the Doctor Who novel Birthright.
Things That Embarrass Us
Unfortunately, for once Graeme Harper’s direction is, sadly, lacking. The introduction of the Brigadier and his meeting with Sarah are handled so poorly that we had to cringe.
Classified/Top Secret
The Black Archive is a whopping great Top Secret facility in the middle of nowhere that sticks out like a sore thumb and is protected by, oh, about ten guards. It’s no wonder that a doddering old man and a couple of people hiding under blankets could sneak in so easily. Yes, a perfect example of our tax money at work!
Mode of Transport
Sir Alistair has a rather swanky Rolls Royce.
Eldrad Must Live (and everybody else must die)
Well, presumably Miss Wormwood and Kaagh, plus a few overzealous Bane go kablooey throughout the episodes.
“And He Goes… And She Goes…”
“That’s Mrs Womwood? I thought you said she was an ugly bug-eyed squid thing.” – Clyde
“Children – they have no respect” – Mrs Wormwood
“Luke’s family aren’t exactly lookers.” – Clyde
“We Bane have a saying, the sweetest delicacy is the tongue of an enemy that has looked at you and licked his lips.” – Mrs Wormwood
“I am now officially a vegetarian.” – Clyde
“So is this it, the day Clyde Langer finally hooks up with UNIT? Locked and loaded, ready to fight the scum of the Universe.” – Clyde
“Haven’t I taught you there are better ways of dealing with aliens than guns?” – Sarah Jane
“What’d you expect, he’s a boy.” – Rani
“With respect, Sir Alistair, UNIT has had to adapt to the challenges of a more hostile Universe.” – Major Kilburne
“In my day we took on Daleks, Cybermen, Autons, Zygons and all manner of space thuggery. And, it doesn’t get more hostile than that!” – the Brigadier
“It’s true – we were Banebait. Then Mrs W fixed them with her ring thing.” – Clyde
“You didn’t make me. You grew me from synthesized DNA. Living here is what’s made me what I am.” – Luke
Things That Don’t Make Sense (even to a six-year old)
Not just Mrs Wormwood, but why do women that are on the run even consider wearing high heels when they may need to make a speedy escape? Especially women that are just using an image synthasiser anyway. What was the Brigadier up to in Peru? He calls it a fool’s errand and NOT official, but UNIT seems to think it was an actual mission and then Major Kilburne just gives up and leaves. The Brigadier’s cover story of writing his memoirs doesn’t make any sense. Every single story he could tell would still be heavily covered under the Official Secrets Act, even if people know aliens exist or not. Oh, he might be able to write about three or four pages that could be published, but hardly a book.
Snafus
The Mercian Bank cheque has a PO Box number of 419-2 for the bank. PO Box numbers never have hyphens in them.
Also Known As
Samantha Bond and Anthony O’Donnell both return from prior stunning appearances and help raise this episode above the mediocrity of the scripts. Nicholas Courtney played the Brigadier a long long time ago in a series far far away – Doctor Who. Simon Chadwick is best known for being in The Bill (2002) but was also in episodes of Between the Lines (1992), Picking up the Pieces (1998), Brookside (1999), Coupling (2001), Family Affairs (2003), Hobly City (2004) and Doctors (2005).
Photographic Proof
