Doctor Who - The Invasion [VHS]
An electronics industrialist plots to conquer the world using the cybernetic devices his company makes. You can insert your own Bill Gates joke  here, but in this epic eight-part 1968Doctor Whoadventure, the villain, Tobias Vaughn (Kevin Stoney in a great performance, one eyebrow perpetually cocked as he schemes), has allied himself with the robotic Cybermen and nearly succeeds in global domination. This story was a harbinger of what was to come in the series during the first half of the 1970s--that is, the threat to contemporary (or near-future) Earth, with the Doctor (Patrick Troughton) joining up with the quasi-military U.N.I.T. headed by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney--who also provides a newly shot introduction to the story and fills in the two missing episodes that were shamelessly destroyed by the BBC when they purged their archives in the early 1970s). Director Douglas Camfield fully exploits the mood-inducing black-and-white imagery, manages to keep the action going (with assistance from real Department of Defence soldiers on loan), and provides some memorable moments, particularly the Cybermen bursting out of the sewers and marching relentlessly through the streets of London at the end of episode 6. The writers wisely give Vaughn most of the exposition with the Doctor and allow the Cybermen to remain nearly indestructible, mostly silent killers. This may not be the greatest of the Cybermen stories in the 1960s, but the metallic monsters make the most of their appearances here, thus cementing their reputation in popularity as second only to the Daleks.--Ryan K. Johnson