by Ian Marter
Materialising in outer space, the TARDIS is attacked by a missile fired from the dark side of the moon.
Back on Earth, the newly-formed United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, led by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, is disturbed by a series of UFO sightings over Southern England.
Meanwhile, a large consignment of mysterious crates is delivered to the headquarters of International Electromatix, the largest computer and electronics firm in the world.
Three seemingly unconnected events—but in reality the preparations for a massive Cyberman invasion of Earth with one aim—the total annihilation of the human race.
ISBN 0 426 20169 8
DOCTOR WHO
THE INVASION
* * *
Based on the BBC television serial by Derrick Sherwin from a story outline by Kit Pedler by arrangement with the British Broadcasting Corporation
* * *
IAN MARTER
published by
The Paperback Division of
W. H. Allen & Co. PLC
CONTENTS
Copyright
Prologue
1 Home Sweet Home?
2 Old Friends
3 Cat and Mouse
4 Hitching Lifts
5 Skeletons and Cupboards
6 Secret Weapons
7 Underground Operations
8 Invasion
9 Counter Measures
10 The Nick of Time
A Target Book
Published in 1985
by the Paperback Division of W. H. Allen & Co. PLC
44 Hill Street, London W1X 8LB
First published in Great Britain by
W.H. Allen and Co. PLC in 1985
Novelisation copyright © Ian Marter 1985
Original script copyright © Kit Pedler and Derrick Sherwin 1968
'Doctor Who' series copyright © British Broadcasting Corporation 1968, 1985
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Anchor Brendon Ltd, Tiptree, Essex
The BBC producer of The Invasion was Peter Bryant
the director was Douglas Camfield
ISBN 0 426 20169 8
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Prologue
The Doctor sat hunched in his rickety chair, biting his nails anxiously and staring grimly around him in the crackling air as everything swam sickeningly back into focus. He uttered a whoop of relief as his two young friends reappeared, clinging on for dear life to the wobbling and sparking navigation console in the middle of the TARDIS control chamber. With a few spasmodic shudders the ancient machine finally shook itself together and settled, its harsh groans and staccato wheezes dying gradually away into eerie silence.
Jamie, a robust young Highlander clad in faded kilt and sporran, tattered sleeveless sheepskin waistcoat and sturdy boots, turned thankfully to Zoe and grinned shakily. 'We're all right, ma wee lassie. It worked!' he exclaimed, his voice cracking with nervous tension.
Zoe attempted a pale smile. She was a bright-eyed teenager with a large face, wide mouth and short black hair and she was wearing a tomboyish trouser-suit. She swallowed hard and glanced inquiringly at the thoughtful Doctor. 'Are we on our way at last?' she asked hopefully.
The Doctor still sat staring suspiciously at the motionless control column, his mouth drawn sharply down, his black eyebrows ruckled and his small hands knotted uncertainly together. 'I suppose I'd better have a look,' he murmured hesitantly. He looked rather like an old-fashioned fairground showman as he shuffled over to the console and fussed with the switches and indicators in his concertinad check trousers, worn boots and shabby knee-length coat, tucking the frayed cuffs of his grubby shirt out of the way. He licked a finger as if for luck and pressed a button, glancing apprehensively across at a video screen set into the chamber wall.
A large dark globe took shape against a breathtaking background of brilliant stars. The globe was pitted and scarred and ringed with a bright iridescent halo.
'The Moon!' cried Zoe in surprise.
Slowly the Doctor leaned forward, as though he suspected some kind of trick. 'The Solar Corona,' he whispered, adjusting the focus and throwing the lunar craters into sharp relief round the Moon's rim. 'We appear to be stranded on the dark side, I'm afraid.'
The Doctor's ominous words caused Zoe and Jamie to exchange uneasy glances in the tense silence. The disintegration of the TARDIS in their previous adventure had been a horrifying experience and now it seemed that the ramshackle police box had managed to reassemble itself only to end up marooned behind the Moon.
'What d'ye mean, Doctor... Stuck?' Jamie inquired nervously.
The Doctor was poking about among the racks of printed circuits inside the hexagonal column. 'I mean stuck,' he replied, sniffing with embarrassment as he pulled out a suspect panel and studied it guiltily.
Suddenly Zoe's eyes opened wide. 'What's that?' she cried, pointing to the screen. A small speck of light had appeared on the Moon's pockmarked surface. As they watched, it seemed to grow rapidly larger and brighter.
'Looks like a volcano or something,' Jamie murmured excitedly.
The Doctor ruffled his mop of thick black hair and blinked unhappily at the strange phenomenon. 'Not on the Moon, Jamie.'
All of a sudden Zoe grabbed the Doctor's threadbare sleeve. It's coming towards us!' she gasped.
There was a violent clatter as the delicate circuit panel slipped out of the Doctor's fingers. 'Don't fluster me, Zoe,' he chided her, picking it up carefully. 'The orientation circuits are jammed. It may take a while to fix.'
'But Doctor, we must move out of the way!' Zoe insisted. 'We've only got a few seconds!'
On the screen, the mysterious gleaming object seemed to be almost upon them.
'It looks like a missile,' Jamie said, gaping in fascination. 'Someone's fired a missile at us!'
'Someone? From the Moon?' snorted the Doctor, peering intently at the faulty circuits. He flexed the small panel a few times, traced his finger round its intricate connections and then popped it back into its slot in the column.
'Please hurry up, Doctor,' pleaded Zoe, hypnotised like Jamie by the weird glinting craft growing in the centre of the screen.
'Oh, do be quiet,' snapped the Doctor, flicking a series of switches and glaring irritably at the inert instruments. Once again he removed the panel and this time held it up to examine its complex structure against the increasingly brilliant glow from the video screen. Suddenly he emitted a squawk of terror. Zoe just managed to catch the panel before it hit the floor a second time.
'What the dickens is that?' croaked the Doctor, gazing open-mouthed at the looming alien image. The next moment he snatched the circuit panel from be. 'Don't just stand there gawping, child!' he shouted, struggling to insert it back into its slot. He kicked the control column a few times and rummaged his fingers feverishly among the switches.
Ashen-faced, Jamie clutched Zoe's shoulder convulsively. 'We're too late, lassie, we'll never make it...' he gulped.
The Doctor thumped the console and unleashed a tirade of insults against his juddering machine as it growled reluctantly back into operation. Then, like a crazed concert pianist he madly manipulated the switches and savagely kicked the column while staring defiantly up at the gigantic threat blotting out the Moon and the galaxies beyond.
Seconds later there was a colossal explosion. The TARDIS and its precious contents burst asunder into an infinity of
separate fragments. In the place where it had been, a vast silver craft passed silently through space, as if it had never existed.
1
Home Sweet Home?
Only the sound of leisurely munching disturbed the sunlit air as the herd of Friesian cows cropped the lush grass, occasionally raising their heads to gaze placidly around as they chewed contentedly. Suddenly they paused and turned in unison towards the centre of their meadow where a small area of buttercups had become mysteriously flattened. A chorus of mooing erupted from the motionless herd, but a moment later it was silenced by a raucous trumpeting which quickly became a banshee wailing. A hazy blue outline topped by a fitfully flashing amber beacon gradually materialised on the flattened grass. Silently the cows watched as the chipped, lopsided police box settled and solidified and the beacon stopped flashing. Then, with one voice, the herd broke into a furious lowing in protest at the alien intruder.
Inside the TARDIS the three companions hauled themselves groggily to their feet.
'Well done, old girl,' giggled the Doctor nervously. 'Just in the nick of time.' He patted the console affectionately. 'Another nanosecond and we'd have been nullified!'
Zoe and Jamie looked daggers at the dapper Time Lord.
'Well, who'd fire a missile at us?' Zoe demanded after an awkward silence.
The Doctor smiled sheepishly and shrugged. 'Better find out where we are,' he suggested, fiddling with the scanner switches.
They froze as a strange rnoaning sound suddenly rose in the distance and then gradually died away.
Jamie frowned. 'Whatever's wrong wi' the TARDIS, Doctor? It seems to go wrong all the time now,' he protested.
The Doctor tried to focus the blurred images on the screen. 'It just needs a bit of an overhaul, Jamie, like any other machine,' he replied defensively.
Zoe glared at the scanner. 'Not much good if you haven't got any spare parts is it?' she retorted huffily.
All at once she jumped, stifling a scream. The video screen was almost filled by a vast cavernous mouth yawning at them.
We are obviously not on the Moon anyway,' the Doctor chuckled, as the weird moaning sounded again and several more cows nosed curiously into the picture.
'Earth again,' Jamie groaned gloomily.
The Doctor nodded eagerly. 'It looks like England. If it's the twentieth century I could look up an old friend - Professor Travers - I'm sure he'd let me use his laboratory to knock up a few replacement components for the old girl...' The Doctor hesitated. 'Unless, of course, he's still a babe in arms!' he grinned, deftly removing two circuit panels from the control console and stuffing them in his pocket. 'Let's go and see,' he urged them, making for the door.
Zoe was still staring at the mooing herd on the screen. 'I wonder whether that thing we saw behind the Moon is in this time zone or not?' she murmured uneasily.
'You mean whoever took a pot at us could still be lurking aboot?' Jamie said quietly.
'Do come along, you two!' complained the Doctor, grabbing them each by the hand and dragging them after him.
As they emerged into the sunshine, the cows lumbered away still mooing with disapproval. The Doctor turned to lock the door, but the TARDIS was nowhere to be seen. Zoe and Jamie cast their eyes to the clear blue sky in despair.
The Doctor took the two panels out of his pocket, frowned at them and then tapped his nose knowingly. 'No danger of getting a parking ticket!' he mused with a grin. Then he set off towards a gate in the distant hedge with Zoe and Jamie trailing unenthusiastically in his wake.
They trudged along the narrow country lane while the Doctor hopped optimistically about, seeking a clue as to the century in which they had fortunately materialised. All at once a whining drone made them pause and listen. They scanned the empty skies.
'Helicopter?' Zoe suggested.
The Doctor shrugged. 'Post Industrial Revolution anyway, my dear,' he cried and breezily set off again.
The noise grew louder and suddenly a small covered truck swung recklessly round a bend and sped up behind them. The Doctor grabbed his friends and scampered into the hedge, urgently signalling with his cocked thumb. The truck braked fiercely and lurched to a halt some distance further on, its diesel racing impatiently.
Straightening his rumpled collar and sagging cravat, the Doctor scuttled round to the driver's door. 'Good day, sir, I wonder if you could help us...?' he began.
The young ginger-haired driver wearing sweat-stained teeshirt and oily jeans shot him a frightened glance. 'Are you trying to get out?' he shouted.
'Actually we wish to go in... to London,' smiled the Doctor.
'Get in quick.'
'Oh, that's most civil of you...' bowed the Doctor.
'Shut up and get in,' yelled the driver, revving the hot smoking engine.
Seconds later the bewildered trio were jammed into the noisy cab and being flung violently around as the truck roared through the twisting lanes. After a few kilometres the driver swung the truck abruptly onto a deeply-rutted cart track which bounced them sickeningly into a small shady wood.
Killing the engine, he jumped out. 'Get away from the truck!' he shouted, diving into the tangled undergrowth.
Totally mystified, the Doctor led his young companions in pursuit. They soon found the driver crouching in the bushes, wiping his freckled lace with a rag.
'Is something wrong?' asked the Doctor gently, crouching beside him.
'Company Security are on my tail,' he gasped.
'What company?' Zoe demanded.
The driver gave her a sarcastic grin. 'There's only one Company isn't there, miss?'
The Doctor motioned the others to keep quiet. 'I'm sorry, but we're strangers here,' he explained.
The young man looked incredulous. 'Strangers? You mean you're not from the Community?' he muttered after a pause.
They all shook their heads.
'Then how the hell did you get into the compound?'
The Doctor smiled enigmatically. 'That's a long story, I'm afraid.'
Zoe glanced around uneasily. 'What's this compound? Are we prisoners here or something?'
The driver leaned closer. 'Those who haven't gone over to the Company are. Course, not officially. They just make it rather difficult if you don't have a pass,' he confided.
Jamie's clear blue eyes narrowed. 'What about yerself?'
The fugitive listened a moment and then grinned bleakly. 'I managed to get in all right. Getting out again's the problem now.'
The Doctor frowned suspiciously. 'This company you mentioned... What does it do exactly?' he inquired.
The young man stared at the strangers in disbelief. 'International Electromatix, of course. You must know about them. They've got a world monopoly in electronic equipment. They...'
The approaching howl of powerful motorcycle engines suddenly silenced him. Turning pale, he dragged the odd trio deeper into the thicket. They waited, scarcely breathing. Then all at once they glimpsed a flash of gleaming metal and bright black leather as two motor-bikes zipped past the end of the cart track.
When all was quiet again, their rescuer continued. 'They've set up a whole Community of their own... research facilities, factories... housing complexes... inside a network of compounds. Most of the locals joined the Company.'
'What about the ones who didn't?' murmured Zoe.
'My people haven't been able to trace them.'
'Your people...?' the Doctor cut in sharply, eyes widening.
The driver bit his dry lips, regretting his careless remark. Cautiously he stood up. 'Should be safe now,' he told them. 'You three'd better keep out of sight in the back. I'll try and bluff our way out.'
A short drive through peacefully deserted countryside brought them to a high chainlink fence, slung between steel posts and topped with several strands of wicked-looking barbed wire, stretching into the distance in both directions. Electric gates barred the road. A heavily armed security guard strode out from the squat concrete blockhouse. He was dressed i
n a black uniform of thick glossy material with gauntlets, high boots and a ridged steel helmet incorporating a dark visor beneath which only his thin-lipped mouth was visible. On the front of his helmet was a silver insignia representing a zig-zag of lightning in the grip of a clenched glove.
The guard's faceless mask bulbously reflected the driver's pale smile as he showed his pass. The guard stared into the cab and then marched round to look in the back. He glanced at the stacks of papier-mâché trays and slammed the doors. The gates whirred open and the truck drove through.
It was barely out of sight before two similar guards riding huge motorcycles skidded to a stop just as the gates were closing. Jumping off they ran towards the block-house, leaving the massive engines throbbing in anticipation.
Huddled among the trays of eggs the three friends heaved a sigh of relief at their narrow escape, but their euphoria was short-lived. After a few minutes the truck shuddered to a halt again and the driver's frightened grey eyes peered through the shutter from the cab.
'They're right behind us. Get out here and you'll find the London road about five kilometres due east,' he shouted above the clattering diesel.
Muttering their gratitude the trio jumped out of the back and fought their way painfully through the tall prickly hedge just as the two motorbikes roared round a bend and coasted up behind the truck. Led by the Doctor, they set off for dear life across the fields in search of the main road.
'What's that?' Zoe gasped, as a dull thundering sound suddenly started up behind them.
'Don't even ask,' panted the Doctor without glancing round. 'I think it's a bull.'
One security guard searched the truck while the other glanced cursorily at the driver's pass.
'You come back with us,' he ordered.
'What for? The pass is okay,' protested the driver. The other guard strode up shaking his head. 'Nothing,' he snapped.
