Invasion of the Dinosaurs
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Jump to navigationJump to search| Story Code: WWW / Season 11 | UK Airdate: 12 Jan to 16 Feb 1974 | Doctor: Jon Pertwee |
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- According to the BBC's index cards, black and white film recordings of part 1 were created on two different days -- 28 June 1974 and 10 July 1974.
- The original broadcast PAL tape of part 1 was wiped once these film-recordings had been made. It's not clear why.
- One possibility is that it was wiped in error - the BBC held an early longer edit of Part 3, and the tape containing Part 1 may have been erased in its place by mistake.
- It has been suggested that Part 1 was wiped due to it having a similar on-screen title as the fifth episode of the William Hartnell story The Web Planet, and the Patrick Troughton story, The Invasion, but that notion is often dismissed since the master tapes of that 6-parter and 8-parter had already been erased in 1969 and 1971 respectively. However, there is the possibility that this is in fact true. The BBC began junking the bulk of the negatives and film prints of the Hartnell and Troughton serials in 1974 (see Bicycling Chains) and Dinosaurs 1 may well have been mistaken for The Web Planet 5: "Invasion" and/or The Invasion 1 after all. The BBC junked the negatives and positives for The Invasion part one in 1974, and a clerical error may have seen the tape for "Invasion" (WWW1) incorrectly catalogued as a tape for "Invasion" (N5), and/or for "The Invasion" (VV) and it was thus assigned to the magnetic eraser... So when the request came from the ABC for colour tapes, the PAL master for part 1 had only just been wiped in error... Ooops.
- Season 11 was offered to Australia by mid-1974. The Time Warrior (as 16mm b/w films) was assessed by the censors on 30 July 1974. Although it had accepted and classified that story in b/w, the ABC wanted to broadcast that season in colour (PAL transmissions were due to commence from March 1975). The BBC reported it was able to furnish all the serials in colour, but not Invasion of the Dinosaurs because Part 1 had by then already been erased. Serial WWW was therefore 'rejected' by the ABC on account of its format.
- A "No Further Interest" notice for the story was issued by Enterprises in August 1974. The BBC did not make 16mm recordings of the other episodes.
- The first PAL colour serial on offer - Death to the Daleks - was assessed in Australia on 26 September 1974. There is no record of the Dinosaurs story being sent, received or assessed.
- A non-sale to Australia meant that the only other Commonwealth country still buying the series in black and white at that point -- Gibraltar -- could not afford to purchase it. (Sales to the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and New Zealand were also not possible, as they were all broadcasting in colour at that time.)
- Once it was clear that there would be no overseas sales of Serial WWW, the black and white prints of Part 1 were junked. One of the two copies was salvaged by a film collector; it was subsequently returned to the BBC in 1983.
- A clip of the Brigadier from part six was used in part four of Logopolis, which aired in early 1981.
Issue
- The story was eventually released for foreign sale in 1984; it was re-edited as a five-parter because part 1 was only in black and white.
- The opening titles captions were adjusted, so PART TWO was now "PART ONE", PART THREE became "PART TWO", and so on. Part Two was also edited slightly to delete all references to scenes and events that occurred in part one, such as the Doctor and Sarah's discussion about the origin of the pterodactyl that had attacked them. To maintain the episode's duration, the 'deleted' sections were replaced by the dropping-in of shots extracted from elsewhere within the same episode - for instance, a cutaway of soldiers shooting at the T-rex was duplicated and dropped in to mask the above 'discussion' scene.
- It was also included in a package of all 24 Jon Pertwee stories sold to the United States in 1985. The story was offered in its re-edit 5-part format or as a movie omnibus.
- This new five-part version of the serial was sold to:
| Australia | Nov 84 | PAL |
| United States | from Mar 85 | NTSC |
| New Zealand | Sep 86 | PAL |
| Canada | Jun 90 | NTSC |
Reissue
- All six parts – including the black and white first instalment - were re-issued in the 1990s - UK Gold aired it episodically in July 1993; UKTV Australia screened all six in 1997; and Prime in New Zealand aired all six in January 2001. Prime also aired the extended first edit of part three.
- The black and white first episode was shown for the first time (as best as we can determine) in the United States on station WXEL, on 17 December 1994. It was later shown by other stations, sometimes on its own as a "special", such as on KSPS in Spokane, which aired a single "never-before-seen-on TV 'lost'" Jon Pertwee episode on 18 March 1995.
- We suspect the reason why part one was not available until the 1990s was, when the BBC released the serial in 1984 only stories that existed entirely in black and white or in colour were offered since many US broadcasters wanted to air omnibus versions, and colour serials with some parts in black and white were not as attractive to US stations. There were only two serials affected by this - Planet of the Daleks and the Dinosaurs. Each was edited to "remove" their sole black and white episode. And since repeat fees had to be paid to the actors with speaking roles, with part one out of the equation, the BBC did not have to pay repeat fees to the half dozen or so actors who appeared only in part one. But after 1991, when the seven years rights period (1984-1991) had expired, the black and white first episode could finally be marketed under fresh repeats contracts, which now included the actors in Part One.
US TV Guide descriptions
More Information
Title: Invasion of the Dinosaurs
- Episode 1: The Doctor and Sarah return from a visit to the Middle Ages only to find present-day London deserted.
- Episode 2: In an effort to solve the mystery of the monster invasion, the Doctor decides to capture a dinosaur.
- Episode 3: The Doctor bags his dinosaur, but loses Sarah to kidnappers.
- Episode 4: New clues bring the Doctor closer to solving the mystery of the dinosaurs.
- Episode 5: The Doctor makes a desperate attempt to stop Operation Golden Age.
- Compilation: The Doctor must foil and attempt to reverse time and return the Earth to its primitive stages.
