Evolution of the Invasion is a 50 minute long documentary narrated by Frazer Hines found on the second disc of the 2 disc special edition DVD of the Doctor Who story The Invasion (1968), while these documentary's go above & beyond the call of duty & are very welcome sometimes they just aren't' that good & Evolution of the Invasion is a case in point.
The team behind this documentary must be given credit for tracking all the major cast of The Invasion down, except Patrick Troughton who is dead of course, from Kevin Stoney who played Tobias Vaughn to the bit part scientists. Unfortunately I just think asking people to remember a couple of months of their lives from 40 years ago is going to end up with less than stellar results, I'm not being funny here but I can barely remember what happened in my life 4 years ago! The people interviewed remember what they remember & say what they say I suppose & that in itself isn't the documentary's makers fault but I'll stand by my opinion that listening to everyone simply describe their character's is boring, I really don't need Kevin Stoney for instance to say 'I played Tobias Vaughn & he was a bad guy'.
Overall there's very little substance in Evolution of the Invasion & virtually everything everyone says is instantly forgettable, again these documentary's on the classic Doctor Who range of DVD's are generally excellent but this is definitely one of the more disappointing ones in terms of content & again I think it's just down to the people interviewed simply not remembering much & going into a standard & dull back patting session where they praise the director & their co-stars & little else. There's only so much interest in knowing a specific date a scene was shot or someone telling us that it was shot in London when the landmarks make that perfectly clear.
I don't think there's anything wrong with Evolution of the Invasion from a production standpoint but there's only so much people are going to remember from a short period 40 years ago, overall I didn't find anything particularly interesting or informative in this documentary. The intentions were good as a lot of the cast are interviewed but it turned out strangely static, dull & forgettable.
The team behind this documentary must be given credit for tracking all the major cast of The Invasion down, except Patrick Troughton who is dead of course, from Kevin Stoney who played Tobias Vaughn to the bit part scientists. Unfortunately I just think asking people to remember a couple of months of their lives from 40 years ago is going to end up with less than stellar results, I'm not being funny here but I can barely remember what happened in my life 4 years ago! The people interviewed remember what they remember & say what they say I suppose & that in itself isn't the documentary's makers fault but I'll stand by my opinion that listening to everyone simply describe their character's is boring, I really don't need Kevin Stoney for instance to say 'I played Tobias Vaughn & he was a bad guy'.
Overall there's very little substance in Evolution of the Invasion & virtually everything everyone says is instantly forgettable, again these documentary's on the classic Doctor Who range of DVD's are generally excellent but this is definitely one of the more disappointing ones in terms of content & again I think it's just down to the people interviewed simply not remembering much & going into a standard & dull back patting session where they praise the director & their co-stars & little else. There's only so much interest in knowing a specific date a scene was shot or someone telling us that it was shot in London when the landmarks make that perfectly clear.
I don't think there's anything wrong with Evolution of the Invasion from a production standpoint but there's only so much people are going to remember from a short period 40 years ago, overall I didn't find anything particularly interesting or informative in this documentary. The intentions were good as a lot of the cast are interviewed but it turned out strangely static, dull & forgettable.