Invaders from Mars (audio drama)

Invaders from Mars is the twenty-eighth audio drama of the British science fiction audio series Doctor Who: The Monthly Adventures from Big Finish Productions. It was written and directed by Mark Gatiss.

Invaders from Mars
Album cover
Big Finish Productions audio drama
SeriesDoctor Who
Release no.28
FeaturingEighth Doctor
Charley Pollard
Written byMark Gatiss
Directed byMark Gatiss
Produced byGary Russell
Jason Haigh-Ellery
Executive producer(s)Jacqueline Rayner
Production code8F
Length94 mins
Release date28 January 2002
Preceded by"The One Doctor"
Followed by"The Chimes of Midnight"

Initially released as a CD on 28 January 2008, this story was later broadcast on BBC 7 in four weekly parts (starting on 29 October 2005) and was later rebroadcast on the same channel once more (beginning on 19 November 2006).

Summary

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In Manhattan 1938, the Eighth Doctor and Charley meet a crooked gangster, a Russian spy, a sinister fifth columnist and Orson Welles. Welles's broadcast of War of the Worlds is just a story, but maybe there really are aliens at loose.

Cast

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Deliberate errors

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The second season of Eighth Doctor audios featured a number of deliberate errors:

  • There were 48 States in the United States in 1938, not 49 as Chaney claims.
  • The CIA was not established until 1947, almost nine years after the events portrayed here.
  • Welles fails to recognise a Shakespearean quotation.
  • Don Chaney claims to own a 1929 Lamborghini previously owned by Al Capone, but Lamborghinis did not exist until 1963.

The first two "mistakes" in this list were deliberate, intended to be examples of anti-time contamination. The third was also deliberate, but was explained in The Time of the Daleks. The last was not deliberate but was later retconned to be another example of anti-time contamination.

Another possible example of anti-time contamination is the date. The War of the Worlds aired on 30 October 1938, yet, when he asks what day it is, the Doctor is told that it is 31 October 1938.

Later Doctor Who appearances

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The episode is particularly notable in that 5 of the actors went on to star in the re-booted Doctor Who TV series from 2005, including:

This does not include Paul McGann and Katy Manning who had appeared in Doctor Who prior to their appearance in this episode.

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