A
WRITTEN BY MARK GATISS
DIRECTED BY GARY RUSSELL
RELEASED IN JANUARY 2002

After a very strong first series. It was really sad that the first story of the second series of Eighth Doctor/Charley stories is quite bad. This story is the fifth adventure to feature this combination and on the whole its been very good. With a wide range of stories the one thing that could be said about the Eighth Doctor is that their not normal adventures. Invaders of Mars is the second contribution from League of Gentleman member Mark Gatiss.

Unfortunately they decided to effectively turn this story into a comedy. If it had a darker tone to it then I would have found it easier to listen to. If there is one thing that I cant stand its American accents done by non-americans. I think that it’s the over the top way that there done, it ruins the whole thing for me as I just don’t listen to what their saying but how their saying it.

There were two big names in this story. Simon Pegg & Jessica Hynes are big names in comedy and were perhaps well suited for this story. It would have been nice for them to be in something a bit more substantial but hey-ho. Paul McGann definitely seemed to have a good time as did India Fisher. Their combination is definitely developing well and shows no sign of going downhill.

Overall this story wasn’t one that will get me wanting to listen to it again anytime soon. In fact I would be hard pushed to listen to it ever again. Mark Gatiss did a story that was perhaps to close to a pantomime story