I love Ian Marter's adaptation of The Ark in Space, with its heads splitting open and fountains of pus. His talent for unpleasant detail is perfectly suited to a horror story.
But it doesn't work so well in his other Targets, like this one. The Invasion isn't primarily about visceral horror, it's about people bluffing each other and controlling each other. So all the Marter trademarks (sizzling flesh as Packer dies, oily acrid smells from the Cybermen, egg yolks smashing and congealing on the tarmac when the lorry driver gets shot) seem a bit over the top and out of place.
The atmospheric bit in episode 1 about rainclouds and the English summer is sadly omitted. Zoe sabotages Vaughn's reception computer by typing in a program, not dictating it. The tea served by UNIT is treacly and unpleasant (for some bizarre reason).
The effects of the Cyber-beam are conveyed by different events (more suitable to the written word). When Vaughn dies, his burning corpse gives off plastic soot, because he's been partly cyberised. The Doctor still poses for Isobel's pictures after the battle, but oddly holds up bits of Cyberman in triumph - most unDoctorly behaviour!
The Pip and Jane Baker Award for the Sentence Most Closely Resembling A Typing Exercise goes to 'Jamie looked daggers at the pouting, countyish girl.'
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