Evil androids, doppelgängers everywhere, and Sarah Jane getting kidnapped so often she’s basically got a loyalty card for it.
Short Synopsis
The Doctor and Sarah land in a picture-perfect English village — except it’s a little too perfect. The locals are acting strange, UNIT is behaving oddly, and Sarah keeps bumping into versions of herself that look like they’ve just come from the BBC’s prop cupboard. The culprit? The Kraals, rhinoceros-faced aliens with a plan to invade Earth using android duplicates. Because of course.
Extended Storyline
Our story kicks off with the Doctor and Sarah stepping out of the TARDIS into what appears to be the quintessential English countryside. Idyllic fields, gentle breezes, birdsong — oh, and a UNIT soldier who immediately throws himself off a cliff for no discernible reason. Ah, Britain in the ’70s.
From there, things only get weirder. The nearby village seems charming enough, but all the locals act like Stepford extras who forgot how human conversation works. Sarah, naturally, thinks something is fishy. The Doctor agrees, though his version of “investigation” involves barging into pubs, fiddling with things he shouldn’t touch, and generally winding up anyone in sight.
Then they run into familiar faces from UNIT. Hooray! Except… not hooray. Because Benton and Harry are acting strangely robotic, and the Brigadier is mysteriously absent (translation: Nicholas Courtney wasn’t available, so his moustache went on holiday).
The truth slowly unravels: the village isn’t real. It’s a training ground, a sort of “android Disneyland,” built by the Kraals — leathery-faced aliens who look like disgruntled potatoes in battle armor. Their plan? Perfect their android duplicates on this fake Earth before unleashing them on the real Earth. The Doctor and Sarah, of course, are just the kind of meddling houseguests who can ruin centuries of planning in about 20 minutes.
Sarah, poor Sarah, spends half the serial being tied up, gagged, knocked out, or replaced by an android duplicate. At one point, her android double is revealed with a slow zoom on her face — eyes popping open like a broken Barbie doll. To this day, it remains one of the most unintentionally hilarious/horrifying shots in Doctor Who history.
Meanwhile, the Doctor discovers that the Kraals’ invasion hinges on spreading a deadly virus across Earth. The androids will carry it, everyone will die, and the Kraals will move in and redecorate the place. (Spoiler: their interior design sense involves a lot of concrete bunkers and poor lighting.)
The climax involves the Doctor battling android duplicates of UNIT soldiers, desperately trying to keep the virus from being unleashed. He defeats the android Sarah with some quick thinking and a healthy dollop of BBC sound effects, and manages to stop the Kraals just in time. Their invasion fails, their base goes boom, and the Doctor and Sarah retreat to the TARDIS, presumably to wash the taste of “android village” out of their mouths.