Although all our attention is focused on the 50th anniversary itself, for me it is not until a year later that the show demonstrated that it had really found its feet. The story Dalek Invasion of Earth, broadcast between November -December 1964, is a landmark adventure in many ways, the best five of which I recollect in this article. I focus on the TV story, not the Peter Cushing film which (trivia alert) was sponsored by Sugar Puffs and also has a great deal of product placement once you start looking for it! As a further vote for the importance of this episode we already know that it features prominently in the documentary an Adventure in Space and Time. If it's good enough for Mark Gatiss, it's good enough for me!
5. An Unexpected Historical Document
An unexpected side-effect of Invasion of Earth is that it has recorded for posterity a segment of London as it was in the early 1960s; this despite the story being notionally set somewhere after 2164. In particular the location camera work covers areas of the River Thames and East London Docks showing us buildings that even in the early 60s were looking run down. Having survived extensive damage in World War 2 the area had boomed in the 50s before the arrival of the container ship consigned them to history. At the time the show was filmed no consideration was given as to how the landscape might evolve in 200 years and with the budgets available that is probably no bad thing; instead we have an accidental time capsule.