Elsewhere, UFO scientist Amanda Tucker (Maggie O'Neill) and her research assistant, Nick Shay (Paul Medford), have picked a bizarre transmission on their computers that is seemingly not of this earth. Also in attendance is Flight Lieutenant Drake (Vincent Regan), who shot down the craft and ended up losing his best friend in the process, as well the head of the nearby NATO base Major General Reece (Fred Ward), and his Number Two, Squadron Leader Helen Knox (Phyllis Logan).
Not to be confused with Harry Harrison's novel Invasion: Earth.
Provides examples of:
- Agent Scully: Knox, who initially has the much more mundane idea that Terrell is an agent of a more earthbound foreign power trying to breach UK airspace.
- Black and Nerdy: Nick Shay.
- Defiant to the End: The British military (and the rest of the world) decides to keep on dropping nukes on the nDs that appear. Reece even delivers a speech that humanity may lose, but they will do their damnedest to taint the nDs' victory.
- Bolivian Army Ending: the series finishes right as humanity is about to drop another nuke on the alien device that appeared from another dimension to replace the one that they (at great cost) nuked already, with Reece stating that they will keep fighting.
- Dark Action Girl: Knox, who has no qualms about employing the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique on a man in a hospital bed.
- Humans Are Bastards: The Echos are assumed to be imbeciles that the Nazis forced to pilot their secret weapon, and so are kept locked up in a mental hospital. A nurse says that the inmates are taken for walks in the cold as a form of euthanasia.
- Evil Versus Oblivion: Humanity decides to nuke itself rather than let themselves be conquered by the nDs.
- Fade to White: The ending (as humanity nukes itself in an attempt to deter the nDs).
- First-Name Basis: Major-General Reece almost always calls Knox by her first name, even though she's his second in command and a high-ranking officer in her own right. He also does this to Preston, the only other female service-member that's part of the named cast. He does address Drake by his rank and/or last name though, so it's hard to tell if it's a writing fumble or an indication of his attitude towards women in the military.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Preston's response to Drake calling her out for sacrificing some of her patients to the nDs.
- Iron Lady: Knox. Preston's no slouch either.
- I Will Fight Some More Forever: The story ends just as humanity decides to keep fighting against the nDs, who appear invincible because they have humongous reserves waiting in other dimensions, and make damn sure that even if they lose the aliens will get a very bloody nose out of it.
- Power Hair: Knox. This is in contrast to Amanda, who never ties back her goddamn hair properly when she's in her military get-up.
- Redemption Equals Death: Invoked by Knox, who volunteers for what is ultimately a Suicide Mission to make up for being a prudent, fully justified fool who didn't think Terrell was telling the truth.
- Organic Technology: used by the nDs. They harvest the DNA and biomass of other intelligent species to fuel their expansion.
- Proud Scholar Race: The Echos are implied to be this in dialog, most especially by Terrell, who lived with them for decades, but also by background material. The series and background material give the impression that they are a peaceful species of scientists and explorers, and their abhorrence of violence is demonstrated by their mass suicide to prevent themselves from being harvested by the nDs as part of their interdimensional war-machine.
- Suicidal Pacifism: Turns out that many other races throughout the multiverse were like this, and every single one of them decided to die rather than face off against the invaders.
- Vasquez Always Dies: Knox. Then again, the more feminine Amanda also makes a Heroic Sacrifice just before the Bolivian Army Ending, so maybe that evens things up.
