Things I've Learnt from Watching My Favourite Doctor Who Stories Part 35: The Enemy of the World

 35: The Enemy of the World 

Don't judge a six-parter on just one episode! 

One of my old college lecturers has the idea of something called Keyhole theology, which basically means we cannot see the whole picture of the world as God sees it. We cannot know everything that God has planned. What’s this got to do with the Enemy of the World I hear you cry? 

Well, for years we could only see episode three of Enemy of the World, the others didn’t exist. Not the best episode of the six, I’ll grant you but entertaining enough. But it doesn’t give us the whole picture. Imagine only being able to see the smile on the Mona Lisa but nothing else? 

It lacks the action of episode one, or the development of character in episode two, or the intrigue of episode four. Watching episode three in isolation, we’re presented with these characters we don’t know, the Doctor’s hardly in it and when he is, he doesn’t do much apart from hide under a seat in Bill Kerr’s caravan, then picks up pieces of broken crockery muttering about people making nice things and people coming along and breaking them (A quote often used to illustrate the BBC’s archive policy in the 1960s and 70s!) 

Jamie and Victoria are there of course, but Victoria just peels spuds and Jamie swanks around in a guards uniform and feels slightly out of character! The focus seems to be more on the guest characters such as Denes, Fariah Astrid and Griff. The chef is an interesting character, and he only appears in this episode which might have impacted on people’s opinions of the serial, as a whole. He’s not a typical Doctor Who character in that he’s not central to the plot, but he’s so well played by Reg Lye and his dialogue is amusing, we’re drawn to him more than the usual type of Doctor Who characters on show here, such as Bruce (the bullying security chief) and Benik (the camp sinister security chief)

Fariah is also a revelation. In an era of Doctor Who, it's very rare to find a woman of colour who's not just a background character. Yes she's a victim of Salamander and his power, but David Whittaker writes her as strong, intelligent and independent. And Carmen Munroe is fantastic, bringing sympathy and toughness, so when her character is killed off, it's a real shocker. 

For many years, Enemy of the World was what let the side down in Doctor Who’s magical - and mythical as hardly any of it existed - fifth season. It had no monsters in a run that was known as the monster season, so that made it a bit rubbish. 

But then, in 2013, the lost episodes were found in Nigeria – and rushed onto DVD for us all to see. And it’s marvellous! It’s not, as some have asserted, a James Bond done on the cheap, it’s more a historical drama but done in the future (Astrid’s helicopter insurance runs out in 2018!) It has the political intrigue of Whittaker’s The Crusade and convoluted plot of The Ambassadors of Death. 

More importantly, it has Patrick Troughton playing Salamander; Troughton played villains all through his career and even his good guys had light and shade, including the Doctor, who deliberately taunts his companions to prove to Bruce how dastardly Salamander is. As the villain of the piece, Troughton is stylish, suave and sinister all in one go. As if to show us he's a wrong 'un, he's smoking a big fat cigar in episode four! Plus, the accent is not as bad as his co-stars thought! 

But this is a story where a lot of the characters aren't quite as they appear. Bruce (the dependable Colin Douglas) Salamander's security chief turns out to be a man of reason, while Giles Kent (a superb performance by Bill Kerr, a world away from his Hancock Half Hour persona) is just as much as a power crazed villain as Salamander! It's a shame the showdown between the Doctor and Salamander is reduced to one last scene in the TARDIS, because it would have been great to see a bit more. This was largely due to limits in technology and Barry Letts being given the wrong advice, which Derek Martinus corrected him on.

But it's still a great serial, one I'm pleased to have in my Top 60 and proof that those missing stories could be much better than we realise. 

Yes, even the Space Pirates! 

Next Time : Cynicism doesn't burn off calories!