191 The Enemy of the World: Episode Six

EPISODE: The Enemy of the World: Episode Six
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 191
STORY NUMBER: 040
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 27 January 1968
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Barry Letts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Peter Bryant
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 8.3 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Enemy of the World
TELESNAPS: The Enemy of the World: Episode Six

"Thank you. You're doing so well impersonating me, ah, I thought I might return the compliment."

Bruce is having difficulty believe the Doctor, Jamie & Victoria when Benik arrives with papers for "Salamander" to sign. The Doctor examines them and finds they're for food deliveries for 30 people which is suspicious because only a dozen work at the centre. As he dies Swann gets Astrid to promise to rescue those in the shelter. The Doctor arranges for Bruce to release Jamie & Victoria: they're told to contact his deputy Forrester with a code word summoning him to the research centre. Astrid arrives at the shelter: the inhabitants initially are scared of her, fearing Radiation contamination but she proves to them that Salamanders radiation detection instruments are faked. She, Colin and his wife Mary return to the surface. Giles Kent has entered the research centre and goes to confront Salamander in the records room but it's the Doctor he meets. Astrid arrives with Mary & Colin who identify Kent as the man that took them to the shelter. He set the scheme up with Salamander but they disagreed and parted company: Colin & Mary believe he'd been killed. The Doctor was suspicious of Kent from the start. Kent escapes into the lift to the underground tunnels where he intends to detonate explosives stored there. Forrester arrives and under Bruce's orders arrests the research centre staff including Benik. Salamander is waiting for Kent, having observed the confrontation in the records room. They fight and Kent is killed detonating the explosives. The people in the shelter survive the blast as do those on the surface. Astrid explains the shelter can be reached via the tunnel she found and Astrid & Bruce lead the rescue attempt. The Doctor, seemingly wounded returns to the Tardis where Jamie & Victoria are waiting and beckons Jamie to take off. Jamie is suspicious: he was told never to touch the console. Rightly so: This is Salamander exposed when the real Doctor arrives. In a scuffle the Tardis starts to take off with it's doors open and Salamander is sucked out leaving the time travellers at the mercy of the forces pulling through the open doors.....

When I listened to this story for the original version of this blog I said:

Not a bad climax to a story that's proved much better than I recall it being. The plot twist half way through the story is barkingly mad and completely unforeseen: here Kent's true motives have at least been hinted at with his quickness to violence. It's by no means a typical Doctor Who story being more closely related to a James Bond spy thriller with just the hint of science fiction with the villain's ability to cause natural disasters, his Suncatcher energy satellites are mentioned in the first episode - if I was re-writing I'd make them involved in the process some how and connect them with the work being done by the people hiding in the shelter from the war that never happened. This plot element reminds me of something I saw in my younger days but I can't think what. It's a little similar to the Silurians in Hibernation waiting for the Earth to recover from the moon hitting it, the people in the "Spaceship" in Invasion of Dinosaurs and of course Japanese soldiers marooned on remote islands convinced the second world war goes on, but the "sheltering from the nuclear war that never happened" idea rings big clear bells.

The Kaptain, Karl Thurgood suggests to me the Philip K Dick short story The Defenders, which was turned into the novel The Penultimate Truth, as the source of my recollections but I have no recollection of reading either of these!

Finally able to watch it I think this episode has some problems.

It starts off well enough though. First a paper trail finally produces some evidence for Bruce that *SOMETHING* is up:

DOCTOR: He's done us a good turn in bringing me these. This'll interest you, Bruce. How many people do you say work in the research centre?
BRUCE: Fewer than you'd think. It's fully automated, you know. Six engineers, and six guards on duty at any one time.
DOCTOR: A dozen, eh? Will you tell me why thirty people are catered for here?

Then in his dying moments Swann finally learns the horrific truth about what Salamander has done to him and the fellow shelterers:

SWANN: The war. How bad was the war?
ASTRID: War? I didn't understand you. I wish there was something I could do for you.
SWANN: What's he done? What's he done? He's kept us prisoners. Listen, there are others. There are more people down the shaft.
ASTRID: Others?
SWANN: Salamander's kept us down there, prisoners, years of it. Promise you'll bring them to the surface. Swear it. You've got to swear it.
ASTRID: Yes, I swear it.

This leads Astrid down into the shelter, treating us to a nice panning shot of the interior:

Note the control console on the left: we'll be seeing that again!

The shelterers reactions to Astrid isn't what she might expect, attacking her till she's saved by Colin & Mary who she convinces of her story:

COLIN: What's the matter with you? Are you all mad? Get back! Get back!
ASTRID: Thanks.
COLIN: First, don't move. I don't know who you are, but you must be carrying radiation.
ASTRID: What?
COLIN: You're from the surface, aren't you?
ASTRID: Radiation?
MARY: How'd you get down here?
COLIN: Did you see Salamander? And Swann? What about Swann?
ASTRID: Swann sent me.
MARY: Swann? Where is he?
ASTRID: He's dead.
MARY: You see, Colin, Salamander was right. He always said if we went up to the surface we'd die of radiation.
ASTRID: No, not radiation. Salamander killed him.
CROWD: No. No. I don't believe her.
ASTRID: He's lying to you.
CROWD: It can't be true.
ASTRID: He's been keeping you prisoners, I don't know why.
MARY: But that's impossible.
ASTRID: Now listen to me.
COLIN: Now, wait! We must decontaminate you. There's equipment in Salamander's control room. In there.
ASTRID: All right.

COLIN: In there. You see? Radiation. You can come out now.
ASTRID: I'm all right?
COLIN: Yes. Now tell us, what's this about Swann?
ASTRID: No. Just watch. Look at the meter. This machine's a fake. Is this ruler contaminated? Look, see those valves? There's an invisible ray. Break it, and it works the meter.
COLIN: But Salamander built this.
MARY: He built it. He always uses it when he comes down.
ASTRID: Yes, I know, to try to convince you for some reason or other that there's radiation above ground.
MARY: There is. The war.
ASTRID: War? What war?
COLIN: Where is he? Where's Salamander?
ASTRID: That's just what I would like to know.

Yet more actors are added to the shelterers roster this episode but the only one I can spot with any form is Ruth Harrison who was in The Daleks episode 7: - The Rescue as a Thal. However in amongst the guards is a first television appearance for Jay Neill who goes on to play a Policeman in Doctor Who and the Silurians episode 3, a Pikeman in The Masque of Mandragora part two, Silvey in The Invisible Enemy part one, and Guard Klimt in Underworld parts two & three. His IMDB entry shows he's had a long TV career in a wide variety of productions, I can see him appearing in several episodes of Doomwatch as a Man in Project Sahara, Laing in The Battery People, a Man in By the Pricking of My Thumbs..., a Young Man in Flight Into Yesterday and a Man in Flood. He was a Bar Guest in Fawlty Towers: The Wedding Party and a bodyguard in Yes Minister: The Death List.

The first hint of a problem in this episode comes when Giles Kent walks into the record room. The record room that Salamander has locked from the inside!

Let's be charitable and say the computer console that we see Kent fiddling with, just before Benik and the guard pass by, enables him with his prior knowledge of the complex and Salamanader's scheme to bypass the security locks and get into the room.

Considerably more charity will be required by the time we're done today.....

The confrontation between Kent and "Salamander" is a good one:

SALAMANDER: Giles Kent. What are you doing here?
KENT: Oh, I've been looking forward to this meeting. You're getting careless. You didn't double lock the doors. Oh, its all right, I've done it now. The only way anybody can get through there is to blast their way through.
SALAMANDER: How did you get into the Research Centre?
KENT: Oh, you know me. There isn't a pass in the world I can't get my hands on if I put my mind to it.
SALAMANDER: You won't find it so easy getting out.
KENT: Really? Well, we'll see. I'm not on my own this time. I've got friends here with me, and between us we're going to fix you once and for all.
SALAMANDER: You always were a tiresome man, Kent.
KENT: I'm going to be more than tiresome this time. You know, the biggest mistake you ever made was not killing me when you had the chance.
SALAMANDER: Oh, so you going to kill me, huh? How petty. What good do you think that will do?
KENT: Hold it! Now, don't move quickly. My nerves are a bit shaky at the moment.

KENT: Never get away with it. Oh, that's good, coming from you. Or don't you realise you're dispensable, and the world is going to get along fine without you from now on. The only good idea you ever had in your life was getting rid of me, and you couldn't even do that properly, could you? And now I'm back and you're finished. Oh, what's that?
SALAMANDER: They're breaking down the door.
KENT: They don't appear to be having much success.

SALAMANDER: You're trapped, aren't you?
KENT: You're a fool, Salamander. You don't think I've forgotten already, do you?
SALAMANDER: What?
KENT: I've been with you too many times in this room in the past, not to know where this leads to.
KENT: Your little bolt-hole. Half way down the tunnel, a passage out to the fields and enough explosives down there to stop you or your thugs following me.
DOCTOR: Well, that's very interesting, Mister Kent. Why didn't you tell me that before?
KENT: Oh no, it can't be.
DOCTOR: Oh, I'm afraid it is.

So ..... How did the Doctor get past the security locks and into the room?

In a few episodes time we'll be able to use the standard Doctor Who excuse in situations like this of "He Used The Sonic Screwdriver!" but here we're just two stories too early so we need to look elsewhere for a solution.

Remember from earlier in the episode:

BENIK: The door to the Record Room is jammed. It was all right when you came out, wasn't it?
DOCTOR: Yes.
BENIK: Well, it won't open now. May I have your key?
DOCTOR: I'm going mad. I left it in there. What a fool.
BENIK: It's all right, I'll use the emergency key.
DOCTOR: Yes, do that, will you?

There's no hint that this emergency key exists prior to the point Benik mentions it. I've even thought that bit of the scene might even be Benik testing "Salamander" and discovering it is someone impersonating him. But whatever happens at no point does Benik give the Doctor the key. So I say again: How did the Doctor get past the security locks and into the room?

Now admittedly the Doctor having got into the room first may explain how Giles Kent got in!

Kent's full role in events is then revealed.

DOCTOR: Oh, look. Here's another surprise for you. Look behind you.
KENT: Astrid, you've come just in time.
ASTRID: It's too late, Giles. I know everything.
COLIN: That's him. That's the man who took us down there in the first place.
MARY: Giles Kent. We thought you were dead.
KENT: Now look, I've never seen these people before in my life.
ASTRID: They've told me everything. You and Salamander were in it together. You built an atomic shelter, took some people down for an endurance test. The next person they saw was Salamander who told them that an atomic war had started.
DOCTOR: You see, Kent....

ASTRID: Oh, be careful, Doctor. He'll kill you.
MARY: You kept us down like animals.
COLIN: Why? Why did you do it to us?
KENT: We had to have someone create the natural disasters, didn't we? And we fooled you all!
DOCTOR: You didn't fool me, Kent.
KENT: You didn't suspect me.
DOCTOR: Any man who resorts to murder as eagerly and as rapidly as you must be suspect. You didn't just want to expose Salamander, you wanted to kill him and take his place.
KENT: And I will! Do you think you're going to stop me? And these people? Now move out of the way, quick! We'll see who'll stop me!
DOCTOR: Stop him. Stop him. He's going to try and blow the place up!
ASTRID: Come on then.
DOCTOR: No! Don't touch that door, it's red hot.
ASTRID: What do you mean?
DOCTOR: Well, it's locked. They're trying to burn through from the other side.
ASTRID: Look!
DOCTOR: It looks like some sort of cave.
ASTRID: It's the escape route. That's Salamander!
DOCTOR: Yes. I wonder if he knows Kent's on his way?

Kent finally catches up with the real Salamander in the tunnels under the research complex.

SALAMANDER: You always were a fool, weren't you?
KENT: Now, wait a minute. They'll be after both of us now.
SALAMANDER: Oh no, they won't.
KENT: I tell you, they know.
SALAMANDER: So what do you want me to do, huh? Bury our differences? I didn't need you once. I still don't need you.
KENT: Now wait a minute. The place is mined, we know that. We planned it for years, together. Between us we can destroy them all, and the evidence. Just you and me, Salamander.
SALAMANDER: You and me. What use are you to me? You were useful once, but now.
KENT: No, no!
SALAMANDER: You won't get away from me, Kent.
SALAMANDER: I told you you could not escape me.
KENT: Well, if I'm going to die, Salamander, you'll die with me.
SALAMANDER: No! No!

When Kent sets the explosives off is the point the episode really lurches off the deep end!

Where do Colin and Mary go after that? They're last seen clutching at each other as debris falls from the ceiling but just disappear after that:

Are they dead? Have they retreated to the shelter? You don't know. They're usefulness to the plot over, they're gone. Not a mention!

And then there's the logic of what happens next.....

The Doctor sends Jamie and Victoria straight from the Research Centre to the Tardis.

DOCTOR: This is Salamander. I want a security escort to come to the interrogation room immediately. I am releasing two prisoners. They are to be conducted to the main gates and set free. Is that understood? Good.

DOCTOR: You are to go straight to the Tardis as soon as you can.

They disappear at 5:27 and aren't seen again till 19:00 so are missing for 14 and half minutes, well over half the episode having been completely absent two weeks previous. But the point here is he sends them to the Tardis, he doesn't arrange for them to be taken here. The insinuation is the Tardis is nearby, in walking distance.

Then there's the explosion and Salamander's last seen in the tunnel. The Doctor leaves the research center, slightly injured and dressed as Salamander. A dazed figure dressed as Salamander wanders towards the Tardis and Jamie, like the viewer, mistakes the figure for the Doctor and lets him inside. Then the real Doctor shows up, changed into his normal clothes and with a plaster on his head which clearly enables us to distinguish him from Salamander in the fight that follows.

So to me it would appear as if Salamander has wandered out of the tunnel and, slightly dazed, stumbled on the Tardis. The Doctor meanwhile has returned to Kent's Caravan, which we know overlooks the Research Center (episode 3) which in turn is above the shelter (episode 4) which has as tunnel exit near the caravan (episode 5). This last point would make sense: Kent's parked the caravan near to both the tunnel and the research center so he can keep an eye on both. Having changed and tended to his wounds the Doctor makes his way to the Tardis.

Happy so far? Good.

Because the problem is this:

THE TARDIS IS NOWHERE NEAR THE RESEARCH CENTRE!

We saw the Tardis land on the beach in episode 1, which was shown then to be on Cape Arid. At no point is it established that the Research Centre is also on Cape Arid! In fact, as we've shown previously, it looks very much like Kanowa is a spelling mistake for at Kanowna which is 250 miles away! If it is then the episode really makes no sense with Salamander emerging from a tunnel 250 miles away from where he left and The Doctor, Jamie & Victoria having travelled 250 miles seemingly on foot.

Let's be charitable again (very charitable!) and assume that Kanowa is in Cape Arid. So the Research Centre is above the shelter, whose tunnel leads out near the caravan overlooking the Research Centre. The tunnel exit is also near the beach which in turn is near the rented Bungalow. I think the script needs a little playing with here to definitively establish the Research Centre's location: I'd have had the Doctor and Kent observing it from the Bungalow. That gives the the property that a reason to be near to the sea where the Tardis lands, has Astrid aiming for a nearby location that she knows when the helicopter is damaged, has "Salamander" (actually the Doctor) believably near somewhere he's known to visit in part 1 for the Thugs to pursue him. Everyone can then make their journey from Research Centre to Tardis easily in episode 6 and as a bonus we've saved ourselves the cost of building the caravan set by reusing the Bungalow location. I've never read the Enemy of the World novelization but I picked the book off the shelf to see how Ian Marter handles this: he has everyone flying south in helicopters with the Doctor realising that Salamander's deceived him before he leaves Kanowa. This isn't terribly satisfying as it relies on Salamander knowing the Tardis is at Cape Arid. I suppose you could claim that agents loyal to Salamander followed Jamie & Zoe and conveyed that information back to him. Jamie does say he thought they were being followed, but I'd take this to mean followed by Salamander. Some blame needs to be laid at outgoing script editor Peter Bryant's feet for not picking this up. A little tweak to all six scripts would have made this, and a small hole in episode 1, make a lot more sense.

In his book Who And Me director Barry Letts criticises the scripts saying:

When I arrived to begin work on The Enemy Of The world I was presented with only a draft script of the first episode and just rough synopsis of the rest.

He then goes onto say

From what I learnt later when I took over as producer it wasn't likely that he [writer David Whitaker] was responsible for the indefensible position I was put in.

But, somewhat typically, Letts doesn't then apportion blame for who actually was responsible!

What this episode will rightly be remembered for is the confrontation between the Doctor and Salamander, two characters both played by Patrick Troughton and visually distinguished by clothing, blood stains and a plaster!

JAMIE: I thought you were never coming. Hey, Doctor, are you all right?
VICTORIA: Oh, there you are, Doctor. You do look in a state. Come and sit down.
JAMIE: I told you he wouldn't be long. You, you worry too much.
VICTORIA: We shouldn't have left him.
JAMIE: You see, after the explosion, Doctor, we didnae know what to do. You said to come back here, which we did, but I'm sure we were followed.
VICTORIA: Please, can we start straight away?
JAMIE: Me, Doctor? But you said we were never to touch the controls.
DOCTOR: Quite right, Jamie.

DOCTOR: Welcome to the Tardis.
SALAMANDER: Thank you. You're doing so well impersonating me, I thought I might return the compliment.
DOCTOR: And Giles Kent?
SALAMANDER: Unfortunately, he didn't survive the explosion.
DOCTOR: We're going to put you outside, Salamander. No friends, no safety, nothing. You'll run, but they'll catch up with you.
DOCTOR: No!
SALAMANDER: And now I'm going to kill you.
JAMIE: No, you don't.
VICTORIA: Oh, Doctor!
DOCTOR: Victoria! Jamie! Hold onto something! Jamie! Oh!

There's a lot of "one character played by a double with his back to the screen" during this sequence, with Peter Diamond substituting for the second Patrick Troughton, but there's one memorable face to face confrontation:

This is the image that the BBC Website chose to represent the episode when they did their Telesnap photo novel of the story. It also nicely turns the concept of the story, the Doctor impersonating Salamander, on it's head with Salamander impersonating the Doctor. But this meeting, which we've been building up to for 6 episodes, is over so quickly. Barry Letts had intended for there to be more shots with Patrick Troughton in view twice. However due to a film camera jam and Letts using an outdated technique, which he fully accepted responsibility for in his book, this one shot was all they got! Between the Doctor entering the Tardis and Salamander leaving it is a gap of just 45 seconds! And following the all we see is Salamander falling through the Vortex, that's it, end of episode. No reminder of the peril that the Doctor and co are in, nothing.

What's odd is this is then picked up and resolved in the first 2 minutes of the next episode. If you check Enemy of the World 6 is 21:41 long, at the lower end of the running times for a Doctor Who episode (my thanks to Sean for bringing this to my attention when we were watching the episode on iTunes). In fact it's the shortest episode of Doctor Who so far, the first to be sub 22 minutes. Web of Fear 1, by contrast, is 24:53 at the upper end of the 25 minute time slot (a few episodes before now have gone over). If you took the first scene off Web of Fear, which runs from 0:29 to 2:16 which I make 1:47 long, you end up with Enemy 6 last 23:28 and ending on a nice resolution and Web 1 running to 23:06 and not suffering the intrusion of the previous story. (If anyone wants to make a cut of these episodes in this way I'd be interested in seeing it!)

I'd always resented the section of Enemy of the World resolution in Web of Fear 1 and now I see Enemy of the World 6 it seems to me like it's more natural home is here. Yes I know Doctor Who was more serial in style in the 60s but generally the form for an episode is the last episode of the previous story has some form of "looking forward" to the next one like the Radiation Meter in Unearthly Child 4 or the Tardis being stolen in Faceless Ones 6, not resolving the story in the opening minutes of the next one. I could accept the intrusion a bit more if we'd cut back to the Tardis console room at the end of this episode to show that the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria are still in peril. As it is it feels like "Salamander's out of the Tardis, problem solved" especially in light of the specially shot trailer that follows showing The Doctor in London Underground tunnels warning children at home that their parents may find the next story, The Web of Fear, frightening!

So Enemy of the World.....

Pros:

Episode 1: location shooting and helicopter shots
Episode 4: mad plot twist and Salamander's entrance to the tunnel
Episode 6: The Doctor & Salamander confrontation
Top work throughout from Patrick Troughton, playing two roles, and all the guest stars especially Colin Douglas as the hard, but ultimately just, security officer Bruce.
Attempting to do something different, a Bond/Spy story, with the Who format

Cons:

Episode 3, so long the sole survivor, is dreadful.
The story and this episode breaks down geographically.
The ending, especially the confrontation, is rushed.
By having Patrick Troughton playing two roles either the Doctor or Salamander is absent for long periods. This is compounded by Jamie and Victoria both being absent for an episode and then being missing for a large part of the final one.
No Monsters!

It's hard to decide. I want to get past the story's lack of Monsters and how dreadful episode 3 has seemed for many years. Like Underwater Menace 3 it's picked up by being able to see it in context a bit. If we'd had episode 1, or 4, all along the story would have had a better pre recovery reputation. Now seen as a whole the flaws are more obvious, especially in this final episode. This story is really yo-yoing in my opinions every time I experience it! The last time I listened to it on audio I loved it, the first time I saw it I was brought down by how dreadful the continuity in the last episode was. That's got even worse this time out but I enjoyed the story as a whole a lot more.

A couple of changes behind the scenes happen at the end of this story. Innes Lloyd departs the producer's role. Never happy with science fiction he was more than willing to vacate his seat for Peter Bryant. Despite his feelings about the show Lloyd did a top job, producing many memorable stories and introducing several important elements to the series. It's also the last story overseen by Head of Drama Sydney Newman, who'd helped create the series. After leaving his post he returned to his native Canada.

Enemy of the World was novelised by Ian Marter in 1981 during a period when few Hartnell and Troughton stories were being produced by Target Books. It's television author David Whitaker had started work on it but died before much could be produced.

The Soundtrack was released on CD in 2002 with narration by Fraser Hines. Unlike the stories either side of it, it can be currently had for pennies. The soundtrack to the aforementioned Web of Fear trailer is included as a bonus. The Enemy of the World soundtrack was reissued as part of Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Volume 5 (1967-1969) shortly before the episodes were recovered.

While searching Africa for missing episodes Philip Morris discovered copies of Enemy of the World 1-6 and Web of Fear 1, 2 & 4-6 at a television station in the Nigerian city of Jos. It hasn't yet been revealed exactly when he found it but a report in Doctor Who Magazine 486 has Morris talking about a church being blown up in the city while he was there. Enemy of the World thus becomes the second complete Troughton story in season 4, after Tomb of the Cybermen's 1992 recovery. It's also only the second complete Troughton 6 parter, after Seeds of Death as well as being the seventh complete Troughton story overall. Power of the Daleks, The Faceless One, The Abominable Snowmen, The Ice Warriors, The Web of Fear, Fury from the Deep, The Wheel in Space and The Space Pirates all have one or more missing missing episodes. Paul Vanezies of the Restoration Team had his hands on episodes 1-5 on 28th April 2013, episode 6 having been looked at previously. Peter Crocker started work on the picture restoration on 2nd June 2013 and delivered it on the 7th August. After much rumour the recovery, along with that of Web of Fear, was announced at a press conference on 10th October 2013 news of which was embargoed till midnight when the episodes were released on iTunes.

The Enemy of the World was released on DVD on Monday 25th November 2013, 2 days after Doctor who's 50th anniversary. Many Doctor Who fans, although pleased to have the story on DVD, were disappointed at the release. The DVD lacked many of the special features that have been standard on other releases: No commentary, information text, photo gallery and no features on the making of the story or cast & crew interviews. Despite campaigning the BBC are yet to issue a special edition DVD correcting these omissions.

Fantom Films has sought to plug one of the gaps by issuing commentaries for both Enemy of the World and Web of Fear. The Who Talk Enemy of the World commentary features the following contributors:

EPISODE ONE: Deborah Watling
EPISODE TWO: Mary Peach
EPISODE THREE: Carmen Munroe & Bill Lyons
EPISODE FOUR: Carmen Munroe
EPISODE FIVE: Milton Johns & Mary Peach
EPISODE SIX: Milton Johns & Sylvia James

All six episodes are moderated by Toby Hadoke.

Next up I get to spend six weeks talking about two of my favourite subjects at once: Doctor Who *AND* the London Underground. Be here next Saturday as we WATCH Web of Fear Part 1.

190 The Enemy of the World: Episode Five

EPISODE: The Enemy of the World: Episode Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 190
STORY NUMBER: 040
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 20 January 1968
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Barry Letts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Peter Bryant
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 6.9 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Enemy of the World
TELESNAPS: The Enemy of the World: Episode Five

"Why not me? WHY NOT ME???? Salamander, take me with you! TAKE ME WITH YOU!!"

Bruce steps into the caravan and this time he does not fall for The Doctor pretending to be Salamander. They tell Bruce they have evidence on Salamander. He tells them that Farriah is dead. Benik is holding the unconscious Jamie & Victoria at the research centre. The Doctor talks Bruce into taking him to the research centre to get evidence. In the Underground base Colin is wanting to go outside. Swann finds a scrap of newspaper stuck to a crate "holiday liner sinks with the loss of many lives" He knows they have been lied to about the war. He accuses Salamander of being a murderer and forces Salamander to take him to the surface. When Salamander announces Swann is coming with him to the surface Colin is distraught that it wasn't him who was chosen. Benik interrogates Jamie and Victoria but is interrupted by "Salamander" and sent away. This turns out to be the Doctor. Salamander takes Swann into the tunnels above the base, but Swann wants to go to the surface. Astrid distracts the guards and flees allowing Kent to escape. While outside she hears cries for help and finds the injured Swann lying in a tunnel mouth. She asks him what has happened and he says he was attacked by a man named Salamander.

I'm still bowled over as to how Salamander's pulled this deception off especially as it comes crashing down so easily here from two different directions. Swann's discovery of Salamander's duplicity leads to him stepping outside for a while so he can be disposed of. Has this happened before? Here's Colin & Mary in episode 4:

MARY: Are you going to ask him?
COLIN: You bet I am. He'll take me, too.
MARY: Colin, I couldn't sleep a wink last night thinking about you making the trip. None of the others have come back.
COLIN: Don't stop me now. I've got to see the surface, Mary, I've got to.

Did the other people see through Salamander's lies and have to be taken to the surface to be disposed of?

Then there's Bruce. all through the story he's come over as a very hard man. When confronted with mounting information that indicates something isn't right with Salamander he does something about it. Bravo!

Appearing throughout the story as Donald Bruce is Colin Douglas. Douglas will return to the program 10 years later as Reuben in Horror of Fang Rock. Despite me only knowing him from Doctor Who his his imdb entry shows him to have been a very busy television actor in the 60s and 70s! I'll need to dig out my The Sweeney DVDs as he has a repeat role as the Flying Squad Commander in that appearing in Ringer and Contact Breaker. I know for certain I saw all the episodes of God's Wonderful Railway as a child so I would have seen him as George Grant in Fire on the Line, the final Second World War set segment of the production. I found an episode on YouTube and instantly recognised him!

His 1967 self however looks and sounds like the actor Rupert Vansittart who was General Asquith in Aliens of London and World War Three. Compare and contrast for yourself. The same pompous manner that Bruce has is familiar in a lot of Vansittart's recent roles.

And on the other hand there's Milton Johns' Benik. He is very nasty and sinister during this episode, it's a top performance so you can see why they got Johns in to do the Who Talk Enemy of the World commentary for this episode!

BENIK: So you've brought them? Good. Any trouble?
CAPTAIN: No, a light drug saw to that.
BENIK: Let me know the moment they wake up.
CAPTAIN: Yes, sir.
BENIK: I'm looking forward to questioning them. I have a feeling they're going to be stubborn. It's so much more interesting when our prisoners are stubborn.

The nastiness comes out especially in the sequence where he interrogates Jamie & Victoria, summed up by this exchange:

JAMIE: You must have been a nasty little boy.
BENIK: Oh I was. But I had a very enjoyable childhood.

Pulling Victoria's hair to get her and Jamie to reveal information shows him up to be the very worst sort of playground bully!. Fortunately Victoria is saved further pain by the arrival of Bruce and Salamander, actually the Doctor!

So there's plenty happening here and this episode rolls along nicely and you can feel things warming up for the story's conclusion.

According to Barry Letts in his autobiography Who And Me this episode had to be re-written after it was discovered there were no scenes featuring guest star Mary Peach who plays Astrid. Barry had a usually reliable memory, but I'm trying to picture how this episode would have worked without Peach's Astrid in it as her distracting of the guard on the caravan and discovery of the injured Swann forms the climax of what we see on-screen this week. A brief location shot of her hiding from a guard, presumably filmed close to Climping Beach near Littlehampton, helps set these scene nicely for that sequence,

Remember Fraser Hines' cousin, Ian Hines, appearing as a guard, and Barry Letts' nephew as Benik's sergeant in earlier episodes? Well in this and the next episode we have David Troughton, son of Patrick, also as a guard. He'll be back in a bit part in The War Games plus a starring role as King Peladon in the Curse of Peladon. He famously was Doctor Bob Buzzard in A Very Peculiar Practice (which has finally got a complete DVD release at long last) with Fifth Doctor Peter Davison before returning as Professor Hobbes in the 2008 New Series episode Midnight. One of my favourite actors he can do an excellent impression of his late father which he does to good effect narrating several of the Target audiobook readings. IMDB (and every other Who publication I've read) reckons this is his first Doctor Who appearance but my friend Ralph heard David Troughton speak at a recent convention where he claims to appear in episode 1 of this story as one of the thugs on the beach, specifically the one that jumps Jamie!

Other actors in this episode who I've been unable to find include Valerie Taylor as a Shelterer who was a Parisian Woman in The Massacre episode 1: The War of God and Blair Stewart who was a test dummy in The Dominators: Episode 1.

OK back to our geography. There's a tunnel leading from the shelter to the surface. The tunnel comes out near to where Kent's caravan is located: Astrid stumbles across Swann who can't have got far from the entrance in that state. The tunnel doesn't seem to be at a huge incline yet we know the shelter is some way bellow ground - maybe it comes off a level that the travel capsule can stop at closer to the surface?

In fact you can see the travel capsule in the back of this shot (There was already a poor quality telesnap that we didn't realise had the travel capsule in), and Swann make a point of asking what's directly above them, so the level closer to the surface theory is a good one.

And speaking of poor quality telesnaps....

SALAMANDER: Now what's the matter, huh?
SWANN: What's this? What is this?
SALAMANDER: What?
SWANN: Newspaper. It's a piece of newspaper.
SALAMANDER: So?
SWANN: Well, go on, look at it. Read it. Last year's date. Look at the bit of headline there. There!

Here's the blurry telesnap of the piece of paper Swann found that's confounded Who fans for years by being too out of focus to see the date! Fortunately the recovered episode reveals all:

The date on the paper, said to be "last year's date" is Friday August 16th 2017, which clearly dates the story to 2018, the same as the year on the plate in Astrid's helicopter in episode 1. Publicity at the time put the story "50 years in the future" and Lance Parkin's History of the Universe dates the story to 2017, 50 years after the first episode was broadcast. Close, it's 50 years after *most* of the story was broadcast: the first two episodes are in 1967 but the remaining four are in 1968!

There's only one small problem with the date on the paper: 16th August 2017 is a Wednesday!

Another thought: if it's approaching the 5th anniversary of them descending to the shelter in 2018 then they'd have been hiding down now in 2013 when this episode was found!

More power panels!

The panel on the left in Salamander's office in the shelter is new. We saw the one on the right in the previous episode, here the Danger warning at the top left is very clear.

We get quite a good look at this one over two different shots this episode and a pretty clear look at the other one we saw last episode too while everyone is walking around!

189 The Enemy of the World: Episode Four

EPISODE: The Enemy of the World: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 189
STORY NUMBER: 040
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 13 January 1968
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Barry Letts
SCRIPT EDITOR: Peter Bryant
PRODUCER: Innes Lloyd
RATINGS: 7.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Enemy of the World
TELESNAPS: The Enemy of the World: Episode Four

"I think you'll find this interesting."

Salamander decides to return to the research centre. The Doctor & Kent are waiting for Astrid who arrives then contacts them by vidphone, alerting them authorities before she switches to a secure transmission. Denes is dead: shot in the back during the escape attempt. Farrier has followed Astrid: she has come to see Kent with information for him. Farrier has been observed by the guards as well. Farrier tells how she was blackmailed into serving Salamander: she now has evidence that he engineered the schemes that Fedorin was accused of. Kent wants the Doctor to execute Salamander: he refuses. The guards close in on Kent's office but the occupants escape. is killed on the street after the escape. Salamander locks himself in the record room. He accesses a secret lift which takes him to hidden underground chambers. Bruce is angry with the guard outside the room that he can't get access to Salamander. Underground Salamander announces his return to those in the underground shelter. One of the men, Swann, meets with Salamander who claims he has been irradiated and must be decontaminated. He has brought them food back, and reports that it's terrible on the surface. Those in the shelter have been there for five years: they believe there has been a war on the surface which continues to this day. Those in the shelter are creating the natural disasters believing they are striking at those causing the war. Salamander tells them they cannot return to the surface till it's safe to do so. One of the survivors, Swann, wishes to go to the surface but his wife Mary reminds him that of the others that have made the journey only Salamander has returned. The Doctor is being made up to pose as Salamander when someone enters the caravan ...

I think if you'd have offered people the opportunity to get ONE episode of Enemy of the World back there would have been some debate as to which one. Episode one for the location work with the hovercraft and helicopter? Or perhaps episode six for the climax. But episode four had to be a strong contender as no Telesnaps existed for this episode! The BBC website had a rough go using shots from other episodes. Now the episode is returned to the archives we get our first proper look at it. It's the third telesnapless episode to be returned in recent times, since the existence of the telesnaps was discovered, with none existing for either Galaxy Four episode 3: Airlock or The Dalek Masterplan episode 2: The Day of Armageddon. Of all the episodes to reconstruct from scratch, this is one of the easiest: part 1 by comparison would have been a nightmare. All the main cast in this episode are in others. Most of the sets - Kent's office, the caravan, the Research Centre Records room and the shelter - are too. But there's still some surprises in the episode.

It was known that Villier's House in Ealing featured in footage used in Enemy of the World that had been lost. We find out now that the scenes shot here are what the Doctor's group can see when they look out the windows to see the guards coming:

The thing that stands out in that shot is the woman pushing the pram. She bears no relevance to the story and yet it adds something making you realise this all occurring in an populated area. One of the guards in shot is long time Doctor Who extra Pat Gorman. Also there are Arthur McGuire, who'd been a guard in The Massacre episode 4: Bell of Doom and will return in Doctor Who and the Silurians: Episode 3 as a UNIT Soldier, Ken Fraser who's back in The War Games: Episode One as a Sentry and Vic Taylor who had been a Saxon in The Time Meddler 2 & 4 The Meddling Monk & Checkmate, a Cardinal's Guard The Massacre episode 1: War of God, a Worker / Soldier in The War Machines episode 3 and a Soldier in The War Machines episode 4. He'll be back as another UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians episode 3, a Villager in The Dæmons episode one & two and a Coven Member in The Dæmons episodes four & five. He's also got two episodes of Doomwatch to his name as a man in Burial at Sea and a Police Constable in Fire and Brimstone.

The Villiers House location has another Doctor Who claim to fame though: it was the home of BBC Enterprises at the time and for nearly 20 years after. When the BBC vacated the building and it was being cleared out the four missing episodes of the Ice Warriors, One and Four to Six, were found!

Now I have a problem with the lead up to this sequence. Astrid arrives at the office, running as if she's escaped from something like we saw at the end of the last episode. Close behind her is Farriah, who's been following her. Now this seems fine if you think they're round the corner from where they were in the previous episode in the central European zone. But they're not, they're back in Australia! Has Farriah managed to follow Astrid that closely half way round the world without Astrid noticing? Or is David Whitaker hand waving at the geography between episodes and hoping no one would notice? Surely it would make sense for these two to meet in the Central European Zone, travel back together and arrange to meet Giles in Australia when they go there?

There's two main studio settings that the BBC had no pictures of to use in their telesnaps mockup. We can now see for these settings for the first time.

One is the street on which Farriah is killed:

Well that turns out to easily be one of the worst studio flats seen in the series so far!

As for the other ....

The Enemy of the World has had a three and a bit episode run up but finally during this episode it dives head first off the deep end. Up until now we've had a spy story with a little bit of a hint that Salamander has been causing some natural disasters. Then all off a sudden we've got a hidden underground base complete with survivors sheltering from the after effects of a, presumably nuclear, war who rely on Salamander venturing to the surface for their food. Bwah? Where did that come from? Not even a remote hint of this exists in earlier episode. As plot developments go this one is absolutely barking mad.

Six part, or longer, Doctor Who stories frequently have to do something different at some stage. Changing location is a good one: The first few episodes of the Daleks are in the city while the last deal with the attack. The The first half of Dalek Invasion of Earth is in central London before the action moves to the mines. Marco Polo, Keys of Marinus, The Chase & The Dalek Masterplan all change location most episodes. Evil of the Daleks travels from 60s London to Victorian Canterbury to Skaro. Inferno, famously, has a four episode alternate universe in the middle of it. Other stories introduce new characters or plot elements: The Optera in the Web Planet for example. But the new plot element here just comes from left field completely.

When I originally introduced this episode on FB I said it features "the most bonkers plot twist in Doctor Who". My friend Tim Walker replied

Oh, I don't know - some of the current series' plot twists run it jolly close...

which got me thinking....

Most Nu-Who plot twists have some signposting or make sense afterwards. This one? Completely barking mad!

BRUCE: Are you telling me that no one, no one at all can see Salamander?
GUARD: No one, sir.
BRUCE: Can you communicate with him on closed circuit?
GUARD: I'll try, sir. He's turned off the master switch. Sorry, sir.
BENIK: Here are all the security details. What's the matter now?
BRUCE: It seems that Salamander has locked himself away and can't be got at.
BENIK: So?
BRUCE: Well, suppose the place caught fire?
BENIK: It won't.
BRUCE: Don't be foolish!
BENIK: Look, I can only tell you that when Salamander works in records, as he does from time to time, no one is allowed in.
BRUCE: I could understand if it were a laboratory or a research room of some sort, but a records room? What sort of records have you got in there anyway?
BENIK: What did you want to see him about?
BRUCE: Never mind. I just don't like mysteries. Salamander's far too important to lock himself away like this. Anything might happen. A world emergency. Suppose I had to order you to let me in there?
BENIK: It wouldn't do any good. When the locks are switched over they can only be opened from the inside.

And why can't they see Salamander? Because he's got a secret underground base under the research centre!

What we can finally see here is just how Salamander accesses his underground layer: I wonder immediately why he's mucking about with a capsule that moves from horizontal to vertical before descending when he could of just had a lift put in the shaft.

It's not a bad sequence on screen, very Thunderbirds.

Actually let's think about the capsule for a second: it does appear to go straight down, so it's a reasonable assumption that the shelter is directly under the research establishment at some depth. This isn't as silly as it sounds: Kanowna, where we think the Kanowa research centre is actually located, is a former gold mining town. I could see Salamander taking some of the former mine workings and adapting them to his purpose. But the important thing to note here is that the shelter is under the Research Centre in Kanowa!

As Salamander enters the shelter and we get out first view of it the music playing in the background is Bela Bartok's Adagio from Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta. There's a bit of Bartok sprinkled throughout the production, perhaps appropriately because the composer was Hungarian and sections of the story, notably in episodes 2 and 3, are set in Hungary. However this piece is pretty distinctive and stuck in my mind..... because it famously features in the very next Doctor Who story, the Web of Fear! You can read more about Bartok's use in Doctor Who at http://www.millenniumeffect.co.uk/audio/classical.php#bartok.

And if the hidden underground base isn't mad enough then look at this:

SALAMANDER: I remembered on my way back down here that we are near our anniversary again. In a few short weeks, we survivors will have been down in this shelter for exactly five years.
CROWD: Five years.
SALAMANDER: Colin and Mary were just teenagers then. Look at them now. We fed ourselves. But what's more than that, we are fighting back! We are doing something!
CROWD: Yes! Yes!
COLIN: Will we return to the surface, Salamander?
SALAMANDER: Yes, of course we will. This is what I'm striving for. But up there, it's terrible still. The war goes on and on, and you never know when the air is clean or when it's poison.
COLIN: When can we return?
SALAMANDER: We have to fight for a while longer, hmm? Creating natural disasters, monsoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, always in the places where the enemies of truth and freedom gather together.

They've been down there five years and are creating the natural disasters that Salamander has been predicting and taking advantage of! What ????????

The thing is this plot twist has come from nowhere. Really the only element of Salamander's story that's slightly loose from the first few episodes is how he's causing the natural disasters. My money is on the Suncatchers/Sun Store: I've seen enough Bond films to know that Supervillains can't resist using satellites to threaten the world!

Here's Salamander in episode one speaking to the United Zones:

SALAMANDER: The progress, Mister President, of the Sun Conservation establishment at Kanowna, in the Australasian Zone, is, I'm delighted to report, highly satisfactory. But we cannot yet guarantee good summer holidays for all. (laughter) However, we have now in orbit the Mark Seven Sun Catcher, and already we have been able to concentrate the sun's rays into much needed areas.

(Despite what The Doctor Who Transcripts says it is very clearly Kanowna with a second N)

Kent explaining about Salamander to the Doctor:

KENT: He's one of the most popular men on the planet. Many people call him the shopkeeper of the world. The saviour, in fact, some of them.
JAMIE: Well, what's he saved the world from?
ASTRID: Starvation. Too many people, too little food.
KENT: Until Salamander invented his Sun Store. But surely you've heard? You must know?
DOCTOR: Oh yes, well of course, we've heard something.
KENT: The Sun Store collects the rays from the sun and stores them in concentrated form.

Then the Doctor and Kent talking in episode 3:

KENT: I'm certain Salamander's causing the earthquakes, Doctor, and I'm sure your friends Jamie and Victoria will tell you just how bad he really is.
DOCTOR: But why make earthquakes?
KENT: Years ago, Doctor, when one country wanted to invade another it set about attacking the confidence of that country, throwing it into confusion, making it weak. Then it was right for takeover. Now, isn't that exactly what's happening here, only in a different way?
DOCTOR: What you're saying is that Salamander's found a way of harnessing the natural forces of the earth. It's a little difficult to accept. I'm not saying it's impossible, mind you. You say it's coming from the Research Station. Salamander's Research Station, eh?
KENT: That's what I believe, in spite of a number of reasons. He invented the sunstore, a brilliant advance. He found a way of directing conserved energy to areas starved of sun.

So points for remembering what Salamander's doing involves the research centre. But a secret base hidden beneath it and a group of people underground? We don't see Salamander disappearing off for stretches of time, we don't hear about his unexplained absences or days spent labouring in the research room. Nothing until he goes down in the lift. David Whitaker has got to the end of part 3 and gone "oh ****, I've got three more episodes to fill!" and thrown in the first idea that's popped into his head...... And, as we'll see he's not given how he's wrapping this up much thought either.....

This episode doesn't feature Jamie or Victoria: Both actors were on holiday this week. I think this is the first, and only, time that more than one series regular is away for the same episode!

The introduction of the community underground means a new group of actors: Adam Verney, playing Colin, reminds me of another actor but I can't think who and it's been bugging me ever since this episode was returned!. Neither he nor Margret Hickey, Mary, have any significantly recorded TV career to speak of.

The community's leader is someone who'll become a regular actor for director Barry Letts: Swann is played by Christopher Burgess. He had appeared with Barry Letts, while the later was still acting, in This Man Craig: The Good Chemist during 1966. He'll go on to play Professor Philips, the other scientist Terror of the Autons 1 & 2, and Barnes, one of Lupton's gang, in Planet of the Spiders.

Amoung the shelterers you have Bill Howes who was a Parisian Man in The Massacre episode 1: War of God and also appears as a Man in Doomwatch: The Battery People. Rosina Stewart returns in Doctor Who and the Silurians: Episode 6 and is also in a Doomwatch: she's a woman in Hear No Evil while Francis Batsoni is in the The Mind of Evil: Episode One as General Cheng Teik and John Timberlake is a Kaled Scientist in Genesis of the Daleks. Freddie Wiles doesn't return to Doctor Who but is a man in the Doomwatch episodes Spectre at the Feast and The Battery People. He later had recurring roles in both Dad's Army and Are You Being Served? We've seen Sarah Lisemore already this series as a long shot stand-in for Deborah Watling during the location shoot for episode 1. Her husband was Martin Lisemore who worked as a production assistant on this serial and later became a producer before being killed in a car accident during the production of Murder Most English.

The only reason Andrew Staines, here playing Benik's Sergeant, came to my attention is that I'd read the production subtitles on Planet of Spiders. He was another favourite actor of Barry Letts: indeed 4 of his 6 acting credits on imdb.com are Doctor Who roles with Barry Letts directing: He's the scientist Goodge in Terror of the Autons, Professor Philips assistant who becomes the first victim of the Master's tissue compression eliminator, the Captain in Carnival of Monsters and finally Keaver, another of Lupton's gang, in Planet of the Spiders. While listening to the Who Talk commentary for this episode I was surprised to discover that he is the son of actress Pauline Letts, Barry's sister! (who in turn I'd seen in the BBC version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) Toby Hadoke interviews him for Who's Round 160 where he reveals that his uncle usually used him as a late replacement when someone dropped out. In this particular case the role he was playing had been offered to Terence Donovan, the father of singer and actor Jason Donovan!

So we've got Fraser Hines' brother and Barry Letts' nephew. Any more relatives of the cast and crew in this production? Incredibly, YES, as we'll find out next episode!

Barry Letts will also use actor Bill McGuirk again: here he's the Guard in Corridor but he'll be back as a Policeman in Terror of The Autons only to have his scenes removed!

It's Power Room panel time!

We've seen both of these two before: they were in the Underwater Menace and can be seen in the episode4 telesnaps where they appear either side of the prop known as the Rel Meter!

The one on the left can also be seen in several of the Macra Terror episode 3 telesnaps.