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?Then in his dying moments Swann finally learns the horrific truth about what Salamander has done to him and the fellow shelterers:
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?
SWANN: The war. How bad was the war?This leads Astrid down into the shelter, treating us to a nice panning shot of the interior:
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.
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!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.
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.
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?So ..... How did the Doctor get past the security locks and into the room?
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.
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?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?
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?
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.Kent finally catches up with the real Salamander in the tunnels under the research complex.
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?
SALAMANDER: You always were a fool, weren't you?When Kent sets the explosives off is the point the episode really lurches off the deep end!
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!
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.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.DOCTOR: You are to go straight to the Tardis as soon as you can.
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?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:
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!
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 shotsCons:
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
Episode 3, so long the sole survivor, is dreadful.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.
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!
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 WatlingAll six episodes are moderated by Toby Hadoke.
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
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.
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