Day 97 — April 7th 2021
The Enemy of the World Episodes Five and Six
The Enemy of the World — Episode Five
Something I’ve been struggling with throughout this story is working out just what kind of power Salamander holds. He’s presented as something of an Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos figure — someone who has a lot of money and influence having invented something that’s used or recognised the world over, but not having any direct political control. And yet Bruce works closely with him and he’s ‘Head of World Security’. This episode helps to clear things up a bit, when Kent makes it clear that Salamander holds his power having operated in the way we saw in Episodes Two and Three, replacing the genuine Zone Controllers with his own puppets.
Although that does raise the question of who exactly is the Controller of the Australasian Zone? Is it Salamander himself? If so he surely wouldn’t have the time for everything else he’s doing, but I’m not sure we ever actually encounter or hear about this particular Controller, even though the majority of the story is set there. I can’t help feeling that I’d like to know more about the world in which this story is set, even if it were as simple as seeing a map of how the Earth is split up at this stage.
Of course the other thing that was discovered when this story was returned to the archives is the setting — it’s 2018, which means we’re technically now watching a historical adventure! It’s nice to have an actual concrete date for a story in the Troughton era, confirmed by both the expiry date on Astrid’s pilot’s licence (December 31st 2018) and the date of the newspaper discovered in this episode (August 16th 2017) being confirmed as ‘last year’. I like to imagine that a load of Doctor Who fans went on a cruise in August 2017 to celebrate. They could have shown this story on a big screen!
So many of the ‘future’ Troughton stories are difficult to date accurately. The Power of the Daleks is said to take place in 2020, but that date comes from the trailer rather than the programme itself. The same is true for The Ice Warriors, which is dated to the year 3000 in the Radio Times, but not on screen. Even the next story, The Web of Fear, is of debateable dating, and in that instance it’ll go on to have further-reaching consequences…!
I’m pleased to say that this episode is a big step up from the two I watched yesterday, and it’s largely down to two big scenes featuring Troughton — in each of his roles. The first stand out is Swann’s confrontation of Salamander, in which his faith is shaken, and his leader manages to talk him round. I’m particularly fond of the following exchange;
Swann: ‘And what about the natural disasters we’ve been organising? The volcanoes, earthquakes?’
Salamander: ‘Swann, they are not fit to live.’
Swann: ‘You’re murdering them, killing them off.’
Salamander: ‘I want you and the others to inherit the Earth. Make a new world.’
Swann: ‘Yes, I know all about that, but not at the price of wholesale murder.’
Salamander: ‘It’s not murder! If you could see, you would understand. It’s an act of mercy.’
But the real highlight here is Doctor Who impersonating Salamander to convince Bruce that he and his friends are innocent. It’s a fantastic scene, and a real opportunity for Jamie and Victoria to shine. I’d expected them to be absent from this episode as they were from the last — they don’t show up until 15 minutes in today. Oh, but what an arrival when they get here!
Doctor Who (as Salamander): ‘Fariah is dead.’
Victoria: ‘Dead?’
Jamie: ‘You’ve had her murdered too, have you?’
Victoria: ‘Why you…!’
Doctor Who: ‘Oh, Victoria, don’t hit me! You wouldn’t hit your old friend the Doctor, would you? I wouldn’t leave you in the tender mercy of Salamander.’
Jamie: ‘Doctor?’
Doctor Who: ‘You don’t believe me.’
[He pretends to play the recorder]
Doctor Who: ‘Only you made me leave it in the Tardis.’
Jamie: ‘It is him! Doctor!’
Victoria: ‘Oh, Doctor!’
The whole exchange is brilliant, but I’m especially fond of the moment where Doctor Who slips back top his own persona having completed the task. It really highlights how differently Troughton plays the parts, which is something it’s been hard to appreciate so far as they’re usually kept so separate. Troughton’s accent as Salamander comes in for a fair bit of stick (especially from Deborah Watling in interviews), but I’ll admit to really liking it. Sure, it risks straying into being silly but I utterly believe in his as Salamander. I think it’s clear how much the performance was inspired by Joseph Furt’s turn as Zaroff a year earlier.
The moment of him pretending to play the recorder does make me wonder when we last saw it, though. It was ever-present for a fair while, but I can’t recall if we’ve seen it in any of the stories of Season Five so far…
I’d also like to take this as an opportunity to say that I really like Jamie and Victoria’s outfits in this story. I’m usually more a fan of Jamie’s polo-neck jumper from Season Four than I am of the shirt he wears later on, but paired with the cardigan it really works. And for Victoria, I reckon this is her best outfit. I love the kilt, and I miss the hat we had in the first episode. I think it really suits her. Unfortunately there’s not really any proper photographs of Watling in this outfit, but I think it would be more iconic if there were.
It’s also notable, I think, how much the costumes worn by the ‘survivors’ down in the bunker tie in with the ones seen in The Ice Warriors. Now that I’ve noticed Martin Baugh has taken over as designer for Season Five I can see the links between all the futuristic stories so much more clearly.
One final point for this one, and it’s back to the subject of the dialogue. Whitaker has always been a pro at this, and I think the exchange between Benik and Jamie is perhaps the best exchange in the entire story;
Jamie: ‘You must have been a nasty little boy.’
Benik: ‘Oh, I was. But I had a very enjoyable childhood.’
I’m going to go for a 7/10 on this one, though it was pushing at being a little higher.
The Enemy of the World — Episode Six
I seem to say this a lot about the Troughton stories, but it feels like this is just a couple of drafts away from being really good, but doesn’t quite get there as it is.
Everything comes to a head here — as you’d expect from the final episode of a story — but we’re in the unusual position of the entire story being shrunk right down for the finale. I praised the early episodes of The Enemy of the Word for being expansive, globe trotting, and featuring lots of characters (even if it’s not always easy to keep track of everything), but when we reach the end here it’s all about saving a handful of people in the bunker. There’s no mention of all the other people who’ve been under Salamander’s power, and Kent even says to Salamander ‘don’t you realise you’re dispensable, and the world is going to get along fine without you’. It feels strangely anti-climactic. I kept expecting Denes to pop up to help in the resistance, but we just stick to our core cast of characters.
I know it sounds like I’m having a right old moan here, but I’m not saying the episode is bad. Certainly not, I’ll be giving it a 7/10, it just feels frustratingly close to being a lot higher than that. In some ways it feels like the idea of Salamander controlling the volcanoes came to David Whitaker late in writing, because it becomes a lot more talked about here than it has been before.
There’s some great material here, though. The confrontation between Kent and what he believes to be Salamander is brilliant — although it threw me because I was watching knowing that he was going to turn out to be a traitor, and couldn’t get my head around him still wanting Salamander dead. Once again, it’s sometimes tricky to keep track of who’s who and who wants what in this story.
The reveal that he’s actually been talking to Doctor Who pretending to be Salamander is great, and a neat way of turning Kent’s desire for him to perfect the impression on it’s head;
Kent: ‘You’re a fool, Salamander. You don’t think I’ve forgotten already, do you?’
Doctor Who (as Salamander): ‘What?’
Kent: ‘I’ve been with you too many times in this room in the past, not to know where this leads to. 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 Who: Well, that’s very interesting, Mister Kent. Why didn’t you tell me that before?
Of course the really brilliant moment in this episode is the final confrontation in the TARDIS.
We so rarely see the Control Room invaded like this, and it makes Salamander seem more powerful than he ever has elsewhere in the story. And there’s that brilliant shot of Troughton facing himself as they wrestle. We had that moment as a tele-snap, and it’s only fleeting in the recovered episode, but oh God it’ magical.
And yet… even here, the pacing feels a little off. The final scene is supposed to end in a flurry of panic and confusion — it’s the cliffhanger into our next story — but I can’t help feeling like it’s all a bit… abrupt. This is another one I’d be keen to try as a Target novel, and I’m increasingly wondering if that might be my next marathon when I finish this one. There’s just so many of these stories that have all the right ideas in place to be perfect, and then don’t quite get there.
