The Enemy of the World
Story 40, Episodes 186-191, Season 5 Episodes 12-18
Doctor: The Second Doctor
Companions: Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield
In the far-off year of 2018, the Doctor is a person of extreme interest because of his extreme resemblance to world figure Salamander.
The Review
It’s a cracking opening as the Doctor avoids being killed by men on a beach. He is recruited by a woman, Astrid, and her boss Kemp to expose proof that world benefactor Salamander is actually corrupt and trying to gain power. Troughton pulls double duty as the Doctor and the Mexican Salamander, and is completely convincing as different people. It’s really quite incredible. The problems come in when there’s a long stretch where we barely hear from the Doctor and are just dealing with Salamander’s court early in the story. We do meet Fariah, a forced servant of Salamanders who might be the first minority character in Doctor Who‘s history whose race is not her defining characteristic. There’s the honorable Bruce, completely unaware of Salamander’s true nature, and the sniveling underling with an awful haircut Benik.
Despite some dragging, it rights itself as the Doctor gets to test his Salamander impression at the main base. There’s a pretty unexpected reveal that Salamander is a messiah figure to a bunch of prisoners in a bunker who think nuclear devastation has destroyed the surface. He uses them to cause natural disasters that he can quickly respond to and build power. All along the Doctor is suspicious of Kemp despite him seeming a good guy, as usual he is proved right: Kemp was Salamander’s partner and wants to replace him. Troughton’s best work is the Doctor as Salamander, almost perfect, but not quite. The two do meet face to face in the TARDIS as Salamander almost takes off, an impressive feat for the 60s. There’s no major problems with this story other than its dragging, it is an impressively fun outing with no alien foes necessary. The companions don’t have much to do, but Jamie and Victoria are costumed better than ever.
The Enemy of the World is well-plotted with surprising revelations, anchored by Troughton’s tour de force playing the villain and the hero. How I wish in Series 11 there could’ve been an easter egg on a newspaper referencing Salamander.
8.8/10. Seeing double proves to be successful as this strong era of Doctor Who rolls on.
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