The Enemy of the World is the fourth serial of the fifth season of the Britishscience fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 23 December 1967 to 27 January 1968. The story is a break from the monsters and "bases under siege" of season five, highlighted by a dual role for lead actor Patrick Troughton. Believed to be mostly lost for decades, with only Episode 3 surviving destruction, the recovery of the remaining episodes was announced by the BBC on 11 October 2013, with the complete serial released to iTunes at midnight the same day, alongside The Web of Fear, which had also been recovered save for one episode.^[1][2]

Plot[edit]

This article's plot summary may be too long orexcessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (October 2010)

The Second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria are enjoying themselves on a beach in Australia in 2018 when the Doctor is subject to an assassination attempt. The controller of the would-be assassins, an agent named Astrid Ferrier, rescues them by helicopter. She takes them to her boss Giles Kent. It seems the Doctor is the physical double of Salamander, a ruthless megalomaniac who is dominating the United Zones Organisation. Salamander has ascended to power via exploiting new technology to yield more food, concentrating and harnessing the sun’s rays to generate more crops, but is set on increasing his power. When Kent, who was once Deputy Security Leader for North Africa and Europe, crossed Salamander, the dictator ruined him and removed his various allies. The only remaining Kent ally with any authority is Alexander Denes in Central Europe. The Doctor is persuaded to impersonate Salamander as a way of gathering more information on his designs. His first test comes when Kent’s home is surrounded by security troops and their leader, Security Chief Donald Bruce, arrives.

Bruce is a bully who intimidates those in his path, but the Doctor’s impersonation is strong enough to persuade him that he is Salamander – even though the real Salamander is supposed to be at a conference in the Central European Zone. Bruce leaves, albeit with suspicion, while the Doctor turns on Kent, realising he called Bruce there himself to test the impersonation. The Doctor is not yet convinced Salamander is a villain, but Kent presses ahead with a plan. Jamie, Victoria, and Astrid are to infiltrate Salamander's retinue while he's still in the Central European zone, via Denes’ support, and gather evidence on Salamander. Meanwhile, Kent and the Doctor will travel to Salamander's research station in Kanowa to gather intelligence there.

The real Salamander, in the Central European Zone, warns that a dormant volcano range in Hungary is about to explode. Denes does not believe this is possible and resist the calls to send pre-emptive relief. Jamie, Victoria, and Astrid have by now reached the Central European Zone. Jamie is to try to infiltrate Leader Salamander's retinue, while Astrid contacts Denes for a meeting. Jamie manages to get himself promoted to Salamander’s personal staff by preventing a bogus attempt on the Leader’s life, and also ensures Victoria is given a position as assistant to Salamander's personal chef. When Astrid meets Denes she tells him of the two spies who have entered the Leader’s staff.

Salamander now works on Denes’ deputy, Fedorin, to turn him against Denes. Fedorin is a weak man and gives in to Salamander’s blackmail easily, but is scared when he hears the prediction that Denes will soon be killed and Salamander will be asked to take over the Zone following the imminent natural disaster. On cue an earthquake begins as the promised volcanic eruption starts. Donald Bruce arrives but is unable to mention the Salamander in Australia issue before Denes returns to the palace too, blaming Salamander for somehow engineering the volcano. Salamander responds by saying Denes failed to heed his warnings on the volcanoes and is thus negligent and must be removed from office.

Denes is arrested and Salamander now tells Fedorin to poison him before he can be brought to trial and repeat his allegations. When Fedorin fails to do so, Salamander uses the poison on him instead.

Donald Bruce has meanwhile started to have serious suspicions about the situation. He evidently does not trust Salamander, and tries unsuccessfully to get Jamie to explain the Australia incident. Another man with suspicions is Theodore Benik, Salamander’s unpleasant deputy, who has heard from Bruce that Salamander was supposed to be in two places at one time. He visits and intimidates Giles Kent, but the Doctor stays hidden while the unsolicited visitor is there destroying Kent’s property.

Jamie and Victoria meanwhile use their new roles in the palace to get close to Fariah, Salamander’s food taster, hoping to gather information on the Leader’s intentions. Jamie also causes a diversion to try to facilitate a rescue attempt on Denes by Astrid. However, things fall apart and Denes is shot dead. Though Astrid escapes, Jamie and Victoria are arrested. This prompts Bruce to ask Salamander in private about his relationship with Jamie and his presence with him and Kent in Australia – which prompts Salamander to decide to return to Kanowa immediately and unmask the impersonator.

Astrid returns to Australia too and contacts the Doctor and Kent to tell them of the outcome of the botched rescue attempt. Fariah has followed Astrid and makes contact with her, Kent and the Doctor, telling them that Jamie and Victoria have been brought as prisoners to the Kanowa Research Centre. Fariah also hands over the file made by Salamander to blackmail Fedorin - which finally convinces the Doctor of Salamander’s evil. However, before they can act, the building is raided by Benik and his troops and Fariah is killed and the file recovered. The others escape.

Salamander, Benik and Bruce meet at the Centre and realise the severity of the situation. When he is alone, Salamander dons a radiation suit and enters a secret lift, which transports him to a secret bunker below the Centre. In the bunker are scientists who believe Salamander has just ventured to the surface of the allegedly irradiated planet to look for food. He claims to have found a safe new food stock to sustain them after their five years below ground. He also urges them to continue fighting the war against the surface by using technology to create natural disasters. Most of the scientists accept this but one, Colin, urges Salamander to take him to the surface the next time, even though no one who has accompanied Salamander there has ever returned.

When the Doctor and his friends return to Kent’s caravan they are soon discovered by Donald Bruce, who has traced their car.

Bruce affirms he is a servant of the world government, not Salamander, and shows he can be persuaded by the case that the Leader is, in Astrid’s words, a traitor, blackmailer and murderer. The Doctor and Bruce reach a deal: they will travel to the Research Centre where the Doctor will impersonate Salamander to gain more evidence, while Kent and Astrid are kept under guard; but if no evidence is found they will all be arrested for conspiracy. Bruce and the Doctor leave and shortly afterward Kent and Astrid escape their captor by means of a ruse.

In the shelter the promised new food has arrived and the scientists unpack it. However, one of them, Swann, finds a stray newspaper clipping and realises there is normal life on the surface rather than the continuing nuclear war they had all been told. He confronts Salamander, who agrees to take him to the surface to show him the world is now full of hideous, depraved mutants and their actions in causing natural disasters are helping to wipe them out. Swann is unmoved but agrees to go the surface without revealing his concerns. This incenses Colin, another scientist who had been told he might get to the surface soon.

Above ground Benik has begun interrogating Jamie and Victoria. He gets menacing and is only stopped when Bruce and the fake Salamander arrive, sending Benik away. While the travellers are reunited, deepening Bruce’s trust of the Doctor, Benik discovers from a guard that Salamander does not seem to have returned from the records room. The Doctor now obtains evidence that the food supplies for the Research Centre vastly exceed the expected amount of supplies needed. He heads off alone and accesses the Records Room, where he impersonates Salamander. A visitor soon arrives – Giles Kent – who has a key to the secret room and knows much more of Salamander’s plans than he ever let on.

In the grounds of the research centre Astrid finds Swann. He has been bludgeoned by Salamander and is close to death but manages to tell her of the bunker below before he passes away.

She now uses the secret lift to access the bunker and with some difficulty explains the truth to the scientists. Colin is the first to believe her and he and Mary join Astrid in the small lift for its journey to the surface. When they reach the Records Room, they encounter the Doctor and Kent – and the latter is denounced as the person who took them all below ground in the first place. It seems that Kent and Salamander were allies all along, and the Doctor reveals he had been slow to support Kent because he feared all along he was being used just to topple Salamander for Kent to take over. Kent manages to flee into the cave system beyond the Records Room.

Donald Bruce has meanwhile asserted his authority and taken over the Research Centre, arresting Benik in the process. The Doctor contacts Bruce and tells him of the situation, after which the Doctor himself heads into the tunnels to seek out Kent and Salamander. The two felons have met, with Salamander fatally wounding his one-time ally, who seeks revenge by blowing up the cave system. Astrid co-ordinates the relief effort to get the other scientists out of the shelter

The Doctor, who has emerged unscathed from the tunnels, arrives on the beach with the TARDIS. Jamie and Victoria are waiting for him there and he pleads exhaustion when they enter the ship, asking Jamie to pilot it for him instead. Jamie’s suspicions are proved true when the real Doctor arrives and denounces Salamander’s impersonation of him. The dictator responds by activating the dematerialisation control and the TARDIS heads away from Earth with its doors still open. Salamander is sucked out into the vortex while the others cling onto the TARDIS console for dear life.

Continuity[edit]

In Episode 2, the Doctor says, 'disused Yeti?' after mishearing Astrid's comment about a disused jetty. This refers to his experience with the Yeti in The Abominable Snowmen.^{[citation needed]} A single shot of Jamie from this story is used when the character is seen, along with a number of other companions, as the Daleks attempt to scan the Fifth Doctor's mind in Resurrection of the Daleks.^{[citation needed]}

Production[edit]

Serial details by episode

Episode	Broadcast date	Run time	Viewers (in millions)	Archive
"Episode 1"	23 December 1967	23:45	6.8	16mm t/r
"Episode 2"	30 December 1967	23:48	7.6	16mm t/r
"Episode 3"	6 January 1968	23:05	7.1	16mm t/r
"Episode 4"	13 January 1968	23:46	7.8	16mm t/r
"Episode 5"	20 January 1968	24:22	6.9	16mm t/r
"Episode 6"	27 January 1968	21:41	8.3	16mm t/r
[3][4]

This was the last story to be produced under the aegis of Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman, who left his position as Head of Dramaat the BBC upon the expiration of his contract at the end of 1967. The four key production roles for this story were all taken by men heavily involved in the development of Doctor Who. Author David Whitaker had been the show's first Script Editor; Barry Letts, directing the show for the first time, later became the show's producer (for the majority of the Jon Pertwee era), executive producer, and occasional script writer; Script Editor Peter Bryant became the show's producer from the next story; Innes Lloyd was the show's current producer, but left after this story.^[5]

Much like the First Doctor serial The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, this serial was influenced by the lead actor's desire to play roles other than the Doctor. Initially, it was planned that Troughton's two characters would meet more than once, but due to the technical complexity, there was eventually only the one confrontation scene, at the story's climax (utilising editing and a split-screen technique). Barry Letts planned six split-screen shots. He called for a matte box to mask half of the camera lens, having read about the technique used for old Hollywood films. The film was rewound after the first take and Troughton was then filmed in his other costume. However, after the first such shot, the camera jammed, and no more split-screen takes were filmed. Later, Letts mentioned this toDerek Martinus, director of the preceding story, who brought Letts up to date with the contemporary technology of filming normally then using an optical printer to combine the material.^[5]

British television's shift from 405-line technology to 625-line, in preparation for colour transmissions, went into effect for Doctor Who as of Episode 1 of this serial.^[6]

Originally, Episode 3 was the only episode of this story to survive in the BBC archives, while Episode 4 was one of the few Doctor Whomissing episodes for which, for unknown reasons, no tele-snaps were taken. On 11 October 2013, the BBC announced that the remaining five episodes had been recovered from a television relay station storage room in Nigeria^[7] following search efforts, making the serial complete in the BBC television archives for the first time since the mass junkings of Doctor Who episodes between 1972 and 1978. It was subsequently released on iTunes at midnight.^[1][2]

Cast notes[edit]

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(November 2013)

Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling did not appear in episode 4, as they were on holiday.

Milton Johns later appeared as Guy Crayford in The Android Invasion, and Castellan Kelner in The Invasion of Time. Colin Douglas later played Reuben in Horror of Fang Rock. George Pravda later played Jaeger in The Mutants and Castellan Spandrell in The Deadly Assassin. Troughton's son David Troughton makes his first Doctor Who appearance as an uncredited extra. His later appearances in the series would be The War Games as Private Moore, The Curse of Peladon as King Peladon and finally Midnight (Doctor Who) as Professor Hobbes in the revived series.

Christopher Burgess (Swann) also appeared as Professor George Philips in Terror of the Autons and Barnes in Planet of the Spiders.

Andrew Staines (Sergeant to Benik) also appeared in Terror of the Autons (as Goodge), Carnival of Monsters (as the Captain) and Planet of the Spiders (as Keaver).

Commercial releases[edit]

In print[edit]

Doctor Who book
Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World
Series	Target novelisations
Release number	24
Writer	Ian Marter
Publisher	Target Books
Cover artist	Bill Donohoe
ISBN	0-426-20126-4
Release date	17 April 1981

A novelisation of this serial, written by Ian Marter, was published by Target Books in March 1981, entitled Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World. David Whitaker had been working on his own version of the novelisation at the time of his death.

Home media[edit]

Episode 3 was released on VHS in The Troughton Years. A restored and VidFIREd version was released on DVD in 2004, as part of the Lost in Time boxset. In 2002, a remastered CD version of the audio was released with linking narration by Frazer Hines. See List of ''Doctor Who'' audio releases.

Following the October 2013 recovery of the remaining episodes, the complete serial was released on iTunes on 11 October 2013. Following its release it shared the top two spots on the iTunes download chart for TV serials with following and also newly recovered serial The Web of Fear, above Homeland and Breaking Bad.^[8]

A DVD was released on 25 November 2013.^[1][2] Unlike previous Doctor Who DVDs, this release contained no commentaries, information text or other special features, merely the restored episodes and a "Coming Next" trailer for The Web of Fear. The Region 4 release does not feature the coming soon trailer.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Second Doctor

• The Enemy of the World at BBC Online
• Photonovel of The Enemy of the World on the BBC website
• The Enemy of the World at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
• The Enemy of the World at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Doctor Who Locations - The Enemy of the World

Reviews[edit]

• The Enemy of the World reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• The Enemy of the World reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

Target novelisation