‘THE INVISIBLE ENEMY’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The Nucleus of the Swarm and the Fourth Doctor and Leela meet K-9

This is where Graham Williams begins to make his mark as the new producer of ‘Doctor Who’ in the late 1970s for Tom Baker’s era as the Fourth Doctor. For you see, in this second story of Season 15 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, it’s time for us to be introduced to a brand-new robot character. 🙂

It’s time to welcome K-9 to the TARDIS. That’s right! For those of you who have seen K-9 appear in ‘School Reunion’ and ‘Journey’s End’ in the new TV series as well as ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’, this is where K-9 makes his first appearance in the classic TV series, and it’s the second story of Season 15.

The first time I saw ‘The Invisible Enemy’, a four-part story by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, was in the ‘K-9 Tales’ DVD box set, which was released in 2008. It was a collection of two stories featuring the loveable robotic pet dog of the Doctor’s. That included ‘The Invisible Enemy’ and ‘A Girl’s Best Friend’.

‘A Girl’s Best Friend’ of course is the one-time spin-off of ‘Doctor Who’ from the classic TV series, starring Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith and K-9, voiced by John Leeson, called ‘K-9 & Company’. I updated my ‘K-9 & Company: A Girl’s Best Friend’ review in 2019 for the Season 18 Blu-ray box set.

It’s ironic that I’m updating my reviews on the ‘K-9 Tales’ DVD box set in reverse order with ‘A Girl’s Best Friend’ first and ‘The Invisible Enemy’ afterwards. Of course, people who have only seen the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series are likely to be confused as to why K-9 only met Sarah Jane Smith in a spin-off.

As well as why K-9’s first appearance in ‘Doctor Who’ wasn’t with the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane, but with the Fourth Doctor and Leela. Well, there’s a simple explanation for that. The K-9 that appears in ‘The Invisible Enemy’ happens to be Mark I. The K-9 that Sarah Jane owned was the Mark III version.

That is until Mark III got destroyed in ‘School Reunion’ and she eventually received Mark IV from the Tenth Doctor in that story. Yes, there have been many versions of K-9 over the years in ‘Doctor Who’. It might seem confusing, but it does get clearer when you delve more into the series – classic and new.

I love K-9! In many respects, K-9 is a ‘Doctor Who’ character that I find easy to enjoy, whether it’s in both the classic and new TV shows or in other media like audio stories, comics and books. I was looking forward to checking out K-9’s ‘Doctor Who’ debut story and how he meets the Doctor for the first time.

I don’t think the ‘K-9 Tales’ DVD box set is the greatest collection of ‘Doctor Who’ adventures I’ve seen, but I found it enjoyable enough, especially when checking out how the cute robotic dog meets his master, the Doctor, in ‘The Invisible Enemy’, and how he meets Sarah Jane Smith for ‘K-9 & Company’.

Granted, they’re different models in both stories of the ‘K-9 Tales’ DVD box set, but I appreciate them presenting the first meetings of K-9 with significant ‘Doctor Who’ characters, including the Doctor and Sarah Jane. As we’ll go through ‘The Invisible Enemy’ review, K-9 had his pros and cons in the TV series.

K-9 is easily a winner with kids and a certain number of grown-ups. But there are groups of people that can’t stand K-9. That depends on whether people are more into the horrific aspects of ‘Doctor Who’ or think that K-9 tended to be a rather silly character being introduced in the classic TV show. 😐

I can’t deny K-9 has his issues and limitations, particularly when you consider there are more models of the robot dog featured in the ‘Doctor Who’ universe. But there’s something about K-9 that really appeals to me. I can’t help but smile whenever I see and hear K-9, as I enjoy him in ‘Doctor Who’. 🙂

I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting John Leeson, the original voice actor of K-9, at conventions and have enjoyed chatting to him about K-9. But what does that say about ‘The Invisible Enemy’ as the introduction to K-9. What is it that’s good about it as well as what’s bad about it when checking it out?

Like I said, ‘The Invisible Enemy’ is by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who have been regular contributors to ‘Doctor Who’ by this point in the classic TV series. They’ve written stories like ‘The Claws of Axos’, ‘The Mutants’, ‘The Three Doctors’, ‘The Sontaran Experiment’ and ‘The Hand of Fear’ for the show. 🙂

As I understand from watching the ‘Dreams and Fantasy’ making-of documentary, the inspiration for K-9 came about when Dave Martin had just lost his pet dog. Bob Baker suggested they create robot dog for their next ‘Doctor Who’ story, which ended up being K-9, which I think is quite sweet actually.

It’s rather ironic that after Bob Baker worked on ‘Doctor Who’, he went on to work on the ‘Wallace & Gromit’ films, including ‘The Wrong Trousers’, ‘A Close Shave’, ‘The Curse of the Were-Rabbit’ and ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’. Those films happen to be feature a non-speaking dog in the form of Gromit.

Bob Baker seems to have a way with dogs, including K-9 for ‘Doctor Who’ and Gromit for ‘Wallace & Gromit’. It should also be noted that K-9 was only meant to appear in one story. It’s so incredible how time has flown by and K-9 still keeps making appearances in ‘Doctor Who’ beyond his initial TV run. 🙂

I enjoyed ‘The Invisible Enemy’ when I initially saw it on DVD and recently on Blu-ray in the Season 15 Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’. However, there are some aspects of ‘The Invisible Enemy’ that are really surreal and weird when checking out, particularly once we’re exploring inside the Doctor’s head.

And I do mean that quite literally when I’m talking about this story. The monster of the story also happens to end up looking like a giant prawn that can’t walk about much and it has to be moved about from one place to another. I’ll elaborate more on these points as we progress further in the review. 🙂

‘The Invisible Enemy’ takes place in the year 5000 A.D. In the story, Tom Baker as the Doctor and Louise Jameson as Leela are in the TARDIS when they respond to a distress call. It soon turns out to be a trap as the deadly Swarm is waiting to be released and spread its influence in the minds of many innocents.

Incidentally, we’ve moved back from the wooden TARDIS that appeared in Season 14 to the white TARDIS console room that’s appeared prominently in the classic TV series. It’s a shame really, since I quite like the Season 14 TARDIS console room, and I think it could have been kept for Tom Baker’s era.

It’s also ironic, since the production designer of ‘The Invisible Enemy’ is Barry Newbery and he designed the Season 14 TARDIS console room when it began for ‘The Masque of Mandragora’. How come they didn’t keep the Season 14 TARDIS console room in this story with Barry Newbery attached?

Maybe they couldn’t afford to keep the Season 14 TARDIS console room when they began work on Season 15. Perhaps Graham Williams found the Season 14 TARDIS console room expensive and decided to revert to the previous white console room in order to save costs and such. It’s a possibility.

Anyway, the Doctor becomes infected with and taken over by the parasitic Nucleus of the Swarm. This happens when he and Leela are in the TARDIS traversing through space. Incidentally, I prefer checking out ‘The Invisible Enemy’ in its CGI form on DVD and Blu-ray instead of the original transmitted version.

Interestingly, Leela doesn’t get infected by the Nucleus when it attempts to take control of her in the TARDIS and she’s instantly referred to as a ‘reject’ by the Swarm’s minions. This does become an important plot point as we progress through the story, which I found so fascinating when revisiting it.

The distress call that the Doctor and Leela receive in the TARDIS comes from the large filling station called Titan Base, close to the planet Titan. The base is attacked by three space crewmen, who are infected by the Swarm. 😐 They happen to have big grey eyebrows and web-like strands on their skin.

When the Doctor is unable to control himself, up to the point of almost shooting Leela with a gun to close off ‘Part Two’, he gets helped by Leela to be taken a medical facility called the Bi-Ai Foundation, also known as the Centre for Alien Biomorphology. It must belong to one of the Earth Empires here. 🙂

How exactly Leela managed to get the Doctor in his weakened form to the medical facility via TARDIS is never explained. I know Leela got the coordinates from the Doctor to get to the place, but I think it would have been really good to have seen how Leela managed to get them to the place via the TARDIS.

At the place, it’s hoped that the Doctor can be treated and cured of this infection he seems to have. But of course, it’s a new type of infection, according to Professor Marius when he’s examining the Doctor. Even by the year 5000, medical science doesn’t appear to have covered all types of space diseases. 😀

Some are likely to compare what the infection or influence of the Swarm is to the latest Covid-19 virus that we had in 2020, but honestly, I wouldn’t like to make those comparisons all too readily. The Covid-19 virus happened years later after ‘The Invisible Enemy’ was transmitted in 1977, so it isn’t a huge deal.

As I said, the Doctor and Leela meet Professor Marius, played by Frederick Jaeger in the ‘Doctor Who’ story. Frederick Jaeger is no stranger to ‘Doctor Who’, as he played Jano in ‘The Savages’ and Sorenson in ‘Planet of Evil’. I believe that Frederek Jaeger will be well-remembered for playing Professor Marius.

I think Frederick Jaeger is putting on a different accent when playing Marius compared to how he played Jano and Sorenson in ‘The Savages’ and ‘Planet of Evil’ respectively. He sounds more German in this ‘Doctor Who’ story compared to his previous ‘Doctor Who’ appearances, which is so fascinating.

Marius happens to be the owner of K-9 Mark I when we’re first introduced to him in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. Incidentally, it does take a while for K-9 to appear in ‘The Invisible Enemy‘, as he’s only in the second, third and fourth episodes of this story and not the first. The patience was really well-worth it. 😀

I like how K-9 is introduced in his opening scenes in ‘Part Two’ of the story, particularly when he helps his master Professor Marius to examine the Doctor in his weakened state. It’s enlightening how K-9 was built by Marius. It wasn’t possible for the Professor to keep a real dog whilst working at the facility.

Thus, he had K-9 put together. And it’s incredible how Marius decided to design and build a computer in the shape of a dog. Again, it’s based on Dave Martin losing his pet dog, but I like how the notion of a computer made in a shape of a dog to be a pet as well as a personal record-keeping tool is presented.

The first time that the Doctor says “Hello” to K-9 and he says “Hello” back is really sweet. Again, this was meant to be a one-off story featuring K-9 in ‘The Invisible Enemy’. Who knew that from the Doctor and K-9 greeting each other, they would become partnered together in space-and-time adventures. 🙂

I also found it funny how Leela meets K-9 when trying to see the Doctor. The way he becomes defensive before Leela and insists that she’s not allowed to enter is amusing and captivating, and it’s a relief when Marius enters to tell K-9 that Leela is a friend, especially as she intends to see the Doctor.

K-9: Negative, negative, negative. No entry. No entry.
Leela: Look, whatever you are, I…
K-9: I am K-9, and I am warning you.
Leela: Look, I came to see the Doctor. I arrived with him.
K-9: I too have offensive capability. You have been warned. Retreat. Retreat.

John Leeson, who provides the original voice of K-9, is superb in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. I like how behind-the-scenes stories are told about him being a great character actor on the rehearsal room floor and being on his hands and knees with playing K-9 opposite actors like Tom Baker and Louise Jameson.

I’m sure it helped to support the illusion that K-9 was a real entity when the actors had to interact with the prop on-set. Acting opposite inanimate objects like K-9 can’t always be easy, so to have John Leeson rehearse beforehand with the actor before providing the voice must have helped incredibly. 🙂

The original K-9 model was designed by visual effects designer Tony Harding. Visual effects designer Mat Irvine and K-9 operator Nigel Brackley also had a part to play in K-9’s development to be brought to life on the TV screen. I certainly like how the K-9 model got realised on screen and quite memorably.

Apparently, there was one early concept to have a small actor in a large Doberman-shaped costume that was K-9. Thankfully, producer Graham William vetoed this, stating that K-9 as a robot shouldn’t look like a person in costume, which was for the best. Seeing a man in a suit as K-9 would have been silly.

Whilst I like K-9 a lot in ‘Doctor Who’, there are times where he can be a bit of a know-it-all, despite being incredibly clever. It depends on how you look at it, but sometimes it can limit K-9 in terms of character development, especially when he’s a highly-advanced computer in the shape of a robot dog.

I’d like to think there are exceptions to that, especially when exploring the audio stories, as it’s bound to be possible for K-9 to have conversations with people and be friendly with them. But quite often, the conversations can be limited, as K-9 doesn’t depend on emotions and more on facts and statistics.

When seeing K-9 in ‘Doctor Who’, he’s often the tool that the Doctor goes to and acquire information, whether it’s about a civilisation he’s not heard of or a planet the TARDIS is about to visit. There can be some humorous moments with K-9 though, especially since he’s so deadpan in interacting with others.

There’s one scene I like in ‘The Invisible Enemy’ when Leela asks K-9 to explain to her how the clone Doctor and clone Leela are made to be and K-9 explains in the most elaborate way possible as computers would talk. Leela asks him to explain simply, but K-9 appears incapable of doing that for her.

Leela: Can you explain?
K-9: Affirmative. The Kilbracken cloning technique replicates from the single cell as a short-lived carbon copy. Efficacy of individuation not completely guaranteed.
Leela: Can you explain simply?
K-9: Negative.

Despite the limitations that K-9 has a character in ‘Doctor Who’, it’s good that he’s very loyal and helps the Doctor and Leela out in defeating the Swarm and its Nucleus. K-9 can also be good in battle when firing lasers on stun or on kill setting. Just hope he doesn’t end up shooting a ‘Blue Peter’ presenter. 😀

John Noakes: Hello, nice doggie.
K-9: Negative, negative, negative. Do not approach. I have offensive capability.

As I’ve established, the Doctor and Leela get cloned in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. This is so the clone Doctor and clone Leela can get to go inside the real Doctor’s head – quite literally too – in order to find a way to stop the evil Nucleus that’s infecting the Time Lord’s mind and free him from its influence.

The clone Doctor and clone Leela must be shrunk down to size of course in order to get inside the real Doctor’s head. I like how this is played with in the ‘Doctor Who’ story, and it was fun to see the clone Doctor and clone Leela explore inside the real Doctor’s mind, especially on a 1970s BBC TV budget. 😀

I’ve heard it said, especially in the ‘Behind the Sofa’ item for this ‘Doctor Who’ story, that the inspiration for this aspect of ‘The Invisible Enemy’ comes from the 1966 film ‘Fantastic Voyage’. I’ve not seen the film to know the reference, but it’s intriguing how the comparison is made in that regard.

Mind you, the visual effects of the clone Doctor and clone Leela exploring the real Doctor’s mind is a lot to be desired. Sometimes, it can be quite impressive and unique, but upon revisiting the story on Blu-ray, there are occasions where I see the clone Doctor and clone Leela walking on a CSO studio set.

This is before ‘Underworld’ happened and thankfully, it’s not too cringy or bad to watch. You’ve got give credit to the visual effects team for making it possible, as it must have been a challenge to achieve those types of special effects in 1977, as the exploration of someone’s mind must have been rare then.

It’s also surreal to see clone versions of the Doctor and Leela exploring the real Doctor’s mind whilst trying to combat the dangers of antibodies, a clone version of an infected Lowe (played by Michael Sheard) chasing them and meeting the Nucleus who appears to have buried itself in the Doctor’s mind.

‘The Invisible Enemy’ is a ‘Doctor Who’ story that predated ‘Into the Dalek’ in the new TV series, although in that, the Twelfth Doctor, Clara and others were exploring the inside of a Dalek as opposed to the inside of the Doctor. I suppose it makes an intriguing take on the idea when seeing it for the first time.

Incidentally, the director for ‘The Invisible Enemy’ happens to be Derrick Goodwin. This is sadly his only ‘Doctor Who’ contribution. Beforehand, Derrick Goodwin produced episodes of ‘On the Buses’, which was so fascinating to hear, and he would later produce ‘Holding the Fort’, starring Peter Davison.

It’s a shame he didn’t direct more than one ‘Doctor Who’ story, as I think he did a decent job with handling K-9’s debut story. Then again, not every ‘Doctor Who’ director has more than one story attached to their CV and perhaps science-fiction wasn’t really Derrick Goodwin’s thing, so there you are.

Tom Baker is great as the Fourth Doctor in this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure. I admit, it’s strange and unnerving that his Doctor is being taken over by an alien parasite featured in this ‘Doctor Who’ story, but he does well when braving through and battle the Nucleus’ influence once it’s trying to take over him.

When Tom is playing the real Doctor, he’s mostly bedridden in ‘Parts Two and Three’ and having grey hairs and strands coming all over his eyes and face. When he’s playing the clone Doctor, he and clone Leela are active when exploring the real Doctor’s mind so he can combat the Nucleus infecting him. 🙂

An interesting observation made by Colin Baker in the ‘Behind the Sofa’ is that Tom’s Doctor is willing to kill the Nucleus when trapping inside a containment chamber aboard Titan. This is something that predates the Sixth Doctor’s methods of disposing his enemies featured in the Season 22 stories he did.

I don’t know if that’s part of the transitionary phase from the Philip Hinchcliffe era into the Graham Williams era where the violence is being toned down for a more light-hearted approach to the series. Then again, Tom’s Doctor can be quite aggressive at times when trying to thwart his deadliest foes. 🙂

Louise Jameson is equally good as Leela in this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure. I enjoyed Leela’s curiosity when she notices she and the Doctor are in a different TARDIS console room and how the story progresses when she attempts to understand why the Doctor has been infected by the deadly Swarm.

I like how Leela gradually warms to K-9 in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. This is exemplified when we get to the story’s conclusion, as Leela is keen to have K-9 aboard the TARDIS when Professor Marius asks them to take the robot dog with them. 🙂 I suppose Leela had pets like dogs when among the Sevateem.

It’s fascinating how Leela happens to hold the key to saving the Doctor’s life when she’s immune to the Swarm’s influence and is regarded as a ‘reject’. I suppose Leela’s savage instincts and blood have a higher resilience to infections like the Swarm. She could have been useful for the Covid-19 pandemic.

I should also point out that Leela has gone back to wearing her savage outfit from ‘The Face of Evil’ and ‘The Robots of Death’. In ‘The Talons of Weng-Chaing’ and ‘Horror of Fang Rock’, Leela wore different clothes compared to her savage outfit. A shame this was never kept up for Leela in the TV series.

In terms of the rest of the guest cast, as well as Frederek Jaeger as Professor Marius, there’s Michael Sheard as Lowe. This isn’t Michael Sheard’s first ‘Doctor Who’ story and it’s not his last. He’s appeared in TV stories like ‘The Ark’, ‘The Mind of Evil’ and ‘Pyramids of Mars’ (the latter he’s most recalled for).

After ‘The Invisible Enemy’, Michael Sheard went on to guest star in ‘Castrovalva’ (my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ story with him in it) and ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’. He’s also been in the Big Finish audio story ‘The Stones of Venice’ with Paul McGann. Quite a lot of ‘Doctor Who’ credits attached. 😀

Oh, and outside of ‘Doctor Who’, he’s been in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, the TV series ‘Grange Hill’ and ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’. And he’s played Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler in various film and TV productions. I enjoyed his performance as Lowe (not related to Arthur Lowe 😀 ) in this ‘Doctor Who’ story.

When he’s introduced in ‘Part One’ of the story, he’s the supervisor aboard the Titan Base. Unfortunately, he gets infected by the Swarm and ends up having grey eyebrows. I enjoyed it when Michael Sheard is playing really evil as Lowe once doing the bidding and commands of the Nucleus. 🙂

The cast also includes Brian Grellis as Safran, a member of the Titan Base relief crew who gets infected by the Swarm, along with Edmund Pegge as Meeker and Jay Neill as Silvey. I’ve seen Brian Grellis in an episode of ‘The Good Life’. He’s also been in ‘Revenge of the Cybermen’, and he later guest starred in ‘Snakedance’.

There’s also Roy Herrick as Parsons, Roderick Smith as Cruikshank, Elizabeth Norman as Marius’ Nurse and Nell Curran as the Reception Nurse. Fun fact, Nell Curran later married Derrick Goodwin who directed ‘The Invisible Enemy’. Thanks to Toby Hadoke in the ‘Behind the Sofa’ for mentioning that. 🙂

Jim McManus guest stars as the Ophthalmologist, Kenneth Waller guest stars as Hedges and Pat Gorman guest stars as a Medic. Apparently, Cy Town, who is usually one of the Dalek operators in ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, plays one of the Bi Ai members in this story, although he doesn’t speak much. 😀

The monster is of course the Nucleus of the Swarm, played by John Scott Martin, another regular Dalek operator in ‘Doctor Who’, and voiced by John Leeson. I must admit, I wasn’t impressed by the Nucleus when I saw him being just an arm once the clone Doctor encounters him in the real Doctor’s head. 😐

But that’s nothing compared to when we see the actual full-size version of the Nucleus of the Swarm once it grows out from the real Doctor after escaping through one of his tear ducts. When it’s full-size, it ends up looking like a giant prawn. I’m sure Tom Baker made crude remarks about it, behind-the-scenes.

Yeah, I’m sorry, I can’t take the Nucleus seriously when watching it in ‘Part Four’ of the story. Not even the CGI effects option helped much. I found it funny when Katy Manning, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Colin Baker and Janet Fielding made fun of the Nucleus in the story’s ‘Behind the Sofa’ item. 🙂

It’s made worse when the Nucleus’ minions like Meeker and Silvey have to carry it around since it clearly can’t walk by itself. But then, the Nucleus must have made an impact, since it’s made a comeback in the Big Finish audio story ‘Revenge of the Swarm’, starring Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor.

Something I noticed when checking out ‘The Invisible Enemy’ DVD is that there was a disc authoring error in ‘Part Three’. Apparently, scenes were rearranged where the cliffhanger happens before the clone Doctor and clone Leela are killed off by the Nucleus, which ruined the story’s third episode somewhat. 😦

I didn’t notice this error when checking out ‘The Invisible Enemy’ DVD for the first time, although I should have known something was wrong when watching the story from beginning to end. Thankfully, this error has been rectified on Britbox/ITVX, BBC iPlayer and ‘The Invisible Enemy’ Blu-ray disc itself. 🙂

The story concludes with the Swarm defeated, the Doctor restored to normal and Professor Marius thanking the Doctor and Leela before asking them to look after K-9. I’m wondering if Leela is keener about taking K-9 aboard the TARDIS with them than the Doctor, considering what occurs next time. 😐

K-9 himself seems to want to go aboard the TARDIS, making the decision himself before the Doctor even lets him come aboard. Also, when Marius blows into his handkerchief and says, “I only hope he’s TARDIS-trained”, I wonder why he would say that, considering he’s not been inside the TARDIS himself.

The original DVD special features were as follows. There was the making-of documentary ‘Dreams and Fantasy’ with behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews. There was ‘Studio Sweepings’ studio footage, the ‘Visual Effect’ visual effects featurette on the model work of ‘The Invisible Enemy’, a ‘Blue Peter’ item with K-9 meeting ‘Blue Peter’ presenter John Noakes, and a CGI effects option of the story to enjoy. There was a dual mono sound audio mix option for the story, and an audio commentary with Louise Jameson, John Leeson, co-writer and visual effects designer Mat Irvine. There was an info-text commentary option to enjoy, BBC trailers and continuity announcements of the story, a photo gallery of the story, a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘The Brain of Morbius’, starring Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen, and a ‘Radio Times Listings’ PDF of the story. There was also an Easter Egg to look out for on the DVD where K-9 appears on ‘Larry Grayson’s Generation Game’.

On Disc 2 of the ‘Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 15’ Blu-ray, the ‘Dreams and Fantasy’ making-of documentary, the ‘Studio Sweepings’ studio footage, the ‘Visual Effect’ visual effects featurette, the ‘Blue Peter’ item, the CGI effects option, the dual mono sound audio mix option and the DVD audio commentary can be found on there. The info-text commentary option, the BBC trailers and continuity announcements and the photo gallery of the story have been updated for 2024 on the Blu-ray. Sadly, K-9’s appearance on ‘Larry Grayson’s Generation Game’ isn’t included on Disc 2 of the Season 15 Blu-ray box set.

The new special features on Blu-ray include the ‘Behind the Sofa’ feature on ‘The Invisible Enemy’ with Louise Jameson (Leela), fan and critic Toby Hadoke and Betsan Roberts, wife of the late director Pennant Roberts as well as Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) and Janet Fielding (Tegan) as well as Katy Manning (Jo) and Matthew Waterhouse (Adric). There’s a ’50th Anniversary Archive’ interview with John Leeson and there’s a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘Image of the Fendahl’, starring Tom Baker, Louise Jameson and K-9 (taken from the ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ DVD).

On the PDF front, as well as the ‘Radio Times Listings’ of ‘The Invisible Enemy’, there are production documents, four camera scripts, a studio floor plan, Ian Scoones’ VFX storyboards and production documents for K-9’s appearance on ‘Blue Peter’. You need a special Blu-ray computer drive for that.

‘The Invisible Enemy’ has been an enjoyable ‘Doctor Who’ adventure featuring the debut of K-9 Mark I and his first meeting with the Fourth Doctor and Leela in the classic TV series. I wouldn’t say it’s the greatest ‘Doctor Who’ story I’ve seen, but it’s decent enough and something that shouldn’t be ignored.

The realisation of the Nucleus of the Swarm finally appearing at the end of ‘Part Three’ and being in ‘Part Four’ does ruin the story somewhat, as it looks pretty draft when watching it on DVD and on Blu-ray. I’m currently curious on what the Big Finish audio story ‘Revenge of the Swarm’ is like compared to this.

Is the monster taken seriously in audio terms compared to visual terms? Is the threat of the Nucleus more evident in ‘Revenge of the Swarm’ compared to ‘The Invisible Enemy’. I’d certainly like to find out, as I’m sure Big Finish would greatly improve on a weak aspect of a ‘Doctor Who’ TV story on audio.

I greatly enjoyed Tom Baker as the Doctor and Louise Jameson as Leela in this story and how they manage to gain a new friend in K-9. Where would the series go next though? Would the Doctor and Leela be taking K-9 more prominently in the next adventure or would we have to wait a while for that?

‘The Invisible Enemy’ rating – 6/10

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The previous story For the Fourth Doctor was ‘One Bad Apple’ (ST) For Leela was ‘One Bad Apple’ (ST)	The next story For the Fourth Doctor is ‘Image of the Fendahl’ (TV) For Leela is ‘Image of the Fendahl’ (TV) For K-9 Mk I is ‘Image of the Fendahl’ (TV)
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