‘THE ENEMY OF THE WORLD’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
The Second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria vs. Salamander
For Deborah Watling
This story ‘was lost but is now found’ as the prodigal son’s father would say.
I saw ‘The Enemy of the World’, the six-part ‘Doctor Who’ story that was recovered in 2013 and originally released on DVD in 2014, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I’m extremely thankful that the story has been re-released onto a 2-disc Special Edition DVD with brand-new special features in March 2018.
I was pretty delighted that the BBC announced in October 2013 that two missing stories of Patrick Troughton’s era of ‘Doctor Who’ had been found. These included ‘The Enemy of the World’ and ‘The Web of Fear’. I’m extremely pleased these episodes have been found as it is superb to have them back.
‘The Enemy of the World’ was first broadcast in 1967 to 1968 during the Season 5 of ‘Doctor Who’ with Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor. Before these missing episodes were found, the only episode of this tale to have survived was ‘Episode Three’. This was included in the ‘Lost in Time’ DVD set.
This is also Barry Letts’ first association with ‘Doctor Who’ and the first story that he directed. I’m sure the late Barry Letts would be delighted to know that this story has been recovered and is now complete. Barry would go on to be the producer of ‘Doctor Who’ for the early 1970s with Jon Pertwee.
I first purchased the TV soundtrack of the story on an audio CD in 2011. I found listening to the story hard-going despite the linking narration provided by Frazer Hines. But after seeing ‘The Enemy of the World’ on DVD, I enjoyed it since it is well-directed by Barry Letts and well-written by David Whitaker.
What makes ‘The Enemy of the World’ so special is that it features Patrick Troughton not only playing the Doctor, but also the villainous Salamander. This is a doppelganger adventure where Patrick gets to play two parts in it and the TV tale also features the Doctor with his companions Jamie and Victoria.
I’ve had a special A4 print of Alistair Pearson’s artwork for ‘The Enemy of the World’ signed by Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling and Phillip Morris (the missing episodes hunter who found both ‘The Enemy of the World’ and ‘The Web of Fear’) at the ‘Pandorica 2015’ convention at Bristol in September 2015.
It’s superb that this story and ‘The Web of Fear’ are two of Deborah Watling’s stories that were lost but now found. I felt sorry for Debbie/Victoria as most of her stories were missing. But now we have more to enjoy with Victoria since she does stand out really well for me as well as Frazer Hines as Jamie.
In this story, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria visit a futuristic Earth. After being attacked by would-be assassins in Australia, the Doctor and his friends are rescued by Astrid Ferrier. She tells them that the Doctor resembles a cruel man called Salamander. The Doctor is eventually asked to impersonate him.
When I first saw ‘The Enemy of the World’, I was amazed by the first three minutes. The story looks brand-new and I couldn’t believe it had been missing all these years. I told the lovely Debbie Watling about this at the ‘Time Warp’ convention in Weston-super-Mare, July 2014 and that I did enjoy it a lot.
The story has the feel of a James Bond-movie adventure in it. I really love the chase sequence with the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria at the beginning. There’s a lot of political intrigue and suspense relating to Salamander. I’m so pleased it stands up well with cliff-hangers, action, plot, characters and everything.
Patrick Troughton is the star of the show both as the Doctor and Salamander. I like how Patrick shifts from playing the Doctor to Salamander. As a viewer, it’s disturbing to find the villain looking like your hero and doing nasty, horrible things such as poisoning Fedorin; killing people and erupting volcanoes.
Patrick must have enjoyed playing two different characters in this story. It was funny to see the Doctor in his underpants and ready for a swim. I liked his line in ‘Episode Three’ when he says, “Sad really, isn’t it? People spend all their time making nice things and other people come along and break them.”
Deborah Watling is very good as Victoria in this adventure. She doesn’t scream so much as she’s done before in previous stories. She comes across as pretty strong. I liked it when Victoria tells Bruce not to shout at her when he barks at her. I did like it when she’s worried the Doctor ‘will catch his death ‘. 😀
I enjoyed it when both Victoria and Jamie defy Salamander in ‘Episode Five’ before they realise that it is actually the Doctor. There’s a new freshness to Victoria in this adventure when I watched her. She’s able to put her Victorian attitudes to good use, even when she assists in the kitchen in ‘Episode Three’.
Frazer Hines is equally good as Jamie. I liked how resourceful he is, especially when he seemingly saves Salamander’s life in order to get in and become one of his guards. Jamie is clearly confident and I liked it when he bluffs and mentions Victoria as his girlfriend which seems connected to his love for Victoria.
Jamie also looks good in his uniform when serving for Salamander. I liked how Jamie gets curious about what goes on with the political situation of Salamander conquering the world. He’s not usually so brash and impulsive in this tale, though he does punch one of the would-be assassins at the beginning.
The guest cast is superb! There’s Bill Kerr as Giles Kent, who is seemingly opposed to Salamander and Mary Peach as Astrid Ferrier who rescues the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria. There’s also Colin Douglas as the bullish security guard called Donald Bruce; Milton Johns as Benik and Carmen Munroe as Fariah.
This adventure does end on a cliff-hanger. The Doctor and Salamander finally meet in the TARDIS. Salamander is about to kill the Doctor before the TARDIS sets off into time and space. Salamander soon gets sucked out into the time vortex while the Doctor, Victoria and Jamie hold on for dear life. 😮
Like I said, ‘The Enemy of the World’ was originally released on DVD in 2013. There weren’t many DVD special features apart from a DVD sleeve booklet with production notes in it and a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘The Web of Fear’, starring Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling. Thankfully, the 2-disc Special Edition DVD for the story was released in March 2018. I purchased the 2-disc Special Edition DVD after attending the ‘Folkestone Film, TV and Comic Con’ in May 2018 for my birthday weekend. 🙂
On Disc 1 of the 2-disc Special Edition DVD for ‘The Enemy of the World’, as well as re-mastered episodes there is also a trailer for the story. There is also a commentary with Frazer Hines, Mary Peach, Milton Johns, Gordon Faith (Guard Captain) and make-up supervisor Sylvia James, moderated by Simon Harries. There’s also an info-text commentary option to enjoy.
On Disc 2, there’s the ‘Treasures Lost and Found’ documentary; ‘Recovering The Past – The Search For The Enemy Of The World’; ‘Remembering Deborah Watling’; a Jon Pertwee introduction and ‘Restoring Doctor Who’. There’s also a photo gallery of the story and PDF materials including a ‘Radio Times Listings’ of the story and original scripts of the story.
I really enjoyed ‘The Enemy of the World’ when I first saw it on DVD in 2014 and again for the 2-disc Special Edition DVD in 2018. It’s fantastic that this story is now complete and it can now be added to the collection of ‘Doctor Who’ stories available on DVD and Blu-ray that are steadily getting bigger. 😀
‘The Enemy of the World’ is worth seeing as a ‘Doctor Who’ story, especially for Patrick Troughton’s performances as the Doctor and Salamander as well as Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling. It’s amazing to believe this story was once lost for many years and if you like action adventure, you’ll love this one!
‘The Enemy of the World’ rating – 10/10
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Bradley's Basement 
Awesome review Tim, nice photo of Billy Walker & Jamie lol.
Apart from the abrupt ending this is a brilliant Doctor Who adventure & features a excellent dual performance by Patrick Troughton who is menacing as Salamander.
If only other classics could be unearthed, maybe one day.
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Hmm! Jamie and Billy in the same ‘Doctor Who’ story. I wonder if that could work! 😀
Many thanks, Simon! Glad you enjoyed my review on ‘The Enemy of the World’. I liked the abrupt cliff-hanger ending of the story, as it leads into the next one, ‘The Web of Fear’. Patrick Troughton is superb as both Salamander and the Doctor in this adventure. He clearly enjoyed playing Salamander, as he considers himself to be a character actor after all.
I hope more classic ‘Doctor Who’ stories will get revived soon. I hope for more episodes of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ someday! Tim. 🙂
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Brilliantly updated 2 disc DVD review Tim, must admit i had to get this version & no doubt Web Of Fear will get a similar 2 disc treatment with a animated Ep3 soon.
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Hi Simon.
Glad you enjoyed my updated review on ‘The Enemy of the World’.
I hope ‘The Web of Fear’ will get-released on a 2-disc DVD/Blu-ray treatment too and have an animated Episode 3 on it. It’d be a shame if that weren’t the case.
Thanks for your comments.
Tim. 🙂
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Great review Tim.
I found this story to be very well made. Salamander was a really cool character. In the scene were Giles confronts what he thinks is Salamander but is actually the Doctor, I actually thought it was Salamander. It was a surprise to see that Giles Kent was pretending to be against Salamander. It’s great that the other five episodes were returned to the archive. It’s been said that episode 3 is the weakest due to it not having much to do with the plot. but I disagree and think episode 4 has little to do with the plot apart from the last 6 minutes. The cliffhanger ending was my favourite bit but not because it was over.
Victoria and Jamie were great in this story despite being absent from episode 4. My favourite line from Victoria in the story was when she said “I like eating and I’m hungry” when she was hired to cook. That really relates to me. Speaking of Victoria, I recently created a thread on the Divergent Universe asking wether she should be recast for Big Finish.
I will be purchasing ‘The Web of Fear’ on Blu-Ray soon. I have decided to watch the B/W version of the animation with the other five episodes and then I’ll watch the colour version and the telesnap reconstruction later on. I feel as though I should experience ‘The Abominable Snowmen’ first, but I can experience the novelisation when I purchase ‘The Essential Terrance Dicks Volume 1’.
Take care, WF92.
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Hi WF92,
Glad you enjoyed my review on ‘The Enemy of the World’.
Yeah, I recall Barry Letts saying that he found ‘Episode 3’ the weakest of the six episodes before the other five returned to the BBC Archives in 2013. Honestly, I found all six episodes enjoyable. I’m glad the missing five episodes were returned so that we can enjoy the story from beginning to end. And Patrick Troughton is brilliant in both performances as the Doctor and Salamander.
I’m not sure I’m keen on the idea of Victoria being recast for Big Finish audio productions. I know it’s been done well with Sadie Miller as Sarah Jane Smith, Lauren Cornelius as Dodo and Ajjaz Awad as Katarina lately, but I feel the recasting of Victoria in ‘Doctor Who’ audios by Big Finish is too soon following the passing of the late Debbie Watling. Maybe my mind will change on that. Otherwise, I agree that she and Frazer Hines are great as Victoria and Jamie in this adventure.
My new review on the latest Blu-ray release of ‘The Web of Fear’ will be shared on my blog soon this coming week. I hope you’ll enjoy ‘The Web of Fear’ Special Edition when you see it on Blu-ray. I’ve also purchased the two ‘Essential Terrance Dicks’ volumes as e-books. I hope to check them out on Kindle soon.
Many thanks for your comments.
Tim. 🙂
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The quintessential doppelgänger story for the Whoniverse and a most unique triumph for the talents of Patrick Troughton. The DVD trailer may have somewhat given away Salamander’s ultimate defeat. But for the comfort of how the TARDIS always knows and recognizes the real Doctor, it’s still one of the most satisfying endings in Doctor Who. A good guest cast with George Pravda, Colin Douglas and Milton Johns each finding other roles later on in the Whoniverse. As a reminder of how specifically the classic series storytelling could appeal to Whovians during the 60s, this one always holds up in its own right. Thank you, Tim, for your review.
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I particularly love that Enemy of the World has had such a turnaround in fandom consciousness, as well. It went from “Oh, that’s right… Right, that one,” to “It’s probably one of the best of this era.” Purely from having the original prints and nothing else.
It has some of Barry Letts’s best directing work. Fariah and Astrid are two of my favourite characters from ’60s Doctor Who. The threat feels genuinely dangerous (and intensely prescient to the real 2010s) and it’s one of David Whitaker’s best morality plays. I love that literally no one in the plot is what they seem.
It also manages to do a globetrotting spy adventure in a way that measures up to the more lofty production values of the BBC’s former competitor, ITV. It’s smooth, sophisticated, and a really unusual diversion for the era. A thriller, instead of a base-under-siege.
Troughton’s role as Salamander is more typical of his roles outside of Who. You really see his range as an actor. There was a reason he was picked out for fanatical priests (Christian and Aztec), fevered Nazi criminals, and dying kings slain by ignoble nephews.
In 2025, this story could have been easily ripped from the headlines. If they’d done it today, it would’ve been torn apart by certain rabid circles as an attack on current world leaders. Rather than what it really was, a timely Bondmania pastiche. Definitely something to think about.
My favourite Second Doctor story is The Seeds of Death.
My favourite Pat Troughton story is this one.
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I’m not familiar enough to this day with Troughton’s era to pick a most favorite 2nd Doctor story. Although I was always fond of how The War Games could break some important ground in Doctor Who for how period piece events would be mixed with sci-fi elements. Like Enemy Of The World, it didn’t need a monster of the week and for obvious reasons those stories can particularly stand out in the Whoniverse. For the most human or humanoid villainies like Salamander or the War Lord’s people, I have great admiration for how the actors in that regard can remind fans of how we must often look beyond the stereotypically external aspects of what the monstrous villainies can look like. Most daringly for one who has the same face of the Doctor.
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Thanks scifimike,
For me, ‘The Mind Robber’, ‘The Invasion’ and ‘The War Games’ are my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ stories in the Patrick Troughton/Second Doctor era, as they’re very compelling stories for me. ‘The Enemy of the World’ probably ranks in the fourth place for one of my favourite stories in the Patrick Troughton era. I’ll have to do a Top 5 list of my favourite Second Doctor TV stories someday. Maybe for September when it comes to celebrating my blog’s 10th anniversary.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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I very much enjoy the future history aesthetic of this time. I call it the TV21 Aesthetic after the Frank Bellamy comics that codified it for Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Stingray, et al. (Andersonpunk? Bellamypunk?)
A lot of the aesthetic is quite ’60s Bondmania, but what that actually means for Doctor Who is that it often typically tries to emulate Hitchcockian films in a sci-fi setting. A lot of thrillers, suspense and horror themes. Dan Dare is still in the background (The Tenth Planet‘s Cybermen were quite Treen-like), but his shadow is being eclipsed by 007.
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Hi Wolfie,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on how the future was predicted or intepreted in the 1960s. It’s interesting how certain aspects of 1960s-styled futures, particularly in ‘Thunderbirds’, ‘Stingray’ and ‘Captain Scarlet’ are often in the action-packed spy/thriller sense, as seen in Hitchcock films and how it’s often more contemporary compared to how the future has ended up by this point. Whilst I’m keen on there being a Zero-X going up to Mars in say 2066, I don’t think it would match to what’s in the ‘Thunderbird Are Go’ film, especially with the advances in technology concerning the Internet, WiFi and VPN.
I’m astonished that ‘The Enemy of the World’ took place in 2018, as it’s very different compared to what I experienced in the real 2018 where there was no dictator like Salamander and the style of 2018 is more in keeping with the 1960s. Then again, we had some of ‘Back to the Future, Part II’ taking place in 2015 and the movie’s version of 2015 is more in keeping with late 1980s/early 1990s compared to real life.
Many thanks,
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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Erm, Tim… In 2018 our cup was positively overflowing with dictators. If you’re looking politically, Donald Trump was the American president, Vladimir Putin was the Russian president, Kim Jong Un was president of North Korea, and more… If you’re looking commercially, there was Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, et al…
Our reality was far worse than the imagined fiction developed in 1968, which could not predict a 2020 pandemic, and is, quite frankly, far worse because the dictators in question are rewriting history. Time can be rewritten, as it was in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and Red China. We begin again and Enemy of the World from the mid-’60s is as testament to that as the Dalek stories of the same era. That evil is always with us. This time, it’s in control.
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Hi Wolfie,
Ah, yes. Points taken. I suppose the point I was trying to make is that we didn’t have a dictator who looked like Patrick Troughton with a Mexican accent. But then dictators came in various forms in 2018 as you said with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. It’s quite sad how history seems to be repeating itself with dictators that we had in World War II like Hitler and Stalin, and aspects of ‘The Enemy of the World’ ring true when setting it in 2018. It’s something I hope to re-examine should Season 5 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series be released in a Blu-ray box set or should I get to read and hear ‘The Enemy of the World’ novelization/audiobook by Ian Marter.
Many thanks and best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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Hi scifimike, Hi Wolfie,
Many thanks for sharing your thoughts and insight on ‘The Enemy of the World’. When I first heard this story on its TV audio soundtrack back in early 2012, I found it a struggle to listen to and didn’t find it exciting. Thankfully, the TV version changed my mind on that and I’m very pleased the missing five episodes of the story were recovered in 2013 for us to enjoy it.
It’s amazing George Pravda, Colin Douglas and Milton Johns went on to be in ‘Doctor Who’ stories of the Tom Baker era after being in this one, with George Pravda in ‘The Deadly Assassin’, Colin Douglas in ‘Horror of Fang Rock’ and Milton Johns in ‘The Invasion of Time’.
I hope one day I’ll get a chance to check out ‘Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World’ by Ian Marter, read by David Troughton, as I’ve enjoyed Ian Marter’s novelizations on ‘The Invasion’, ‘The Ribos Operation’ and ‘Earthshock’ and it’ll be fascinating to check out his take on ‘The Enemy of the World’ in prose form.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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