WATCH ALONG | CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO | 5x19 | The Enemy of the World: Episode 3
Added 2023-01-11 15:15:34 +0000 UTCA Few Notes:
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Comments
As you noted last episode, this story is essentially "Doctor Who does James Bond" -- on a micro-budget (a little over three thousand pounds per episode, or about £44,000 today). It's certainly different from anything else the show has done, and stands out particularly in this season, which is otherwise a string of monster-filled "base under siege" stories, very watchable but somewhat repetitive. Compared to them, a near-future (at the time) thriller which spans locations all over the world is a breath of fresh air, although the lack of resources leads to some silly situations like Denes being held prisoner in a corridor because "it's easier to guard him here" -- in reality, they just couldn't afford another set... The full story wasn't returned to the BBC Archives until 2013 -- before then, only this episode (Episode 3) was known to exist. Unfortunately, it's probably the poorest episode of the story, being full of padding (all that stuff in the kitchen with the comedy chef is just time-wasting filler) as often happens in the middle episodes of six-parters. So when "The Enemy of the World" could finally be seen in its entirety, the reaction within fandom was the reverse of what happened with "The Tomb of the Cybermen" -- a story held to be fairly dull and mediocre became much more highly thought of thanks to such unexpected directorial flourishes as the point-of-view shot from the rising helicopter in Episode 1, and most of all because of Patrick Troughton's performance, now able to be appreciated in full. He actually has three roles -- Salamander, the Doctor, and the Doctor pretending to be Salamander -- and manages to keep them all distinct with facial acting and body language that would be lost if all we had was the soundtrack (or animation).
Steven Cooper
2023-01-12 04:26:47 +0000 UTC
