The Invisible Enemy - Episode 4

Well I never thought that I would write this but I am quite sad about reaching the end of this release. However the episode doesn’t get off to the best of start with the reprise of the prawn. The prawn has a difficult moving and has to have help which makes it the worst villain and design in Doctor Who history (at this point in time). I am perhaps being a bit cruel on the prawn but when its standing still then it doesn’t look too bad but its when it does then it just looks crude. The idea of the nucleus is quite good and visually its striking but I think a bit more time could have been spent to make it more mobile than it was.

As it’s the final episode, the story has to try and reach a conclusion in 25 minutes and it does this quite well. The race is on to stop the prawn/nucleus and stop the eggs from hatching. This means that the story moves to Titan where the story started and I think that it feels like a nice bit of closure because they could have just discarded Titan and kept the action on the hospital asteroid but now we end the story in a decently lit group of sets and my eyes could rest.

I like how the Doctor doesn’t mind the nucleus existing but just has a problem with the grand plan that it has. The “everything has a right to exist” line is particularly good. It’s been a good performance from both Tom Baker and Louise Jameson. I think that the addition of K9 is one that the show would go on to regret. It worked during the course of this story but every so often it would have to stop and at one point it had to be dragged to the TARDIS and when it has to board the TARDIS, the camera cuts away to hide the fact it couldn’t climb up.

“I only hope he’s TARDIS trained” is one of those lines that just makes me grown with embarrassment because its such a rubbish joke but it ends the episode on a rather fun note. I am quite surprised at how much I have enjoyed this story. Yes the prawn does undermine the story but the idea in principle is sound and the comedy works rather well in this serial and as a result I am looking forward to the next story a lot more than I was at the beginning of this serial. Maybe ‘Image of the Fendahl’ might be a better story than I previously thought.

The Invisible Enemy - Episode 3

This is the episode where CSO really shows itself in a way that hasn’t been seen since the Barry Letts era. This is where we go deep into the Doctor’s mind which sounds like a great thing but knowing that this show is made on a BBC budget, the chances looked like it was going to be a massive disappointment. However its hard to really find fault with what we saw. The CSO sets are impressive and this is a creative use of CSO which wasn’t the case when Barry Letts was running the show. The whole thing of going into the Doctor’s body is quite a strange one because the set looks like a bit of the forest set used in ‘Planet of Evil’. Also there are spheres that appear that seem to have been borrowed from ‘The Prisoner’. Well the show filmed where it was shot so it makes sense that they use something that appeared in the show.

Sadly, every so often the action moved from the Doctor’s head to the hospital so it was like going from the dark to the light. Another problem is that we get back to K9. There is a bit where K9 is gliding along a corridor and is making a massive racket. It seems good that Leela has someone to interact with but its just a bit unfortunate that she has to do it with K9. The hate for K9 continues.

As far as the narrative is concerned it progresses quite well and in a way its kind of put into the background due to how good the CSO and the performances were.

There is a rather unfortunate bit where a part of a wall comes down and its clear that its going to fall. Another thing that is a little unfortunate is the part where K9 becomes possessed. If he’s a robot then how can he be possessed? These are perhaps two of the biggest things wrong with this episode which probably shows how good I found the episode.

The Doctor encounters the Nucleus of the swarm in this episode and it’s a bid odd really because it doesn’t really feel like most encounters that the Doctor has had with villains in previous stories. It’s not a terrible scene but I think that its just done a bit oddly. The cliffhanger is a bit disappointing because this is the first time that we see the nucleus. There is no getting around it, it’s a bit rubbish. During the bit where its talking to the Doctor it was hidden under a black cloak it was fine but seeing it as it is then it’s a bit of a let down but that aside I am still liking this more than I previous had done in the past. I think that the performances have been very good and the production values (with CSO included) are also very good.

The Invisible Enemy - Episode 2

So of course Leela wasn’t going to be gunned down at the beginning of this episode but the way that she survives is quite clever. The Doctor is fighting with whatever is in his mind and gives enough time to warn Leela. The action moves after a short time to a meteorite that has a massive red cross on it. Here the costumes get sillier and the words on the wall are just as silly. This episode becomes a recruitment drive as Lowe infects lots of people. It’s done in such a way that just seems rather basic and not very exciting or dramatic. The effect used is still quite good.

The sets go from dark colours at the beginning to really bright as the story moves to the asteroid hospital. The bright white walls along with the PVC costumes means that sunglasses should be provided with this DVD.

K9 makes his debut in this episode after the five minute mark. K9 is one of those creations that loved and hated by Doctor Who fans and I am personally with the latter. K9 is one of the most recognisable things about Doctor Who but for me I cant see the fascination. I think that K9 has a purpose in this story and the fact that it’s a studio based story means that he can move around quite well but beyond this story, he loses his appeal somewhat. K9 is the creation of Professor Marius (played by Frederick Jaeger). Marius is a likeable person as is someone that the Doctor and Leela can rely upon. Even though he is now a baddie, I just don’t see Michael Sheard’s Lowe character as a villain but it’s still a good performance.

The story seems to go in a slightly different direction as the Doctor and Leela get cloned, shrunk and then the episode ends with the pair going down what appears to be a plughole. It’s quite a good ending because whilst its not tense or dramatic, it is still quite entertaining so after two episodes I am still enjoying this story. There are things that don’t quite work but I think that (at the moment) I am perhaps being too hard on the show as I am judging it by 2014 standards. I don’t quite know why I am enjoying this story but I’m just going to go along with this.

The Invisible Enemy - Episode 1

As I got the DVD for this story off my shelf, I noticed that it was a 12 certificate. I wonder whether this fact will become evident later on. This story sees the debut of K9 but he doesn’t appear in this episode (thankfully). There is an interesting opening scene which sees three astronauts being hit by what looks like lightening. After making no reference to leaving an empty lighthouse, the action picks up with the Doctor and Leela in a familiar location. The old console room returns to the show which is a shame really because it seems like we’ve gone from a nice atmospheric console rom to a white over-lit room.

There are plenty of things that I will be saying aren’t very good in this story so I am going to start with the positives because there are more than you would thing. Firstly the models are all quite good. It’s clear that this is at the beginning of the season because it looks quality and also the effects used to show how the thing is transferred from one person to another.

The Doctor appears to be affected by the conscious and at first it doesn’t look like he’s been affected and Leela also looks like she has been affected but I think because she’s a bit dim she isn’t smart enough to be affected. It’s second time lucky a short time later when he is possessed. This story features the return of Michael Sheard who is always dependable and starts off as a nice guy but that doesn’t last long and I just don’t think that I can buy that he is a baddie.

Now for the bad things. I think that changing words so that they sound like real words but aren’t spelt the same is slightly annoying as it doenst do anything except make it look like people in the 1970’s thought that we would have all lost the ability to spell things in the future. Also the dodgy eye make up looks silly. That is pretty much all that I can say about this story in terms of positive or negative. I know that there will be plenty of opportunity to find fault in this story. There is going to be a run of about twelve episodes or so where I wont be very positive because I have never thought highly of these stories in the past. There is always the possibility that things could change but there is one story in particular that I highly doubt this. I will end on a positive and say that the cliffhanger is quite good. The Doctor appears to be about to shoot Leela when he is possessed so unless Leela turns around at the last minute, it would appear that she isn’t going to last long. Obviously we know that she will be fine but this is one of those rare instances where I don’t mind the fact that I know she will be alright cause she’s one of the lead stars.