The Enemy of the World - Episode 4

The fourth episode sees Deborah Watling and Frazer Hines on holiday. It’s quite amusing to think that whilst they were on holiday, Troughton was having to double his workload. This is where the story needs to go in a different direction to maintain interest and it definelty does that.

The scene where the Doctor, Giles Kent, Astrid & Fariah are being cornered by Benik is a great moment and its very action driven which must be due to Barry Letts’ direction. It’s the first moment that the episode that things get moving and it doesn’t stop. It’s not until the halfway mark that it really starts to goes in the new direction as Salamander decides to go all secretive and goes to a secret underground section of the base that no one knows anything about. This is a great moment because its not something that the show has attempted to do before and gives that James Bond vibe that the story had in episode one. When Salamander lands we learn that there appears to be a group of people who hiding from the radiated surface. This is a different aspect of the Salamander character so that’s three different people that Patrick Troughton has to play during these six episodes.

When we see the new side to Salamander I find myself confused to understand what I am suppose to think. On the one hand the first time I met Salamander I found myself liking him as a villain and now I find myself thinking he’s quite a nice person even though he’s pulling the wool over so many people’s eyes. Benik makes a welcome to return and he seems even more slimy than he did the first time that we saw him. The scenes that he’s on his own are great but I also enjoyed  the scenes that he had with Bruce. I cant quite make my mind up about him but there is something interesting about the  character and there is the possibility of the character being quite integral. Despite not being in it for very long it’s a shame that Fariah had to be killed off. I thought that Carmen Munroe did a relatively good job considering that there wasn’t very much to the character.

After four episodes I have found myself amazed at how another six part adventure is still maintaining my interest. It would have been so easy to just let the idea of someone looking like the Doctor as use that for six episodes but to be fair to David Whittaker, he has managed to make more out of this scenario and the supporting characters are doing well in helping the story move along. Another good episode.