The Enemy of the World - Episode 5

The penultimate episode sees the Doctor and Giles’ plan to reach the research base and with just one more episode after this to go, there is a sense that the story really needs to start looking like its reaching a conclusion. The episode starts off with the Doctor trying to convince Bruce that Salamander isn’t quite the nice person that he pretends to be and there is a slight sense of doubt and this is why I like the character because someone else would have either believed him 100% or gone against him 100%. The episode also sees Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling are literaly stretchered in after their holiday. From the moment that they are talking they are used quite well and its good to see them back. I thought that Frazer was slightly better because Jamie wasn’t able to the action hero because he didn’t want Victoria killed or hurt.

For the first time I’m not to sure whether I like the underground people part of the story. Salamander has trouble with them when he is found out that he’s been lying to them. This leads to Swann being led out by Salamander and his discovery by Astrid leads to the cliffhanger. I find the underground people rather boring and I don’t actually like them very much. Colin is the worst and is quite annoying. All he has done since we first saw him is sulk about not being taken to the surface. When Swann announces that he’s going up with Salamander all Colin does is to shout and I just want him to shut up. Thankfully we get to go back to the rest of the characters and we get to enjoy being in the company of Benik. Benik is a really nasty piece of work when he seems to enjoy the prospect of causing physical harm to Victoria and Jamie. However despite being rather vile, he’s one of the last people to find out that there is a double of Salamander. It’s a shame that it happens late in the episode.

There is a lovely moment when the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria are reunited. It’s been too long since they were all together and its just a heart-warming moment. It shows what a good group that they are and its just a shame that Victoria isn’t used in quite the way that she should be. Patrick Troughton is on his usual fine form and I cant think of any other way to explain how good he is. He is having fun and he is thriving in being asked to play the two roles even if it must have been quite taxing.

It’s another solid episode which sadly doesn’t have the action pieces that allows Barry Letts to show us what he can do. I am quite interested to see how this story will end but I know that there is one shot that I am looking forward to. On a negative note, I think that had this story not been found then I don’t think that I would be as positive towards it because audibly there isn’t very much to get hooked onto. Visually its enjoyable and its another sound story in a season that’s been very positive.