The Enemy of the World - Episode 6

The final episode is where the two parts of Salamanders world collide and it’s where things start to go wrong and the power that Salamander once had has all but gone. The thing about this episode is that it doesn’t have quite the epic that a final episode should have. Astrid trying to help Swann stagger around before he dies. This leads to Astrid see that Salamander’s deception is worse than she thought. It’s quite a surprising and shocking moment when Astrid gets attacked by the underground gang. I thought that something grim was going to happen. Thankfully it allows Colin to actually stop whining and actually be the voice of reason, suppose it had to happen sooner or later.

Giles Kent is the one who took the underground people down along with Salamander. He becomes unlikeable and his demise is as swift as the realisation that he’s been in collaboration with Salamander. I think it’s a good performance from Bill Kerr who has effectively been in the shadows whilst Astrid and others have been holding onto our attention. Speaking of Astrid, I have been really impressed with Mary Peach’s performance as she has consistently been on fine form and she’s been the sort of female character that was a rarity in the 1960’s.

The last few minutes are brilliant. Salamander poses as the Doctor (as opposed to the other way round) and we get a great scene with the Doctor and Salamander meeting face to face for the first time and there is a wonderful split screen and one shot in particular where they are both in the same shot. It’s a great performance from Patrick Troughton and sums up how good he has been over the six episodes. To be honest I thought that Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling were rather surplus to requirements and it was only in the final scene that they really had anything to do.

It’s good how it doesn’t have a clean cut ending and it ends with all the regulars in peril with the TARDIS doors opening in mid-flight and normally that would mean that they would end up about half an inch tall but alas not, we are going to get a Yeti sequel and the second of the found stories is about to appear. I’ve enjoyed this story but think that its more style over substance and that would normally be a problem but I have to say that on the whole it was another six parter that worked quite well. It was better directed than written and I think that this story has helped make this fifth season a strong one and theres more to come.