5.4: The Enemy of the World
- Doctor: Patrick Troughton
- Companions: Jamie, Victoria
- Creators: David Whitaker (Writer), Barry Letts (Director), Innes Lloyd (Producer)
- Season 5
What's the rating?
Must See.
What's interesting about it?
It exists!
This was a lost story until just a couple of months ago, when this and the next story were sprung on the world after being re-discovered in Nigeria.
This is the the last story for producer Innes Lloyd and the first for Barry Letts, and he would go on to have quite a run.
The story starts in the best way: Our time travelers land in the middle of a strange situation, events quickly begin to happen one after the other, and we have to piece together the situation as clues are dropped. We're halfway through the episode before we get an explanation. The episode ends with perhaps the first cliffhanger where the villain is on the receiving end.
This is a complicated political story -- worthy of the machinations in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy -- in which Troughton gets to play both The Doctor and the Hitlerish ruler, "Salamander". Kids in England must have been hiding behind the couch in true terror as Salamander described the next five year plan for grain exports. But don't worry, there's also plenty of the normal kind of action.
The story contains a wonderful and unforeseeable twist -- Salamander has found a unique level of evilness that Hitler never even imagined -- that actually justifies having a full six episodes. This is true science fiction, exploring human concepts against a somewhat impossible background.
Here we have one of the best Doctor Who stories ever, lost for decades and just now available. Some of the other reputed best stories remain lost. There are rumors that more stories were found at the same time as these. We can only hope.
What are others saying?
- Wife in Space (score: 6/10, based on the recon)
- Tin Dog podcast #360 (he's got his opinion reversed for this and the next story...)
- Podshock podcast #298