THE ENEMY OF THE WORLD

"But it was you. Or someone like you."

This page looks back to the Patrick Troughton story, The Enemy of the World, which has now been released on a BBC CD.

The BBC CD Cover artwork.

The Story The TARDIS lands on an Australian beach sometime in the early 21st century. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria have little chance to enjoy it, however, as they are attacked by three men in a hovercraft. The time travellers are rescued by a girl, Astrid Ferrier, in a helicopter, who takes them to her boss, Giles Kent. Kent explains that the Doctor is the exact double of Salamander, a man intent on world domination. Salamander has invented the Sun Catcher - a device for concentrating the sun's rays into needed areas to improve the harvests. Kent wants evidence to discredit Salamander. The Doctor is forced to impersonate Salamander to try to obtain the necessary evidence against the man. But, all is not as it seems....

Patrick Troughton as Salamander.

The Production Season Five of Dr Who is usually regarded as the 'Season of the Monsters', which makes this story curious as being the only one without any monsters. Patrick Troughton gets to play the dual role of the Doctor and Salamander, and the whole thing is more in the style of a Bond movie. The story is very enjoyable, although the Doctor doesn't meet Salamander until the very end. This is because the split-screen camera needed for the special effect was not working properly. A very enjoyable Doctor Who story. It's a shame that only one episode (episode three) still exists in the BBC archives.

Things to look out for Patrick Troughton's son, David, appears as an extra in episodes 5 and 6 Episode three has no reprise of the ending of episode two. Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling are both absent from episode 4 as both were on holiday the week it was recorded.

Availability Episode three was included in the BBC video "The Troughton Years", released in 1991. The story is released on a BBC CD in August 2002 with linking narration written by Michael Stevens and read by Frazer Hines. Produced by Mark Ayres. Mark Ayres had to make an unplanned visit to my house in April 2002 when he discovered that the audio tapes of the story that he had acquired from various sources were all missing the first few minutes of episode six. Fortunately, my recording of the episode is complete.