The Enemy of the World – S5 4

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This topic contains 11 replies, has 10 voices, and was last updated by  Bluesqueakpip 9 years, 11 months ago.

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  • #18283
    Craig @craig
    Emperor

    The remaining episodes have been found and restored.

    Discuss them here. Do try to keep spoilers at bay please.

    #18445
    Anonymous @

    I am squeeeeeeing all over the place.  Just started watching the first part and already we have ‘Run … just, run!’

    Will have to contain myself to watch the rest of the story.  But I just know it will be a cracker.

    #18534
    janetteB @janetteb

    Finished watching Enemy of the World last night. TV dinner menu this week. The family all enjoyed it. Our youngest (12) was getting very caught up in it, showing that “modern” kids don’t need flashy CGI to enjoy a well written story. It was an interesting story very much of its time and complex enough to demonstrate that Dr Who was never just a simple kids’ show.

    I must confess there was amusement here at the beginning over the shocking Aussie accents. I think this is the only Dr Who story ever to be set, at least in part, in Australia. Time for another me-thinks and this time it can be filmed in down here too. (I know two young aspiring actors who would love to be extras. 🙂

    I found the rapport between the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria especially enjoyable. One can sense that they were as good friends off screen as on. I also get the feeling that Troughton is really enjoying playing the duel roles. He pulls it off well, giving a shade of depth to a character that so easily could just have been another cardboard villian.

    Cheers

    Janette

    #18654
    Anonymous @

    Finally finished watching all 6 parts of EotW myself today.  I’d like to post something erudite, deeply descriptive and analytic, and my first emotional impressions keep over-riding all my rational thoughts:

    OH.MY.GOD.  Patrick Troughton is simply sublime.  He really nails the many variations of the character he plays – besides, obviously, the Doctor, and full-on Salamander; he has to do that initial (very scared) Doctor impression of Salamander early on; then later, he does the more confident Doctor-as-Salamander impression.  He is truly astonishing.  It’s not just the voice/accent **, and the facial expressions; but even his gestures, mannerisms, and gait are all clearly defined for all versions of Salamander.

    ** PS @janetteb – it’s not just the Aussie accents.  That was the worst Mexican accent I’ve ever heard, and I was born and raised in Los Angeles where I had plenty of versions to hear all around me.

    I found this one wonderful for the ‘missing monster’ aspect.  It’s a bit James Bond-y to face an evil human megalomaniac instead of an alien creature (even a humanoid one, or a human who becomes sort of alien-y like in The Lazarus Experiment with 10 and Martha).

    I would never want to spoil this story for a new viewer, but let’s just say I feel I have to watch it all over again, with a closer eye to detail, after seeing the 6th part.  🙂  I was so caught up in the story that I’m sure I missed the clues I should’ve seen.

    Jamie delightfully comes to the rescue several times here.  I’m going to search out earlier Troughton stories with Jamie because I’d like to see how he grows from his initial meeting with the Doctor to the confident, ballsy young man we see here.

    Also delighted to see Victoria a little less ‘fainting’ that what we’ve seen so far in Tomb of the Cybermen Part 1.  She can hold her ground against the baddies with a steely look and an ‘I’m not going to take that from you, buddy’ attitude.

    Oh, and again trying not to spoil for people who haven’t watched it all the way through yet – what a wonderful moment when the Doctor finds the perfect way to prove to Jamie and Victoria that he is indeed the Doctor and not Salamander.  Made me grin widely.

    #22587
    Anonymous @

    I’m surprised this thread hasn’t attracted more attention.  Patrick Troughton’s era predates my birth by a few years, but any reasonable Who fan surely must enjoy his tenure as Doctor.  It’s sad about the Beeb wiping so many tapes but it’s also impressive that new stories are becoming available.  The Web of Fear seems to be the benchmark for lost Troughton stories but this one is an absolute corker.

    If I bring up my girlfriend again, I’m laying myself open for ‘is she really your girlfriend?’ questions.  🙂  Which is fair enough, as a Doctor Who fan.  Do we really attract females?  Some might say no.  Others might say, only if you don’t subject your female companion to dreary past Doctor Who stories.

    In my defence my Tennant-loving girlfriend, who didn’t know anything about Doctor Who before Doctor 10, was thoroughly engrossed by this story.  She didn’t know anything about Patrick Troughton as an actor (and I’m afraid, for sake of appearances on this forum, neither did I) but she thought he was excellent.  Gone were the wobbly set remonstrations, and the ill-costumed alien comments, and at no time did she sigh ‘but why are all the females screaming?’  As ‘Anonymous’ posts above, Troughton’s acting was at times almost unbelievable to watch in terms of this fairly new and creaky sci-fi TV show.

    The GF’s only comparison of Victoria was Rose Tyler, but even then she thought ‘well that’s what teenagers must have been like to write for back then as opposed to 2005’.  Which is a pretty good comment I thought.  Victoria doesn’t do anything like Jamie to advance the plot, but at least she doesn’t stand around uselessly screaming (no offence to Carole Ann Ford as Susan with Hartnell, who was unfortunate enough to suffer that self-same fate).

    The underground society seemed fairly tacked-on as a plot point, I thought.  The story could’ve been told without any reference to them at all, although that would’ve required major changes to Salamander’s nefarious goals.  But the menace in all of the scenes with Salamander were palpable – for me as a Who fan and She Who Cannot Be Named as an I-Really-Don’t-Get-Who-At-All viewer.

    In light of what I’ve read on this forum for the last few months, I wish I could place this story in historical and political context with the times in which it was written / broadcast.  The closest I can come, sadly, is James Bond – who regularly dealt with planet-striding megalomaniacs with frankly insane plans for the future of mankind with themselves as putative leader.

    All in all, this is a story which I hope the recent re-unearthing will bring it to a whole new audience of Who fans – and fans of blastedly good acting a la Troughton.

    #23797
    Monochrome Dimension @monochromedimension

    I recently watched Enemy of the World; brilliant set of episodes… so happy it was found! Haven’t watched Web of Fear yet though, I’m waiting for it to be released on DVD. Troughton is just awesome as both the Doctor (of course) and Salamander, who I found to be a well thought-out and menacing villain. The serial is unusual though, it doesn’t really feel like Doctor Who… but its still very good; not every Doctor Who episode needs aliens or robots after all.

     

    #24982
    onecentsky @onecentsky

    I understand it is available on iTunes globally, but when the hell will this story get a US DVD release? I am currently working on a Doctor Who DVD collection and I need to have The Enemy of the World in there, physically not digitally.

    #24993
    Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip

    @onecentsky – probable answer: when they can get the US rights sorted out. At least, that’s the usual reason for a US release being delayed: legal problems.

    #25594
    Marinus lost his keys again @marinus-lost-his-keys-again

    Just watched this recently. I enjoyed it, and Salamander trully is a bastard, though I was hoping for him and The Doctor to share more then one brief scene together. Oh well.

    #25945
    Troughton1966-69 @troughton1966-69

    Finished Watching enemy of the world on Friday, it was quite a cracker! Patrick Troughton really steals every scene he’s in.

    #27111
    Whisht @whisht

    wow – Watched this over weekend and finished now.

    I don’t really know the background to this episode, so am intrigued if this was a ‘big budget’ episode in its time. It seems it from the use of hovercraft and helicopters and what sounded like a large orchestra (though I know they were creative with how they doubled instruments!).

    Overall it felt more similar to what I imagine the Avengers felt like and I loved EotW for not being the ‘usual’ rubbery monster, or cardboard robot. Humans are monstrous enough and the varying shades of these are shown all too clearly (Benik especially creepy in ep 6).
    There’s a solid scifi story, and a theme of the depths people will go to acquire and maintain power is well handled imho.

    Also (although it got wearying when watching back-to-back, but would have been merely reinforcingly repetitive over 6 weeks), the need to have evidence, to not just believe something because someone’s told you it – not a bad message for kids (and adults) to take away.

    As for Troughton – I never saw him at the time (not born!) and have only seen a couple of serials before this one. I’ll admit I do find him annoying in the ‘childish’ moments as well as the “not now Jamie” flustering and just wish he’d toned these down. When he’s being intelligent or conniving he’s very very good. However, as I say, I’m speaking with a very specific context.

    Must say though, each time his face looms out of the opening credits I jump (is it just me who finds this really creepy?!?!?).

    #27115
    Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip

    (is it just me who finds this really creepy?!?!?).

    @whisht – can’t be. There’s a moment in An Adventure in Space and Time where Mervyn Pinfield is experimenting with having Hartnell’s face loom out of the credits – and basically goes ‘arrgh! No, we can’t do that, it’s terrifying!’

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