The Enemy of the World part 2

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  • #37703
    Craig @craig
    Emperor

    The Doctor pretends to be Salamander and saves his friends. But can he save the world? They put in place Astrid’s plan to infiltrate Salamander’s inner circle.

    And it’s not a skirt, it’s a kilt! Honestly…

    And remember, we’re watching this as it was first shown, one episode at a time, so NO SPOILERS for future episodes.

    #37722
    ScaryB @scaryb

    Great stuff!

    One of the interesting things about this story is the lack of monster of the week. They’d pretty much dispensed with the alternating sci fi/historical sequencing by this time, but monsters were pretty much expected. This was preceded by the Ice Warriors and followed by Web of Fear. Loved Troughton’s wee pun about “a disused yeti” in this 😉

    So this was an unusual story where the monster is a human. At least at this stage, I’m assuming Salamander is human. He seems very much in the Bond/Avengers/Man from Uncle/Dangerman etc villain mould. He’s written as a bit of a stereotype “swarthy latin type” baddie, but I think Troughton’s performance lifts it beyond that. He really is a joy to watch as he manipulates and blackmails his way to power.  There is no hint of the Doctor at all in Salamander, except at the beginning when it’s the Doctor pretending to be him.

    Jamie’s great in this, rising to the occasion as required. And he’s spot on, even if he means it ironically, Salmander’s security is crap. Rockets that can go from Australia to Hungary in less than a couple of hours, hi tech looking gizmos, and apparently the power to remotely set off volcanoes as required, and not a security camera or movement detector etc in sight. Astrid’s house last week was even worse, with just some fenceposts and a couple of lines of wire.

    Fariah the food taster is interesting too. She seems to share Salamander’s ironic humour and has a rather non-servant attitude. Maybe you get extra leeway for being a food tester –  it’s presumably not a job with long term prospects!

    By the end Slamander would seem to have consolidated another bit of his power base – he’s demonstrated his ruthlessness and power with the volcano, has Fedorin in his power and is well on the way to eliminating Denes (who has been revealed earlier to be working with Astrid’s group).

    Oh and I really liked Benik’s very camp dislike of his boss(?) Bruce.  And how he immediately goes to get in touch with Salamander, despite having said he’s not even going to try, as soon as Bruce leaves. Very nicely played.  And it lets us see what Salamander’s communication device looks like so we’ll know what Jamie’s up to later 😉

     

     

    #37756
    Bluesqueakpip @bluesqueakpip

    Yes, it’s a bit of a departure, this one. As if the production team woke up one morning and decided to do The Avengers instead.

    Milton Johns – a lovely man, who always gets cast as a creep. Like George Pravda, he’s a BG Who regular, with at least three stories on his credits. Benik really is extremely camp; there’s also a nice hint of power plays at the top, with everyone in Salamander’s camp busily stabbing everyone else in the back. But no one daring to try it on against the ‘Leader’, because you’ll not only find a knife in your back, you’ll find poison in your food and probably a volcano in your front garden. 🙂

    Yes, the lack of video surveillance really makes it feel like another era. Funnily enough, live video surveillance was possible back then – so Jamie’s right, the security is crap.

    Patrick Troughton is clearly enjoying the chance to show off his acting; this story keeps reminding me of Nightmare in Silver. Not because I expect a Cyberman to pop out of the fridge or anything, but because both stories gave the actor playing the Doctor the chance to show their range. For Troughton, it’s just how good a character actor he really is. For Smith, it was just how well he could play coldly nasty.

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