Stories Television Doctor Who Season 5 Serial: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The Enemy of the World Original Story TV Soundtrack Original Story TV Soundtrack 1 image Overview Episodes Characters How to Watch Reviews 15 Statistics Related Stories Quotes 4 Transcript Overview First aired Saturday, December 23, 1967 Production Code PP Written by David Whitaker Publisher BBC Directed by Barry Letts Runtime 150 minutes Time Travel Future Tropes (Potential Spoilers!) Doctor Doppelgänger, Mistaken Identity, Spiked Drink, The Doctor Falls Location (Potential Spoilers!) Hungary, Australia, Central European Zone, Earth Synopsis On Earth in 2018, the Doctor and his companions are enmeshed in a deadly web of intrigue thanks to his uncanny resemblance to the scientist/politician Salamander. He is hailed as the "shopkeeper of the world" for his efforts to relieve global famine, but why do his rivals keep disappearing? How can he predict so many natural disasters? The Doctor must expose Salamander's schemes before he takes over the world. Watch Watched Favourite Favourited Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Owned Save to my list Saved Edit date completed Custom Date Release Date Archive (no date) Save 6 Episodes Episode 1 First aired Saturday, December 23, 1967 Runtime 25 minutes Written by David Whitaker Directed by Barry Letts UK Viewers 6.8 million Appreciation Index 50 Synopsis After the Doctor is attacked by a group of mysterious gunmen, he discovers he is the physical double of the famous scientist Salamander. Episode 2 First aired Saturday, December 30, 1967 Runtime 25 minutes Written by David Whitaker Directed by Barry Letts UK Viewers 7.6 million Appreciation Index 49 Synopsis Jamie and Victoria agree to accompany Astrid to Hungary to observe Salamander's activities. Episode 3 First aired Saturday, January 6, 1968 Runtime 25 minutes Written by David Whitaker Directed by Barry Letts UK Viewers 7.1 million Appreciation Index 48 Synopsis Jamie and Victoria join Astrid into attempting to rescue Denes but Salamander becomes suspicious of them. Episode 4 First aired Saturday, January 13, 1968 Runtime 25 minutes Written by David Whitaker Directed by Barry Letts UK Viewers 7.8 million Appreciation Index 49 Synopsis Fariah brings the Doctor and Kent evidence of Salamander's activities but then they come under attack from Benik. Episode 5 First aired Saturday, January 20, 1968 Runtime 25 minutes Written by David Whitaker Directed by Barry Letts UK Viewers 6.9 million Appreciation Index 49 Synopsis The Doctor persuades Bruce to help him infiltrate Salamander's research centre while Salamander takes drastic action to prevent Swann finding out the truth. Episode 6 First aired Saturday, January 27, 1968 Runtime 25 minutes Written by David Whitaker Directed by Barry Letts UK Viewers 8.3 million Appreciation Index 52 Synopsis The Doctor discovers the true link between Salamander and Kent while Astrid tries to convince the shelter inhabitants they have been lied to. Show All Episodes Characters Second Doctor Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon Frazer Hines Victoria Waterfield Deborah Watling Ramón Salamander First Appearance Colin Redmayne Show All Characters (5) How to watch The Enemy of the World: Watch on iPlayer DVD The Enemy of the World DVD Lost in Time VHS The Troughton Years (VHS) Reviews Add Review Edit Review Sort: Default Date (Newest First) Date (Oldest First) Likes (High-Low) Likes (Low-High) Rating (High-Low) Rating (Low-High) Word count (High-Low) Word count (Low-High) Username (A-Z) Username (Z-A) Spoilers First Spoilers Last 15 reviews 15 July 2024 · 427 words Review by WhoPotterVian Spoilers 5 This review contains spoilers! In 2013, two missing stories were recovered by a missing films hunter called Phil Morris; one was complete, the other missing only one episode out of six. The complete one was Enemy of the World, a story featuring Patrick Troughton playing two characters: the Doctor himself and a ruthless dictator called Salamander. The plot is a relatively simple one. The Doctor and his companions Jamie and Victoria arrive in the near future (2018), where the Doctor is mistaken for Salamander by a group of spies and is persuaded to use his uncanny resemblance to bring him down before he causes the end of the world through creating natural disasters. The first thing to note is this doesn't feel like a Doctor Who story; it is a strange entity as it feels more like a spy thriller. Salamander is more 'Bond villain' than one who usually appears in the show. Also, the story has a surprisingly dark ending where the TARDIS doors are opened and Salamander falls out into the time vortex. It's a nice break from the usual but it never feels quite as engaging as a typical Doctor Who story. The best thing to watch this serial for is Patrick Troughton in his dual role. Patrick Troughton does a fantastic job as both his incarnation of the Doctor and Salamander; it's amazing how he manages to make both characters different from each other even though he is having to juggle playing both. He slips effortlessly back into playing the Doctor after taking a turn at Salamander and vice versa. It feels like watching two different actors rather than just one; I think it is a shame the new series didn't attempt this in series 9 by having an episode set in Pompeii so Peter Capaldi could play both the Doctor and Caelicius because it would be interesting to see how the new series would handle it. The settings and production work are also great. The production values here are excellent. The serial feels expensive, especially with location filming on a beach and the stuff with the lift that goes underground to the people who believe a nuclear war has devastated the Earth. Everything feels like it cost more than other serials at the time and alongside that you can tell the production crew put in a lot of work. Overall, The Enemy of the World isn't quite as engaging as your average Doctor Who story but it's still a recommended watch due to Patrick Troughton's fantastic dual performance and the impressively high production values. There is even a helicopter. WhoPotterVian View profile Like Liked 5 4 June 2024 · 116 words Review by dema1020 Spoilers 4 This review contains spoilers! This might be my favourite Second Doctor story I've stumbled on thus far. I love the whole schtick with Troughton playing Salamander, Jaime is a lot of fun here and has some great moments with the Doctor, and the story is well done enough I found it held my attention from start to finish. Given the era and what the production was capable of at the time, I would say it is a fine work and excellent Second Doctor story. We owe a lot to Philip Morris for recovering these episodes, as it is a real treat to see Salamander in all his glory. Highly recommended for those seeking to enjoy a good Second Doctor adventure. dema1020 View profile Like Liked 4 19 August 2024 · 338 words Review by 15thDoctor Spoilers 3 This review contains spoilers! This 1968 / 2018 epic is one of my favourites. The idea behind Salamander may be a blindingly obvious one, the ruthless, powerful megalomaniac who happens to have the exact appearance of our main protagonist, but they really pull this off. They evil high concept villainous plan has a logic to it and an epic sense of scale which we haven't seen since the dreadful The Dalek's Master Plan. The volcano, blackmail and poison scenes, all in quick succession do a great job of showing off Salamander's evil credentials. I love the idea of someone controlling the world through manipulating weather and natural disasters. Jamie works so well as a character in this scenario, infiltrating the compound by "saving" Salamander's life. He is one of the best character's the show has ever seen. The secret bunker has to be my favourite element of this story. The radiation suit and secret life is genuinely exciting, you wonder where Salamander could be off to. The fact he has a bunch of scientists locked up through trickery, unwittingly doing his evil dirty work - this is the factor that makes this story genius. You really feel for this band of "survivors" that believe a previous war has left the earth above radiated and ruined. When the newspaper clipping is found by one of the underground scientists Salamander's lies begin to unravel. Salamander tries to do away with him, but he is discovered by another one of this story's heroes Astrid (who has a brilliant electric flirty moment with The Doctor in episode one that really has to be seen to be believed). She successfully convinces the underground people of Salamander's deceit which sets the dictator's downfall in motion. Its great to see Patrick Troughton's two characters finally meet in the TARDIS at the end of the final episode. This is an exciting fight to witness, but it is perhaps the only part of the story which feels rushed, if this had been a little longer then the ending could be a little more satisfying. 15thDoctor View profile Like Liked 3 16 January 2025 · 650 words Review by DanDunn Spoilers 3 This review contains spoilers! We now come to a story that at one point would never have been considered as one of Troughton’s best. After a long period of five out of six episodes being missing and the majority of the fanbase having a negative overview as it seemed from the audio that The Enemy of the World was very boring, miraculously all missing episodes were discovered with the footage intact in 2013. When this story finally got a DVD release you have never seen such a change in opinion quite like this story as the fans seemed to look upon this story in a more positive light now that the footage had been restored. What was once presumed to be a very dull and overlong six-parter turned out to be one of the most well directed and well performed stories of the Second Doctor era. Troughton brings what is arguably his best performance in Doctor Who as not just the Doctor. The story sees the Doctor in the midst of a plot to bring down a man who’s determined to be dictator of the world, interestingly enough though the man in question, Salamander, looks exactly like the Doctor, which gives his enemies the perfect opportunity to have an impersonator to expose Salamander for the villain he is. Troughton may not be my favourite Doctor, but he is quite possibly the most talented actor to ever play the Doctor; in this story he delivers a tour de force performance as the Doctor, the villain, the Doctor impersonating the villain and the villain impersonating the Doctor. Sometimes most of which in the same scene! What really sells this premise is the fact that Troughton slips so seamlessly into his other role as Salamander to the point where it doesn’t just feel like a cheap doppelganger story, you really buy into this other character he plays, especially in scenes where the Doctor impersonates Salamander with such confidence but with a slight hint of secrecy in his mannerisms. William Hartnell really was right about Troughton being “the one man in England who can take over”, he’s just incredible in this story. The Enemy of the World has often been described as Doctor Who being a 007 film and that’s honestly an accurate statement as this features plenty of espionage, characters with their own duplicitous motives, more focus on action and less sci-fi and a literal supervillain with a frankly ridiculous method of trying to rule the world. The story does admittedly go a little out there in it’s second half with the reveal of how Salamander is planning to take over the world but it is in the same spirit as a James Bond film so I can’t fault it for that. There’s also the accidental hilarity of this story taking place in pre-2018, which makes for a fun game to play on all the things that we of course had pre-2018 but missed the headlines on, like rockets used as public transport! I guess they just didn’t think the show would make it that far. The Enemy of the World is very different from any other Doctor Who story, it’s neither sci-fi focused or a pure historical, but rather a political action thriller which may throw fans off a bit but with some great directing and performances, not just from Troughton but from an excellent side cast as well, this makes for a fun viewing and I’m happy it got reappraised for the better on its fully restored release. I can’t speak for what this was like with only the audio and tele-snaps as I missed out on that and of course having the footage missing doesn’t ruin other stories from the 60s that suffered a similar fate, and just because the footage is found and restored doesn’t mean the overall opinion will change drastically, but The Enemy of the World proved to be the acceptation to that. DanDunn View profile Like Liked 3 7 March 2025 · 103 words Review by greenLetterT 1 The Enemy of the World could've scored higher, were it not for the fact that a core part of the plot is Patrick Troughton in brownface doing a fake Mexican accent. It's shot, directed, and paced well. The world is fascinating and the side characters are interesting (we even have a black character with her own motivations and plot relevance, which is a miracle for 60s Who, even if she does die in ep4). Troughton plays it well, with the Doctor-as-Salamander and Salamander-as-the-Doctor and more layers of subterfuge beside, it's just disappointing (to say through least), that Salamander is the way he is greenLetterT View profile Like Liked 1 Show All Reviews (15) Open in new window Statistics AVG. Rating589 members 4.29 / 5 Member Statistics Watched 1006 Favourited 244 Reviewed 15 Saved 7 Skipped 2 Related Stories The Blogs of Doom Colin Rating: 1.96 Story Skipped Short Story More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: The Blogs of Doom Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Other adaptations of this story: We define an adaptation as a recreation of a similar story but on a different medium or with different characters. Target Collection Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World Rating: 3.48 Story Skipped Book More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Target Collection Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Other variations of this story We define a variation as another way of experiencing the exact same story - like an autiobook, a reconstruction or an omnibus edition. BBC Audio Soundtracks The Enemy of the World (BBC Audio Soundtrack) Rating: 3.50 Story Skipped Soundtrack Reviews(1) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: BBC Audio Soundtracks Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Quotes Add Quote Link to Quote Favourite DOCTOR: Now, this won't take a minute. I just want to clean it off. Be as gentle as I can. There we are. Who are these men? Why are they so determined to kill us? ASTRID: Kill you. They hate you. DOCTOR: Me? I'm the nicest possible person. — The Enemy of the World Show All Quotes (4) Open in new window Transcript Needs checking (Transcriber's note - this transcript was originally created from the BBC Radio Collection CDs, and is now updated from the lost episodes which were recovered in 2013.) Episode One [Beach] (The TARDIS materialises amidst the dunes by a golden beach, played by Climping beach, Littlehampton, West Sussex.) JAMIE: Where are we, Doctor?DOCTOR: We're by the seaside, that's where we are. That's all that matters.JAMIE: Aye, but where?VICTORIA: Yes, Doctor, we must know.DOCTOR: Oh, stop fussing, you two. Come on. Show Full Transcript Open in new window