The enemy of the world (1967 - 1968)

Review
More about Doctor Who
More about this serial

Review

This was a six-part serial that was first broadcast between 23rd December 1967 - 27th January 1968. A brief and somewhat spoiler-ish summary of the plot: the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria find themselves on earth sometime in an '1984'-like future, and encounter a would-be dictator who looks oddly familiar.

What I've seen:

Part three. The other five episodes are lost.

The good bits:

the story, socio-political science-fiction, is unusual for Doctor Who
Patrick Troughton plays both the Doctor and the main villain, and does so with obvious relish

The not so good bits:

part three doesn't work as a stand-alone episode. It's obvious that the Doctor-look-alike Salamander is the main villain, but for a clue about anything else you're going to need an episode guide or the audio version
in terms of tone, the one surviving episode is all over the place. There's a jarring contrast between some of the more light-hearted or even downright farcical scenes and the remainder, where the serial seems to aim for '1984'-style science-fiction

My verdict:

Interesting.

Seeing Troughton as the villain is cool, and it's an unusual story for Doctor Who. Nevertheless, if you're not a fan you might as well give this a miss.

More about Doctor Who

An introduction:
Doctor Who reviews: introduction

More "interesting" Doctor Who:
Doctor Who reviews: interesting

More from the Patrick Troughton years:
Doctor Who reviews: 1966 - 1969

Similar stories:
Doctor Who reviews: time travel

Original version of this review:
06/11/19

More about this serial

Episode guides:
BBC Cult

Serial reviews:
Outpost Gallifrey

DVD reviews (of the 'Lost in time' boxed set):
Outpost Gallifrey

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