By Jessica Holmes

Happy New Year, everyone! We’re off to a cracking start this year with a spy thriller that really gives Patrick Troughton the chance to show off his (very good) acting chops and (very questionable) dialect skills. Let’s get stuck into Doctor Who: The Enemy Of The World.

EPISODE ONE

After all the cold weather of the last few episodes, a trip to the sunny seaside in the year 2018 is just the sort of thing the Doctor and his companions need. However, the Doctor’s refreshing dip in the briny is cut short when a gang of assassins try to fill him up with lead.

Fleeing into the sand dunes, the gang are almost cornered when the assassins’ boss shows up with a helicopter—but fortunately, she’s here to rescue them. It seems there has been a case of mistaken identity.

It’s a jolly exciting first few minutes, that’s for sure.

Their saviour Astrid (Mary Peach) takes the group to her bungalow, where she turns on the charm. The Doctor very much enjoys her attentions until she asks him if he wouldn’t mind doing her a favour. One that will very likely get him killed. She wants to introduce him to her boss, Giles Kent (Bill Kerr)… as soon as they get away from the assassins still in hot pursuit, leaving a dead assassin in Astrid’s living room and an exploded helicopter in her back garden.

See, it appears that the Doctor has a doppelganger. Again. Last time this happened (St. Barthomew's Eve), it was a French bishop, but this time it’s a Mexican would-be dictator by the name of Ramón Salamander.

The Doctor’s uncanny resemblance to Salamander (other than the questionable accent, brown-face and neat hairdo) could be an incredible boon to those who wish to bring Salamander down. But would that be a good thing? To all appearances, Salamander is an absolute godsend, having invented a technology to capture sunlight and use it to aid crop growth in disaster-stricken areas. It also happens that he has an uncanny ability to predict when and where these disasters will strike, and is always the first to offer aid.

It all seems a bit too good to be true for Kent, but the Doctor isn’t entirely convinced. Maybe they shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth? Then again, this horse might be Trojan.

Powerful men have a habit of dropping dead around Salamander, with his cronies taking their places. Kent claims that Salamander ruined his career when he got too close to the truth, but it could all just be sour grapes. There’s only one way to know for sure. The Doctor must become Ramón Salamander, and break into his research station to find out the truth about his plans for the world.

With a few weeks to practice, he could pull it off, though he’s still not sure he’s even willing to try it.

But Kent won’t give him a few weeks to practice, or even a few minutes to think. Thanks to a call from him, the head of United Zone security, Donald Bruce (Colin Douglas) is on the way. If he sees the Doctor out-of-character, he’ll put him under arrest for impersonating Salamander.

The only way out is to put on a flawless performance.

The Doctor hastily changes into some smarter clothes and gives his hair a brush while the others stall Bruce, who understandably has questions about the dead man in Astrid’s living room. It’s not exactly easy to explain away, but fortunately the Doctor doesn’t miss his cue, emerging in character as Ramón Salamander.

It is so weird.

EPISODE TWO

The Doctor finds himself very much thrown in at the deep end as Bruce demands an explanation for his presence here. But who is Bruce to demand explanations of the great Ramón Salamander? Nobody! And so he refuses to explain himself—and the ruse works.

The Doctor is still unconvinced he’s even aiding the right side, but Jamie encourages him to go along with things. I think he’s enjoying this.

Jamie, Victoria and Astrid rocket over to the Central European Zone to begin infiltration. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Kent go to observe Salamander’s research station from a cabin just outside the restricted area.

As for the real Salamander, he is warning the leader of the Central European Zone, Denes (George Pravda), about an impending eruption in a long dormant volcanic area in Hungary. I don’t think any volcanoes in Hungary have actually erupted for hundreds of thousands of years, but Salamander insists he knows all about volcanoes, so who am I to disagree?

However, Denes (by the way it’s pronounced ‘Denesh’) is doubtful about the risk.

Meanwhile, Astrid manages to plant a bomb on Salamander’s balcony, providing Jamie the opportunity to turn up at the right time to ‘save’ Salamander. A grateful Salamander offers Jamie a job with his household guard, and Jamie even manages to finagle a job in the kitchens for Victoria.

It turns out that Denes is in league with Astrid, and knows that Salamander is probably going to try and replace him with a more loyal stooge. He just can’t think of a reason that the most likely candidate, Fedorin (David Nettheim), should betray him.

Well, aside from petty ambition, it looks like Salamander is very talented at finding ways to motivate people. He finds incriminating information, then holds it against them as insurance. Whether the incriminating information is true or not is irrelevant, it looks real and that’s all that matters. Fedorin reluctantly agrees to Salamander’s plan to remove Denes from power, and right on cue…

BOOM! A whole mountain range erupts in a glorious montage of stock footage, to the undisguised awe of Salamander and the dismay of all others present.

Well, doesn’t that seem a little convenient?

It certainly seems so to Denes, who storms in and accuses Salamander of somehow causing this disaster. Because this is Doctor Who and Salamander is very obviously the baddie, he’s probably right… but you must admit that this is quite an eccentric accusation.

And it makes it very easy for Salamander to discredit Denes. He demands Bruce (who has just arrived) to arrest him, and Bruce complies. With the United Zone security forces at Salamander’s beck and call, why bother with all the manipulation? He could just seize power by force at this point. Seems like he’s just making more work for himself. Or perhaps he needs the hero-worship as much as he wants the power that comes with it.

EPISODE THREE

Though Denes is out of power and in handcuffs, that still isn’t enough for Salamander, who orders Federin to finish Denes off with a vial of poison. I think Salamander could stand to learn a thing or two about the art of subtlety.

Then again, when you’re powerful enough you can get away with this sort of thing.

While working in the kitchens under a comically dour chef, Victoria makes the acquaintance of Salamander’s food taster, Fariah (Carmen Munroe). Fariah is a less than willing employee of Salamander, but the exact nature of his hold on her is unclear. Nevertheless, she seems to hold quite a bit of soft power in his household, able to vouch for Jamie when a guard gets a little too suspicious of him. She warns Victoria that Salamander is bad news, and that she should get well away from him as fast as she can.

The Doctor and Kent, meanwhile, have learned of the disaster in Europe and are wondering how Salamander could have predicted it…or caused it. Kent has a theory. A suspicious amount of funding went into Salamander’s research station, far more than should have been required for its stated purpose of solar energy storage. However, when he tried to prove that there was something dodgy about how Salamander was handling the funds, the proof mysteriously vanished, replaced with falsified documents.

Having learned of Denes’ arrest, Astrid starts putting plans into place to attempt a rescue, pretending to be a messenger in order to do so. However, when no message actually arrives for him, Salamander gets suspicious as to what this stranger is doing in the presidential palace, and orders his guards to follow her.

Meanwhile, Fedorin gets an opportunity to poison Denes’ food, but finds himself unable to follow through. Salamander is of course very understanding when Fedorin returns to him, full poison vial in hand. He even offers him a drink… poisoned with the very toxin that Fedorin was supposed to deliver to Denes.

Well, if Fedorin didn’t see it coming, that’s on him.

At 11 on the dot, Jamie creates a distraction, but Astrid’s side of the plan goes awry. Not only does she fail to help Denes escape, he gets a bullet in the back. Then there’s a very abrupt cut to a new scene, with Jamie and Victoria captured and Astrid nowhere in sight. It feels like the scene was cut about a minute too early, which is odd for what is otherwise a very well paced serial.

Once the guards haul the pair away, Bruce finally gets a chance to ask Salamander what he was doing in Australia…which of course is news to Salamander. And the penny drops for the pair of them. Someone is impersonating him.

And we know Who.

Final Thoughts

Oh, this is an excellent start. Really excellent. It is very refreshing to have a different flavour of plot for once. No aliens (other than the Doctor), no bug-eyed monsters, just some intrigue and a fun spy plot. It might be a tad complicated in places, but I think kids are smart enough to keep up.

Troughton’s great as the Doctor, but he also makes a fantastic villain. Ramón Salamander has flair, panache, and a genuine sense of menace. In fact, he wouldn’t be out of place in a James Bond film. The one thing I don’t care for is the brownface and that absurd accent. Troughton is more than capable of distinguishing Salamander as an entirely different character to the Doctor without the assistance of such things. It’s not just the voice, he carries himself in a new way, emotes differently, his entire essence is just completely altered from when he’s playing the Doctor. I was genuinely impressed, and I really look forward to seeing how the two characters interact in the future.