The ambition of The Enemy Of The World is unbelievable. Seriously, we are way past the direction of The Keys Of Marinus here. Of course, that's not entirely a good thing. It's so overspiced you can barely feel the story in it, but I've always found ambition very admirable. It gets you where you want to go.
PLOT
The year is 2018 and a Mexican named Salamander plots to take over the world by causing natural disasters and then fixing them(making the world dependent on him to survive). Things get complicated when it turns out that he has an uncanny resemblance with the Doctor...
CHARACTERS
This is where The Enemy Of The World excels. Patrick Troughton's double role is played off brilliantly, to the point where even I questioned which character I was watching. That's just how good he is.
Firstly, the Doctor. I absolutely adoooored the opening scene where he rushes off to the beach to play with all the glee of a six-year old. That just says so much about his character. He also displays the Doctor's pacifism, absolutely refusing to assasinate Salamander, despite the kind of man he is.
Speaking of that, I loved the way he and Salamander met at the end. It was the most atmospheric scene Doctor Who has done thus far and the way both knew the other through their actions in the story alone was brilliant. The only thing it really lacked was incidental music. But yeah, the end was epic. And hey, the TARDIS doors were opened mid-flight again(I can just imagine a mini-Salamander wandering around the house from Planet Of Giants)!
Salamander himself was a hilariously great villain. There was a likability about him(the way he handled things with good humor and a kind of forgiving attitude) and the accent was funny as hell. You've also got to give him credit for being one of the very few villains to get into the TARDIS.
The other villains were good too. Bruce was a very real person, loyal, but questioning. So was Benik. You're not always supposed to like villains and I HATED Benik.
Jamie and Victoria were spot-on too. The way Jamie protected Victoria and how she looked up to him. Oh jeez, I love these moments.
But now to the issues.
The Enemy Of The World is just filled with characters, sets and concepts that could easily work in stories of their own. There's the doppelganger thing, the isolated underground base, the natural forces attacking, the resistance against an evil dictator. It's just tiring. Very memorable and good, but just overdone.
There was the funny chef(who reminded me of Ted from Scrubs), the firm Fariah, the secretive Giles Kent and her brave assistant, Fedren and the Controller and of course Bruce and Benik. That's a lot of people to keep track of. And it is really hard to, especially since there's a big lack of establishing shots and scenes.
The direction is also overdone. Like in the last few stories, there's a real cinematic feel to it, but sometimes, it just cuts so fast you have no idea what's happening and how. Now that I think about it, the direction and style of the story seems very reminiscent of New Who, which isn't bad, but New Who's stories are designed to be 45 minutes long whilst this story seems to suffer from being a four-parter.
It's also extremely dated, with giant phones and mini black-and-white TVs(hey, I still have one of those!), not to mention being set in 2018.
NOTES
*There's a bit of incidental music here(the mysterious one that plays when we see Salamander's underground base) that Stanley Kubrick later used in "The Shining". That is just incredible. Hey, I bet mini-Salamander retired in that mini-maze in the Overlook Hotel.
*I'm glad they broke off from the Base Under Siege for a story, but I'm not so glad it was for this story because as I said above, it really is a case of throwing too much at the viewer. It was not as enjoyable an experience as you might imagine.
*The recorder itself doesn't appear(Jamie made the Doctor leave it in the TARDIS), but the Doctor proves he's not Salamander by pretending to play it.
*RTD later reused "Australasia" in The Parting Of The Ways.
*Why was Giles turned into a villain? It just doesn't seem to gel.
*Is Salamander a serious Mexican name?
*I wonder if another doppelganger episode is gonna come up with Peter Capaldi, considering that he's played in Doctor Who before.
*Why can't the Doctor just leave the records room at the end if the door was locked from the inside?
*Giles Kent looks a lot like Pete Tyler. Aha! Another conspiracy!
*What is Benik arrested for? He didn't seem to commit a crime besides grabbing a gun. Is Bruce THAT real? Wow.
BEST LINE
"I didn't need you once. I don't need you now."
FIVE SECONDS LATER
"You were useful once."
CONCLUSION
Certainly something wildly different, but it's like eating crispy, delicious bacon with sweet, cold ice cream on it. Both are gorgeous, but the mixup is bizarre.
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