The Enemy of the World

The TARDIS returns the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria to Australia on Earth in 2018 where the world is in the grip of a series of natural disasters. The only man able to save the world, though, is named Salamander, and through his benevolence and wisdom he has made crops grow again and can accurately predict where the next natural disaster will strike. He has saved thousands of lives, and through such deeds has gained massive power and influence. But Salamander has enemies, and they think he is not the benefactor he seems, and they seek to expose him as a murder, extortionist and a traitor, and with the Doctor's help they can do that... because the Doctor looks exactly like Salamander.

It's not the first time we've had this sort of a double-act in Doctor Who; there was the deliberate creation of a robot duplicate of the Doctor by the Daleks in The Chase and the coincidental likeness between the Doctor and the Abbot of Amboise in The Massacre, and here it's different again. Salamander does his hair differently of course (as opposed to the Doctor's didn't-do) and speaks with an accent to accentuate his Mexican heritage, but otherwise, they're dead ringers for each other. The Doctor is not keen to get involved with the plan but when he does impersonate Salamander he manages to convince everyone of Salamander's inner circle for a time.

The Doctor is hesitant to get involved in usurping what could well be a world leader, seeing as he has no evidence to encourage him to do so. All he has is the word of Giles Kent, a disgraced political opponent, and his attache Astrid Ferrier, and from the get go the only violence the Doctor sees comes from their people - and all directed at him. In a rare move of divide and conquer Victoria and Jamie are sent across the world to infiltrate Salamander's inner circle and look for proof while the Doctor probes for answers at Salamander's research centre in Australia where the Doctor witnesses firsthand the brutality of Salamander's regime. Victoria and Jamie uncover the evidence they need to convince the Doctor of Salamander's evil ways through witnessing his cruel political ambitions, but the connection to the natural disasters is the Doctor's to uncover.

This one is a six part story and doesn't ever feel like it is moving slowly; the narrative spans the globe even if some of the location footage like Jamie walking towards Victoria in a park or Astrid escaping through undergrowth is very obviously a studio. The beach scenes with the TARDIS, especially the evening shot in episode six, are effective despite the lighting being a bit too direct at night and the TARDIS doors assembled on the wrong sides for some reason. Small stuff - the rest is very engaging to watch and enjoy. Salamander himself makes for one of the nastiest villains in the series -  very cold, calculating, scheming and without conscience and he surrounds himself with toadies like his slimy second in command, Benik, or unwilling associates like his food taster, Faria.

Dig the little salamander in the O

My first enjoyment of the story came years and years ago with the publication of the novelization of the episode by Ian Marter; I don't exactly remember what my thoughts were on it at the time, but I do remember thinking at first that the people on the cover were the villains of the story but once I got to see it (or at least episode 3 - more on that soon) I realized they really were; it's Astrid and Giles but for some reason Giles has a murderous look on his face and has his finger poised over what is obviously "the button" with Astrid looking kinda crazed at his side. Years later, though, I got hold of a copy of the only existing episode at the time, episode 3, and got some better idea of who the players were, and eventually got the audio of the story to enjoy, and Target released the title again with a better cover. In 2013, though, just in time for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, all the missing episodes of the story turned up and finally could be seen for the first time in decades. There was no end to the joy that brought, considering what crap the actual current TV series was serving up at the time for anniversary fare, and now there was another complete story from the classic era of the show to enjoy. I snared it off iTunes at the time but got a physical DVD copy eventually which oddly doesn't come with any extras or commentary to go with it. This turned out to be the only complete story found in what at the time was referred to as "the omnirumour" which had it that every lost episode was coming back, but proved to be a bit of a stretch; we got 9 episodes back in total, which is the single biggest haul of missing episodes so far. Their recovery sparked some new hope among fans and the search continues for more.

That said, though, there are still four more episodes to account for in that haul, and what a coincidence, they are from the next story...

NEXT EPISODE: THE WEB OF FEAR