The Enemy of My Enemy

Librarian in the TARDIS, Bonus Review #2

Title: The Enemy of the World
Written by: David Whitaker
Team TARDIS: Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon, Victoria Waterfield
Adversary: Ramon Salamander
Originally Aired: Dec 23, 1967-Jan 27, 1968
Number of Episodes: 6

Synopsis (from TARDIS Wikia) -
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.

My Review:
The idea to review this story came to me on my way into work today right after I finished watching “The Enemy of the World” on iTunes (let that statement sink in for a bit...) Because this was one that I thought I would enjoy watching and I am so very pleased to report that it lived up to my expectations. So, why not slot in a special Bonus Review to go along with the rest of my 50th Anniversary reviews? (it’s my blog, my project, I do what I want!)

Let me back up - last night, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and the various fansites were all aglow and abuzz with the joyous news of the return of “The Enemy of the World” and “The Web of Fear” to the BBC archives. The joy was even more palpable because both of these stories had been made available to the public immediately via iTunes, with the further announcement of DVD releases for both (“Enemy” next month, “Web” in January 2014). I hadn’t intended on getting either one of them quite yet, mostly because my personal finances are a little bit strapped at the moment (don’t worry - things are fine. It’s just that there are certain things in life that take precedence). However, upon doing a few further calculations, I reasoned that I could purchase one of these two stories. I settled on “The Enemy of the World” because I had watched Episode 3 on the “Lost in Time” box set some months ago and for whatever reason, that’s the one out of all the missing Troughton stories that really resonated with me at the time (I know people are the most excited about “The Web of Fear,” and I will be getting to that one eventually and I have no reason to say anything against it - if indeed there is anything negative to say about it at all. I just haven’t seen it yet, so I have no idea).

So, “The Enemy of the World” it was. And after a 3+ hour download (I’m on my internet provider’s “It’s Better Than Nothing” El Cheapo plan), I was ready to tuck in and enjoy a veritable feast of Who.

And what a feast it was! There are so many things to love about this story and I’ll probably only be able to go in-depth on a few, but it was so very worth the ten bucks (plus whatever the DVD ends up costing - because I’m likely going to drop dineros on that as well).

Here I am wishing they'd taken this approach
with all of the DVD cover art! Oh well...

One of the greatest things about this find of Classic Who is that these are two stories that restore the lovely Miss Victoria Waterfield (played by Deborah Watling) to our screens. I’ve said before that I found the dismissal of Victoria as “just a screamer” not very fair, but I didn’t have much evidence to support that. But I am tired of the surface impression of the early Who female companions just being screamers in short skirts (I could do an entire essay on the many ways in which those assertions are wrong - with specific examples - but the people who need to hear them wouldn’t bother to read it anyway). Granted, the Victoria I found in “The Enemy of the World” may be a bit timid, sure. But there’s nothing wrong with being shy and reserved. Remember - Victoria joined Team TARDIS as a result of the death of her father and she didn’t have anywhere else to go (not really). Imagine being thrown into a situation like that - you don’t know who you can trust or how you’re going to be taken care of. Some may not like the idea of Victoria being the poor, weak little girl who needs a big, tough man to protect her - and I wouldn’t even go as far as to say that she needs a man, per se. But what she does need (and what everybody needs at one point or another) is a friend. The Doctor and Jamie become Victoria’s friends because they care about what happens to her. That doesn’t make someone weak or insignificant or less-valued. That makes someone human. And, as often happens on Team TARDIS, those friendships evolve into a feeling of family. Sure, you’re hopping all around in space and time and running from frightening monsters and crazy psychopaths - but as long as you’ve got your adopted family with you, things are going to be just fine. And on that level, I love Victoria’s characterization. I love her bravery and her courage. I love her dependability. I love that she gets scared, but she still steps up when she is needed. That’s what makes a hero. It’s not necessarily the willingness to throw a punch that makes someone heroic

(Though I wouldn't trade Jamie knocking out a hostile on the beach while shouting “Creig au Tuire!” for anything - that was awesome. But that’s in Jamie’s character and there are things that I love about Jamie that make him different from Victoria or Zoe or Ben or Polly - but I talked a lot about that in my review of “The Evil of the Daleks,” so I’ll let that analysis stand on its own).

But there are a fantastic couple of scenes in Episode 5 where Jamie and Victoria have been captured by Salamander’s men and they’re being interrogated by Benik. And Benik is quite the horrible little sadist. He threatens Victoria, which upsets Jamie but there’s nothing he can really do about it - not without getting Victoria hurt or killed. There were some moments where I actually thought “Holy... this is supposed to be a kids’ show!” (before amending my own thought - “family show.” Still, it was scary stuff! And I’m 28!)

I really liked the iTunes
 cover art for this story - nice
and intense!

But then the Doctor comes in, clearly impersonating Salamander and fooling everyone - including Jamie and Victoria - and says that he will continue the interrogations. Which he does - even with Benik and Benik’s little “puppy dog” (as the Doctor calls Random Guard #3) out of the room. And Victoria has had it! She finally tells off “Salamander” and yells what a horrible man he is and all the things she and Jamie found out about him while they were sneaking around his compound in Episodes 2 and 3 - which amounts to the proof the Doctor has been looking for when Astrid and Giles first asked him to help them bring down Salamander (plus, Benik comes back, still thinking the Doctor is Salamander, and hands him some documents to sign. Who knew the catering bills would be so damning?) Jamie gets in the fracas too, thus proving to Bruce that Salamander really is a creep.

And then - just when Victoria and Jamie are so angry that they’re probably going to beat the crap out of “Salamander” (yes, even sweet, innocent Victoria is pissed enough at this point to throw a punch or two), the Doctor reveals to his friends that it’s really him. But neither Jamie nor Victoria quite believe it (who can blame them?) and it’s only when the Doctor plays “air-recorder” (in one of the most heartwarming and delightful moments I’ve seen Patrick Troughton display) that both Jamie and Victoria recognize their friend and their reunion is something that should be ranked on one of those “Top Doctor Who Moments” lists that someone somewhere has probably compiled (we Whovians are fond of our lists).

I haven’t even gotten into any plot elements of this story! The storytelling in “The Enemy of the World” is just so tight and engaging. The only reason I realized that I had already watched four episodes when I suddenly felt very sleepy, on account of it being so late (I decided to go to bed at that point and save the rest for when I was fully alert). This story trucks. It moves and it’s interesting and it’s just so much fun to watch! Patrick Troughton is simply brilliant as both the Doctor and Salamander. The best part about his performance is the subtle differences when he’s the Doctor impersonating Salamander. You know that he’s playing the Doctor playing a different role, but even if you didn’t know that, you would probably be fooled right along with Jamie and Victoria and the rest. And the other characters are phenomenal too. I think my favorites were Astrid and Fariah - Astrid’s kind of the action-lady who saves Team TARDIS from the guys hunting Salamander on the beach at the beginning and Fariah is Salamander’s food taster who actually hates Salamander and she ends up helping the Doctor escape (and sacrificing herself in the process, but her death scene is really quite good).

I could go on and on about this story and how much I enjoyed it. But it’s also such a wonderful treat to FINALLY have it back. It was one of those that I pretty much had resigned myself to never being able to see, but I figured I could listen to the audios and read the novelization - but there’s so much that you miss with just having those little pieces of the story. You miss the facial expressions and the movements and the scenery (the wallpaper in Salamander’s compound - yeah, even that made me laugh) and you miss just what kind of people these characters are. Animation and recons help, but there really is nothing like seeing the story as it was originally broadcast.

Of course, rumors persist and there’s always hope - however dim - for more finds. This huge discovery has brought the number of missing episodes down to 97 (down to double-digits! HOORAY!) and there are expert archivists out there still searching for whatever else they can uncover. There’s still a long way to go to having a complete collection of every Doctor Who episode ever made - and who knows whether or not that’s actually possible...

But for now - we dance!

***
Other Librarian in the TARDIS reviews of the Second Doctor -

Review 2.01 - A Work of Heart (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)
Review 2.02 - A Reunion of Friends (Big Finish: The Forbidden Time)
Review 2.03 - The Celestial Chessmaster (Novel: Dreams of Empire)

***
Next Time, on Librarian in the TARDIS -
Review 10.3 - The Most Ancient and Noble House

Previously -
Review 10.2 - Life Can Be a Bumpy Ride, Let the Doctor Smooth It Out

Missing No Longer

I've been posting all over Twitter and Facebook about the news and it seemed silly, in a year where the Librarian in the TARDIS has been hopping all over time and space, to not devote some blog space to this momentous event.

Turns out all those crazy, overblown rumors were true - at least, that there have been nine previously missing classic Doctor Who episodes recovered.  Details of the find and today's press screening are here (background info on missing episodes in general - if you need it - can be found here).  We now have "The Enemy of the World" in its entirety and "The Web of Fear," minus Episode 3 (which, undoubtedly, will be animated in due course for a future DVD release).



Some months ago, I borrowed the "Lost in Time" DVDs set from my local library and I, like many other Whovians, mourned the fact that I couldn't see these stories in their complete forms.  I was especially heartbroken after seeing the one episode of "The Enemy of the World" that was available (that was episode 3) because that seemed like a remarkably fun story (I loved Jamie and Victoria's interactions in that one - and how wonderful is it that we have more Victoria stories!  There are so few of hers available).  "The Web of Fear" seems to be one that's fairly well-loved that I just haven't gotten around to experiencing, but I love the Brigadier and that's his first appearance as the Brigadier (though he was Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart at the time), so that's just as exciting.



What's interesting is that the Great Intelligence featured heavily in the most recent season of Doctor Who, even though neither of the Classic Who serials that it was featured in were available.  But now, we have one of them ("The Web of Fear").  I don't mean anything by this - other than that's pretty serendipitous, if indeed it was a coincidence (I'm inclined to think that it is because the Great Intelligence didn't show up until last year's Christmas Special and that was filmed last August, so that's a hell of a long time to be sitting on news like this).

In the run-up to this announcement, everyone had their pet episodes and everyone was saying "I hope they find X!"  I admit, neither of these were on my radar, but I'm glad to have them nonetheless.  And of course, I hope that more are found.  But for now - I'm off to iTunes!

A Work of Heart

Librarian in the TARDIS, Review 2.01

Title: The Evil of the Daleks
Team TARDIS: Second Doctor, Jamie, Victoria (joins)
Adversaries: The Daleks, Theodore Maxtible
Originally Aired: May 20-July 1, 1967
Number of Episodes: 7 (only Episode 2 survives)

I chose to review “The Evil of the Daleks” for several reasons.  Because there’s only one episode out of seven still in existence, it’s one of the lesser-known of the Patrick Troughton era.  That being said, it may be one of the better-known of the missing stories - one that frequently gets recommended to those seeking to venture into the realm of so-called “Lost in Time” stories. The brilliant writing, the character development, the introduction of a new companion, the in-story-time-travel-sans-TARDIS and the hilarity of imagining Daleks playing like they’re trains (it makes sense in context) all make for a memorable narrative.

The topic of missing Doctor Who episodes is well-documented and has been discussed in interviews and documentaries and forums ad nauseum, so I won’t go into it much here (if you are not familiar with the topic, Wikipedia has a pretty good rundown of it).  There are some magnificent gems worth searching out, which is why the hunt for missing episodes is such a popular subject for discussion (to be fair, there are a few stinkers still missing, but those are rare - it seems that The Greater Cosmos decided that they only wanted the best stories wiped, just to screw around with us). I could easily have chosen to review any of the Troughton-era stories that exist in full, but a big component of this blogging project is to pay respect to as many aspects of Doctor Who as I can and I felt it would be a shame not to give the lost stories their due (also, it's kind of fun to listen to Doctor Who stories in the car and count it as having "watched" them because they were originally televised - and before anyone asks, yes, I did watch the surviving Episode 2 on the "Lost in Time" DVD).

“The Evil of the Daleks” starts out where the previous story, “The Faceless Ones” (also mostly missing), left off.  The Doctor and Jamie are still at the airport, having just said goodbye to Ben and Polly, but they are thrown into another adventure almost immediately when it turns out someone has pilfered the TARDIS.  Elsewhere, a man named Waterfield is in his office, consulting with the driver who took the TARDIS and led the Doctor to investigate a thoroughly 1960s coffee bar (complete with modern music in the background).

Something immensely fun about Doctor Who having been around for so long is that I can watch (okay, listen to) “The Evil of the Daleks” in 2013 and not be bothered by how “dated” it is.  To me, it’s just the Doctor and Jamie traveling back in time to 1966.  And even to viewers in 1967 - there’s an element of “They aren't in my modern times, but it’s time travel - I’m okay with this!”  Especially when you have the Doctor traveling with a companion originally from the 1700s (who catches on very quickly), “modern times” takes on a more fluid definition.

Speaking of Jamie - this is the first story where he truly gets to shine.  Previous to “The Evil of the Daleks,” he was more or less window dressing - someone for Ben and Polly to look out for like he was their baby brother.  But now that Team TARDIS is less a Sailor and an Duchess, the young Highlander gets to show the Doctor (and everyone else) that he does have something to contribute and he can take care of himself and those around him.  Jamie has a natural, easy-going, lovable nature I can’t help but be drawn to.  And that on its own might have been enough to make him an enjoyable character.  But it is in his first story as a proactive character that he truly earns my respect and a spot on my personal list of All-Time Favorite Companions (As an aside - Steven Taylor has a similar moment at the end of "The Massacre" that is just heartwrenching if you don't know it's coming).

Episode 3 is where this starts happening and it’s almost jarring to see this unfold (culminating in a bit of a confrontation between Jamie and the Doctor in Episode 5), especially if you’re used to the Jamie and Doctor friendship of the later Troughton-era.  As far as Jamie knows, Maxtible and Waterfield are no-good, dirty rotten scoundrels who have murdered people and stolen the TARDIS.  When he sees the Doctor cozying up to these guys, Jamie’s had it.  He calls the Doctor out on the carpet for this BS - not in a malicious way, but in such a way that says “Nobody’s given me a straight answer and I don’t want to be a doormat!”  It’s there that you realize that Jamie is not going to be a rubber-stamp-yes-man of a companion (and when it comes down to it - completely forgetting the Doctor Who stereotypes and media-perpetuated-perceptions - has the Doctor really had any of those?)

Jamie, to me, is the companion with heart.  Lots of companions have brains and are accomplished intellectually and that’s great, but there’s something about a companion who is loyal, courageous, honorable and kind.  That’s not to say Jamie isn’t smart, but it’s a different kind of smart from the Doctor or astrophysicist Zoe.  Jamie’s intelligence and instinct is vital to his character - he’s a fast learner and can quickly adapt to his strange new life traveling through time and space, though he never forgets his sense of bravery and honor instilled in him as a piper for Clan McLaren at Culloden.

All of this is why the Doctor volunteers Jamie (without Jamie’s consent, mind you - there could be an entire discussion of the ethics of that) to provide the Daleks with “The Human Factor” - some unknown element that humans have that the Daleks don’t that the Daleks believe will help them become Supreme Masters of the Universe! (um... again).  In collaboration with Maxtible and Waterfield, the Doctor sets Jamie up to go on a rescue mission to save Victoria Waterfield, who has been kidnapped by the Daleks and is held prisoner.  With the help of the mute servant, Kemel, Jamie saves the lovely Miss Waterfield (and my shipping goggles come back out to play).  Somehow during this excursion, the Doctor has isolated the Human Factor that Jamie displays and implants it into three brand-new Daleks.  And, oh Dear Reader, such a merchandise opportunity was born!  If Fisher-Price could get a hold of the rights to it, that is.

These three Daleks (named Alpha, Beta and Omega by the Doctor) exhibit all the intellectual maturity of the preschoolers who come to my storytimes at the library.  They want to play.  They want friends.  They sing their new names in a sweet little scene that makes me want to teach the “Alpha, Beta, Omega!” chant to the next group of three-year-olds I come in contact with (I wonder if the Dalek action figures from this story had an option to sing that song, because that would be amazing).  And then they start pushing a wheeled-desk chair around like they’re playing some strange game of Four Square.  But these Daleks mature rapidly and develop the ability to ask questions - something very much in opposition to Dalek culture.  Later, the Human-Factor-Daleks are targeted by the Emperor Dalek for destruction - but the Doctor appeals to their nature to fight for themselves and against the oppressive Dalek regime, eventually destroying the entire Dalek Empire “forever” (or, at least until Terry Nation needs a paycheck again).

This story has so many delightful and remarkable moments in it that would be wonderful to watch and it’s a shame that it doesn't exist (print that line out and keep it handy the next time you’re listening to a missing story audio or watching a recon).  I think “delight” and “remarkable” can fairly well sum-up the Troughton era and it’s clear why his Doctor remains a favorite of so many people - both people who watched his stories brand new and the newer fans who discovered his stories later (such as a certain fellow by the name of Matt Smith you may have heard of).

Heart, innocence and joy - some of the greatest hallmarks of Doctor Who.

***

Next Time, on Librarian in the TARDIS -

Review 2.02 - It's dangerous to go alone! Take this!

Previously -

Review 1.03 - Recycled Christie Cardboard... IN SPACE!!