Doctor Who: The Enemy of the World

.

The Enemy of the World is the fourth serial of Season 5 of the classic Doctor Who series. Originally broadcast in six weekly parts from 23 December 1967 to 27 January 1968. It was written by David Whitaker and directed by Barry Letts. It stars Patrick Troughton as the Doctor and Salamander, Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon, Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield, Mary Peach as Astrid Ferrier, Bill Kerr as Giles Kent, Milton Johns as Benik, and Colin Douglas as Donald Bruce.

The TARDIS lands on a beach in a near-future world, where the Doctor is drawn into a political thriller because he looks exactly like Salamander, a rising leader who promises peace while secretly causing disasters. With Astrid’s help and Kent’s claims, Jamie and Victoria go undercover to learn the truth, facing Benik’s cruelty and Bruce’s suspicion as they move through guarded bases and tense meetings. It was rediscovered in 2013 after being missing for decades

Episode 1

On a deserted Australian beach in the near future, the Doctor strips off his coat and sprints happily into the surf while Jamie and Victoria laugh on the sand. The mood shatters when a helicopter swoops low and opens fire. A poised woman, Astrid Ferrier, races in with a hovercar and whisks them away to a safe house owned by her ally, Giles Kent. He stares at the Doctor and goes pale: the famous world “benefactor” Salamander looks exactly like him.

Kent claims Salamander is no saviour but a ruthless manipulator who topples leaders with “predicted” disasters, then steps in to rule. He wants the Doctor to impersonate the man long enough to expose him. The Doctor refuses to condemn anyone on a single story and demands proof. Meanwhile Salamander’s vicious lieutenant Benik triangulates Astrid’s location and sends security troops.

A running fight follows: blasts, shattered glass, a sudden lift-off in Astrid’s helicopter. The Doctor studies newsfeeds and Kent’s files, noticing precise “coincidences” around earthquakes and food shipments. He agrees to investigate: but on his terms. Jamie and Victoria will infiltrate Salamander’s staff while he learns the man’s voice and manner. As the sun drops, two identical profiles appear on a screen: the chase has become a mirror.

Episode 2

Astrid slips Jamie and Victoria into Salamander’s orbit at Central European Zone headquarters, where the “benefactor” is arranging relief after a recent quake. Salamander is magnetic in public: soft praise for good workers, hard orders when backs are turned. He spots Jamie’s courage during a staged kitchen fire and drafts him into security. Victoria becomes assistant to Fariah, Salamander’s wary food taster, who hints she is not free to leave.

The Doctor, meanwhile, rehearses Salamander’s voice with Kent and studies recordings of meetings that always end with rivals disgraced. Reports crackle in: Denes, a respected Zone leader, warns of political abuses; Salamander counters with an evidence bundle that appears from nowhere. Astrid flies to meet Denes and finds a decent man already half framed for treason. Back in Australia, Security Chief Donald Bruce visits Kent, sniffing at inconsistencies and noting the Doctor’s uncanny resemblance to Salamander.

Salamander orders a “test” of loyalty that pushes Jamie to betray Victoria; Jamie flips the trap, protecting her while earning promotion. At night Fariah presses a small recorder into Victoria’s hands (proof of Salamander’s schemes) begging her to get it to Astrid. The corridors feel colder. Behind the smooth speeches, something secret is powering Salamander’s rise.

Episode 3

Salamander tours the Central European Zone and engineers the public ruin of Denes, blaming him for withheld food and plotting. Astrid and a local ally attempt a rescue at the border; guards close in, and Denes is shot. The Doctor hears the news and hardens, but still needs more than grief to act. Fariah, terrified, agrees to trade a damning tape to Astrid in a nighttime handoff at the research station; Benik arrives first, cruelly efficient.

Fariah is mortally wounded and hands Astrid the recorder with her last breath. Jamie’s promotion draws him into Salamander’s inner rooms, where he glimpses a hidden lift and an access routine that makes no sense: Salamander “disappears” for hours with no escorts. Donald Bruce presses Salamander on procedural gaps and gets charm instead of answers; his suspicion grows.

Kent pushes the Doctor to take Salamander’s place immediately; the Doctor snaps that a single misstep could get people killed. Astrid delivers the tape. On it, Salamander anticipates the “natural” disasters he later “predicts,” and orders Benik to suppress witnesses. Now the Doctor is ready. He will meet Salamander face to face: once he knows where the man goes when he vanishes below the station. Jamie volunteers to find the door.

Episode 4

The secret opens beneath the research station: an elevator drops Salamander into a sealed complex where a group of scientists, led by the gentle Swann, have lived for years, told that nuclear war destroyed the surface. They trigger “experiments” on Salamander’s command, unknowingly causing earthquakes and eruptions across the world. He returns from his “dangerous trips” with food and stories, playing the hero.

On one visit he slips, and Swann finds a scrap of fresh newspaper in the supplies. Doubt blooms. Above, Benik tortures and parades captured Astrid for leverage; she escapes long enough to pass coordinates to the Doctor. Victoria learns of the underground existence from stray paperwork and begs Jamie to act.

Donald Bruce corners the Doctor and Astrid in Kent’s refuge: and the Doctor gambles, revealing Salamander’s double and playing Bruce with the truth. In the bunker, Swann confronts Salamander, who smiles sadly and leads him “to the surface,” then leaves him dying in a volcanic vent. Salamander returns below, tightening his grip. Astrid and the Doctor race to the shaft, minds reeling: Salamander has not just staged disasters: he has raised a secret society to believe apocalypse came and made them its instrument.

Episode 5

Astrid reaches the bunker and tells the scientists the truth; their faces break as hope and fury collide. Swann, barely alive, confirms the lie before dying in her arms. They revolt, forcing Salamander toward the lift. Above, Donald Bruce escorts the Doctor (now dressed as Salamander) into the station to “test” the impersonation. Benik blusters and is disarmed; Jamie and Victoria, imprisoned, are shocked to see “Salamander” wink like the Doctor.

Kent, excluded from the plan, storms in to seize his moment. Bruce reveals what he has learned: Kent is no pure whistleblower but a former deputy of Salamander, ousted, now hungry for revenge and power. Kent snaps, fires wildly, and flees to the lift, hoping to destroy Salamander and everyone below. The real Salamander escapes the bunker amid the uprising and races upward as explosions rock the shaft.

The Doctor drags Jamie and Victoria clear while Astrid shepherds the stunned scientists toward daylight. The station groans. A blast smashes the sub-basements, collapses tunnels, and kills Kent. Smoke billows. Through it, a familiar silhouette moves with practiced ease, stealing toward an open blue door: the TARDIS is unguarded, and Salamander has learned exactly how to use a likeness.

Episode 6

Inside the TARDIS, Jamie and Victoria welcome “the Doctor” with relief that curdles as small wrong notes creep in: words slightly off, a smile too thin. The real Doctor scrambles aboard seconds later, filthy and breathless. Two Doctors face each other around the console. Salamander lunges for controls, slamming random switches. The dematerialisation begins with the doors still ajar; gale-force wind tears through the ship. The Doctor fights to stabilise the take-off while Jamie wrestles Salamander away from the levers.

Outside, the research station burns; Astrid stands with Bruce, promising to help resettle the bunker survivors in a world they were taught to fear. In the TARDIS, Salamander claws for the threshold. The Doctor flips a switch; the time rotor howls; momentum jerks. Salamander loses his grip and is sucked screaming into the vortex, vanishing into nothing.

The doors slam. Silence returns in beats. Jamie and Victoria stare at the Doctor, waiting for the last shreds of doubt to clear. He offers a weary grin and pats the console like an old horse. On Earth, Donald Bruce orders an inquiry that will outlive anyone’s speeches. In the time machine, alarms still blink; whatever Salamander did has left the ship tumbling toward its next danger.

Themes

As a break from Season 5’s siege formula, The Enemy of the World feels refreshing and sharp. It is less iconic than The Tomb of the Cybermen and not as nerve-jangling as The Web of Fear, yet easily among the era’s most accomplished character pieces.

Patrick Troughton’s dual turn as the Doctor and Salamander lifts it into the upper tier, shoulder-to-shoulder with The Invasion for modern-feeling pace and scope. It may not have the grand monster imagery of those heavy hitters, but as political thriller and identity puzzle it stands proudly beside The Power of the Daleks for cleverness and control.

In the tapestry of the season, it slots neatly between The Ice Warriors and The Web of Fear, while its doppelgänger conceit nods back to The Massacre and forward to infiltration tales like The Android Invasion, Terror of the Zygons, and The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion.

Its conspiratorial, Earthbound tone anticipates the UNIT-era textures of The Invasion, and its themes of power abused echo later in The Mind of Evil and Frontier in Space. In that sense, The Enemy of the World is both detour and blueprint, proving the series can thrill without a monster siege, and quietly paving the road to the grounded, paranoid adventures to come.

.

This is a chapter from Craig Hill’s book “Doctor Who – The Second Doctor”, chronicling every episode featuring the Second Doctor. It is available on Amazon.

.

To view the list of other Doctor Who serials, please click this link

Doctor Who Episode Guides for Sale on Amazon

Step aboard the TARDIS and journey across the universe with every incarnation of The Doctor in this series of unofficial Doctor Who episode companions.

This collection of twelve books explores every televised adventure of the Time Lord’s lives.

Each volume in the series delves into a different Doctor’s era, offering detailed episode guides, behind-the-scenes insights, character profiles, and story synopses.

Once you have clicked the link, choose which book you want, and then whether you want to buy the Kindle (eBook) or Paperback versions.

Previews are available before you buy.

Visit the Australian Book and Language Studio

www.abls.com.au