The Invisible Enemy is a very important story in the history of Doctor Who. Love him or hate him, this story saw the first appearance of K9. This is another story written by the very reliable double act of Bob Baker & Dave Martin. This was their sixth story for the show and whilst this isnt the best it certainly has some good things going for it. The first half of the story is the best because it’s the more dramatic. The story starts off with some space crew in horribly white spacesuits who are infected by the swarm. They then travel to the Titan Base where they plan to start a breeding ground.
Right, lets start with the positives. I like the plot, it’s a nice typical Doctor Who story that has some interesting ideas. The idea that there is a swarm that is trying to breed is very sci-fi and the sets set on Titan are very good. I also think that any story featuring Michael Sheard is going to be raised because of his prescence. Name me a story that Michael Sheard was bad in… You cant (I’m imagining you cant!). There are some shots when Sheard and other are appearing on a screen in the hospital which do look quite creepy. Ok the make up of the infected is slightly dodgy by today’s standards but there is something about it that is quite fun. Also all the performances are quite good. Tom Baker is on good form and so is Louise Jameson who continues to impress me. After two consecutive stories (Talons of Weng-Chiang and Horror of Fang Rock) where she was very strong, she gets some very good scenes and I do like they she was the only one who couldn’t get infected because she was stupid. The primitive nature of Leela’s intelligence has often been a source of mocking in her stories but in this case its used as a plot device and as a result Jameson gives a good account of herself.
The problems with this story occur in the second half of the story. Once they go inside the Doctor’s head it really starts to test the patience of mine. The idea of going inside someone else’s body wasn’t new even in 1977 and for someone like me who will have seen such films as the 1987 Joe Dante film ‘Innerspace’ will have seen this done better. I know its unfair to criticise the show for such things because the budget for that film and this show are vastly different, however I think that there were two things that were totally avoidable. The first being the swarm creature itself. It’s laughably terrible. It has to be helped along by the cast because John Scott Martin had difficulty in moving. It is hard to believe that anyone would be frightened by this thing. I thought that the threat can from Lowe. Another thing that I found to be very bad were those white ball things that appeared in the Doctor’s mind. I reckon someone watched the Prisoner and thought ‘those white balls, they look menacing’. Well they do when they are attacking Patrick McGoohan but not when there in a BBC studio attacking Louise Jameson and Michael Sheard. Another moment that let the story down was the sign of the wall when it had clearly come away from the main part but had been put back together for another take. It’s easy to defend Doctor Who sometimes against people who mock it for poor production values, however in stories like this its hard to defend it.
This is a story that is let down primarily by the production values. I know we should be praising the show for pushing the boundaries of what is possible to do on a BBC TV budget but sometimes you just have to admit that the money isnt there, that you cant do everything you would want to do an move on. Things would be so much better if this attitude had been used. The Invisible Enemy is not as good a story as Horror of Fang Rock which proceeded it but it was a distinctive shift in tone from the more gothic type of stories that we were use to under the Philip Hinchcliffe era.
Right, lets start with the positives. I like the plot, it’s a nice typical Doctor Who story that has some interesting ideas. The idea that there is a swarm that is trying to breed is very sci-fi and the sets set on Titan are very good. I also think that any story featuring Michael Sheard is going to be raised because of his prescence. Name me a story that Michael Sheard was bad in… You cant (I’m imagining you cant!). There are some shots when Sheard and other are appearing on a screen in the hospital which do look quite creepy. Ok the make up of the infected is slightly dodgy by today’s standards but there is something about it that is quite fun. Also all the performances are quite good. Tom Baker is on good form and so is Louise Jameson who continues to impress me. After two consecutive stories (Talons of Weng-Chiang and Horror of Fang Rock) where she was very strong, she gets some very good scenes and I do like they she was the only one who couldn’t get infected because she was stupid. The primitive nature of Leela’s intelligence has often been a source of mocking in her stories but in this case its used as a plot device and as a result Jameson gives a good account of herself.
The problems with this story occur in the second half of the story. Once they go inside the Doctor’s head it really starts to test the patience of mine. The idea of going inside someone else’s body wasn’t new even in 1977 and for someone like me who will have seen such films as the 1987 Joe Dante film ‘Innerspace’ will have seen this done better. I know its unfair to criticise the show for such things because the budget for that film and this show are vastly different, however I think that there were two things that were totally avoidable. The first being the swarm creature itself. It’s laughably terrible. It has to be helped along by the cast because John Scott Martin had difficulty in moving. It is hard to believe that anyone would be frightened by this thing. I thought that the threat can from Lowe. Another thing that I found to be very bad were those white ball things that appeared in the Doctor’s mind. I reckon someone watched the Prisoner and thought ‘those white balls, they look menacing’. Well they do when they are attacking Patrick McGoohan but not when there in a BBC studio attacking Louise Jameson and Michael Sheard. Another moment that let the story down was the sign of the wall when it had clearly come away from the main part but had been put back together for another take. It’s easy to defend Doctor Who sometimes against people who mock it for poor production values, however in stories like this its hard to defend it.
This is a story that is let down primarily by the production values. I know we should be praising the show for pushing the boundaries of what is possible to do on a BBC TV budget but sometimes you just have to admit that the money isnt there, that you cant do everything you would want to do an move on. Things would be so much better if this attitude had been used. The Invisible Enemy is not as good a story as Horror of Fang Rock which proceeded it but it was a distinctive shift in tone from the more gothic type of stories that we were use to under the Philip Hinchcliffe era.
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