The Enemy of the World is the fourth serial of the fifth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from 23 December 1967 to 27 January 1968.
In the serial, the time traveller the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and his travelling companions Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) and Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) work with the spies Giles Kent (Bill Kerr) and Astrid Ferrier (Mary Peach) to expose the Doctor's Mexican doppelgänger Salamander (Troughton) as having created natural disasters on Earth.
Jamie and Victoria use their new roles in the palace to get close to Fariah, Salamander's food taster, hoping to gather information.
It is revealed that Salamander has trapped a group of scientists below the Research Centre and is using their knowledge to create natural disasters in order to destabilise the world and increase his influence.
He then goes to the records room, where Kent, believing the Doctor to be Salamander, accidentally reveals that they conspired together to trap the scientists below ground.
This was the last story to be produced under the aegis of Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman, who left his position as Head of Drama at the BBC upon the expiration of his contract at the end of 1967.
Initially, it was planned that Troughton's two characters would meet more than once, but due to the technical complexity, there was eventually only the one confrontation scene, at the story's climax (utilising editing and a split-screen technique).
Colin Douglas would later take a memorable turn as Reuben the lightkeeper (as well as voicing the Rutan scout) in the 15th-season serial Horror of Fang Rock.
[16] It was sold abroad for broadcast in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Gibraltar, Zambia, and Nigeria.
In The Discontinuity Guide (1995), Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping criticized the editing and wrote, "Troughton's fun villainy apart, it all feels rather irrelevant.
However, he wrote, "It purports to be a political thriller and is far from thrilling," with a let-down in setting and dialogue, as well as Jamie and Victoria not suited to their roles.
Club's Christopher Bahn called the story "highly entertaining" and praised Salamander's characterization as an evil foil to the Doctor, as well as the serial's ability to subvert expectations.
[20] In 2014, John Sinnott of DVD Talk highly recommended The Enemy of the World release and gave the content four out of five stars, writing, "While the story is very good, if unusual for Doctor Who, it is Patrick Troughton who makes the serial work.
"[21] Charlie Jane Anders, on the other hand, ranked the serial 213 out of 254 of Doctor Who stories in 2015, describing it as "tragically silly and dull.
[26] David Whitaker was approached to write the novelisation of The Enemy of the World in 1979 and planned some changes for the adaptation, but unfortunately he did not complete the book before his death in 1980.
[30] A special-edition DVD with audio commentary, interviews, a tribute to the late Deborah Watling, and further remastering of all six episodes was released in the UK on 26 March 2018.