The Invisible Enemy

The Invisible Enemy seems at first to be a run-of-the-mill Doctor Who story. However, as it goes on, it sabotages itself in ways that few other stories have ever done. Bob Baker and Dave Martin’s script is almost a caricature of a typical Baker & Martin story - barmy, sometimes wonderful ideas that are never properly thought through and a level of understanding of basic science that makes Kit Pedler look like Ben Goldacre. The idea of an intelligent virus trying to propagate itself is an intriguing one and the switching of the arena from an external to an internal and back again should work dynamically. However, their lack of thought in realising this in script form is obvious. Baker and Martin seem not to know what a virus actually is, which makes the virus’s plan seem confusing. The ‘Kilbracken process’ clones feel the pain of their external selves, which is nonsense. Of course, they should have also been naked when they were created (although I’ll bet that this wouldn’t have occurred so quickly to fans if Leela had not been one of them!) Most tellingly of all, Baker and Martin seem confused as to whether the clones journey into the Doctor’s brain literally or figuratively. We have phagocytes and neural arches, but we also have a literal ‘mind-brain’ barrier, a concept which is mentioned a few times, but never properly explained or explored. This is very sloppy thinking and I haven’t even mentioned such basic things as how Professor Marius finds the microscopic clones, how he can avoid injecting air into the Doctor without squirting the clones out and how the clones breathe. The characterisation is practically non-existent and there is some very clunky dialogue.

This need not have damned the story. The lack of characterisation is made up for by some nice performances- I like Frederick Jaeger’s portrayal of Marius and Michael Sheard is always worth watching. The regulars work wonders with the script- Leela in particular is written either as a parody of her usual self or just as a figure saying dialogue. However, the script is only part of the problem. The set design by Barry Newberry is rather good throughout and the model are sometimes truly wonderful, especially the shot of the shuttle flying over Titan. The realisation of the infection, however, looks like a candle has exploded in the actors’ faces. Further cracks start to show in the journey inside the Doctor’s body. Newberry just about manages to win the successful battle against the inherent ludicrousness of this element. Then, we see the Virus grown to macroscopic size. Nothing that I had read about this effect fully prepared me for the awfulness of this monster. This is the worst monster to ever take up screen time in the programme. There are brief shots where the dinosaurs in Invasion of the Dinosaurs and the Myrka in Warriors of the Deep are convincing enough for the viewer to forget their awfulness. There is not one interlaced field in this story in which the Virus is anything other than a poorly constructed, wobbling embarrassment. It drains the story of any drama or intrigue that the story could have had and pulls the viewer completely out of the experience.

Of course, what this story is primarily famous for is the introduction of K9 and, it has to be said, he is a very welcome addition to this story and is constantly watchable in what would otherwise be little more than an exercise in audience tolerance.

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