The Invisible Enemy
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| 093 – The Invisible Enemy | |
|---|---|
| Doctor Who serial | |
 Literally lost in his own head, the Doctor and Leela search for the nucleus of the virus |
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| Cast | |
| Doctor | Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor) |
| Companions | Louise Jameson (Leela) |
| John Leeson (K-9 Mk. I) | |
| Production | |
| Writer | Bob Baker Dave Martin |
| Director | Derrick Goodwin |
| Script editor | Robert Holmes |
| Producer | Graham Williams |
| Executive producer(s) | None |
| Production code | 4T |
| Series | Season 15 |
| Length | 4 episodes, 25 mins each |
| Originally broadcast | October 1–October 22, 1977 |
| Chronology | |
| ← Preceded by | Followed by → |
| Horror of Fang Rock | Image of the Fendahl |
The Invisible Enemy is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from October 1 to October 22, 1977. The serial introduced the Doctor's newest companion, the robot dog K-9, voiced by John Leeson.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
In the year 5000, when man is spreading himself across the solar system, a shuttle crew on their way to Titan encounters a cloud in space that infects them with an intelligent virus. When the Doctor answers the distress call, he is infected as well. As the virus spreads, the only way to stop it is may be to enter the Doctor's body and fight the nucleus directly.
[edit] Plot
Mankind is colonizing space at a fantastic rate. Some human space travelers are cruising near the outer planets of the solar system with their ship on autopilot. The ship's computer, and soon the human crew, is possessed by a strange virus. Reaching their destination, Titan Base, they proceed to take over the base as a breeding ground. The station manager, Lowe is able to send out a distress call.
The TARDIS is traveling through the same region, and is infected by the virus. The infection passes to the Doctor, but he is unaffected for the moment. He and Leela hear the distress call and go to investigate. While there, the Doctor is overcome by repeated infections and is chosen, due to his incredible powers as a Time Lord, to be the host of the Nucleus of the Swarm. Leela is unable to be infected.
The Nucleus declares her a reject and orders that she be killed. The Doctor manages to break free of his infection and tells Leela how to get the TARDIS to the nearest medical center. Accompanying them is Lowe, who has been infected, although the Doctor and Leela don't know this.
At the medical station, the Doctor's doctor, Professor Marius, introduces the group to K-9, a robotic dog he made to replace the real dog he had to leave on Earth. Professor Marius is baffled as to how to treat the Doctor's strange infection. Meanwhile, Lowe has been infecting the staff of the hospital.
Leela and the Doctor decide on a last-ditch strategy. They create clones of themselves, which can only survive for ten minutes due to problems with the technique. The clones will then be shrunk and inserted into the Doctor. There they will destroy the Nucleus and escape through the tear duct. In the meantime, Leela and K-9 fight off the infected staff of the hospital.
After a hazardous voyage through his mind, the Doctor's clone and Leela's clone are separated, and the Doctor's clone reaches the Nucleus. He has no weapons with which to destroy it, and it learns the intended escape route of the Doctor's clone, since the Doctor thought of it. Prof. Marius faithfully retrieves something from the tear duct and expands it to human size. It turns out to be the Nucleus. The Doctor is cured of his infection.
The Nucleus and the infected staff leave for Titan Base so the Nucleus can spawn. The Doctor realizes he is cured since Leela's clone introduced into his blood stream her immunity factor. He replicates it and gives it to Prof. Marius. The Doctor and Leela and K-9 proceed to Titan Base in the TARDIS.
They just barely manage to fight off the infected humans, but are again without sufficient weaponry to destroy the Nucleus, or its many children which are about to hatch as "macro-sized" beings, like the newly macro-sized Nucleus. The Doctor manages to jam the door they are behind and rigs a gun to fire into a cloud of Oxygen gas he is releasing and escapes. As intended, when the Swarm finally forces open the door, the blaster fires, igniting the Oxygen in Titan's methane atmosphere and destroying the Swarm and the base.
When they return to the hospital, they thank Prof. Marius for the use of K-9, who has ably assisted them. Prof. Marius makes a surprising offer. He must soon return to Earth, and weight restrictions now prevent him from taking K-9 back. He offers him to the Doctor, with some sadness, but knowing K-9 will have a good home. The Doctor and Leela gratefully accept, and K-9 himself is eager to learn more about the TARDIS.
Prof. Marius, with teary eyes, watches the TARDIS disappear, commenting, "I only hope he's TARDIS-trained."
[edit] Cast
- Doctor Who — Tom Baker
- Leela — Louise Jameson
- Nucleus and K-9 Voice — John Leeson
- Lowe — Michael Sheard
- Safran — Brian Grellis
- Silvey — Jay Neill
- Meeker — Edmund Pegge
- Crewman — Anthony Rowlands
- Professor Marius — Frederick Jaeger
- Parsons — Roy Herrick
- Nurses — Elizabeth Norman, Nell Curran
- Ophthalmologist — Jim McManus
- Cruikshank — Roderick Smith
- Hedges — Kenneth Waller
- Medic — Pat Gorman
- Nucleus — John Scott Martin
[edit] Cast notes
- Michael Sheard makes a guest appearance as Lowe. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.
[edit] Continuity
- The 51st century is a significant time in the Whoniverse. Aside from the Great Breakout mentioned in this story and being the home era of K-9, the century will also bring a new ice age, a near world war, time travel research and the coming of the Time Agents (all mentioned in The Talons of Weng-Chiang). The ship where the events of "The Girl in the Fireplace" take place is from this century as is former Time Agent, Jack Harkness, a companion of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors.
- A new TARDIS console room debuts in this story, replacing the more Victorian one that had been used for the previous season. That console room set had been exposed to moisture in the break between seasons and warped to the point that it was no longer usable. The re-designed TARDIS console, which had last appeared in Pyramids of Mars, is once again used from this story up until The King's Demons.
- In part 2, Gallifrey is assumed to be in Ireland, much the same as Tegan tells her captors in Arc of Infinity. Gallifrey was also assumed to be in Ireland in The Hand of Fear, in "Human Nature", and in the novel Blood Harvest.
[edit] Production
- Working titles for this story included The Enemy Within, The Invader Within and The Invisible Invader.
- It was not decided until late in the production that K-9 was to be a new companion. The decision to use it in multiple serials was made partly to offset the expense that had gone into making the prop.[1]
- Another reason that K-9 was included was to bring the show back toward its roots as a child-friendly series. Producers worried that the show had become too dark and adult, and family-values critic Mary Whitehouse had been publicly attacking the show on these points. Changes such as K-9 and a move toward lighter scripts satisfied her enough that she ceased her attacks.
[edit] Outside references
The sequence in which the miniaturized clones of Leela and the Doctor journey inside the Doctor's brain was partially inspired by the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage.[1]
[edit] In print
| Doctor Who book | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Doctor Who and the Invisible Enemy | |
| Series | Target novelisations |
| Release number | 36 |
| Writer | Terrance Dicks |
| Publisher | Target Books |
| Cover artist | Roy Knipe |
| ISBN | 0 426 20054 3 |
| Release date | 29 March 1979 |
| Preceded by | Doctor Who and the Hand of Fear |
| Followed by | Doctor Who and the Robots of Death |
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in March 1979.
[edit] Broadcast, VHS and DVD release
Reviewing the serial for The Times newspaper on the Monday following the second episode's transmission, critic Stanley Reynolds gave the story a generally negative reception. He also pointed out that in ITV regions where the series was competing with Man from Atlantis, it was now losing the ratings war.
"In the current story, The Invisible Enemy, now halfway through its four-week run, a malignant virus has struck a space station," wrote Reynolds. "Some evil force is attempting to take the station, and undoubtedly the universe, over. When one is being 'taken over' those sort of lightning flashes like the advert for learning how to hypnotize, travel from the eyes of the villain to the one having the fluence put upon him. One then gets rather furry of face and hand, but the appeal of Dr Who has always been the monster and this time out the BBC seems to have lost its touch with monsters... Maybe the leggy Leela is there for the dad and more earthy 14-year-olds, rather like those appalling rhythmic girls who practise dancing each week on Top of the Pops. Of course the return of the Daleks is all Dr Who needs; what the Top of the Pops girls need is something else, but that is neither here nor there."[2]
- The story was released on VHS in September of 2002
- Release is due on 16th June 2008 on DVD as a double pack with the spin off "K-9 and Company" called K-9 Tales.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- The Invisible Enemy at bbc.co.uk
- The Invisible Enemy at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
- The Invisible Enemy at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
[edit] Reviews
- The Invisible Enemy reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- The Invisible Enemy reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
[edit] Target novelisation
- Doctor Who and the Invisible Enemy reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
- On Target — Doctor Who and the Invisible Enemy
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