Doctor Who - The Invisible Enemy

episode 93

UK 1977
produced by
Graham Williams for BBC
directed by Derrick Goodwin
starring Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson (voice), Frederick Jaeger, Michael Sheard, Brian Grellis, Jay Neill, Edmund Pegge, Roy Herrick, John Scott Martin
written by Bob Baker, Dave Martin, script editor: Robert Holmes, music by Dudley Simpson, visual effects by Ian Scoones, Tony Harding

TV-series
Doctor Who, Doctor Who (Tom Baker), Doctor Who (classic series), Leela, K9

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Doctor Who (Tom Baker) receives a distress call from Saturn's moon Titan, only to find all the crew overtaken by some aliens, and worse yet, he is taken over by the head alien, the Nucleus (John Scott Martin), who starts growing inside his brain. Fortunately, with the help of his companion Leela (Louise Jameson), the Doctor can make it to the next hospital asteroid, where Doctor Marius (Frederick Jaeger) makes miniature clones of him and Leela and injects them into his brain to fight the Nucleus mano a mano. Thing is, ultimately the hospital is overrun by humans possessed by aliens, and Leela and Doc Marius' robot dog K9 (voiced by John Leeson) are no match for the invading forces - to an extent where even Marius is taken over.

But Doctor Who and Leela's clones manage to not only drive the Nucleus out of the Doctor's system, they also find the antidote in the Doctor's brain - and ultimately cure Marius and his assistants, while the Nucleus (now grown to man-size) makes it off to Titan with a few of those still possessed - but the Doctor blows the Titan space station right out of the sky ...

And as a thank you, the Doctor and Leela are awarded with K9 - who will become a regular on the series for the next few years.

On a quality level, this episode falls between many stools: On one hand, it features impressive miniature effects, maybe the best oft he show, on the other hand, the Nucleus is one of the silliest looking monsters ever, on one hand, the designs of the Doctor's brain's inside are very impressive, on the other hand, the scenes inside his brain are very sloppily executed. And then there are several special effects that just don't work, period, be it a piece of concrete cut out of a wall (if you watch it, you'll know what I mean) or simply K9 shooting laserbeams from his nostrils.

On a story level, this episode is trashy fun, but considering all the concepts thrown in, it doesn't seem all that thought through and is certainly not one of the better episodes of the series.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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