N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
Oh dear.
After Horror of Fang Rock, this is a massive disappointment.
I do like the child-like corruption of spelling that goes on over the next three thousand years: ‘Egsit’ and ‘Isolayshun’ for example. And the repetition of ‘Contact has been made’ is quite effective. And some of the model work is very good too.
In fact Part One isn’t too bad; the set-up of the story on Titan and infection of the Doctor is quite impressive, but then it gets progressive sillier and sillier until it’s eventually laugh-out loud awful.
“Sometimes my brilliance astonishes even me.”
The Doctor, The Invisible Enemy:
Part Four
First off, there’s Frederick Jaeger’s outrageous accent as Professor Marius, of which Kenneth Mars would have been proud.
Then there’s fully-clothed clones of the Doctor and Leela! Who are shrunk. And injected into the Doctor.
But the kicker is the Nucleus. It’s hard to take a monster seriously when you’re wondering how good it would taste with a bit of lemon and garlic sauce. But as it’s pushed along menacingly by its bushy-eyed acolytes, you can’t help but think …
Oh dear.
In many ways The Invisible Enemy is Doctor Who‘s Moonraker (the movie version not the Fleming novel). It’s over-reliant on special effects and laser battles and its climactic action is ludicrous. Unlike Moonraker, you can’t blame the influence of Star Wars here: The Invisible Enemy pre-dates George Lucas’s magnum opus.
On the up side phagocytes get a mention for, I think, the first time since Ian’s were stimulated and, for better or worse, the Doctor now has a pet tin dog.
But still, oh dear.
"K9 is the cutest robot ever! He is also quite formal because he says 'affirmative, Master' rather than 'Sure'."
"This story has a lot of settings including Titan, the medical centre and inside the Doctor."
"In my opinion, the funniest bit is the Nucleus – the giant shrimp."
Son of UT Rating: 8/10
"It looks like a giant shrimp!"
