The Invisible Enemy Part Three

The one where the cloned Doctor and Leela go inside the real Doctor's body...

The big problem with this third episode is that it has to stretch a 10-minute time span over a 25-minute period, and the padding shows. The cloned Doctor and Leela only have a lifespan of 10 minutes (and that should really start before they've been injected into the Doctor), but this episode is 25 minutes, so inevitably there's going to be some artistic license employed. Why didn't the writers didn't just say the clones would last 20 minutes instead of 10?

While this episode has little going on, it has an awful lot to look at, with director Derrick Sherwin using the ubiquitous CSO (Colour Separation Overlay) to depict the insides of the Doctor's brain. And for the most part it's hugely successful, adding a suitably fantastical and surreal feel to the Doctor and Leela's journey. Brian Clemett's coloured lighting is fab too.

The combination of CSO and Barry Newbery's fleshy physical sets makes it as convincing as it could be on the budget, although the scenes where first Leela, and then Lowe, are attacked by the Doctor's phagocytes are unintentionally hilarious. Louise Jameson and Michael Sheard do their best (Jameson may even over-egg it a little!) but it basically comes down to the fact they're being gently nudged by giant puffballs.

The way Goodwin depicts the mind-brain interface - as a giant, gloomy cavern - is quite creative, and I love the "passing thought" that whizzes past them on arrival. There's actually an awful lot more potential in the idea of being inside the Doctor's brain than is capitalised on here, but we mustn't forget that these cloned heroes only last for 10 minutes, so they must "hurry".

Meanwhile, outside in the macro world, Leela and K-9 are trying to defend the laboratory from Lowe's gun-toting marauders. Leela asks K-9 to create a defense barrier for them to take refuge behind, so the tin dog zaps a corner of wall off which has so obviously been pre-cut ready to fall. It's really very embarrassing. You can blame BBC budgeting and lack of time all you like, but in truth, viewers at the time would be well aware of the limitations they were witnessing, and probably laughing just as much as we do all these years later. It's truly awful, as is Goodwin's underwhelming attempts to direct the laser battle across the smallest of sets. The bit where one of Lowe's men leaps over the barrier and lands literally inches away from K-9 - then there's a brief pause where nobody does anything - and then K-9 zaps him at point blank range, is excruciating. The red laser effects seem to be placed on screen on a whim rather than have anything to do with where people are actually aiming (and also, those laser gun props are pretty poor; they don't even have holes in the nozzles).

It's a nice idea for the virus to infect K-9, as we know it is attracted to brain activity and intelligence, but the scene where the robot supposedly zaps Leela, and misses, is fudged. Leela actually ducks out of the path of K-9's point blank laser and bumps her head, knocking her out. It's really pathetic. And when K-9 returns later to scan his mistress for damage, he inexplicably tips up like he's got his own pair of jacks. It's just not very good, at all.

It's much better and more convincing inside the Doctor's brain, in "the land of dreams and fantasy". It would be interesting to have glimpsed a few of the Doctor's dreams and fantasies, or perhaps a visualisation of his thoughts, but that's glossed over in favour of finding the Nucleus of the Swarm.

And what a disappointment it is when the Doctor finds it. He wanders aimlessly into some sort of chamber, at the centre of which sits a forlorn black sack with a flailing arm poking out, in the form of a prawn's pincer. Vocally, John Leeson does a good job of making the Nucleus sound alien and threatening, but visually, it's laughable. I'd rather they'd not had a physical manifestation at all than put John Scott Martin in a bag and tell him to quiver for five minutes. Even a dodgy CSO effect might have been better.

Finally, the Doctor and Leela clones run out of time and expire. Oddly, they leave behind traces of their existence in the form of a long scarf, and a knife, bangles and lock of hair. All of these items were part of the cloning, so why they don't disappear, but everything else does, is odd. It's not even as if it's just the organic parts of the clones which die, because the Doctor's clothes disappear too.

Outside, the possessed Marius retrieves what he thinks are the clones from the Doctor's tear duct, and places them in the miniaturisation chamber for reversal. But it isn't the Doctor and Leela who emerge, but rather a giant prawn. Yes, just as I thought the manifestation of the Nucleus of the Swarm couldn't be any worse, they come up trumps with one of the silliest monster costumes ever. It's a prawn, a giant prawn. Why did they choose to portray a virus as an aquatic crustacean? It's bad - really bad - and in the merciless bright lights of the studio, looks particularly awful. As a giant prawn, it works. As a Doctor Who monster, it stinks.

First broadcast: October 15th, 1977

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The way Derrick Goodwin mixes physical sets with CSO works really well for the Doctor's brain.
The Bad: K-9 cutting away a pre-cut bit of wall.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 08

NEXT TIME: Part Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: https://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-invisible-enemy.html

The Invisible Enemy is available on BBC DVD as part of the K9 Tales box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Tales-Invisible-Enemy/dp/B00153NOQS/