Hogan Reviews

Another season of Doctor Who has arrived on Blu-Ray, so let’s take a look at the story I haven’t seen in the longest time, which is this case was difficult as while Season 15 has two of my favourite Tom Baker stories in “Horror of Fang Rock” and “Image of the Fendahl” it also has three of my least favourites in “Underworld”, “The Sun Makers” and this story, all three committing the cardinal sin of being dull rather than at least “so bad it’s fun to watch and make fun of”. In thinking about it, I’m pretty sure it’s “Invisible Enemy” that takes the prize of the longest since I last watched it, and given this has the debut of K9 there’s at least SOME interest to be found here… Let’s take a look, and who knows, maybe this time round I’ll suddenly really like it?!

The story starts off with a spacecraft heading to “Titan Base” and crossing through a mysterious cloud in space that cause the three crewmen to become infected with the titular “Invisible Enemy” though the virus in this case manifests itself as grey fur around people’s eyes and gives them large eyebrows, so maybe not quite so invisible… Anyway, the station supervisor Lowe (Michael Sheard) notices their changed behaviour and furry faces and sends out a distress signal and well as soon killing one of the three pilots, but the other two, Safran (Brian Grellis) and Meeker (Edmund Pegge) trap him in a cryogenic section and leave him to freeze. As you’d imagine The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Leela (Louise Jameson) pick the distress call in the TARDIS and head to Titan Base themselves but during the trip they also pass through the cloud and The Doctor is infected. As they arrive and begin exploring the base Safran and Meeker recognise The Doctor as “The Nucleus” and use weird zappy eye powers to further put him under the virus’s control. Meanwhile Leela frees Lowe but soon the supervisor is infected by Meeker moments before the pilot is in turn killed by Leela.

The “Tin Dog” debuts!

After The Doctor resists the urging in his head to kill his companion Leela and Lowe take him to the nearby Bi-Al Foundation, a scientific and medical facility in the asteroid belt where the famous Professor Marius (Frederick Jaeger) could look at him (while Lowe puts on a pair of sunglasses and claims to be suffering from temporary light sensitivity…) Marius becomes fascinated by not just The Doctor’s Time Lord biology but by the virus, which is actually a parasite that’s growing in The Doctor’s brain. It’s here we’re introduced to Marius’ robot dog K9 (voiced by John Leeson), who helps him with his work. Meanwhile Lowe has infected a bunch of the station’s crew and storms his lab but is fought off by not just Leela but K9 and his stun gun setting. The Doctor, during a brief moment of clarity, comes up with a rather odd plan of creating short-lived clones of himself and Leela, shrinking them down using the TARDIS and then having Marius inject them into his brain so they can track the parasite down and kill it. Yep, it’s another Fantastic Voyage style story!

As the cloned Doctor and Leela walk around the former’s brain Lowe and his infected army eventually manage to swarm the lab and while K9 and Leela are busy elsewhere infect Dr. Marius and force him to clone, shrink and inject Lowe into The Doctor’s brain as well. As The Doctor confronts the Nucleus (also voiced by John Leeson) it claims the right to live and spread like any other lifeform after floating dormant in space for millennia. As Clone Lowe arrives and is killed by The Doctor’s antibodies (that look an awful lot like white balloons) the Nucleus is extracted via the tear ducts and Real Lowe uses the machinery to enlarge it to roughly human size and command its converted drones up close…

Marius is under the control of the Nucleus, but has yet to spring his grey eyebrows. Jealousy is no doubt coursing through his veins!

Now, reading that back, it sounds like a fun adventure with lots of different locations and a zany story, but for whatever reason it’s really dull. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but at no point am I ever really engaged and at points I’m even clockwatching to see how much time has passed. Doesn’t help that the ending is a bit pants as well, which I’ll get to in the spoiler section, though I will mention the Nucleus and its costume meaning the “threat to all of humanity” had to be carried and hand-held by other characters so the actor didn’t trip up and fall. I don’t know… off the top of my head I think it’s the best out of it, Underworld and Sun Makers, but that’s not saying much!

The Continuity:

Fast friends… if K9 can understand the concept of friendship, anyway…

Not a lot, beyond obviously countless reappearances and even spin-offs featuring K9. The Nucleus returns in the Seventh Doctor audio “Revenge of the Swarm” where it paradoxically insures its own creation via TARDIS time travel. I’ll also mention that Doctor Who does do the “Fantastic Voyage” story again in the Twelfth Doctor TV story “Into The Dalek”, though it sees The Doctor and his companion shrank and injected into, as I’m sure you can guess, a Dalek instead of a person…

Overall Thoughts:

The Doctor rummaging around inside his own head…

I can’t really say “Invisible Enemy” is bad, it tries some interesting ideas and does change locations enough that it doesn’t feel stationary, but nothing really clicks for me. I feel bored watching it for the most part and the final episode is funnily bad rather than gripping (which is at least “better” than just being boring) As it stands, it’s not worthy of a 2, that’s going to far, so I’ll just give it a 3 and say I won’t be watching it again (even though knowing me and Doctor Who that probably won’t be the case…)

The Nucleus and Lowe head to Titan to begin spreading the virus across space while Leela manages to rescue The Doctor, who in turn cures Marius when he notices his body has created antibodies for the virus. The Doctor, Leela and K9 head off to Titan where the infected, including Safran, are too far gone to be cured leaving The Doctor no choice but to rig the base to blow, something Leela had suggested earlier only to be shot down (as The Doctor assumed he’d be able to cure them, to be fair) As Leela and K9 deal with the infected (including K9 stunning Safran, leading to Leela straight up knifing him to death) The Doctor has one last conference with the Nucleus before rigging the bomb, knowing there is no way to change its mind. The Doctor, Leela and K9 manage to depart just in time, naturally…

You didn’t think I’d put up this review without a screengrab of the Nucleus itself, did you? Well… here he is! Or it is, I guess?

Back in the Bi-Al Foundation Marius reveals he intends to return to Earth and as K9 is too heavy for the weight requirements he asks if The Doctor would “adopt him”, which he agrees to, much to Leela and K9’s joy. It’s classic Doctor Who corridor running for the most part, and the combined with the previously mentioned Nucleus’ costume problem doesn’t lead to great fun.