It had been a long time since I'd last watched "The Invisible Enemy." My lasting impression was that this was an important story, but not a very good one.
I still feel the same way. It's a decent sci fi thriller with some good acting and camera work, but it's marred by horrendously bad special effects and set designs.
Most importantly though: K-9!
Sarah -
At the beginning I wasn't sure that I remembered the story, until we got to the foundation hospital. Then it hit me -- "OMG, it's the one where the Doctor and Leela get shrunk down and injected into the Doctor's brain and we meet K-9!"
Harry -
Yeah, I guess it's an homage to "Amazing Journey" or "Fantastic Voyage" or whatever that thing was called.
Sarah -
K-9! Let us contemplate for a moment the many ways K-9 could have gone wrong. On second thought, let's not -- K-9 is far too awesome to imagine any other way.
Harry -
From the moment we meet him, K-9 shows all the traits we came to know and love as youngsters. He's smart, upbeat, loyal and isn't afraid to zap an enemy. He's noisy as hell in this first story, though. I think there were some mobility or control issues with K-9 at first. But still, K-9!
Let's backup to the start of this story. Ho boy, these might be the worst couple of opening minutes in the show's history. It begins with a cheesy graphic of an asteroid field, into which floats a model spaceship. Inside the ship, a crew in very 70s spacesuits work a very 70s control console, and I mean very 70s in a bad way this time. Suddenly, the ship is attacked by lightning shooting out of a giant spider web floating in space. Awful, just awful. What a relief when we switch to the TARDIS and it's back to the original console room.
Sarah -
It's nice to be back in the proper console room, isn't it? The change of pace was nice, but there's no place like home.
Harry -
I think we'll see echoes of the secondary console room during Paul McGann's story, but that's for another time.
Sarah -
The first episode really isn't the most compelling. Was it just me, or did the cockpit of the space ship look suspiciously that the one from "Planet of Evil"?
Harry -
Very similar. It occurred to me just now that while the Beeb was really good at producing period sets and costumes, they were equally awful at producing futuristic space sets and costumes during the Tom Baker era. We'll have to keep an eye on this peculiarity.
Sarah -
Things pick up a bit in the second episode when we find ourselves at the Bi-Al Foundation.
Harry -
...which resembles a giant rotten orange floating in space...
Sarah -
Exactly!
Harry -
For a medical facility, its outer design did not exactly inspire confidence. Inside, we switch to extreme white clinical interiors with odd futuro-phonetic spellings on the walls ("ISOLAYSHUN WARD"; "EGSIT"). There are nurses in green plastic body suits and doctors in all-whites, everyone wearing odd headgear except Professor Marius, a quaint Germanic caricature. It's almost as if this story is a pre-Douglas Adams Douglas Adams satire.
I thought Marius seemed familiar, and in keeping with the Beeb's recycling efforts, Frederick Jaeger was none other than Professor Sorenson from "Planet of Evil." My goodness, Beeb!
Sarah -
Marius is my favorite character in the story. He's just wacky enough to keep things interesting. I mean, the man invented a mechanical dog for company -- how can you not love that? I had that familiar feeling of knowing we'd seen him in another story, but had to look it up. One really comes to appreciate good acting when we see actors in such different roles. He was so gruff and creepy as Sorenson.
Harry -
One acting job that really stood out in this story was by Doctor Who stalwart Michael Sheard, as Lowe. Sheard really gave it his all. Despite the flakey eye makeup, he menaced our friends as good as anyone.
Sarah -
He was wonderful, as always!
How about the trippy trip inside the Doctor's brain? Those were some interesting sets!
Harry -
Oh the psychedelia. The Doctor and Leela tread inside his neural pathways bathed in hues of red, gold, green and pink. These are my favourite scenes of the story. This is where it veers from barely plausible science to total fantasy. Nice nod to The Prisoner in the form of those attacking white bubbles (were they blood cells?).
Sarah -
I had the same thought about The Prisoner. I'm pretty sure they were meant to be white blood cells. I love the Doctor's solution of send them to his liver!
Harry -
When the Doctor finally confronts the nucleus inside his brain, he - like the rest of us - has to endure a long and tedious rant. Boooring!
Sarah -
So many tedious rants to be had in space.
Harry -
Do you know how "The Invisible Enemy" could have been improved, Sarah?
Sarah -
I'm DYING to know, Old Boy!
Harry -
By keeping the enemy invisible!
Sarah -
Can't argue about that.
Harry -
Once the nucleus monster is brought to its full size, we are left to gawk at a giant, immobile prawn that the supporting cast have to drag around the sets, while it continues ranting. It's just ridiculous. By then I was willing to overlook another mass killing perpetrated by the Doctor, just so the damn thing would shut up. Of course, even the payoff was laughably bad, as the explosion on Titan was represented by a row of flames on the model set.
Sarah -
It's one of those moments that makes us all cringe.
Harry -
What a disappointment. I'm so done with this one.
At story's end, the only positive was that Marius survived and he let the Doctor and Leela keep K-9 -- who scooted happily into the TARDIS.
Shall we scoot happily to our next adventure, Sarah?
Sarah -
I'm already happily scooting! See if you can catch up.
Harry -
Best Line:
"I know this brain like the back of my hand."
Favourite Moment: the Doctor and Leela roam through the psychedelic sets.
Lasting Image: the Bi-Al Foundation floating in space.
5/10
Sarah -
Best Line:
Leela : "Why "disease"? I thought you liked humanity."
The Doctor : "Oh I do, I do. Some of my best friends are humans. When they get together in great numbers other lifeforms sometimes suffer."
Favorite Moment: The Doctor dashing past Leela and K-9 into the TARDIS and dematerializing, only to come back for them a moment later.
Lasting Image: The Doctor and Leela on the white brain bridge.
5/10
Our marathon continues with Story #94: Image of the Fendahl...
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