Doctor Who - The Invisible Enemy

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Early Region 2 versions of the box set feature a fault on The Invisible Enemy disc. A scene from half way through episode 3 is skipped and appears after the closing credits. 2|entertain was aware of the problem but decided to go on with the release as planned. They fixed the problem for later copies of the DVD box set. Bob Baker and Dave Martin got the idea for a sentient virus as the antagonist from a newspaper article on virus mutations. The idea of diseases impacting the mind and imagination came from an article in Scientific American.

Dreams and Fantasy - The cast and crew recall the making of this story and even take the original K-9 for walkies! The Swarm remained dormant in the TARDIS' computer until the Doctor's seventh incarnation. Shortly afterwards, the Doctor returned to Titan Base in the company of Ace and Hector Thomas in 4920. The TARDIS had been commandeered by Hector, who had fallen under the control of the Swarm. It ensured its own creation by returning to the Bi-Al Foundation, where it mutated from the Saturnian plague. ( AUDIO: Revenge of the Swarm) Shrink Ray: The Doctor and Leela are shrunk with a shrink ray based on the same technology as lets the TARDIS be bigger on the inside, allowing a bit of handwaving about the issues of shrinking living things. A virus lurking in deep space infects the crew of an earth shuttle on its way to Titan. The infected humans kill the crew they are supposed to be relieving, except for one man, Lowe, whom they infect. They begin preparing the base for breeding. Meanwhile, the TARDIS has been invaded by the same virus, and the Doctor becomes the host for the Nucleus of the Swarm. After he attempts to kill "The Reject" Leela (who is immune), the Doctor realizes what's happening and puts himself into a self-induced coma to keep from being taken over completely. Leela, accompanied by Lowe, rushes him to the Bi-Al Foundation hospital asteroid using the TARDIS, where she hopes Professor Marius will be able to find a cure. Nu Speling: Used for signage throughout. An exit sign on Titan is clearly marked "Imurjinsee Egsit", the entrance lobby of the hospital has a doorway designated "Shutle Airlok", the hospital ward where the Doctor is treated is labelled "Isolayshun", and so on.It's not as if Bob Baker and Dave Martin can't do it if they try. Come on, this is the team that turned out The Hand of Fear, after all. While that had its weak points (like the entire last episode), overall it was a pretty good story with some excellent characterisation. But this script? It's... just... horrible. Genetic Memory: The clones of the Doctor and Leela have the memories of their originals. K9 explains that this is because they are more like "biological photocopies" than proper clones, hence their shortened lifespans. Which does not in any satisfactory way explain how they cloned their clothes. Homaged much later on in "The Doctor's Daughter".

As for the rest of Invisible Enemy, where do we start? Well, there's the plot, which is stuffed with enough bad science to get Einstein revolving in his grave on high rotate. It'd take us all day to list all of it, but particularly enraging is the witless way they deal with their Fantastic Voyage ripoff. So the Doctor and Leela clones go on a day excursion inside the Doctor's brain, do they? Uh huh. How, exactly, are they breathing in there? And why is it when they disappear they leave various bits and pieces, like Leela's knife, behind? (Not a particularly good idea in itself, we'd have thought. Any sudden movements and the Doctor's going to get a needle through the synapse.)Inhuman Eye Concealers: The station manager, Lowe, is taken over by The Virus. As the infection manifests with a strange growth around the eyes, Lowe conceals his infection by donning a pair of blast goggles and telling people his eyes had been injured during the explosion, making him very sensitive to light. At this weekend’s Comic-Con@Home virtual Doctor Who panel, showrunner Chris Chibnall was asked for one word to describe the next series, and he said ‘swarm’. K9 draws the infected away while the Doctor sneaks up on the spawning tanks. Lowe confronts him and makes him lose the antibodies, but K9 uses the last of his power to shoot Lowe, who is absorbed by the swarm. Leela kills Safran with her knife while the Doctor alters his plan and rigs the refuelling tanks to blow. After the Doctor nearly leaves without Leela or K9, the trio escape the base just in time to see the massive explosion, amplified by the methane in the atmosphere, from orbit. Malevolent Masked Men: The infected shuttle crew have their space helmets when going to kill those on the base. On lifting the visors, we see how the Virus has altered them. And then there's the dialogue. Dear God, the dialogue. It's fantastically clunky. The actors do their best, but Christ, it's an uphill battle. And that brings us to the worst insult of all, which is the truly ghastly characterisation of the Doctor and Leela. The Doctor, bad as he is, still gets the better deal: it's not that he's out of character, exactly, more that the power and impact the character usually has is totally missing.

Thirdly: any remotely insectoid species previously seen in the show could return as a swarm: the Wirrn from ‘The Ark in Space’ (which are similar to the Alien from the film Alien– except giant wasps), the Vespiforms from ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’, the Zarbi and/or Menoptera from ‘The Web Planet’, the Malmooth from ‘Utopia’, the Metatraxi from the lost stories of Season 27, or possibly just all the bees that disappeared in Series 4. Maybe Goronwy’s bees from ‘Delta and the Bannermen’. This story featured more extensive model work than any previous Doctor Who story. ( INFO: The Invisible Enemy) They fight off the infected humans, but are again without sufficient weaponry to destroy the Nucleus, or its many children, which are about to hatch as "macro-sized" beings, like the newly macro-sized Nucleus. The Doctor jams the door they are behind and rigs a gun to fire into a cloud of oxygen gas he is releasing and escapes. As intended, when the Swarm finally forces open the door, the blaster fires, igniting the oxygen in Titan's methane atmosphere and destroying the Swarm and the base. Doctor Who Series 13 Cast: Game Of Thrones’ Grey Worm Actor To Play Action Hero ‘Vinder’ By Louisa Mellor When the Doctor, Leela and K9 first leave the Bi-Al Foundation in the TARDIS in part four, Professor Maruis is visibly stood next to the TARDIS as the Doctor enters, waving him goodbye. However, in the subsequent wide shot of the TARDIS dematerialising, he has disappeared.

More clips from Doctor Who (1963–1996)

Somehow Doctor Who vs the Giant Prawn lives up to it’s expectations, It sounds like it’ll be terrible, and it is! From the generic space ships slowly flying around intro to the fetish-wearing hospital, it’s a pile of ‘meh’ that is more a trudge that a joy. Several unrelated points/observations now follow: