The Enemy of The World - Whoosh it up on DVD 22/11/13

[Rob McCow]

By David Whitaker
The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrive in Australia in the near future.
Confusion reigns when they discover the Doctor has an evil double.

Also available on iTunes.

[Andrew Curnow]

Given the date of its release that kind of makes this the Anniversary DVD release. Entirely appropriate really - although if we had been lucky enough for every episode to exist, and the BBC had polled fandom for which story should be chosen to release in November 2013 I doubt Enemy would have scored very highly!

[SiHart]

I'm going to wait for the DVD for this one, so I have something special to look forward to for the anniversary weekend.

[Dave Tudor]

if we had been lucky enough for every episode to exist, and the BBC had polled fandom for which story should be chosen to release in November 2013 I doubt Enemy would have scored very highly!

Indeed, although I suspect that 'Enemy' will go up in a lot of people's estimation when they have seen the whole story: many people, Barry Letts included, have stated that Episode 3 is not a very good representation of the story, and that has probably contributed to fan's attitudes. Even now, the return of the not-quite-complete 'Web' has been trumpeted over this fully complete story. But this might work in its favour: remember how 'Tomb of the Cybermen' was regarded as one of the greatest, scariest, most claustrophobic stories ever when it was missing, but that its reputation has diminished somewhat since? Well, I reckon the reverse may prove true for 'Enemy of the World'.

Going back to Barry Letts, though, I remember how he said in his interview on the 'Daemons' DVD how he wished he could see this story, his first contribution to DW again. It's so sad he's not here now to see this.

[SiHart]

I think Barry would have been delighted that it'd been found. As would Nick Courtney about Web.

[dalekkiller]

Any special features?

[Matthew T]

Enemy is great! One of my least known stories previously, and I always thought of episode 3 as one of the dullest orphan episodes, despite the wonderfully downbeat chef character. But in context it works a lot better.

I loved Troughton stripping to his long johns and running into the sea.
The bizarre bit with the woman pushing the pram past the guards.
Fariah's death is quite shocking.
The captain in episodes 4-6 is stunningly good looking.
Salamander going down to the bunker for the first time is brilliantly done.

One negative - the music is awful and sounds like an old schlocky horror film from the 1930s.

[Perry Vale]

Enemy is great!

I couldn't agree more, and can't wait for the dvd of this. An excellent plot from one of Who's greatest writers, that will resonate even more amid current world events. Add to that two roles played by one of the greatest character actors ever to appear in the show. It'll definitely be one of the highlights of the anniversary weekend for me.

[Wayne]

I've just read that this is a vanilla only release with no extras.
I'm tempted to cancel my order and wait for the inevitable Special Edition.

EDIT:

Hang on.... It's a 2 disc set..... There must be extras!?

EDIT again.

Apparently that's been confirmed to be an error. It's a one disc release.

[Jonno]

Yes, I was surprised to see it was a vanilla, and agree that I can't see why anyone who downloaded it from ITunes would want to buy this, especially on the assumption that a further version with extras would follow.

I was happy to wait for the DVD (of this and Web) on the assumption it would be of the usual standard - I won't be happy to purchase this just to see the episodes (as exciting as that will be) and then see a Special Edition a bit later which in all honesty I would want to buy too! But equally, I won't be happy to not buy this vanilla to wait for a Special Edition, otherwise I probably would have downloaded them last month. (Sorry if I've lost anyone there!)

Bit perplexed/annoyed by this really.

[Logo Polish]

There's not really been a great deal of time to do any extras, as they only finished restoring it in August. As I understand it Dan Hall also isn't involved with these releases, and it was mainly his company Pup Ltd which the extras were commissioned from, or something like that. Might well be a budgetary thing as much as anything.

If they'd kept it back longer in order to do some extras, that would have meant a longer wait for those who don't have itunes, so I can understand why they might have wanted to capitalise on the recovery without leaving it too long, where they can make more of a profit from them in a shorter time.

It should make a difference, as watching them on a computer screen means you don't get the interlaced effect of the original video images.

[dalekkiller]

I'm hoping Web will have some extras on it. But at least they've got the info text so that's something I suppose. Still what's with the cover?

[MacNimon]

My copy has just been delivered. Perfect timing or Anniversary day! Still disappointed at lack of extras, though! (although I can understand the reasons)

[Dirk Gently]

Looking forward to seeing my copy. I agree it is as vanilla as it is possible to be.

First thing I did was turn the cover around...got to have all my DVD's looking the same y'know.

[Stephen Morgan]

Looking forward to seeing my copy. I agree it is as vanilla as it is possible to be.

First thing I did was turn the cover around...got to have all my DVD's looking the same y'know.

My copy's arrived to, nice to have it on anniversary day. I too turned the cover around, despite its slip case.

[Paul Clement]

My copy arrived...just as I was leaving the house. I'll hopefully have an EOTW funfilled day tomorrow.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[Dirk Gently]

I couldn't wait! I had to watch it today. It'll be a huge Doctor Who anniversary day for me!

[Dino]

I didn't buy it on Itunes, not interested enough to sign up for an account, but this morning, I opened an early Christmas present thinking it was Chocolates and found a copy of this DVD.
About 4.55 I decided to watch it instead of looking at the Menu clips repeat over and over.
I did intend to just watch the first three and then leave the rest for later.
Well that resolve lasted! Finished episode 6 about 7.15 and is by far the best 2nd Doctor story I've seen for ages. What I loved was, you can see a Scarface element to the story. No cocaine or nightclub empires though! Just the whole mannerisms.
Episode 3 was greeted like and old friend, seeing as I couldn't remember what had happened on the Lost In Time box. It made more sense.
I seriously didn't know about the plot twist in the last two episodes. I'm going to have to refresh my knowledge of Barry Letts directed episodes (Planet Of The Spiders being another one)
The black and white really made it. We were spared the colours of the wallpaper on certain sets.
I asked for this one over The Web Of Fear as that one had a missing episode. But on the strength of how well this DVD was put together, I'll look more seriously at that DVD.
And of course, am quite happy to go about my year without raising hopes that more Who stories have been found.
This really is an excellent story. I hope to see it do greater the next time DWM has a major survey.