The Enemy of the World episode 5 discussion:
K: ZOMG, Matching skirts!
H: Yes!
Sp: So I spent about a third of this episode trying to do an imitation of Benik. The screen shot that the recon guys happened to have made him look like some half-melted Star Wars action figure…
A: Half melted Paul Simon.
Sp: Yeah.
H: You know who he reminded me of? Do you know the Dalek Master Plan and the delegate with the stalactites? He reminded me of that guy.
K: He’s a Time Lord. Shows up later during the Tom Baker era as a Time Lord. He was the skeevy assistant of the Castellan. That’s where I know him from.
R: He’s Ace Venture Pet Interrogator.
Sp: So, Salamander. SAL-a-man-dar. Sal-a-MAN-der. Sal-a-man-DER! Sal-A-man-der.
H: You do have a point?
Sp: It was distracting as hell! I could take the accent soup. I could take the whole dual roles thing. I could take Bruce, g’day. But for heaven sake, pick a lizard and stick with it.
P: Maybe he’s a chameleon that’s good with accents.
<groans all around>
P: What? What did I do?
R: I was amused by the cavern dwellers underground camouflage. They all had these sort of irregular swirling patterns on their clothes.
H: I thought that was kind of cool. But not as cool as the stuff the guys are wearing in the Ice Warriors.
R: Just all looks like Braniff Airline seat covers to me.
Sp: So I actually audibly reaction with a “oh yeah!” when they cut to the underground folk. What a weird, weird sub plot.
H: Yeah. This is one of the issues that I have with the story. As I said to you privately, it’s maybe the story as a whole that I’m judging, which is why you guys are feeling about it watching it by episode. I just don’t know if it all works together.
K: I haven’t minded it. I like the sub-plot. It weirdness is fun.
R: I like the sub plot better than the main plot.
H: It’s not the individual plots, it’s the way they’re put together. More next week.
Sp: It’s just stitched together weirdly. It’s kind of like their underground camouflage outfits. And I don’t understand why the holocaust survivors have been duped into creating natural disasters. That’s just the hallmark of something a super villain would ask them to do. So I just … I don’t know… I don’t get it. There was the box labeled milk. And then the box labeled fish. Maybe there’ll be a box labeled “plot” and it will clear the radiation checks and then we’ll understand.
K: I think I can explain.
H: It does kind of tie itself together.
K: Without knowing the next episode. Clearly Salamander is evil super villain. He’s duped the underground guys – who are mostly scientists. That’s why he duped them, to act his evil plan of controlling the world with natural disasters. It seems straight forward to me.
Sp: because reasons!
P: Because scientists would be morally against what they’re doing if they fully understand that it really isn’t an apocalypse.
K: Yeah. So he’s duped them. And they trust him – high Intelligence, low Wisdom.
P: So it seems.
Sp: To the story’s credit, the Doctor’s method of gaining Bruce’s trust, was about as Doctor-y a method as one could have imagined. Very believable.
H: Yeah, the Doctor himself is written quite well, when they actually do something with him. And not just have him say “But I don’t know, I need more evidence!”
Sp: <Doctor Voice> “And I will not be a party to vi-o-lence!” <Salamander voice> “I will! Eh? Eh?”
<lots of “Eh?” jokes for the next few moments.>
R: For that whole section I wrote down “Blah blah evidence blah yadda Salamander blah evidence yadda blah blah evidence blah.” I started out by counting, and then I just had to stop. But there was good writing in this. The sequence where the Doctor comes in and is interrogating in order to get Bruce to understand what he’s up against.
K: That was awesome.
R: “Only you made me leave it in the TARDIS”
H: Yeah, Troughton is brilliant in this story. I really wish we could see him doing his thing.
<discussion of missing episodes, bad Atari ET game, and landfills… I couldn’t capture this, sorry.>
R: It’s funny cause it’s not.
H: So, final thoughts?
P: Okay, the way that she lifted the gun off the guard, it was a pathetically sad plot point.
H: Well, to be fair, we couldn’t see how she did it. She could have gone all Emma Peel on his ass.
M: She could have been all ninja. I thought it was great, because it setup the line when Bruce was leaving “And watch the girl” because the Astrid was the threat. Not just because she had a really pointy shirt.
Sp: Yeah, it was her idea to do the whole Heinz 57 maneuver.
P: So she makes a saucy escape to get out.
<major groans>
Sp: She must have been so confused when she ran across Swann from the cavern. “No, I done this trick. How did you get red sauce… oh!”
K: So, are we done with penultimate thoughts?
E: Good milk. Doctor being clever and sassy as usual.
Sp: And saucy.
E: He didn’t get any sauce on him, so he wasn’t saucy.
A: Good fish. It was awesome.
MS: You stole my line! That was my only plan to say anything.
A: You gave me the idea. I think more than one person can say that it’s awesome.
R: <Mayor Quimby of the Simpsons voice> I also agree with the assessment that this episode was awesome. VoteQuimby!
H: Moving on…
Bunch a folk: Eh?
P: I’m not sure that moving pictures would have saved this episode, with the exception of the scene where she grabbed the gun. Because very little of this episode revolved on people moving in position, but more on the plot evolving. Also I didn’t hear any music.
H, Sp, & K: I did!
H: But it was all dramatic stings from library music.
M: My name is GORDON! <dramatic Sting>
H & M & Sp: Dun dun dun! I will kill him! Dun dun dun!
P: So what you’re saying is dramatic gopher stole it from Sting from Dune?
H: No, that’s what you’re saying. I’m saying…
H & M & Sp: Dun dun dun!
R: Historian, this is god. Pick up the pace!
H: We’re going to move on…
M:<dramatic gopher gesture!>
H: Okay. Next.
MS: I don’t you want to put this in there, but it would have been very crazy if back when that was made they had Super Mario when they were running and it was all “do do do do do do.”
Cz: I like Sala-MAN-der!
R: <Salamander voice> “You are fascinated by me? Eh? Eh?”
Cz: He is wonderfully slimy. That’s all.
Sp: Were the first ten minutes of this episode a blur for anyone else?
R: Blah blah, evidence, blah.
Sp: Yeah, half the couch agreed with me there. Just this cloud of exposition.
H: Which was nice, because we skipped a week.
Sp: Very thoughtful of them to put that in there… 45 YEARS AGO!
K: Anything else Spoo?
Sp: No, not really. It’s just… yeah, this story needs to end. They need to pick a plot and resolve it, and get these guys back to the TARDIS. They’re all over the place. It’s been nice to have a chance for Troughton to show off his acting chops, but whichever plot I’ve been paying attention to this week is not really doing it for me. They need to resolve it and get in the TARDIS and go on to some place else.
P: The plot is a reverse TARDIS. Smaller on the inside.
H: Ronelyn, your final thought?
R: <Bruce voice> “I will pursue this investigation my own way. Neutrally.”
H: What makes a man a neutral Bruce?
R: <Bruce voice> “If I don’t make it through this investigation call my wife and tell her I said ‘Hello.'”
K: Am I seriously the only one enjoying this?
H: I wouldn’t say I’m not enjoying it, It’d just say I don’t like this story as much as some of the others.
K: I like this story better than several of the last few. I do, as usual, believe they could have chopped an episode out and tighted things up a lot…
H: This time I agree with you.
K: But I say that for all the six parters. But overall I’m enjoying the story. Bummed no more of the chef. But I really like Salamander. And the underground plot I actually think is cool. I hope they do something with impatient teenager before the end. And I hope they do something cool with Astrid before the end. Plot wise.
P: I think she is actually a nice role model to keep.
K: Astrid?
P: Yeah. At this time you don’t really see women being portrayed that way on TV.
H: I totally have to show you some episodes of The Avengers.
K: Yeah, seriously. There were definitely female characters like her around then.
MS: Next episode – rock falls, Astrid dies.
K: So, Historian – take us home!
H: Excuse me! I’ve got nothing to say! We’ll see you next week with the final episode folks! Bye bye!
