Synopsis: Salamander is a peacemaker. Salamander is a hero. And to some, Salamander is their saviour. But to all, he is a very dangerous man. The Doctor tries very hard not to get involved in politics, but the inconvenient truth is that he bears an uncanny resemblance to Salamander. With the help of Jamie and Victoria, he uncovers the man’s insane plans.

Chapter Titles

• 1. A Day by the Sea
• 2. The Doctor Takes a Risk
• 3. Volcanoes
• 4. Too Many Cooks
• 5. Seeds of Suspicion
• 6. The Secret Empire
• 7. A Scrap of Truth
• 8. Deceptions
• 9. Unexpected Evidence
• 10. The Doctor Not Himself

Background: Ian Marter adapts scripts by David Whitaker from 1968. Whitaker had begun work on the novel before his death in 1980 and had stated in his planned synopsis for the book that he would give himself a ‘free hand’ to adapt the story within the allotted word-count and also provided Salamander with a first name – Ramon!

Notes: The cover tells us that the story is set in 2030 – 50 years in the future of the book’s publication. The TARDIS materialises with ‘an unearthly grinding and howling sound’, which is as good a description as we’ll ever get. Victoria emerges from the time machine wearing a ‘faded Victorian dress’. The Doctor enthusiastically accepts the opportunity to impersonate Salamander (he’s much more reluctant on TV). Kent’s list of Salamander’s alleged political assassinations includes Jean Ferrier, Astrid’s father. The dossier Salamander has on Fedorin contains evidence that Fedorin has been involved in ‘elaborate interzonal fraud’ (which is the same charge he denies on screen). A few characters gain full names: Theodore Benik; Nicholas Fedorin; Fariah Neguib; and the survivors in the bunker are Colin Redmayne and Mary Smith. We lose the cute-but-unnecessary ‘disused Yeti?’ joke.

This volume’s ‘savage description of a living actor’ targets the amazing Milton Johns, who played Benik on TV (and who Marter acted alongside in The Android Invasion). While the character is an utter monster, Marter takes every opportunity to describe him as physically repellent too:

He was shorter than Bruce, with a thin body and a face like the front of a skull. Short black hair straggled across his forehead in a ragged fringe and his large red ears stuck out slightly. Huge eyes burned in deep sockets and the small mouth was drawn tightly over the teeth.

He’s also said to have ‘mean eyes’ and a ‘malicious smile’ which spreads ‘gradually over his emaciated features’. When Benik is arrested, he is taken under armed guard to Geneva. The story ends with the time travellers safe and in anticipation of their next adventure (unlike the TV version, which ended on a cliffhanger).

Cover: Goodbye to the Bernard Lodge logo as it makes its last appearance here. Bill Donohoe’s cover shows Astrid and Kent at a set of controls in front of an exploding volcano. Alister Pearson’s 1993 reprint cover focuses on Salamander. Or is it the Doctor pretending to be Salamander? There’s a small initial in the composition, underneath the author’s own – SPS – which was fan Simon Sadler (I’m not tracking all of these by the way as even Alister himself doesn’t remember all of them but this came courtesy of mutual friend Gary Russell). Thanks to David J Howe’s book on the Target range, we can see some of the unused designs planned for this story, including a lovely one by Steve Kyte of Astrid and an exploding volcano.

Final Analysis: As ever, there’s no concession to younger readers here as Ian Marter relishes the opportunity to write up a political thriller. There’s the infamous use of adult language (‘That bastard Kent…’), and while it foregoes some of Marter’s usual violent descriptions, it also loses some of the joy from the serial – the Doctor paddles in the sea at the beginning rather than stripping down to long-johns and throwing himself in with gusto, while Victoria’s exchanges with the pompous chef are cut. I have to concede that this very straight-faced approach almost certainly played its part in Enemy of the World being brutally undervalued before the episodes were rediscovered in 2013. At a guess, the target audience was just too young for a political drama like this. Possibly those who dismissed this in favour of the more monster-focused stories of that era were swayed more by the dramatic cover of The Ice Warriors than its tedious contents. Whatever, this is still a solid adaptation of one of the best second Doctor stories.