‘Doctor Who: The Enemy of the World’ – Ian Marter (Target)


Page Count: 127 Pages

You probably won’t have noticed the difference but the last couple of months have been all about the short reads while I tried to get back into my reading groove again. And for the record, I’m still not quite there but… It’ll come :o)

In the meantime, if I’m after a short read then they don’t come a lot shorter than the old ‘Doctor Who’ novelisations. A conversation on Twitter (nope, still not calling it ‘X’) led me back to ‘The Enemy of the World’, a book that I haven’t read since I was nine or ten; quite a while then ;o) I’ve never seen the TV serial either (it’s on the list…) so picking the book up again was almost like reading it for the first time.

The year is 2030 and the planet Earth is struck by a series of terrible ‘natural’ disasters. No sooner has the TARDIS landed on an Australian beach, then the Doctor has to flee from attack. A case of mistaken identity – for he is the exact double of Salamander, a despot who will stop at nothing to achieve total control of the planet. Using this uncanny resemblance, the Doctor infiltrates the evil domain of Salamander, along with his companions Jamie and Victoria. This confusion of identity will either result in the destruction or salvation of the planet.

Bit of an odd one to write about as I’ve got nothing to compare it against, not having seen the TV serial. Bear with me though, I’ll give it my best shot.

‘Enemy of the World’ was a little dry for my liking but that’s down to my preference for more fantastical ‘Doctor Who’ over what is for the most part a more intrigue and espionage approach here. That’s just me though and shouldn’t detract from what the book does, which is done very well.

Marter delivers a tale that asks all the right questions at all the right times, keeping things bubbling under with a series of (what I’m calling) ‘mini-cliffhangers’. I know he had a whole TV show to write from but he really captures the urgency and paranoia behind what is happening.

And the whole ‘Doctor/Salamander’ thing… For a concept that was clearly designed for TV, Marter does so well to translate it onto the page as effectively as he does. There were moments where I genuinely wasn’t sure if I was reading about Salamander, or the Doctor.

‘Enemy of the World’ maybe isn’t a book that I’ll go back to often (like I said, I prefer the ones with aliens) but I’m glad that I finally got round to giving it another go.

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