∇
troperville

∇
tools

∇
toys

Must be Monday. New podcast! Just click on the fancy logo below.

SubpagesRecap

main index

Narrative

Genre

Media

Topical Tropes

Other Categories

random

Subpages:

source

history

edit page

Recap: Doctor Who S5 E4 "The Enemy of the World"

Dinner tonight's going to be a national disaster! First course interrupted by bomb explosion. Second course affected by earthquakes. Third course ruined by interference in the kitchen. I'm going out for a walk. It'll probably rain...

—Griffin the chef.

More Double Trouble for the Doctor, who arrives in Australia in the near future only to discover he is the exact double of Salamander, a scientist turned politician who has perfected a technique for storing and distributing solar energy, feeding a world ravaged by storms, volcanoes and earthquakes.

The Doctor meets Giles Kent, a dissident who believe Salamader is busy setting himself up as a dictator rather than the world-saving hero everyone else believes. He convinces the Doctor to impersonate Salamader in order to investigate.

In an underground bunker, the Doctor discovers a group of people who, having been selected for an endurance test five years ago, believe that there is a war going on above and they have been striking back at the enemy by engineering the natural disasters. Kent originally worked with Salamander on the project, but now returns to destroy the base.

Salamander attempts to escape in the TARDIS by impersonating the Doctor, but forgets to close the doors before dematerialising and is sucked out into space.

Tropes

Action Girl: Astrid, and how!
Beneath the Earth
Blackmail: How Salamander keeps hold on Fedorin.
Criminal Doppelg�nger: Salamander. Mostly played for drama rather than laughs.
Crosses the Line Twice: We know pretty early on that Salamander is causing "natural" disasters to gain control of the world. But then we find out how he's causing those disasters...
Defictionalization: Someone arrested for not predicting a natural disaster? That could never possibly happen!
The Eeyore: Griffin the chef, as seen in the above quote. He is very hammy about it though.
Just a Stupid Accent: Imagine the Doctor sounding like Speedy Gonzales, but with more of an edge to his voice.
Land Down Under
Missing Episode: Every episode except the third.
No One Could Survive That: Salamander's fate.
Oh Crap: Kent, when he reminds Salamander of an aspect of their old plot - oops, that's actually the Doctor.
Tampering with Food and Drink: What Fedorin is a victim of.
The X of Y
Villain with Good Publicity
Why We Can't Have Nice Things: One of the reasons that the Doctor thinks that Salamander might be evil (though he wasn't yet totally convinced) is because one of his flunkies breaks Kent's crockery.
The Doctor: Sad, really, isn't it? People spend all their time making nice things, and other people come along and break them.
You Have Failed Me