PP5 - The Enemy of the World 5

I'm not sure if I'm entirely sold on Bruce's switch to the side of the good guys in this episode. It seems that everyone is, in one way or another, secretly or publicly against Salamander - Bruce, Kent, Astrid, even most of the members of the underground. Can our intrepid villain get out of this in one piece...?

There's actually a great scene, though, when The Doctor convinces Bruce of Salamander's character when he fools Jamie and Victoria with his own impersonation of Salamander. It almost brings out a violent reaction from Jamie, and he has to quickly think of a way to prove his own identity to his two friends, but it's interesting to see how far he'll go in order to prove to Bruce what kind of proof of Salamander's crimes exist.

One man who isn't against Salamander is the dictator's number two man, Benik. My word, what an over-the-top, camp character Benik is. He was painful in the earlier episodes, but when he's threatening to torture Jamie and Victoria in Episode Five, he's downright embarrassing. It feels like I've just walked in on a bondage/role playing party. Jamie even says to Benik at one point, "I'll bet you were a naughty little boy..."! Milton Johns will go on to be much better in both The Android Invasion and, especially, The Invasion of Time, but this is not one of his finest hours, to be sure.