When I first saw this story, my TV developed a fault, forcing me to watch it in black and white. The idea of journeying-to-the-centre-of-the-brain was quite popular that week - Danger Mouse went through four episodes of this just like the Doctor. Looking back, I was surprised I could take the middle segment of the story seriously as a cartoon mouse and gerbil beat the Doctor and Leela into the controlled brain of a main character (in their case Colonel K) to find the evil squatters at the heart. While Time Lord and Savage fought phagocites and evil clones, DM found himself fighting literal funny bones as well as getting lost inside the body. However, this story has K9 in it, so it must be taken with all the respect it deserves. 

Looking at it today, I do notice how disparate the episodes are. The first one is a sort of 1970s Event Horizon with a ship full of well-rounded characters (well, as well-rounded as you can get with one minute of dialogue between them) being plunged into chaos then, possessed, begin to kill off their innocent co-workers as they return. The scenes of the spacesuited carriers hunting down the crew room are more eerie than when they reveal their infection (presumably capitalizing on the success of The Ambassadors of Death). I do wonder, though, why the infected spacemen begin to grow silver fur around their eyes. Why? If, for example, they were beginning to mutate into giant prawns, it would be more scary if you asked me. Of course, seeing the pregnant prawn in the final episode, it would not have done to story any favors to show the mutation complete, but it could be mentioned in passing. 

I'm surprised I liked the fourth Doctor so much during my childhood. His only competitor was the Seventh, but all the stories of the fourth Doctor seemed to have him possessed or evil. The Invisible Enemy, The Invasion of Time, The Face of Evil - his uncharacteristic anger during the Horror of Fang Rock included. Of course, now I know the Seventh Doctor is the manipulative, evil and amoral Time Lord, but back then he seemed like Davison at his most naive. Well, I had only seen Season 24 at the time. 

The second episode has a cool ER 5000 feel to it and maybe the story could have been better if they'd concentrated on that angle, with Leela wandering round the hospital and seeing how different the hospital of the future is from now. The Doctor suddenly cured for five minutes long enough to re-explain the plot confuses me even now, but I am easily-confused. Oh yes, and while the explanation of the Kilbracken technique explains the clothes, it doesn't explain why they are linked telepathically to their hosts - and if so, why isn't the cloned Doctor infected? 

The Fantastic Voyage in part three is supposed to take less than eleven minutes. I suppose it could work if you think of every few scenes happening at the same time, or if the clones' reduced size increases their lifespan, but the idea of time running out is clumsy. Why not simply have the virus ready to take over in ten minutes unless they are stopped. While I was intrigued by the Doctor's airy claim that his telepathy was curtailed when the Time Lords kicked him out (and the fact he instantly changes the subject when Leela asks him about it) I didn't really feel the clones knowing they were going to die whatever happened worked. Leela seems very cheerful despite the fact she will be dead in five minutes. 

The scene where the Doctor argues with an intelligent virus about sensible ambition inside his own brain feels very normal considering three episodes ago he was discussing strategy with a blob of jelly on the steps of a lighthouse. The death of the clone Doctor and Leela could have been very dramatic but, well, it isn't. It's shot terribly: the Virus shouts that it has won; the Doctor falls over, shouting 'get out of my brain'; Leela runs in and falls over; the Doctor turns see-through; a gunshot; and then all that's left is a smoky hole in the ground and Leela's knife and hair. Knife and hair. That don't dissolve. Give me strength. 

The fourth episode tries to pull itself back into reality - and this is no mean feet with the pregnant prawn burbing in the background. Why couldn't it be red? WHY? The Doctor taking the piss out of the monster normally works in alleviating tension, but there is no tension here in the first place. I was surprised the scene shown in the novelization when Marius tries to infect the Doctor and fails isn't in the program. Assuming it never happened, that would explain why they think he can 'be consumed' when he is clearly immunized. Back to Titan for a race-against-time, the third in the story and better. K9 breaking down could have worked better if this didn't happen so often but it does re-state the Doctor's 'never trust gimmecky gadgets' philosophy. Him leaving Leela and K9 behind was quite exciting the first time, but it's supposed to be comic relief. Also, there's a terrible bit of editing - Lowe fires at the Doctor, who drops the box of antibodies, smashing it and forcing h! im to use Leela's plan. What we see is a shot of the eggs bubbling while we hear Lowe firing, so the box of anti-bodies seems to disappear and we have no idea why the Doctor changes tactics. 

Finally, Titan is destroyed (surely wrecking the solar system's balance and not a good thing) and the Doctor gets out his Sedan chair in his new control room to match the hatstand and using the scanner alcove and a bookshelf. K9 fits in quite well, and it would have been simple for the TARDIS simply to have gone wrong while trying to return the marvellous metal mutt to Marius (ooh, aliteration). Instead there is the annoying scene with Leela acting like a four-year old to the Doctor's brooding parent. 'All right, Leela, you can have K9 but you'll have to feed him and take him for walks because a dog isn't just for Christmas, especially when you're a time traveller'... 

The Invisible Enemy isn't perfect. But it entertains for the two hours needed to watch it.

At a key point in 'The Invisible Enemy' the Doctor discovers that cloning experiments first took place in the year 3922 (or some similarly far-flung date), a gentle reminder that recent advances in genetic science have come at us far quicker than could ever have been expected. That isn't to imply that 'The Invisible Enemy' explores cloning in any serious way: it doesn't. But it does demonstrate the wonderfully throw-away approach to science in Doctor Who stories, or what in Star Trek is called 'techno-babble'. But where Star Trek is quite earnest and serious in its approach to 'science', taking it all 'very seriously', Doctor Who stories often seem to fling 'real' science facts into the mix in the way you might fling chocolate chips into a dough mixture: you don't need to be precise, because all that really matters is that you don't forget to put them in. 

The reason 'The Invisible Enemy' is still entertaining is the combination of witty dialogue and eye-catching design. Tom Baker frequently proves to be the saving grace of Fourth Doctor stories, and here is no exception. Both the Doctor and Leela are served well by a script which is clever, slightly ironic, and full of good dialogue ("You megalomaniacs are all the same"), and save for a few dud lines (usually where the script is desperately trying to cover some distance in a short space of time with exposition from either Leela of the Swarm) Bob Baker and Dave Martin turned out a solid (if not classic) story.

However what stands out in 'The Invisible Enemy' is the time that appears to have gone into giving the story a distinctive look and atmosphere. A high-angle shot of the three infected astronauts in their space-suits, for example, succeeds in stretching the capabilities of a shot-on-video studio-based TV story into the realms of the filmic. 'The Invisible Enemy' isn't cinematic by any stretch of the imagination, but there are certain shots early on that leave a big impression. The cliff-hanger to episode one, the special effects shots at the very beginning of the story, and the model-shots of the eggs before they hatch, are all particularly effective. And other, smaller details shouldn't be ignored: the decals used in the moon base ('Oxygen' and 'Level 4X', etc.) have a pleasing future-retro feel, and Professor Marius' spectacles are wonderful.

There is a lot to like in 'The Invisible Enemy', and even though certain elements would make even the most hardy of viewers wince (the inside of the Doctor's brain, and the virus in it, for example, are far too tacky) overall it is a successful and enjoyable Doctor Who adventure.

How many fans can claim the expectant pleasure of sitting down and watching a Tom Baker story that they had never seen before and better still, knew very little about? Oooh, how many times I have sat and watched Who, wishing to supernatural entities, that somehow, at the age of 29, no matter how infeasible, I could forget that I had watched a favourite story 50 times before, and experience its excitement afresh?

Well, now I can, and crumbs it was almost like a saturday teatime. The story in question was fan "not-favourite", Underworld. How I came to have not seen it before, is (rather like Underworlds repute) a dull story, consisting of UKGold video mishaps, late teen "I'm too old for it now.." pretentions, and general apathy to a story that everyone says is a steaming pile of cakka....

Revisionism is all the rage in fandom right now, not surprising, given that all of us are at a stage where we have endlessly raked over a finite number of stories an infinite number of times and lets face it, what we thought was cool at 10, looks like Resurrection now. On the face of it, Underworld has committed more heinous sins than most of the loathed stories over the years, the at a glance loathometer sites the following reasons to loathe: 

1. It was done on the cheap with 80% of sets being CSO travesties.

2. It appeared in Graham Williams "Silly" era

3. Tom Baker is as mad as a fish in it.

4. The story's poop.

Now, I hate to succum to the revisionist fever, so I won't, because I've never seen Underworld before. But, I will say this, I thoroughly enjoyed every second of this wretched adventure!!

Firstly, lets address the number one gripe, the CSO. I find it very odd that this is the oft sited reason for this stories alleged Turkeydom, surely crap budgets are part and parcel of what Doctor Who is? "Its about the scripts!" was the oft quoted defense on the school playground when someone laughed at cybermen with cricket gloves...(and boy, didn't it put that bully in his place..) but we digress...let me tell you something, the CSO's not as bad as you've been told, at no stage did it detract from the believability of the programme, at no stage did anyones foot disappear (as I've often heard said) and by and large, considering what it is, its done amazingly well. The perspective is always correct, people walk accurately behind things and Tom Bakers hair is never ablaze with electronic fuzz like ole Perter's is in the Green Death mine shaft...

Funnily enough, considering the story is awash with what must have been a nightmare workload for the VidFX folk, the rest of the video effects and model work are very, very good by Who standards. The opening Nebula is tremendously effective (100 times more so than the mandragora helix just a couple of years previously) and all the ray gun zaps are also well done. I think we know where the budget from the sets went....

Okay, point 2 and 3. I like Tom Baker being a crazy assed mofo and I like Who being silly, and whats more, so does my girlfriend who easily bores of Who without Tom's arrogantly witty put downs. Whats good for her, is good for me.

Point 4. Bob Baker and Dave Martin get a lot of very unfair stick. I have to say I think these two have come up with some of the best, most imaginative stories of all time and they always write excellent dialogue for the Doc. Concepts seem to be their strong point, but not at the expense of plot or story. As most folk probably know, there are vague allusions to Jason and the Argonauts through out, it doesn't really add anything, but its an additional layer to muse over. OK, so I was left wondering if the guards were robots or simply wearing radiation suits, but as long as you don't scratch too deep...The concept of the Timelords being gods to the minyans and effectively ruining them in the process is excellent. We all imagine that this sort of Galifreyan interventionist/imperialist bashing only happens later in TOTL and such, but here it is, much more subtly and understated. I'll grant you, the idea of a computer gone megalomaniac is not the worlds most original premise, but look at the other concepts; a spaceship that has a planet formed around it, legends being the portents of things to come..etc. Even the design ideas are spot on, the radiation suits and robots look wonderfully old fashioned and the shield guns, whilst clearly made of lightweight plastic, are far more interesting than the usual bog standard generic space laser we are treated to.

At the end of the day, without looking too closely and doing anything silly like drawing a comparison with Talons of Weng Chiang, I found Underworld to be hugely enjoyable romp with excellent ideas and some smart direction. Tom always makes these stories for me and its easy to forget that really, Tom IS the show, just like he thought he was. I cant imagine any of the later Doctors carrying this story so well. He always elevates it above the bog standard. On any other day of the week, this would be a 3 stars or less, but for pure enjoyment, (and surely thats what its all about?) I'm gonna give it 4. The TV viewing public agreed with me, ratings at this stage of the shows history were high and any future producers of the show would do well to remember that and do their damndest to ignore the fanboys....