Doctor Who - The Invisible Enemy

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The Invisible Enemy is the second serial of the 15th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 1 to 22 October 1977. The serial introduced the robot dog K9, voiced by John Leeson. In the serial, an intelligent virus intends to spread across the universe after finding a suitable spawning location on the moon Titan. A virus lurking in deep space infects the crew of an earth shuttle on its way to Titan. The infected humans kill the crew they are supposed to be relieving, except for one man, Lowe, whom they infect. They begin preparing the base for breeding. Meanwhile, the TARDIS has been invaded by the same virus, and the Doctor becomes the host for the Nucleus of the Swarm. After he attempts to kill "The Reject" Leela (who is immune), the Doctor realizes what's happening and puts himself into a self-induced coma to keep from being taken over completely. Leela, accompanied by Lowe, rushes him to the Bi-Al Foundation hospital asteroid using the TARDIS, where she hopes Professor Marius will be able to find a cure.

While clones of the Doctor and Leela are miniaturised in this story, the Doctor would later himself being miniaturised with his companion during his twelfth incarnation and injected into a Dalek. ( TV: Into the Dalek) They fight off the infected humans, but are again without sufficient weaponry to destroy the Nucleus, or its many children, which are about to hatch as "macro-sized" beings, like the newly macro-sized Nucleus. The Doctor jams the door they are behind and rigs a gun to fire into a cloud of oxygen gas he is releasing and escapes. As intended, when the Swarm finally forces open the door, the blaster fires, igniting the oxygen in Titan's methane atmosphere and destroying the Swarm and the base. Originally, the Nucleus' emergence into the macroscopic world was to trigger the transformation of its infected victims into similar creatures.

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Working titles for this story included The Enemy Within, [1] The Invader Within and The Invisible Invader. [ citation needed] It was not decided until late in the production that K9 was to be a new companion. The decision to use it in multiple serials was made partly to offset the expense that had gone into making the prop. [ citation needed] When they return to the hospital, they thank Prof. Marius for the use of K9, who has ably assisted them. Prof. Marius offers K9 to the Doctor, as he is due to return to Earth, and the Doctor and Leela leave with their new companion in the TARDIS. Lowe's busy spouting about killing the reject, so why doesn't he kill Leela on Titan while she trusts him? K9 stuns Marius so the Doctor has time to examine his own blood and discover that Leela's clone has left him with antibodies against the virus. He replicates the antibodies and cures Marius, who can replicate the cure for his staff. The Doctor plans to eradicate the virus spawning on Titan, but Leela insists they simply blow it up. When the cure is ready, the Doctor borrows K9 from the Professor and heads for Titan Base. When the Doctor, Leela and K9 first leave the Bi-Al Foundation in the TARDIS in part four, Professor Maruis is visibly stood next to the TARDIS as the Doctor enters, waving him goodbye. However, in the subsequent wide shot of the TARDIS dematerialising, he has disappeared.

Studio Sweepings - A rare opportunity to go behind the scenes on the recording of this story, courtesy of a time-coded videotape recording In the Titan Base and Bi-Al Foundation sets, all signage is written phonetically in what the script calls "Finglish" — thus, for example, signs read "IMURJINSEE EGSIT" and "ISOLAYSHUN WARD" instead of "Emergency Exit" and "Isolation Ward". ( INFO: The Invisible Enemy) The suggestion that English spelling will get more literal in the future is a good one, well predicting the effects of technology has on language The Vashta Nerada live in the shadows and are the microscopic “piranhas of the air,” according to the Tenth Doctor. They latch on to a food source and within a few nanoseconds, their prey is turned into a skeletal husk. These guys caused the Doctor, Donna, and River’s archaeological crew to watch their every step and not to enter the darkness within the Library. The Doctor mentions in this episode that fear of the darkness isn’t irrational because there might be someone or something there that you just can’t see. Midnight This story was released on DVD on 16 June 2008 in the K9 Tales Box Set. It was released in the box set alongside K9 and Company.Visual Effect - Mat Irvine meets up with his old colleague Ian Scoones at Bray Studios to talk about the visual effects for The Invisible Enemy

The Doctor and Clara faced off against quite an interesting enemy in Flatline, but what made it most interesting and frightening was that the monster was hidden within the walls and was apparently in a different dimension. Is there a factor which makes invisible monsters scarier? Do we know if there actually is a monster in these cases? Let’s take a look at some of the more-or-less hidden monsters in the series, and see if we can answer some of these questions about these evasive beings. Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead Commentary by Louise Jameson ( Leela), John Leeson ( K-9), Bob Baker (Writer) and Mat Irvine (Visual Effects Designer) Fantastic Voyage" Plot: At one point, the Fourth Doctor has himself and Leela cloned and shrunk down so he can be injected into his own brain, and fight the monster that's nesting inside it.

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The TARDIS is infiltrated by the Swarm - a space-borne intelligence that wishes to spread itself across the universe - and the Doctor is infected by its nucleus. The ship then materialises on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn, where the human occupants of a refuelling station have also been taken over.

Affably Evil: The Nucleus holds no particular grudge against the Doctor, and admits that the Doctor would be perfectly within his rights to kill him... if he can. Easter Egg: K9 appears on Larry Grayson's Generation Game. To access this hidden feature, press left at Visual Effect on the Special Features menu to reveal a hidden Doctor Who logo. Pushy Gun-Toting Villain: Lowe (under control of the Nucleus) becomes this when he attempts to force the Doctor at blaster-point into the Nucleus breeding chambers as food. Here’s another of my guilty pleasures. There’s really nothing great save the concept, yet I enjoy it tremendously every time. However it’s a contrast to most other guilty pleasure stories, in that I feel this one becomes slightly LESS interesting the more I watch it. Inhuman Eye Concealers: The station manager, Lowe, is taken over by The Virus. As the infection manifests with a strange growth around the eyes, Lowe conceals his infection by donning a pair of blast goggles and telling people his eyes had been injured during the explosion, making him very sensitive to light.The story re-introduced the "primary" TARDIS console room, now slightly redesigned by Barry Newbery. It had been abandoned for the wooden, "secondary" control room in the previous year's season opener. It would remain in use, with modifications, until season 25. Bob Baker and Dave Martin originally hoped that much of part three could be made on location, with the Doctor's mind represented by college cloisters or a stately garden. The infected Doctor battled the Nucleus mentally, hesitating to kill Leela and warning her of the irresistible impulse to fire his laser gun at her. Later, he implausibly came out of a self induced coma to help Leela pilot the TARDIS to a hospital in the asteroid belt. There, he proposed cloning himself and Leela to inject their shrunken doubles into his head to combat the virus. Leela tells the receptionist that the Doctor is from Gallifrey. The receptionist believes it to be in Ireland.