Doctor Who: The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear

I mentioned previously that these two episodes from the Patrick Troughton era were rediscovered in Nigeria and are now available for purchase on iTunes (they will be released on DVD next year). I downloaded and watched them as soon as they were available, and my son and I both enjoyed them. Web of Fear is particularly important because it is directly connected to the enemy The Great Intelligence and to specific stories in the recent season of Doctor Who. I blogged about both Enemy of the World and Web of Fear when I listened to them on audiobook. While they were enjoyable in the latter format, since neither involves particularly high-tech or alien elements that the BBC’s budget could not then afford, both still work well to watch (unlike some episodes from the 1960s).

Enemy of the World, rather like certain seasons of Fringe did for the actors on that show, provided a great opportunity of Patrick Troughton to play both the Doctor, and the world leader Salamander, as well as the Doctor trying to pretend to be Salamander and imitate his accent. Hinting at what the next episode would focus on, the Doctor asks with surprise at one point “Disused Yeti?!” when he mishears someone refer to a disused jetty. And the final scene of the first episode is a cliffhanger which leads to the next story. One episode of Web of Fear is still missing, but the reconstruction using the original audio plus stills is bearable – certainly no worse that listening to the audio alone!

Have you watched these two recently-discovered and previously long-lost episodes yet? If so, what did you think of them?