10 Doctor Who Futures That Are Now In The Past
2. The Enemy Of The World - 2018
The year 2018 must have seemed impossibly futuristic to David Whitaker when he was writing The Enemy of the World in 1967. Although the easy access to hovercrafts and the devastating volcanic eruptions in central Europe never came to pass, there's still something quite prescient about Whitaker's view of 2018.
At its heart, The Enemy of the World is Doctor Who doing a James Bond movie, with a charismatic villain and some big action set-pieces. It's also a political thriller about how the rich can wheedle their way into global politics. If Whitaker had lived into 2018, he may have been alarmed at what he got right about humanity's future.
Looking back on The Enemy of the World now, the themes of a tanned megalomaniac who feeds disinformation and fake news to his global audience feel all too real. Patrick Troughton's performance as Salamander may look outrageous and over the top, but is it any more outlandish than the performance of 2018's actual leader of the free world?