COTTON FORGOTTEN

The stand-out character of THE ENEMY OF THE WORLD for me was not the twin roles played by Patrick Troughton nor even the full revealed horror that is Victoria Waterfield. It’s the character of Fariah (Salamander’s food taster) and the performance by the wonderful Carmen Munroe.

If this story hadn’t been missing for 45 years then maybe, whenever the subject of black characters/actors in Doctor Who came up, we wouldn’t automatically have thought of Cotton and Toberman. We would always have had Carmen Munroe’s Fariah as our template.

Everything conspired to make this a memorable performance. David Whittaker paid attention to giving her some depth which is surprising given that Fariah is far from a pivotal character in the story. He wrote her intelligent lines of real subtlety. She wasn’t landed with a corny accent as many of her co-stars in ENEMY were. And they cast a fine and striking actress to play her.

Fabulous as George Pravda is in his every role in Doctor Who, we feel little empathy for him when he dies. But Fariah’s death really tugs at the heart strings because time and effort has been put into even her minor character.