4 episodes
Aired between 14th January 1967 and 4th February 1967
Written by Geoffrey Orme
Produced by Innes Lloyd
Directed by Julia Smith
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Synopsis
As the TARDIS dematerialises, the group have fun explaining the ins and outs of space and time travel to their new companion, Jamie. When they land, they go out to explore and find they're on another beach near some cliffs. Polly expects they're in Cornwall again but Ben isn't so sure.
They decide to scramble up the cliff to see if there's anything around them, but Polly soon gets exhausted. Ben, Jamie and the Doctor leave her behind to catch her breath whilst they go on. As she rests, she finds a bracelet on the floor near some caves. She soon enters the cliff side, and is accosted by some robed men. She screams out which brings the boys running back. They enter the cave and are soon accosted themselves and thrown into a small room where they find Polly, bound. They tell themselves that it's fine so long as the Doctor's free, only to have him shoved into the room a second later.
The room turns out to be an elevator, that begins to descend below sea level. As they go, a gas is released into the elevator and they are all knocked unconscious.
When they awake, they find they are alone in a compression chamber. Together the group work out that they are in approximately 1970, as the bracelet Polly found is from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico.
A guard enters and leads them to a dining hall where they are given plankton to eat. The Doctor loves it, but Polly isn't keen. They are shortly joined by a priest called Lolem. He announces that their arrival has been prophesised by the goddess Amdo, and they are to be sacrificed. Ben, Polly and Jamie are all taken away, but the Doctor buys them all some time by deducing from the plankton that the genius professor Zaroff is in this place. He says that the Professor would be most displeased if the group were killed, but Lolem is skeptical. He even refuses to pass on a note from the Doctor, but the Doctor manages to convince the serving girl, Ara to deliver it instead.
The Doctor is taken to join the rest and they are tied onto tilting platforms that lead to a shark tank.
When Ara finally delivers the note to Zaroff, he sees that it talks of a vital secret ,and so he rushes to stop the sacrifice.
Ben, Polly and Jamie are take away to labour, whilst the Doctor is taken by Zaroff to reveal his secret. When they're alone, the Doctor confesses that he doesn't really have a secret, but manages to flatter Zaroff by bigging up his scientific achievements and the fact that he successfully disappeared 20 years ago and managed to get everyone to blame each other for it. As a result, Zaroff decides not to overturn his decision. Zaroff begins gloating about his work and reveals that they are all in Atlantis. He reveals his goal to raise the sunken city once again.
Meanwhile, Zaroff's scientific assistant, Damon meets Polly, Ben and Jamie. He is in charge of the labour force, and so orders that Jamie and Ben go to the mines, whilst Polly is to have plastic gills installed on her, so she can be a fish person and farm the plankton that they use for a food supply.
The serving girl, Ara discovers Polly's fate and rushes off to tell the Doctor in return for his kindness to her. The Doctor asks Ara to go and help with Polly's procedure, but as soon as she has a chance, get her away from Damon before he can perform the surgery on her. Unfortunately for them, Damon and his doctors have captured Polly and are holding her down on an operating table to sedate her.
As Ara goes off again, the Doctor is taken to Zaroff's lab to see his ongoing work. Whilst there, the Doctor spots some conveniently placed wire cutters lying around and begins to secretly snip wires whilst Zaroff rambles on about his plans, which are to raise Atlantis by drilling a hole into the Earths crust so big, that the ocean will drain into it. This will create lots of steam that will effectively blow Altantis sky high (thus raising it), but at the cost of everyone alive both in the sunken city, and across the entire world.
The Doctor's meddling trips the electric which make's Damon's lab too dark to operate on Polly. In the confusion, Ara is able to slip away with Polly, whilst Damon storm in on Zaroff, demanding to know why he's draining so much power. Zaroff denies it, and soon they work out it's the Doctor's fault. The Doctor tries to bluff his way out of it, but Damon is furious.
Zaroff agrees to keep a careful eye on him from now on.
In the mines, Ben and Jamie come across Sean and Jacko, sailors who were shipwrecked and ended up in Atlantis.
They quickly forge a friendship, and work together to hide a stolen compass from the guards. The compass is to help find their way through the tunnels when they try to escape through a shaft that they've discovered. As the prisoners are being split up into work parties, the group manage to slip away unnoticed.
Back in the lab, the Doctor escapes by throwing a couple of chemicals together and creating a stink bomb, leaving Zaroff choking. He runs into Ara who says that Polly is fine, They overhear a priest called Ramo talking to Damon about how they distrust Zaroff. The Doctor gets Ara to lead Damon off on a goose chase to find Polly, whilst he approaches Ramo. He manages to get the priest to listen to him, and demonstrates what will happen to the world if Zaroff's experiment is allowed to go ahead.
Ramo agrees to bring the Doctor to their ruler, King Thous, but warns that the king is a fan of Zaroff. Ramo finds the Doctor a set of ceremonial robes, and they go off together.
Meanwhile, Ben, Jamie, Sean and Jacko have made it through the tunnels until they come to a secret door. When they emerge they find themselves back in the Atlantean temple, where they meet up with Polly. They are all forced back into hiding however, as priests begin to enter the temple.
The Doctor and Ramo confront King Thous with the truth of Zaroff's plans, and the King is skeptical, but takes the word of his priest seriously. He asks for some time to think and is left alone. After a short while, he summons the Doctor and Ramo back, only to hand them over to Zaroff to do with as he pleases.
Zaroff orders them to be taken away and fed to the sharks. When they're gone, Thous questions Zaroff, but the mad scientist assures him that the Doctor's claims were untrue.
The Doctor and Amdo are lead to the temple where Lolem begins a ritual to cut their heads off before feeding them to the sharks. As they prepare to execute the traitors, a booming voice issues out of the stone face of the goddess Amdo, commanding all to bow their heads in reverence.
The priests all obey, allowing the Doctor and Ramo to escape into the secret compartment that's opened up. When the priests arise and find the prisoners gone, they proclaim it as a miracle. The group are all reunited inside the secret tunnels and reveal that their idol had a tube with a mouthpiece installed, used to fool the natives.
Zaroff is confirming to Thous that the raising of Atlantis will take place two days from now when they are interrupted by Lolem. The high priest is very happy and explains the miracle to the King. Zaroff sees through the ruse and is furious, demanding that the guards search for the Doctor.
King Thous is reluctant, but agrees.
Now they're all together, the group come up with a plan. Sean and Jacko are sent to the fish people to convince them to strike (with no way to refrigerate the food, it cannot be stored therefore, striking farmers means that people will begin to starve). The rest of them come up with an elaborate plan to kidnap Zaroff in order to ensure he cannot carry out his experiment.
Sure enough, Sean gets the fish people's attention by insulting them. Then he convinces them that they're all slaves because of Zaroff and gets them to agree a strike.
Ben and Jamie don wet suits and disguise themselves as guards. Polly dresses like Ara and the Doctor dresses like... well, you can see.
Working together, they all trick Zaroff into chasing the Doctor back to the temple where they kidnap him and take him into the secret tunnels. Zaroff laughs at their plan and says the experiment will go ahead even without him,
The Doctor doubts it and sets off with Ben and Jamie to check the progress in the lab. They see another ceremony underway and so disguise themselves as fish and hide until it's done.
Ramo and Polly are left to guard Zaroff.
It's not long before Zaroff fools Ramo and the pair fight, ending in Ramo being stabbed.
Zaroff grabs Polly and escapes into the tunnels.
The ceremony has just finished, and a dying Ramo comes out to warn the others of Polly's abduction. The Doctor sends Jamie after Polly whilst he and Ben go to the lab.
Jamie rushes after Zaroff and finds him in the tunnels. The pair fight and it looks like Jamie might lose until Sean and Jacko turn up. Zaroff escapes into the tunnels, but leaves Polly behind.
Zaroff's totally bonkers now, but makes it back to the King's throne room where Damon is updating him on the sudden strike of the fish people. The King orders that they enter negotiations with the fish, but Zaroff denies it, insisting that any dissidents will be killed. The King realises that Zaroff is stark raving mad, and goes to arrest him, Zaroff laughs maniacally and shoots the King and his guards dead.
He then announces that "nothing in zi vorld can stop me now!" before rushing back to his lab.
The Doctor and Ben stumble upon the bodies as they go on their way to the lab. Knowing that Zaroff has made it back to his lab, and seeing that Thous is only just alive, they decide to bring the King back to the temple. Once there, the Doctor decides that the only way to stop Zaroff is to flood the lower portions of the city (where the lab is). He tasks Sean and Jacko with evacuating all the civilians whilst the Doctor and Ben set off to instigate the flood.
They go to the generator room, bluffing their way past a guard to do so. Once inside, they set the generator to overload (and presumably start the flood). Once complete, they set off for the lab.
Meanwhile, Jamie and Polly are lost in the tunnels. As they work their way through them, they see the walls start to crumble, and water come through them. Frantically, they speed up their journey to avoid the flood.
As the city begins to flood, instead of evacuating people, Sean and Jacko decide to take Thous and leg it to the surface. They're joined by Damon who is gutted at losing his life's work.
The Doctor and Ben make it to the lab, where they see that Zaroff has shifted the experiment forward, with detonation taking place in the next five minutes! He convince's Zaroff's people of the true effect this experiment will have on the world, and the fact that the rumbling they hear is the city being destroyed. The lab technicians all flee, leaving Zaroff, the Doctor and Ben alone. The Doctor thinks he's won, but Zaroff brings down an iron gate, sealing himself in the lab so that the Doctor cannot stop him from pressing the big red button.
The sea is raging ever closer, which makes Ben anxious to the point where he drags the Doctor away to escape in time. As they leave, the Doctor cuts the lights to the lab, making it harder for Zaroff.
The mad scientist cannot see anything, so he is forced to raise the gate to switch the light on. As he comes out, Ben suddenly rushes back into the lab, hits the button for the gate, and ducks out of the lab as the gate comes back down, leaving Zaroff trapped away from his big red button.
Ben catches back up with the Doctor who is adamant that he wants to go back and save Zaroff, but Ben won't let him, saying it's too late and they've got to go now if they stand any chance of escape.
Zaroff is raging at the injustice of it all, and reaches desperately through the bars towards the button, but is slowly drowned by the rising water levels.
With no other option, Jamie and Polly are forced to climb their way out of the tunnels to the surface. Polly has a hissy fit saying she can't do it, but Jamie forces her onwards until finally, they reach the surface.
Jacko, Sean, Thous Damon and Ara all made it outside too. They lament the fact that the Doctor is likely dead. Thous says that they will have a monument for the Doctor built in the new temple of their new city. Damon says that there will be no new temples in the new city, suggesting a new age of Atlantis.
Likewise, as Ben and the Doctor make it to the surface, Ben is sad that Polly might not have made it. He needn't have worried however, as they soon meet up with Jamie and Polly. Ben gives Polly a big hug and they all set off back to the TARDIS.
As they wander on the shore, Sean and Jacko come across the Police Box and cannot believe their eyes. Even more so when it dematerialises.
In the TARDIS, Jamie says that he likes it on board the ship as it feels safe, unlike outside!
They all make fun of the fact that they don't know where they're going, and the Doctor takes offense suddenly claiming that he can take them wherever they want to go. He tries to prove it by taking them to Mars, but something goes wrong and the TARDIS begins to go out of control.
Trivia
- Episode 2 of the Underwater Menace was discovered at the same time as episode 3 of Galaxy 4, but has never been released to the public.
- The release of the Underwater Menace on DVD has been a bit of a debacle. Proposed to have episode 2 on it, it's been tied up in what's called the omnirumour. Last year there were pictures tweeted by the Dr Who restoration team stating they were working on T.U.M. and it's appeared on multiple release schedules from BBC worldwide....and then been taken off it. The final release date of this DVD is still unknown.
- Anneke Wills, Michael Craze, Frazer Hines and Patrick Troughton had already sparked up a great relationship, and as they entered this strory, they knew full well how cheezy it was. To top it all, Troughton didn't get on with Julia Smith, the Director. The result was that he took the whole cast on to give Julia as hard a time as possible - they even reduced her to tears at one point.
- This was one of the most overspent episodes of Doctor Who made during the black and white era, going £2,000 over budget. It would be nice to know where that money went, because it certainly didn't go to the costume department!
What worked
- Ok, a lot of the soundtrack has just weird buzzing noises at dramatic points, but at times, it feels like something from Jon Pertwee's era, like a precursor to the Sea Devils.
- The fish people's costumes may suck, but compared to the Arridian's (see The Chase), they are positively Hollywood blockbuster effects
- The bit where Polly is going to get operated on is suitably tense
- I'm stretching a bit here, but the temple and lab sets were a good effort, and the location shots were done well
- It was a lovely sight to see Ben care for Polly (I haven't really mentioned that every single story he's been in, he's always the one desperate to find Polly when they're separated).
What didn't work
- I didn't especially notice it, but apparently, Jamie takes a leaf from Dodo's book and starts changing accent to become more mainstream Scottish, rather than use the sing-song style Scottish accent that was typical of highlanders.
- The shell costumes looked awful, and Anneke Wills said that they dug in to her terribly anyway
- Whilst I can forgive the fish people, I can't forgive their ballet style swimming on cords. They go backwards and forwards for absolutely no reason. I bet a significant part of the budget was spent doing this pointless scene too.
- The part where Sean goes to convince the fish people to strike is beyond awful
- Whilst we're on fish people, they must have had budget problems in that dept, because half of them just have cellophane finns at their waist, and then diving masks on. Crap.
- It's never explained why Zaroff would choose to kill everyone on the planet (including himself). Earlier scripts suggest that he's mad because of the death of his wife, but we're never told on screen
Overall Feeling
I went into this story with a feeling of utter dread. I took a deep breath and prepared myself. Why? Just about the entire Doctor Who fandom decry this story as rubbish, but yet hold special mockery for the fish people, which they paradoxically most want to see on the DVD! So, I heard all this propaganda and feared the worst. When I actually watched it though, I came to a bit of a different conclusion.
First off I'll start with the bad - there's a lot of poorly executed stuff in it, and considering the budget that was spent on it, the effect of the money was negligible. The production company needed much, much more money to make this story as epic as it should have been, so we're bound to think bad of it.
If you come at it from the angle of what you think the ultimate Doctor Who story should be, then the plot itself is "hokey" from the get go, What I've found with the Underwater Menace, is although it's played serious, it really isn't meant to be. This story is a homage to the Saturday morning serials like Flash Gordon; it has more than a vague resemblance to Stingray, and at times mirrors the Batman TV show that was running at the time in America. To enjoy this story for what it is, you must put yourself in that mindset. We're not just in Atlantis, we're in a world where the villains are obviously mad and obviously German. We're in a world where a normal level of mad scheming isn't good enough, they have to destroy the entire planet; and why simply doesn't matter. Likewise, the heroes schemes can't be mundane either, They must come up with crazy Scooby-Doo level plots to disguise themselves and run around corridors, and flood entire portions of the city.
This is enjoyable only if you go into it celebrating its flaws, and with the mindset that it's on a par with the Romans, the Time Meddler, and other such nonsense.
Rating
5 out of 10
I liked it a little less than Galaxy 4, where there's also catastrophic events for no reason.
Rewatchability Factor
2 out of 10
There's only so much maniacal madmen and fishy antics I can take. I could possibly watch it again, but not for a good long while.
Watch this if you liked...
Consulting the Matrix
Is the Doctor a killer? What was the point in flooding the city and surely dooming many citizens? Also, what do you think happened to the fish people?
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