The Moonbase

4 episodes
Aired between 11th February 1967 and 4th March 1967

Written by Kit Pedler
Produced by Innes Lloyd
Directed by Morris Barry

Synopsis

The Doctor wrestles the TARDIS into a landing where they find themselves amidst a lunar landscape.

 Sure enough, to his annoyance, the Doctor confirms that they are on the moon rather than Mars (where he was aiming).

The Doctor reluctantly agrees to explore the place, and they all go out after putting on the trusty TARDIS space suits that just happened to be lying in the Doctor's dressing up chest.  Once outside, they have lots of fun jumping about in low gravity until Jamie does a super jump and flies over the lip of a crater and knocks himself out.

As the group approach the crater, they see that it hides a large space station, where two human males emerge from a nearby doorway and carry Jamie inside.  Polly, Ben and the Doctor rush (as fast as they can in a vacuum) to the door and enter the base too.

The base is actually an international weather control station that .... you guessed it, controls the weather on Earth.  One of the technicians at their station suddenly becomes ill and develops marks on his body like black veins.  The Base Commander, Hobson, orders him to be taken to sick bay to join the rest of the staff that's come down with this mysterious illness.

Shortly after, the TARDIS crew meet Hobson who is a bit puzzled at where they've come from, but agrees to let Polly tend to Jamie (who has also been taken to sick bay), whilst the Doctor and Ben are made to stay close to Hobson until he can work out what to do with them.  He takes them on a tour of the base, showing them the Gravitron - the device that they use to control the weather, and also mentions the mysterious virus.  The Doctor offers to help and Hobson is only too happy for it, given that the base's own doctor is one of the patients.

Hobson radios in his report of the newest cases of the virus to Space Control back on Earth, to which one of the crew working the broadcast says that he thinks it was listened in on by someone close to the base.

The group all meet up by Jamie's bed.  The knock has sent the young Scotsman delirious and he keeps banging on about the phantom piper of the McCrimmon's coming to get him.

Whilst Polly calms him down, the Doctor tells Ben to go and help on the command deck, if only to keep an eye on the goings on there.

Ben does as he's told and gets sent to the storeroom to help a guy called Ralph do a stock check as some of the food seems to have gone missing.  As Ben is off counting bags of sugar, Ralph is electrocuted by a metal hand and dragged away.

Ben eventually notices that Ralph has gone.

Back in the sick bay, Evans (the base doctor) suddenly screams out, warning people about a silver hand before he collapses dead.  The Doctor is curious about it, and decides it's best to tell Hobson that the poor man is dead.  When he gets to Hobson, he finds Ben reporting Ralph missing.  The Doctor suggests informing Space Control of what's going on, but Hobson is reluctant to radio in until he knows what's going on. Instead, he goes with the Doctor to check Evans' body.

When they get back to the sick bay, they find Polly screaming.  She tells them that Jamie began calling out saying he could see the piper and when she turned, she saw something leaving the room from the door behind them.  When the group explore, they find nothing and dismiss her as being hysterical until they discover that Evans' body is missing.  Hobson doesn't like this one bit and threatens with kicking the TARDIS crew off the base if they cannot find the body.

The Doctor goes off to explore for the cadaver, and Polly goes to get Jamie a drink of water, leaving him alone in the sick bay.  He comes to just in time to see a silver monster coming towards him.  He cries out that it's the piper and collapses.

"The piper" hovers over him for a second before taking another body and leaving.  Polly returns to see it going out of the door and screams again.  The Doctor and Hobson hear her and come rushing back again.  She insists she saw a Cyberman, but Hobson scoffs.  He says every kid knows about the Cybermen, but is positive that they were all destroyed.  Hobson even goes so far as to begin suspecting the Doctor for all the trouble as it only started occurring when he arrived.  Ben is happy to leave them to it, but the Doctor is adamant that they need to stay and fight this "evil".  Hobson gives him 24 hours to find the culprit, or they will be thrown out.

To find the evil, the Doctor believes that the key is in finding the cause of the virus, and thus explains to Ben and Polly that they need to test everything to be sure.  Polly asks him if he's actually a Doctor then and he says that yes, he studied under Joseph Lister in Glasgow in 1888.

The disgruntled Hobson returns to the control deck and finds that the Gravitron is playing up, causing hurricanes to drift close to America.  As they work hard to control the weather, the Doctor potters about, taking samples from clothes and boots, much to Hobson's annoyance.

Back in sick bay, Jamie and Polly are attacked by a Cyberman when Ben goes for some more supplies.

In the end though, it decides to take a different body, and leaves just before the Doctor returns.

Unknown to everyone else, the Cybermen are shown to be entering the base via a disguised hole in the food storage area, which is consistent with the occasional drop in air pressure when one enters.  Hobson has reports of this, alongside evidence to suggest that the Gravitron's antennae is damaged.  He links it all back to the Doctor's arrival, and decides that he needs to get thrown off the base.

The Doctor is at a loss as to knowing where this virus is from.  He's tested all the samples and they've come up negative.  When Hobson storms in to throw him off the base, the Doctor bluffs that he's almost on a breakthrough and shoo's Hobson out again.  He asks Polly to make some coffee for the crew to keep them occupied and buy him some time, or in other words... Polly put the kettle on.

Outside, two of the crew go to fix the antennae, but are attacked by Cybermen, knocked out and dragged away.

When Polly serves the coffee, one of the crewmen takes a drink and immediately falls ill.  This leads the Doctor to realise that the virus is in the sugar.  Hobson is dumbstruck and asks how it got there.  The Doctor suggests that the Cybermen laced it.  Hobson cannot accept the explanation though, as his men have searched the base top to bottom.  The Doctor asks him however if he searched the sick bay, and Hobson goes pale  - no they haven't.

The Doctor, Hobson, Polly and Ben search the sick bay and find two rather large silver boots poking out from under a blanket.  They back away as a Cyberman dives off the hospital bed and points a gun at them.

It radio's in and announces that their plan is complete.

Hobson rants at them for killing his men, but the Cybermen say that they haven't killed them.  They're using them.  The only reason why they haven't used Jamie is because he's got a knock on the head so he's sort of damaged goods.  The Cybermen leave Ben and Polly in the sick bay and tell them that if they leave, they will be killed, and order Hobson and the Doctor to take them to the control deck. When they reach the control deck, the Cybermen explain that they will use the Gravitron to destroy the Earth and eliminate their potential threat.  They also reveal their means of entrance into the base.

Jamie finally comes fully around and he, Polly and Ben discuss how to rescue the Doctor.  Ben knows from their last encounter that the Cybermen hate radiation, but Polly suggests using solvents to dissolve their plastic accordion looking respirators.  After a quick look around, they find some nail varnish remover, along with some other chemicals and mix them together to make a "Polly Cocktail" to beat the Cybermen.

Meanwhile, the Cybermen bring the sick crewmen (now under their control via electronic headsets interacting with their virus) to the control deck.

The crewmen take over the operation of the Gravitron.  Space Control radio the moonbase and ask what's happening, but the Cybermen refuse to respond.  Space Control tells them to deploy a flare if they acknowledge the transmission.  Hobson tells them that if they don't respond, Space Control will send a relief crew to the moon.

Whilst all this is going off, the Doctor starts tampering with the Cybermen's sonic control device, the thing they use to control the sick crew.  One of the crew controlling the Gravitron seems to go a bit weird, and the Cybermen get suspicious.  At that point though, Polly, Ben and Jamie rush in to save the day with squirty bottles of Cocktail Polly.  They spray the stuff at the cybermen's respirators, which starts to spew foamy stuff out as they die a horrible death.

Once they're dealt with, Benoit the token Frenchman of the crew suggests that he should go out and look for the missing crew sent to repair the antennae.  When he gets out there, he sees two empty suits on the moons surface and radios in just before he comes face to face with a Cyberman.  The Cyberman points his gun at Benoit, but it just so happens not to work in a vacuum.  Benoit doesn't miss the opportunity and legs it back to the base.

Ben sees the danger and pours some Cocktail Polly into a glass bottle and rushes outside, launching it at the Cyberman as it chases Benoit back to base.  The bottle shatters and  kills the Cyberman.

With the immediate threat dealt with, the remaining crew of the moonbase prepare for more assaults.  Sure enough, they eventually see a troop of Cybermen making their way over the surface of the moon towards the base.

They try to radio the base and do a bit of trash talking, but Hobson is determined they won't get in again, especially as he's found and blocked up the entrance in the food store.  He cuts them off mid flow and prepares for their attack.

The Cybermen detect the approach of a relief crew craft sent from Earth and decide that they need to deal with that first.  They use their sonic control machine to awaken one of the sick bay crew members and send him to operate the Gravitron.

Hobson and the rest of the crew are overjoyed to see the relief craft, but suddenly realise that it's going off course, being propelled towards the sun.  They can't understand; one of them speculates that the only thing that could do such a thing is the Gravitron....then they look over to see Dr Evans at the controls.

The Doctor sends Jamie and Ben off to lock the rest of the sick crew in the sick bay, ensuring they don't start wandering too.  They try to reason with Evans but find it doesn't do any good, so they prepare to bust in.  Just before they do, the Cybermen fire a laser cannon at their air tight dome and pierce it.

Only the quick thinking of Benoit and a tea tray save them all from suffocating.

One good thing about the near asphyxiation is that it's knocked Dr Evans out too.  The Doctor rushes him off to the sick bay, and correct the Gravitron.

Hobson notices that a second cybership has arrived with another laser cannon.

Everyone dives for cover, but the Doctor stands his ground, saying he has a hunch they will be alright.  Sure enough, the laser bounces off the anti-gravity field caused by the Gravitron.  Triumphantly, the Doctor orders the device to be pointed at the surface of the Moon.  After some mishaps and re-calibration, this is achieved.  The Gravitron is activated and the Cybermen are all surprised as they suddenly float away into space, along with their flying saucers!

Everyone is happy and Hobson immediately begins work to focus the Gravitron back on Earth, lest any more hurricanes are caused.  The Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie all get their space suits back on and make a quick exit before they're missed.  As they make their way back to the TARDIS, the group see a shooting star which the Doctor speculates is the Cybermen's saucers leaving.  He reckons that this isn't the last they've seen of the metal monsters.

Once inside, the Doctor decides that it's perhaps better to look before he leaps.  He elects to use the time scanner to see where they are going next.  Jamie isn't sure about using "second sight" but the Doctor is happy enough to go ahead.  As soon as he switches it on, Polly screams at the sight of a hideous claw on the screen.


Trivia

• Patrick Troughton apparently loved walking around new sets when they were built so he could get a feel for them.  When he did this on the set of the Moonbase, the Gravitron suddenly fell apart and came crashing down to the floor, narrowly missing him by inches.  He was quite shaken up by the near death experience, but had a good laugh about it in the pub afterwards.

• All the Cybermen were typically played by tall guys.  One of these men just so happened to be destined to be in Doctor Who for a long time afterwards.  It was John Levine, better known to everyone as Sergeant Benton, beloved star of the UNIT stories.  We'll be seeing him for a while dressed as monsters first though.

• Some people say that Kit Pedler hated the Jamie character and intentionally made him bedridden to avoid explanations about mundane objects all the time.  I think that it may have also been that the writers were still trying to recover from Innes Lloyd's spur of the moment decision to keep Jamie on, and didn't have much for him to do.  Don't worry though, Frazer Hines was only too happy to lay on his back for the next three weeks, being looked after by Anneke Wills!

What worked?

• The jumping around on the surface of the moon - what kid wouldn't see that in 1967 and get excited, especially with the space race going on and dreams of doing it when they grew up?

• SOME of the incidental music is quite good.  The Cyberman theme tune (as it will come to be known) is not.  In fact, I believe some of it has been used in the Daleks.

• The Cyberman skulking around on the ship builds tension nicely, especially when you consider that the monsters have totally new suits, so it's possible that young children wouldn't make the connection between this and the tenth planet until they see the full Cyberman at the end of episode 1

• Great that Hobson remembers the Cybermen arrived at Earth, like most humans alive or born after 1986.  It would have been easy to conveniently forget that fact.

• It's nice to see the Doctor putting his scientific brain to work when he systematically tests stuff to find the nature of the plague.  

• The model of the Moonbase with the movable Gravitron is pretty cool.

• The idiotic smile Patrick Troughton gives when he's caught messing about with people's clothes is just fantastic!  

• The Cybermen walking around the moon looks really good.  And whilst I'm at it, the landscape set is pretty good too.

What didn't work?

• The Cyberman theme tune.  My friend loves it, but I hate it with a passion!

• Why exactly do the Cybermen feel the need to wander around the base openly in the first episode?  It's a bit brazen isn't it? and too much like pantomime "he's behind you!"

• Also, I know Jamie's delirious, but there's nothing remotely like a bag pipe on the Cyberman, so why does he assume he's the phantom piper?  If anything, judging by the chest respirator,  he's the phantom accordionist!

• The Cyberman approaching Jamie time and again in episode 2 for no reason whatsoever.  This is made worse by the fact that nobody seems to think its a good idea to protect the sick bay in case the thing comes back (which it does)

• The Doctor makes out that the Cybermen are evil. Are they?  Really?  The one's from Mondas didn't seem to be.  

• Ok so why do Cybermen have a lay down on hospital beds?  And how come everyone panics when they see its silver boots, when the rest of the crew are wearing very similar ones?

• My favourite one is when the Cybermen take control of Evans and use the Gravitron to the point where no one can stop them, but then decide to mess it all up by shooting a hole in the dome and thanks to a nearby tea tray (which is also preposterous), manage to succeed only in stopping Evans!

• To be honest, there's lots more, but there's simply too many things that don't make sense to list them all here.

Overall Feelings

If you cast your minds back (or go ahead and click the link) to the Planet of Giants, you'll see that I said that it should deserve a ten, but there's just something about it that keeps it lower.  Well, the Moonbase is the opposite.  There are so many stupid decisions and actions that the Cybermen make in this story that any sane person would be saying "no, I absolutely hated this - how dare you even suggest that any of Matt Smith's stories are crap when you show me this in comparison?"

The thing is, it very much has a jenesequa about it.  It's just loads of fun to watch.  Yes, there's HUGE plot holes in it, just like Tenth Planet, but at least this time the Cybermen know what they want to achieve.

I'll try to quantify what I mean by all of this for you.

Ok lets start with the effects.  Much of them are crap (check out the flying saucers landing if you don't believe me).  Even back in the day, they were probably still crap, but with this story, you can tell that the production team are trying - look at The Web Planets version of a space suit, and anything Star Trek could come up with.  These space suits are much closer to what we want when we're messing about on the moon.  The same could be said of the Cybermen when you compare them to the Tenth Planet.  Much more robotic, especially in their voices.

The acting - The Moonbase is the first story we can "see" where Patrick Troughton is comfortable in the role.  He's both comical and lovable with his facial expressions.

It is a huge, huge shame that the production team didn't spend that little bit longer making the Cybermen more rounded, because my word, it could have been one of the best Troughton stories made.  As it stands, it is just a lot of stupid fun.

Rating

6 out of 10

Could have been a similar score to the Tenth Planet, but the fact is this should have scored as high as a 9 if Kit Pedler had only taken a little bit of time to make the plot logical

Rewatchability Factor

8 out of 10

Ignore the plot holes, this is the most fun Troughton story yet

Watch this if you liked...

• The Tenth Planet

• The Wheel in Space

• The Seeds of Death

Consulting the Matrix

What's your favorite Cyberman suit?

The Underwater Menace

4 episodes

Aired between 14th January 1967 and 4th February 1967


Written by Geoffrey Orme
Produced by Innes Lloyd
Directed by Julia Smith

There's currently a petition to get the DVD released here.  It would be awesome if you could support it.

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...

• The Romans

• Galaxy 4

• Fury from the Deep

• The Time Monster

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?

The Highlanders

4 episodes
Aired between 17th December 1966 and 7th January 1967

Written by Elwyn Jones and Gerry Davis
Produced by Innes Lloyd
Directed by Hugh David


Synopsis

In fields of heather, the battle of Culloden rages,  The lines of Sottish troops break, and the battle is over, leaving the wounded Laird Colin McLaren to flee the field with the help of his daughter Kirsty, his son, Alexander, and their piper: Jamie McCrimmon.

Landing nearby, the Doctor, Ben and Polly begin to explore the countryside, narrowly missing getting shot by a 10lb cannonball.  Escaping their brush with death, the Doctor is all for leaving again, but Ben is just glad that they've arrived back on Earth and goes off to explore, forcing the others to go after him.  They soon arrive at a cannon that has been spiked.

The Doctor picks up a nearby highland bonnet and tries it on, but decides it doesn't suit him so he casts it aside.

They are confronted suddenly by Alexander and Jamie and taken at knife point to a nearby cottage.

They are told that the bonnet belonged to Bonny Prince Charlie, and the group are mistaken for English looters.  Alexander and Jamie prepare to kill them, but are convinced to stand down after Kirsty hears Polly mention the word Doctor.  She begs the Doctor to look at her wounded father and try to help him.

Ben uses the distraction to snatch a pistol and points it at the Laird whilst the Doctor rounds up the other weapons.  Despite this, the Doctor agrees to take a look at Colin McLaren.

He sends Kirsty and Polly to fetch water, and makes Jamie and Alexander to promise not to harm them.  Once they've given their word, he makes Ben lower the gun.  Ben reluctantly agrees, but as he tosses the gun to the table, it goes off,

Lieutenant Algernon Ffinch, out rounding up Jacobite rebels hears the shot leads his Redcoats towards the cottage, surrounding it.  Alexander causes a distraction by charging them, but is shot and killed.  The Redcoats enter and capture Ben, the Doctor and the Laird.  They believe that Ben is an English deserter, and the Doctor cooks up a story that he is a German medical professional - Doktor Von Wer.  Ffinch doesn't really care who they are and prepares to have them all hanged.

Elsewhere, Solicitor Grey (acting as his Majesty's Commissioner of Prisons) and his assistant, Perkins, watch the remnants of the battle.  Grey comments that the killing of the Jacobites is all a terrible waste of manpower, as he believes they should be enslaved instead.  With that in mind, they head off to try and obtain some Scottish Prisoners for just that purpose.

Outside the cottage, Polly and Kirsty return, causing a distraction to the soldiers.  Ffinch takes a detachment of men after the girls, making sure that the Bonny Prince isn't trying to escape as a woman.

Ffinch leaves his Sergeant in charge of the prisoners, who orders them hanged in Ffinches absence,

Grey and Perkins show up, bribing the Sergeant to give them the men instead.  The Redcoat agrees and the prisoners are taken to Inverness prison.

Kirsty and Polly make it in hiding to a cave, where they can hide and rest.  Polly begins looking through their valuables for things they can bribe the guards with, but the only thing of value is a gold ring Kirsty wears.  The Sottish lassie won't part with it for anything, which annoys Polly no end.  So much so, that she storms off in a huff, despite Kirsty's warnings about being out on her own in the dark.

Sure enough, as Polly is wandering, she falls in an animal pit and can't get out.  The ominous shadow of someone leers over the pit, holding a dagger.  She needn't have been worried though, it's just Kirsty.  Then again, when Kirsty tries to help Polly out of the pit, all she does is manage to fall in it herself.  Their next plan is for Polly to climb on Kirsty's back and get out of the pit.  Whilst she does, she spots Lieutenant Ffinch nearby with a group of soldiers.  The officer chastises his men for letting two women escape them and sends them back down the hill for his horse.  As he waits alone, Polly and Kirsty call out, drawing him closer to the animal pit until he falls in.  They take him prisoner.

The Doctor, Ben, the Laird and Jamie meanwhile are taken to Inverness prison and placed in a damp cell.  The Doctor takes the time to treat the Laird as best he can and thinks he'll recover.  As he treats the man, the Doctor discovers that he's concealing the Bonny Prince's personal standard.  The Doctor convinces Colin McLaren to give him the flag, saying that he'll not escape the gallows if they find it on him,

The Doctor rouses the prisoners to singe a beloved Scottish song.  When the prison guards come to quiet them, the Doctor convinces the soldiers that he's discovered a plot to kill the Duke of Cumberland (insinuating that his fellow Scottish prisoners were preparing to bump the "German" doctor off for knowing their plan.).  The Doctor is freed and taken away, much to the disgust of Jamie, who considers him a traitor.

Back in the animal pit, Polly steals twenty Guineas from the officer, as well as a lock of hair and his identity disc.  Polly says that she will publicly humiliate him if he comes after them (announcing that he's been caught by girls).  With that, they leave him alone in the animal pit.

At an inn known as the Sea Eagle, Solicitor Grey meets a sea captain called Trask.  Grey instructs him to load the prisoners onto the Captain's ship: the Annabelle.

From there, they will be taken to the West Indies and sold as slaves.  As they discuss the plan, the Doctor is brought before Grey.  The Solicitor agrees to speak with the Doctor alone, but only if he covers the prisoner with his gun.

When they're alone, the Doctor says there was no plot to the Duke of Cumberland.  Instead, he shows Grey the standard and suggests splitting the reward with him for the capture of Bonny Prince Charlie.  Grey looks interested, but suddenly, the Doctor slings the flag over him, disarms him, binds the man and locks him in a cupboard.  Perkins arrives, but the Doctor uses his German accent to convince the poor man that he's in fact ill, going so far as to bang Perkins' head on the desk and then tells him he's got a headache.

He sits Perkins at Grey's desk and blindfolds him.  He tells him to get some rest and any noises he hears are all in his head.  Perkins stupidly agrees.

Back at the animal pit, Ffinch is finally found by his Sergeant and the men.  He orders the Sergeant to get him out, but the Sergeant blackmails the officer for money to allow his men to booze.  The Lieutenant cannot pay because Polly has taken his money,  All Ffinch can do is offer payment when they get to Inverness.

Thankfully for Grey, Captain Trask returns later and see's Perkins blindfolded and asleep at Grey's table.  He frees Grey from the closet and after berating Perkins, they all set off to find the Doctor.  They cannot find him however, as the Doctor has made his way to the inn's scullery and disguised himself as an old woman.  Trask eventually gives up and orders the prisoners to be taken to the Annabelle.  The Doctor watches them go.

They are taken by rowboat to the ship.  As they go, the mean Captain Trask orders one of the bound prisoners to be thrown overboard to drown.  He warns that this is the only way they will get off the Annabelle.

Once on the ship, Ben, Jamie and the Laird are thrown in the hold with the rest of the prisoners.  There they meet William Mackay (pronounced McKye) who is the true owner of the Annabelle until it was stolen from him by Captain Trask.

Polly and Kirsty have finally made it to Inverness and manage to obtain some dresses to wear, using the disguise of orange sellers.  Kirsty is unhappy about this, as orange sellers are commonly known as prostitutes, but Polly seems happy about the chance to get close to the soliders, to find out more information.

Poor old Lieutenant Ffinch arrives at the Sea Eagle, having marched all night.  He comes face to face with Polly and Kirsty and begins to yell that these were the girls they've been looking for.  He's forced to keep their secret however, as Polly slyly reveals the ID disc from around her neck.  The Sergeant and his men are paid and are happy to go off drinking whilst Ffinch, Polly and Kirsty are left to talk alone.

Polly questions Ffinch and finds out that they need to speak to Solicitor Grey, head of the prison.  Perkins arrives at the inn, and Ffinch directs them to him for more information.  In his disguise the Doctor sees all this, but is unable to reveal himself.

On the Annabelle, Grey visits the prisoners, and tells them that they have three choices ahead of them.

1,  Testify against their fellow Scots,
2.  Get hung, drawn and quartered,  or
3.  sign a 7 year contract to work in the West Indies for the crown.  After which they will be set free.

The offer sounds appealing, but Mackay shouts out that he's seen what goes on in the West Indies, and those that sign will not live to see the end of 7 years.  Many go to sign, but Ben holds back until the last minute where he asks to read the contract.  As it's handed to him, he tears it up.  Captain Trask smashes him over the head and knocks him unconscious.  A furious Grey orders him clapped in irons whilst he goes back to the mainland to draw up a new contract.

Polly and Kirsty spend some time with Perkins as they wait for Grey, but it becomes obvious that he's just stringing them along for the company.

As they try to leave, Perkins threatens them to stay and play a game of Whist with him,  As they begin to play, the Doctor (still dressed as a woman) turns up and puts Grey's pistol towards Perkins, commanding him to stay at the inn whilst they leave.  Before they can make a move however, Grey turns up and approaches Perkins.  He doesn't see through the disguises, but finds the situation weird.  He orders Perkins to leave the game and come with him to draw up new contracts.  The Doctor insist's that the "girls" leave first and quietly warns Perkins that he'll be shot if he attempts to follow.

The Doctor, Polly and Kirsty make it to a nearby barn where the Doctor reveals that the gun wasn't loaded anyway.

He fills the girls in on Ben, Jamie and the Laird's location, and eventually comes up with a plan to use Polly's extorted money to buy guns to smuggle to the prisoners.

Perkins (obviously scared of the Doctor) says nothing about the altercation at the inn, and he draws three new contracts up for Grey.  Together they go out to the Annabelle and start the process once again.  For Ben however, Grey orders a "ducking" before he's brought on deck.  Dutifully, Ben is bound and tossed overboard.

Back at the barn, Polly, Kirsty and the Doctor regroup.  The girls have only a pitchfork, and other knackered weapons.  The Doctor meanwhile has a bristling armory of rifles, pistols and swords.  He spots Kirsy's ring and identifies it not as her fathers, but as the Bonny Prince's own.  She admits that the Prince gave it her father for saving his life.  The Doctor convinces her to part with it, saying that he'll now use it in turn to save her father's life in a trap for a very greedy man.

On the Annabelle, Trask pulls up the rope to haul Ben back out of the water, but finds nothing on the end of it.  Sure enough, Ben has freed himself and swims through the icy water to the shore.  No sooner as he steps onto dry land however, he is captured again by a redcoat.  Exhausted, he happily gives himself up.

Luckily, the Redcoat turns out to be the Doctor in yet another disguise.

He takes Ben to the barn, where Ben then fills them in on what's happened.

The group come up with a plan to go back to the ship.  Ben will sneak around the ship to give the guns to the prisoners, whilst the Doctor distracts Trask and Grey.  Polly isn't happy with sitting back waiting, so the Doctor agrees to give Kirsty and Polly the job of delivering the weapons instead.

The group row to the ship, and the Doctor presents himself to Captain Trask, who takes him before Grey.  The Doctor shows Grey the Prince's ring, and claims he got it from the Prince himself, who is currently being held prisoner.  The Doctor says he's willing to tell them his whereabouts for 10,000 Guineas.

The plan is working, as Polly and Kirsty reach the hold and begin handing out weapons to the prisoners.

Grey agrees to the deal, but demands to know where the Prince is.  The Doctor says that Jamie McCrimmon is really the Prince.  Grey, Captain Trask and the crew take the Doctor to the hold.  There, he points out Jamie.  As the crew make their way through the prisoners, the Laird unleashes a battle cry and the fight begins.

As chaos spreads around them Mackay gets to face off against the traitorous Captain Trask.  They fight long and hard, ending up wounding each other, but Trask manages to escape above deck.  Ben turns up and confronts Trask too, but the sea captain bests him.  He's about to kill Ben, but Jamie saves him by swinging swash-buckler style into Trask, knocking him down and eventually overboard.
The ship is ultimately taken, and Mackay gains control of it once more.  He gives everyone free passage to serve on his crew, and says they will sail for France.  The only people not to go, are the Doctor, Polly, Ben, Jamie, Kirsty, the Laird and Solicitor Grey, who are all put in a rowboat to get back to shore.  Perkins is expected to go with Grey, but he begs Mackay to let him go with him to France instead.  Mackay shows mercy and they let him come with them.

When they get back ashore, the Doctor says he intends to use Grey to get past the guards and back to the TARDIS.  They are forced to hide in a boathouse when patrolling Redcoats come by, an opportunity that Grey uses to call out for help.  The Redcoats here and when they investigate, Ben and Jamie are forced to fight them.  In the chaos, Grey escapes and flees, leaving them with no bargaining tool.  The Doctor says they will have to find another "ally", and Polly smiles.

The group head to the Sea Eagle where they find that poor Lieutenant Ffinch has been roped into a game of whist with a Colonel.  Polly produces the ID disc again and they cook up a story that they've seen the bonnie Prince in the hills, and that they will lead the Lieutenant to him.  The Colonel is all for the plan and orders Ffinch to go along and capture him.  Reluctantly, Ffinch obeys.

The group travel all night and by morning, get back to the cottage where they met Jamie.  On the way they fill Ffinch in on all that's happened.  They are about to part ways, when Solicitor Grey turns up with a bunch of Redcoats.  He congratulates Ffinch on capturing the rebels, but Ffinch says he's on their side, having heard the truth of slavery and profiteering at the hand of the crown.  Grey objects and says that they signed contracts, so it's legal, but cannot find the papers.  Ffinch orders him taken prisoner and leads them away.  Polly graciously gives Ffinch back his ID disc and a kiss on the cheek before he departs.

Kirsty and the Laird are encouraged to go to France for a while until everything calms down, and Jamie is encouraged to come with them in the TARDIS rather than hiding in the highlands waiting to be killed.  The Doctor agrees to the proposition, but only if Jamie can teach the Doctor the bagpipes.  Jamie agrees and together they set off.

Triva

• This story was supposed to be written by Elwyn Jones, but (as notably happened with Terry Nation) when it came time to deliver, it turned out that Jones had been far too busy and hardly got any of it done.  Script Editor, Gerry Davis took what notes there were and set about hastily writing the thing

• Jones wanted to do the battle of Culloden, something that was obviously too costly, so Davis looked around to see what could be done.  He saw that they could hire Ealing Studio's water tank, and decided to rip off Robert Louis Stevenson's story - Kidnapped.

• One thing to note is that Frazer Hines had been a child star and worked with many people by the time he came into Doctor Who.  He had even worked alongside Patrick Troughton three years earlier and had the honour of starring alongside Charlie Chaplin.

• Although the reasons for this are greatly debated, Innes Lloyd decided that the TARDIS would work better if Jamie were to stay on.  At the point he'd made his decision, the ending had already been shot with Jamie waving goodbye to the TARDIS crew, so it had to be hastily re-shot when Frazer agreed to come on board.

• This is the last pure historical story (no alien intervention), until Black Orchid was shown in 1982

What worked

• Many think that the earliest example of feminism was Jo Grant strutting her stuff.  Here, Polly is allowed to show great resourcefulness and has as much girl power as the Spice Girls.  It's a shame she goes back to making tea for the blokes.

• As with the Power of the Daleks, the Doctor is full of japes here.  The bit where he's convincing Perkins' he's ill is particularly entertaining

• The complexity of the story makes it a little more intriguing for older audience members

What didn't work

• It's a great shame that the battle of Culloden wasn't shown

• Ships and smugglers again makes it a bit tedious

• Captain Trask is really a shadow of Captain Pike from the Smugglers

• It's not a fault of the production company, but now this story is lost, the battle at the end is very confusing

• Although it's happened before where someone has come out of nowhere to be a crew member on the TARDIS, Jamie McCrimmon is totally out of left field.  Surely Kirsty who took a more active part in the story would have been a better choice

• The Doctor's accents  

Overall Feelings

In 2015, I find it difficult to give the Highlanders a fair shot.  The reason for this is that it's only a couple of stories removed from the Smugglers which carries much of the same hallmarks, but in addition, the episodes are lost.  There's not even any decent reconstructions online to fall back on, so at times the show is confusing.

It's clear that this story is tackled in a different way.  Whereas violence and farce have been put together during Hartnell's reign, one generally comes after the other, and the harsh bits usually kept until the end.  This story, with quite a violent and oppressive time period by all accounts, takes the issues and blends them with the Doctor gallivanting around in drag, doing stupid accents.  Thankfully we're saved from the music to go with it.

If this is the case, you'd think I'd be jumping up and down with anger, but I'm not.  Looking back, it seems like the wrong move, but when you're in the moment, watching it, it feels natural, like the Doctor can laugh and jape his way through anything, but when it comes to the companions fates, the stakes are suitably high.

Ultimately, this is simpler to follow than Power of the Daleks, and even the story that it was based upon, and gives Polly some excellent opportunities to shine.  The problem is that it's more like a pirate story without the swash-buckling or people using pirate accents.  It's Braveheart without any battles. Oh, ok there's one battle at the end, but not having seen it, it just makes it harder to understand what's going on.

Rating

6 out of 10

This story is far from the worst, but others have done the same things better

Rewatchability Factor

3 out of 10

Now I've seen it, I'm just content to understand that Jamie is convinced to join the TARDIS and will probably skip over it from now on.

Watch this if you liked...

• The Reign of Terror

• The Smugglers

• The novel: Kidnapped

Consulting the Matrix

Do you think Kirsty would have made a better companion than Jamie?