Doctor Who - The Underwater Menace
Finally, an actual episode to watch again! Loose Cannon's reconstruction of the missing bits is one of their best ever - highly recommended. I took screencaps from the surviving clips and Episode 3, and they can be found here:
http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z255/impossiblecase/Doctor%20Who/032_UnderwaterMenace/
"The Underwater Menace" was a four-part serial, first broadcast on BBC TV between 14 January 1967 - 4 February 1967. It was written by Geoffrey Orme, and directed by Julia Smith. It starred Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, Anneke Wills as Polly, Michael Craze as Ben Jackson, and Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon.
In the caves beneath a volcanic island are the remains of the legendary city of Atlantis, most of which was lost to the sea 3,000 years before. Professor Zaroff has been living among the Atlanteans for many years, bringing them nuclear power and other benefits of modern science as well as a great promise - to raise the sunken city from the ocean floor. The Doctor escapes being sacrificed to the goddess Amdo only to learn the truth. Zaroff's insane plan will actually result in the destruction of the Earth! Polly is nearly transformed into a fish person before the Doctor and his companions find allies among the Atlanteans and their slaves. Whatever they do, they'll have to hurry, or Zaroff will succeed in draining the ocean into the Earth's molten core!
"The Underwater Menace" has a terrible reputation, being unfavorably compared to Plan 9 from Outer Space and other B-movie ilk. This reaction stems back to before it even reached the TV screen. The story had originally been rejected by the production team, and only when William Emms' "The Imps" fell through was "The Underwater Menace" resurrected - as a last resort. The cast were unimpressed with the script and production, and director Julia Smith was prone to bursting into tears during filming.
In all fairness, it's hardly one of the worst Doctor Who stories ever, and I actually found it to be a great deal of fun. Of course it is impossible to take the thing seriously for a million and one reasons, but it has some effective moments and the story flows along nicely. Some of the points in its favor are the disturbing scenes involving Polly about to undergo an operation to transform her into a mermaid-like "fish person", Dudley Simpson's incidental score is suitably effective, and the sets are quite atmospheric.
It was perhaps inevitable that the Doctor would one day discover the lost city of Atlantis. Atlantis has been done to death throughout fantasy and science-fiction, and Doctor Who's visit there contains the usual cliché of inhabitants who can live underwater. The Fish People are no doubt a good idea on paper but they have virtually nothing to do in the story and they are let down by the fact that several of them are clearly people in rubber suits (wearing swimming goggles!) and it's not clear if they are only part way through the conversion process or the result of the money running out.
The regular cast come across fairly well, with Patrick Troughton's Doctor becoming the dangerous little anarchist he would always be known as, even if the script doesn't let him play to all his strengths, holding him back from really letting rip on the baddie. Still his scenes with Zaroff are a delight, pampering to the maniacal scientist's ego and then trying to foil his schemes however possible. As in the previous story, "The Highlanders", he dresses up in silly costumes - a character trait that would be abandoned after this tale - with his gypsy disguise being the best of them all. I love his attempts to go back and save Zaroff at the end, and his boasting that of course he can control the TARDIS before it spirals madly out of control is classic Troughton clowning.
As for Ben and Jamie, what can one say? What a couple of babes! And they both look damn hot in divers' outfits. Jamie, who was a late addition to the script, gets more to do here than in his debut, getting into fights and rescuing Polly. Michael Craze seems to be aware of how absurd the script is but still gives 100% and Ben gets a wonderful moment when he pretends to be a guard ("He ain't normal, is he?" he says of the Doctor). Poor Anneke Wills' Polly suffers the worst though, becoming little more than a helpless screamer (she has been a surprisingly strong character up until this point), wailing and moaning and falling over.
The story's villain, the unforgettable Professor Zaroff, is what makes "The Underwater Menace" most memorable. Joseph Furst's performance is unbelievably over the top, overshadowing all of the other characters. The fact that Zaroff is a mad scientist with a pet octopus who wants to destroy the world just so he can have the pleasure of being the man who caused it is insane! Originally it would have been a kind of twisted retribution for the death of his wife and child, but this aspect of the character was dropped. At least it would have given Zaroff some kind of motivation instead of blowing things up for a laugh!
Most of the other guest performances are pretty subdued but then any acting would seem mild-mannered next to Furst's! Noel Johnson (Thous), Tom Watson (Ramo), Colin Jeavons (Damon) and Catherine Howe (Ara) all try their hardest to salvage some dignity from the inane script and lend some believability to Atlantis. They don't really succeed but all praise for their efforts. Peter Stephens' High Priest Lolem made me chuckle, channeling Divine on a bad day!
Ridiculously fun throughout and played mostly tongue-in-cheek, "The Underwater Menace" is a pretty silly story. But it's never boring and has some scenes that will stay with you forever. I just can't bring it upon myself to condemn it. Honestly, the only things I disliked were the costumes, the downright bizarre "Dance of the Fish People", and the clunky moral at the end:
"No. No more temples. It was temples and priests and superstition that made us follow Zaroff in the first place. When the water's found its own level, the temple will be buried forever. We shall never return to it. But we will have enough left to build a new Atlantis, without gods, and without Fish People."
i.e. religion makes you gullible, dumb and probably dead.
Atlantis, Fish People, a mad sacrificing cult and a big camp scheme to blow up the world. Not exactly the ingredients for a classic Doctor Who adventure, but watching it with the right mindset, you might just have a lot of fun with it.
3 / 5 stars
http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z255/impossiblecase/Doctor%20Who/032_UnderwaterMenace/
"The Underwater Menace" was a four-part serial, first broadcast on BBC TV between 14 January 1967 - 4 February 1967. It was written by Geoffrey Orme, and directed by Julia Smith. It starred Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, Anneke Wills as Polly, Michael Craze as Ben Jackson, and Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon.
In the caves beneath a volcanic island are the remains of the legendary city of Atlantis, most of which was lost to the sea 3,000 years before. Professor Zaroff has been living among the Atlanteans for many years, bringing them nuclear power and other benefits of modern science as well as a great promise - to raise the sunken city from the ocean floor. The Doctor escapes being sacrificed to the goddess Amdo only to learn the truth. Zaroff's insane plan will actually result in the destruction of the Earth! Polly is nearly transformed into a fish person before the Doctor and his companions find allies among the Atlanteans and their slaves. Whatever they do, they'll have to hurry, or Zaroff will succeed in draining the ocean into the Earth's molten core!
"The Underwater Menace" has a terrible reputation, being unfavorably compared to Plan 9 from Outer Space and other B-movie ilk. This reaction stems back to before it even reached the TV screen. The story had originally been rejected by the production team, and only when William Emms' "The Imps" fell through was "The Underwater Menace" resurrected - as a last resort. The cast were unimpressed with the script and production, and director Julia Smith was prone to bursting into tears during filming.
In all fairness, it's hardly one of the worst Doctor Who stories ever, and I actually found it to be a great deal of fun. Of course it is impossible to take the thing seriously for a million and one reasons, but it has some effective moments and the story flows along nicely. Some of the points in its favor are the disturbing scenes involving Polly about to undergo an operation to transform her into a mermaid-like "fish person", Dudley Simpson's incidental score is suitably effective, and the sets are quite atmospheric.
It was perhaps inevitable that the Doctor would one day discover the lost city of Atlantis. Atlantis has been done to death throughout fantasy and science-fiction, and Doctor Who's visit there contains the usual cliché of inhabitants who can live underwater. The Fish People are no doubt a good idea on paper but they have virtually nothing to do in the story and they are let down by the fact that several of them are clearly people in rubber suits (wearing swimming goggles!) and it's not clear if they are only part way through the conversion process or the result of the money running out.
The regular cast come across fairly well, with Patrick Troughton's Doctor becoming the dangerous little anarchist he would always be known as, even if the script doesn't let him play to all his strengths, holding him back from really letting rip on the baddie. Still his scenes with Zaroff are a delight, pampering to the maniacal scientist's ego and then trying to foil his schemes however possible. As in the previous story, "The Highlanders", he dresses up in silly costumes - a character trait that would be abandoned after this tale - with his gypsy disguise being the best of them all. I love his attempts to go back and save Zaroff at the end, and his boasting that of course he can control the TARDIS before it spirals madly out of control is classic Troughton clowning.
As for Ben and Jamie, what can one say? What a couple of babes! And they both look damn hot in divers' outfits. Jamie, who was a late addition to the script, gets more to do here than in his debut, getting into fights and rescuing Polly. Michael Craze seems to be aware of how absurd the script is but still gives 100% and Ben gets a wonderful moment when he pretends to be a guard ("He ain't normal, is he?" he says of the Doctor). Poor Anneke Wills' Polly suffers the worst though, becoming little more than a helpless screamer (she has been a surprisingly strong character up until this point), wailing and moaning and falling over.
The story's villain, the unforgettable Professor Zaroff, is what makes "The Underwater Menace" most memorable. Joseph Furst's performance is unbelievably over the top, overshadowing all of the other characters. The fact that Zaroff is a mad scientist with a pet octopus who wants to destroy the world just so he can have the pleasure of being the man who caused it is insane! Originally it would have been a kind of twisted retribution for the death of his wife and child, but this aspect of the character was dropped. At least it would have given Zaroff some kind of motivation instead of blowing things up for a laugh!
Most of the other guest performances are pretty subdued but then any acting would seem mild-mannered next to Furst's! Noel Johnson (Thous), Tom Watson (Ramo), Colin Jeavons (Damon) and Catherine Howe (Ara) all try their hardest to salvage some dignity from the inane script and lend some believability to Atlantis. They don't really succeed but all praise for their efforts. Peter Stephens' High Priest Lolem made me chuckle, channeling Divine on a bad day!
Ridiculously fun throughout and played mostly tongue-in-cheek, "The Underwater Menace" is a pretty silly story. But it's never boring and has some scenes that will stay with you forever. I just can't bring it upon myself to condemn it. Honestly, the only things I disliked were the costumes, the downright bizarre "Dance of the Fish People", and the clunky moral at the end:
"No. No more temples. It was temples and priests and superstition that made us follow Zaroff in the first place. When the water's found its own level, the temple will be buried forever. We shall never return to it. But we will have enough left to build a new Atlantis, without gods, and without Fish People."
i.e. religion makes you gullible, dumb and probably dead.
Atlantis, Fish People, a mad sacrificing cult and a big camp scheme to blow up the world. Not exactly the ingredients for a classic Doctor Who adventure, but watching it with the right mindset, you might just have a lot of fun with it.
3 / 5 stars