The Underwater Menace This story is not known to exist in its original format (4 black-and-white 25-minute TV episodes) in its entirety. See below for episodes available on DVD / video CD Audio

(Doctor Who Story No. 32, starring Patrick Troughton) written by Geoffrey Orme directed by Julia Smith produced by Innes Lloyd music by Dudley Simpson 4 episodes @ 25 minutes each Story: The TARDIS lands on a volcanic island, and the Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jamie discover a way down to a ritualistic and ancient underwater society. Have they discovered Atlantis? Who is the mad scientist Professor Zaroff, and why does the underwater society allow him to create fish people? Will Atlantis rise again? Or what is Zaroff's ultimate experiment really going to do?

The real question for this story is whether or not it deserves the label of being Patrick Troughton's worst. Where it fails most is in the character department - everybody becomes a cardboard cut-out, although at least the series regulars have some history behind them to lend weight to their traits.

The story is more "James Bond" than anything from the Jon Pertwee Era by far. A mad scientist living in a volcano decides to blow up the world for no good reason, other than that he thinks it will be a remarkable scientific achievement..... for no good scientific reason. He also lives amongst a colony of blind followers, half of them human (physically, anyway), and half of them "Homo Amphibian". And it seems that only the Doctor and his friends can stop him, by escaping a number of death-defying traps, assuming a few false identities, and using a few bluffs. "The Underwater Menace" also manages to be as thin on character as the worst of the James Bond films, which is something the warm and friendly Pertwee Era team thankfully never stooped to.

Some of the best bits include Jamie's acclimatization to time travel, and it appears that the TARDIS was done every justice here. Once the exploration of the volcano gets underway, it takes FOREVER for this story to get started. Nothing seems to happen that creates any sense of anticipation for things to come in the adventure. Dead End City, again and again. Much of the dialogue feels unfinished, like temporary placeholders objectively stating the general dynamic that the writer wants for each section of the story, while no attempt had yet been made to allow the characters to subjectively inhabit these dynamics.

Dudley Simpson created some very atmospheric music with a male vocal choir for one of the early religious scenes in episode one, which seems to have been shot in a very visually interesting way - I'm impressed. However, this barely makes up for the lack of motivation in the story at this point. Things finally begin to pick up as the Doctor explores the scientific concepts of the story with Zaroff, including the introduction of the Fish People and their processes. This story gets quite lost in the middle, with characters running around everywhere accomplishing Who only knows what. Simpson's music is equally lost, as he cheaply mucks around on some primitive synthesizer organ in an irritating fashion that depletes the drama. Many fans will probably judge this story from its one remaining episode, number three. Perhaps this one was saved for the feature sequences of Fish People swimming about. In terms of story, what this actually does for the plot is not clear, and probably wouldn't accomplish anything if one takes the time to really think it through. Simpson's music during this sequence is certainly nothing to write home about either. Pat Troughton's disguise as a sun-glassed gypsy in the market is much more entertaining. What, if anything, the disguise has to do with the plot, I couldn't tell you either.

Music by Dudley Simpson: The Fish People (0:37) is available on: Audio CD - Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop - Volume 1: The Early Years 1963-1969 Find out more here.

Episode Three's cliffhanger is the most anti-climactic piece of idiocy I can ever remember. The acting is bone dry, the action relies on the sound which is cheap, empty, and repetitive, and we are left with no music at all to help build the suspense. In this lack of atmosphere, Zaroff hams us with the line that has become infamous as the epithet of both his character and the story in general: "Nossing in ze vorld vill shtop me now!" Even my misspellings above do the line more justice than the poor actor playing Zaroff, who does not effectively come across as a mad scientist, or a person with a thick Polish/East-European accent. Certainly the script is nothing great, but other directors have often made more suspense out of less substance in adventures past and future.

Surprisingly, the final episode does improve. To avoid spoilers, I'll only go into the full reasons for this in the in-depth analysis version of this review, but we do get more natural story elements here, and finally the plot becomes simple enough for Geoffrey Orme to make it work.

The morality attempted as a rush-through at the end is not impressive, but the wrap up is otherwise okay, and the final scene in the TARDIS gives us a good lead-in to the adventure yet to come..... "The Underwater Menace" is definitely a contender for the worst Pat Troughton story, but it does find equally unhealthy competition from "The Highlanders" (the previous story, which also starts boringly but ends well), and a few other stories further on.....

....on final analysis, however, "The Highlanders" has many healthy production values and watchable/listenable characters evident from the soundtrack to boost its rating, while the added clarity and visuals of this story's third episode on video only serve to keep it firmly mired at the bottom. The Wooden Turkey Award for the season's worst story hovers overhead, preparing to make an underwater nest.....

This story is not known to exist in its original format (4 black-and-white 25-minute TV episodes) in its entirety.

Doctor Who: Lost in Time - Patrick Troughton 2 DVD discs (also included in Lost in Time Boxed Sets)

Coverage on The Underwater Menace includes:

• Episode 3
• censor clips from episodes 1, 2 & 4

Audio CD - Doctor Who - The Underwater Menace.

Doctor Who: The Missing Years bonus tape. This tape was included with different packages for the North American and European markets. More details...

• One complete episode:
  • Episode 3
• Sensor clips incorporated into "The Missing Years" documentary.

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