The Underwater Menace [Doctor Who, Story 32]

The Underwater Menace by Geoffrey Orme
14 January - 4 February 1967​

So, I rather enjoyed this one. Not in the sort of way that one enjoys a good episode of Doctor Who, per se, but in the way that one just has to admire something that's so very audacious in its own absurdity. This is apparently a world where the lost city of Atlantis not only exists, but is ready to emerge again, where most of the hard labor is done by glittered up fish people, and where mad scientists can crack the Earth's crust with hyperpressurized steam. It's obvious from the start that nobody is ever meant to take this seriously, so it's in that spirit that I entered my third Patrick Troughton story.

Accordingly, I didn't come away disappointed. It is, I can say without reservation, not good television, but the entertainment value is certainly reward enough. Everyone in the picture seems to know it too, not least the magnificently hammy Joseph Fürst as Zaroff. I thought it was an interesting twist on the recently and dearly departed historical format to have Zaroff actually be a famous figure from Earth's history whom the Doctor already knows about, but to further be one from what was then the future, and about whom we have no prior knowledge. His interactions with the Doctor are all good, and he plays this silly little part with enough confidence that the absurdity of his plan really doesn't matter.

Equally barmy are the fishfolk, who for all their ballet routines and odd glubbing have a bit of nightmare fuel inherent to their existence. We see how terrifying the process that creates them must be when it's almost inflicted on Polly, so it's gratifying to see them rise up against their Atlantean overlords.

Atlantis itself is not sketched in what I would call an overly realistic manner. I've been spoiled for many years by Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) with its marvelous worldbuilding, and accordingly have always found the subject of lost underwater civilizations to be fascinating. This Atlantis is a rather squalid little place, but it does have religions, marketplaces, and ordinary people, which is a bit more than some other Doctor Who locales get. It's an interesting place to spend four episodes. I wonder how The Time Monster is going to spin it later.

I should also remark before I finish up that it was interesting to finally see Troughton's performance as the Doctor in motion. It made me wonder just how much of his acting I had been missing out on after so many incomplete episodes. This will continue to be a problem I face throughout Doctor Who's most missing season, but my hopes remain high. See you again soon for The Moonbase.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 1 June 2020.)