Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 033—The Underwater Menace
By T. Scott Edwards
The
Underwater Menace is
something of an oddity. It's utterly bonkers, ridiculous, with some of the most
frustrating incidental music ever, and the most madcap and over-the-top villain
the show has ever had. And I love it. I don't know why – only one of the four
episodes exists for me to see, although episode 2 has since been discovered,
but not yet released. The soundtrack is still very engaging, with some cracking
dialogue. There are daft bits there too, of course. But I still really enjoy it
every time I listen to it and watch episode 3. I just can't help myself. Oh,
and it has that line in it – but more
on that later!
The recon I'm using is relatively low
quality – whilst it's synced up perfectly to my audio, as narrated by Anneke
Wills, the telesnaps and existing footage (what little of it there is) are very
low resolution, and details are difficult to make out.
Oddly, The Underwater Menace is widely regarded as a dreadful story – but
that is probably because only the third episode exists, and whilst the third
episode includes that line – which I
will come to soon enough! – the majority of the episode is taken up by the
prancing balletic sequence involving the fish people, and is hardly gripping
TV. The tone of this entire serial is bizarre, and only watching the third
episode, without warming to this jarring tone first through the first episode,
can somewhat throw a viewer. Listening to the audio track too, though, we are
able to gradually acclimatise ourselves to the madness. It's an experience well
worth having.
Episode 1 picks up straight after The Highlanders ended, with Jamie being
welcomed into the TARDIS. What is lovely about Fraser Hines' performance is how
quickly he settled into the TARDIS 'family', and the quirks that his historical
origins provide. Until now, every companion has been at the very least
contemporary, with the exception of Katarina, who may or may not count. By
introducing someone from Earth history, it gives a new and naive element to the
TARDIS crew, someone utterly overwhelmed by everything they encounter. Whilst
Katarina played this role with a doe-eyed stupidity, Hines' Jamie instead
charges willingly, headfirst, into the situation, occasionally asking for some
clarification but usually going on instinct. This 'family' idea is probably why
I love The Underwater Menace so much.
For all of the preposterous plotline, each character is decidedly determined to
work together, and the group dynamic is wonderful, almost a nod back to the
times of Ian, Barbara and Susan with the Doctor.
There is comedy abound in the opening
scenes, with each of the characters hoping for their next locale, with Ben
making a wise-crack about the Daleks and the Doctor hoping for prehistoric
creatures – something he'll finally meet in his next incarnation – and upon
landing, Polly states that she is certain where they are – Cornwall. Again. Of
course they aren't, and instead they've landed at the foot of a volcano,
somewhere like the Mediterranean, but with a tidal sea. No sooner have the crew
left the TARDIS – the Doctor collecting his stove pipe hat first, of course –
then the group are split up, and each group are captured and lowered under the
sea level on a gigantic platform, succumbing to 'the bends' on their way down.
The comedy continues throughout the
following scenes, too, as Ben makes an unintentionally semi-racist comment – "Polly,
you speak foreign!" – in his typically East End way. Likewise, once the
travellers are fed plankton, Polly makes a reference to the Doctor's
fascination – "I've never seen him go for food like this before. It's
usually hats." The humour quickly dissipates, though, with the discovery
of their fate; the group's arrival was foretold, and they are to be sacrificed
to the great goddess Amdo. Upon this discovery, the Doctor saves the group by
sending a note – signed Dr. W., incidentally, but I'm not getting into that –
to a Professor Zaroff. Zaroff was world renowned for his scientific successes
but reported dead some twenty years earlier; in the first mention of the Cold
War in the series, the Doctor says that "the East blamed the West, the
West, the East".
Zaroff's disdain for the religious
ideals of the Atlantean society is set out instantly as he disrupts Lolem's
ceremony. Lolem is played with wonderful camp charm by the brilliant Peter
Stephens, last seen as the wonderfully camp naughty schoolboy Cyril, amongst
others, in The Celestial Toymaker. Although
he only appears infrequently throughout the serial, there is a childish and
naive charm to the High Priest, whose unwavering faith in Amdo is ultimately
his undoing. In fact, this entire serial is something of a critique of
religion, albeit thinly veiled. Whilst science is ultimately responsible for
all that happens to Atlantis and its inhabitants, it is the fault of religion
that science was able to do such things.
Zaroff's saving of the Doctor and his
travelling friends is wonderfully delivered – the most magnificent thing about
this entire serial is, of course, Joseph Furst, whose portrayal of Zaroff is so
ridiculously over-the-top and manic that it is impossible to dislike. Furst's
accent and delivery are simply breathtaking, and that he saves the Doctor and
company on a whim because the Doctor has "a sense of humour" shows
that he is hugely unbalanced. Added to this his threat that, rather than
feeding them to the shark, he could feed them to his pet octopus, makes this
character something straight out of a James Bond film. In fact, everything
about Zaroff and his plans is straight out of a Bond film; in episode two,
Zaroff spouts the line "I made you – so I can break you!" and when
asked why exactly he wants to destroy the world, in the calmest way possible
from Troughton, Furst's response is, simply, because he can. He sees it as
being the "scientist's dream of supreme power!"
Episode one ends with Ben and Jamie
being sent to the mines, whilst Polly is removed and sent to Damon's surgery. She
stands by and admires the elegance of the fish people, before the cliffhanger
cuts in, and we are informed that she is due to have the exact same treatment –
the final scene moves, and we get to see her pinned to a table, tossing and
turning as Damon approaches with a huge syringe.
The Doctor is able to save Polly, of
course, by asking a serving girl, Ara, to help her escape as soon as possible,
and creating technical breakdowns shorting the lighting. Polly and Ara escape
to the temple, hiding behind a gigantic sculpture of Amdo. Fortunately, they
are soon joined by Ben and Jamie, having been assisted to their hiding place by
rebel miners, and racial stereotypes, Sean and Jacko. The mine scenes seem to
go on forever, though, and the dialogue is redundant; sadly, it all seems like
filler, with nothing really gained – the group could as easily have left the
mines in one scene and then arrived at the temple the next, with no need for
the intermittent scenes. The Doctor, meanwhile, has managed to find his way
there by wearing yet another disguise, this time as a guard, and bumping into
Ara back in the outer chamber where he had been hiding from the searching
guards.
The Doctor is able to speak with Ramo, a
priest who questions Zaroff's dubious plan and has no faith in the scientist. Fortunately,
Ramo is willing to listen to the Doctor's suggestions – the Doctor demonstrates
the Professor's plans using a cup of boiling water over a fire. Ramo is willing
to believe the Doctor's suggestions, and so agrees to take him to see Thous,
the leader of the Atlanteans. Ramo's return allows the Doctor to utilise yet
another disguise, and his excitement by the headdress is wonderful – as he
pulls on the costume, his "how do I look?" is wasted upon the priest.
The scene in which the Doctor attempts
to persuade Thous of the danger to Atlantis is something of an oddity, though; rather
than using the same sort of demonstration used with Ramo, he instead simply
points out that Zaroff has "eyes – they light up!" whenever he talks
about his plans. His argument is that, quite simply, his eyes show that he is "mad
as a hatter". It is a strange thing, that he tells a man so filled with
devout faith in the scientist that he is mad, rather than providing any proof,
and leads to the inevitable betrayal of the cliffhanger for episode 2, with
Zaroff striding into the room, filled with arrogance.
Episode 3, thankfully, moves, and allows
us to see to some extent how well realised Atlantis, and its inhabitants, are –
and the first striking thing about it is Zaroff himself, unquestionably. From
his ever-expanding hair, making him look like the insane scientist he is from a
schlocky B-Movie, to the subtle twitching of the eyes, he is impossible to look
away from, stealing every scene that he is in, a tour-de-force.
The scenes in the temple are rather
unnerving, though; as I mentioned earlier, I think that Geoffrey Orme, when he
wrote this, was clearly trying to lampoon the fundamental belief systems in
place throughout the world, suggesting that religion allows people to do
ridiculous and terrible things. Through the presentation of the religious as
sycophantic idiots, being tricked into believing anything because they do not
try to look beyond these religious ideals, it is unnerving that the Doctor and
his companions utilise such a thing to guarantee their freedom, and the booming
voice of Amdo calling for all to look away as the goddess feasts on the
sacrifice is worrying. The excitement of Lolem and the other believers, too, is
awful; as an audience, we know the truth, and Zaroff's anger and ridicule is
rightly aimed at the superstitious fool – but even so, seeing Lolem thrown
forward, as he collapses daintily onto the plinth in front like Greta Garbo, is
hilarious.
The Doctor's suggestions, once reunited
with his companions behind the statue, are bizarre – firstly, due to the lack
of storage system (Zaroff didn't create a fridge? Seriously?!) by leading the
fish people into rebelling against their oppressors, it will halt the Atlantean
society, since food will spoil unless constantly caught fresh. Secondly, they
will kidnap the most lauded and famed man in all of Atlantis. My bugbear with
these plans is less their ridiculous nature, but more to do with just how
quickly both are accomplished. Jacko and Sean are sent to lead the fish people
to rebel – by questioning their manhood, and mocking their lack of spine, using
Sean's Irish charm. Meanwhile, the Doctor, Ben, Jamie and Polly all don new
costumes – yes, again – to hide in the market place waiting for their chance to
capture Zaroff. Whilst the sight of Ben and Jamie in tight-fitting wetsuits is
wonderful, the Doctor's get-up as a gypsy recorder player leaves yet more to be
desired.
The "gift of the gab" of the
Irish fully utilised, we are then forced to endure almost five minutes of
preposterous choreographed nonsense, as fish people swing around, back and
forth, to the most dire incidental music as they apparently create a blockade
on the food production lines. What frustrates me the most about this – as with The Web Planet – is that if this episode
were missing too, it would probably be lauded as elegant and magical. Sadly, as
we can see it, we are forced to realise that it is simply over-ambitious and
silly.
With the rebellion started, and Zaroff
captured by the Doctor and his companions, it seems that all has been achieved,
and that the adventure is ready to wind itself up... Only it isn't. There's
more still to come, as the Doctor and the boys head off to Zaroff's laboratory
to ensure the experiment has been halted with Zaroff dropping to the ground
seeming to have suffered a heart attack. Which frustrates me – the trick of
faking injury is such an overused cliché, it baffles me that the Doctor and
company fall for it. Indeed, one of the most frustrating things about this is
the fact that, after Polly appearing to be the powerful, fashionable 60s girl
last week, she has reverted to a screamy, shouty and foolish one this week. She
is single-handedly responsible for Ramo's death, falling hook, line and sinker
for the scientist's claims that he wants to stand by him and prey, where he can
"feel the aura of his goodness". The scene of Ramo's murder is, in
fact, rather graphic and disturbing – once he throws Polly off his back, Zaroff
thrusts a spear downwards into the fallen priest, and the spear remains
upright, trembling.
The episode runs to its end with the Doctor,
Jamie and Ben discovering Ramo's fatal injury as he stumbles out from behind
the face of Amdo, warning the travellers that Polly has been kidnapped. Jamie
is sent to save her, a challenge that he gallantly rises to, while Ben and the
Doctor – in a dreadful pun – have "other fish to fry". Unfortunately,
once Jamie retrieves Polly from Zaroff's grasp, Zaroff escapes and makes it to
Thous' chambers before the Doctor, and shows his true face – his hair wild, his
eyes rolling madly, he executes Thous in cold blood, ordering his soldiers to
kill two others, before wildly proclaiming – and this is that line! – "Nothing in the world can stop me now!",
hugely pantomime and over-the-top, and absolutely wonderful for it.
The final episode provides something of a
relief – after the insanity of Zaroff's performance and his madcap plan, and
the Bond-esque nature of the story, we are suddenly into new territory; the
serial becomes a disaster movie, as the inhabitants of Atlantis race against
time to avoid the rising water levels. What is more comforting, though, is the
way in which Troughton's Doctor takes complete control. Well, as complete as it
gets from him; after the last two serials, wherein he has been unreliable and
inconsistent, acting on whims and fancies, here instead he declares "I
have a plan!", and finally we can be comforted that he is thinking things
through. Of course, he follows it up with "it might work",
reaffirming the unknowable nature of his character. It is telling that in the
last two serials, where the plots have been serious and dangerous, Troughton
has played up to them as a clown, fooling around out of character and sticking
out like a sore thumb. It is only against an opponent like Furst's Zaroff,
though, that he tones his performance down, becoming more grounded and deadpan
whilst dealing with the situation. Whilst you could never see Hartnell in a
serial like this, against a villain like Zaroff, we see something of Hartnell's
character come out in Troughton's response to the situation.
Troughton still gets plenty of good
lines, though, with heavy comedic impact; his riposte with Ben, who declares
Zaroff is firmly "off his rocker!" is brilliant, as is his declaration
of Zaroff's true intentions, as he claims innocence. The Doctor's plan to flood
the underground city seems a little extreme, but his retort that the noise
could only be "the distant roaring is the goddess Amdo with indigestion"
is superbly delivered.
The flooding will not stop Zaroff,
though, and he lowers a portcullis to prevent the intervention of any
interferers. The Doctor is still determined, though, and thanks to the
distraction of Lolem, who is mercilessly shot in cold blood by Zaroff, he is
able to separate Zaroff from the plunger needed to cause the natural disaster. The
Doctor and Jamie have to leave the mad scientist to his fate, as even after the
Doctor speaks of his desire to rescue Zaroff, a rock slide prevents him making
it. Sadly, Zaroff's death, which still exists thanks to those nervous
Australian censors again, is rather disappointing – there still seems to be an
awful lot of air left in the room before he sinks to his death. I can't help
wishing that Lolem had at least managed to get a fatal stab in before he'd been
shot.
Everyone manages to escape, though, and
the group are reunited on the volcanic beaches above ground. The sequences
getting above ground are lovely and touching, particularly as we see the way in
which the group have bonded – whilst Ben can only utter Polly's name in
distraught tones, Polly is more concerned for the Doctor, and Jamie's assurance
that if the worst has happened, they will cope together, is lovely. Sean and
Jacko, though, get no thanks whatsoever, as the group bustle back into the
TARDIS reunited, and there is a beautiful still from the final moments of this
episode of the entire TARDIS crew, reunited and having a great time around the
TARDIS console, showing the crew laughing and joking, Polly wearing the Doctor's
hat, and Jamie's final speech about feeling "safe" in the ship shows
he firmly belongs with the group as they head towards their next destination –
but as the end credits are poised to roll, a huge tremor works its way through
the ship, as the Doctor cries that the ship is "out of control"...
Scott Edwards is a teacher of English and Theatre Studies at Barnard Castle School in the North East of England, with a BAHons in English Literature and Film Studies. He is also a self-professed ‘ming-mong,' and in addition to timelordapprentice.blogspot.co.uk he also runs facebook.com/Classic.Doctor.Who. You can also follow him on Twitter: @TimelordTSE.
Labels: Doctor Who, Patrick Troughton, review, T. Scott Edwards
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