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The Underwater

Menace

14TH JANUARY 1967 - 4TH FEBRUARY 1967

(4 EPISODES)

Most great seasons of television have at least one clanger, and Doctor Who’s near-perfect fourth season is no exception to the rule. Of the nine serials that make up the series’ fourth run, Geoffrey Orme’s Underwater Menace is the worst... and it’s the worst by a clear mile. In a way it’s really quite tragic that the earliest surviving Patrick Troughton episode is the third episode of this serial – hardly the best showcase for his era. To think that one of these four episodes survived the fires when so much wonderful stuff was lost…

To be fair to Troughton, there is nothing wrong with his performance here, nor with those of his companions; quite the opposite in fact - even Frazer Hines makes the best of a bad situation, his character clearly having been hastily pencilled in at the last minute. The newly regenerated Doctor is very entertaining, but unfortunately the story in which he finds himself trapped is not compelling in the slightest.

“Just one small question. Why do you want to blow up the world?”

Take the first episode for example. The TARDIS lands on an extinct volcanic rock surrounded by sea, circa 1970. It turns out to be the lost Kingdom of Atlantis. Living there is a mad scientist called Zaroff who, for no apparent reason, wants to blow up the world. Okay - so initially Zaroff claims that he wants to raise Atlantis from the depths of the ocean, but as the story progresses and he descends further and further into madness (and Joseph Furst becomes more and more of a ham) it becomes clear that the man has no motive; he is just completely insane in that almost comic B-movie / ‘Dr Evil’ sort of way.

Indeed, if anything The Underwater Menace is reminiscent of James Bond… at least, the worst bits of Bond. We have the Doctor signing notes “Doctor W” (I mean, come on!); Ben and Jamie being sent away to work as slave labour (how original); and, worst of all, we have the absolute worst cliffhanger of all time (“Nothing in the world can stop me now!”). I mean it; it’s dire.

“Nothing in the world can stop me now!”

It’s so bad in fact, that its inherent rubbishness is the only good thing about the whole story - at least you can have a good laugh at it!

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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