‘THE UNDERWATER MENACE’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Atlantis and Professor Zaroff with the Second Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie

It’s ironic that ‘The Underwater Menace’, which is considered close to a cartoon, is now a cartoon. 😀

Back in December 2015, I received this ‘Doctor Who’ story on DVD as a Christmas present. ‘The Underwater Menace’ is the third ‘Doctor Who’ story to star Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor and it’s the fifth story in Season 4 of the classic TV series. Though, apparently, it almost wasn’t made.

This is a four-part story by Geoffrey Orme, who makes his only contribution to the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. It was directed by Julia Smith, who had previously directed ‘The Smugglers’. As well as Patrick Troughton, Anneke Wills as Polly, Michael Craze as Ben and Frazer Hines as Jamie are in it.

For a while, ‘The Underwater Menace’ was mostly missing with only ‘Episode 3’ intact and it was available on the ‘Lost in Time’ 2-disc DVD set, released in 2004. Eventually, in 2011, ‘Episode 2’ was recovered, and therefore, ‘The Underwater Menace’ was guaranteed its official DVD release in 2015.

Whilst it was lovely to have the two surviving episodes of ‘The Underwater Menace’ released on DVD in 2015, sadly ‘Episodes 1 and 4’ were (and still are) missing. They were presented as telesnap reconstructions with the TV audio soundtracks of the two missing episodes heard in the background.

I found that a shame, as I would’ve liked to have seen the missing ‘Episodes 1 and 4’ animated on DVD. Thankfully, it took 8 years later for the story to have its own animation versions in black-and-white as well as in colour for the fans to enjoy with the two surviving episodes on DVD and Blu-ray. 🙂

Before I received ‘The Underwater Menace’ on DVD for Christmas in 2015, I saw ‘Episode 2’ at the ‘Pandorica 2015’ convention in Bristol in September 2015. The episode was being commentated on by Anneke Wills at the convention and I did enjoy seeing what I saw of the episode for the first time.

I was looking forward to checking out ‘The Underwater Menace’ in its entirety on DVD. After seeing it several times on its 2015 DVD release, via Britbox in 2023, and in its Blu-ray release in 2024, I don’t think ‘The Underwater Menace’ is as good as other ‘Doctor Who’ stories I’ve seen on DVD and Blu-ray.

The surviving two episodes were great to check out and it was good to see the Second Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie. It’s also nice to see how they did the animation versions of ‘Episodes 1 and 4’ on the 2023 Blu-ray release. But that still doesn’t mean the story is as exciting and thrilling as it could be. 😐

In all fairness, I feel the animation versions of ‘Episodes 1 and 4’ are way superior than the telesnap reconstructions on the 2015 DVD. Not meaning to disrespect photographer John Cura, as I admire his acquisition of the stills needed to make the reconstructions of the two missing episodes possible.

However, I feel the telesnap reconstructions are static and uninteresting. For both the DVD and checking out the story via Britbox, I had to switch on the subtitles for the two telesnap episodes to hear what was being said between characters. It was a struggle with not a lot of action happening. 😐

In animation, you don’t have to worry about static imagery and switching on subtitles, as you’re allowed to see what’s going on based on what’s available in telesnaps and photos. It also depends on what the animation team decides to create in animation to make the tale dynamic and interesting. 🙂

When I originally reviewed ‘The Underwater Menace’ in 2017, I purchased the audio soundtrack of the story as a download via Audible to help me understand what was happening in the missing episodes with narration provided by Anneke Wills. It helped me endure the telesnaps, but not much.

On the 2023 DVD and Blu-ray releases of the story, the linking narration provided by Anneke Wills is available on the telesnap reconstructions of ‘Episodes 1 and 4’ for people to enjoy. I wish that option was on the 2015 DVD release, as it does give that impression that the 2015 DVD was made in a rush.

I mean, it didn’t end the classic ‘Doctor Who’ DVD range on a high for me. In 2014, ‘The Moonbase’ was released on DVD and it had a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘The Underwater Menace’. For me and other fans, we had to wait a year for ‘The Underwater Menace’ DVD, which was quite disappointing.

In many respects, I feel the telesnap version of ‘Episode Three’ of ‘The Web of Fear’ is better than the telesnap versions of ‘Episodes 1 and 4’ of ‘The Underwater Menace’. I wanted ‘Episodes 1 and 4’ of the incomplete TV story to be animated to satisfy my and other fans’ enjoyment of the 2015 DVD.

Then again, I suppose the telesnap episodes were better than nothing before we got the animation versions of the story in 2023. With all these things said, the animation versions of ‘Episodes 1 and 4’ of ‘The Underwater Menace’ are way better than the animated ‘Episode Three’ of ‘The Web of Fear’.

The animation for ‘The Underwater Menace’ is especially way better than the animation for ‘The Celestial Toymaker’. I prefer the 2D animation provided for the characters in ‘The Underwater Menace’ more than the 3D animations provided for ‘The Celestial Toymaker’ and ‘The Web of Fear’.

Mind you, whilst I’m happy the animation versions of ‘Episodes 1 and 4’ of ‘The Underwater Menace’ are available, it doesn’t mean there are hiccups for me in terms of how the animation was put together. For one thing, Jamie is wearing a white pullover in the animated version of ‘Episode 1’.

This contrasts with what’s in the surviving ‘Episode 2’, as he’s clearly wearing the outfit he wore in ‘The Highlanders’. Why couldn’t the animation team match the clothes Jamie wore in the surviving ‘Episode 2’ for the animated ‘Episode 1’? I mean, is it hard to animated Jamie’s ‘Highlanders’ gear? 😐

Also, in the animated ‘Episode 4’ of the story, Polly is still wearing the sea shell-like helmet when she, Jamie, Ben and the Doctor return to the TARDIS. Didn’t she want to take the helmet off, considering Anneke Wills didn’t like wearing it when she was in that Atlantean costume in the story?

It also doesn’t match to what’s in the animated version of ‘Episode 1’ of ‘The Moonbase’ where Polly is clearly not wearing the sea shell-like helmet? I mean, I know it was a different animation team for the animated versions of ‘Episodes 1 and 3’ of ‘The Moonbase’, but it make things pretty inconsistent. 😐

Couldn’t the animation team for ‘The Underwater Menace’ have at least tried to match their animation with the end of ‘Episode 4’ blending into the animation of ‘Episode 1’ of ‘The Moonbase’? At least Polly would have her sea shell-like helmet off in both versions? Or have I missed something?

I know these things sound nitpicky, and I should give the animation for ‘The Underwater Menace’ a little slack in that regard. But it just reminds me how certain animations don’t match up with each other and I’d like the ‘Doctor Who’ series to be a consistent thing, both in live-action and animation.

But hey, at least the animation for ‘The Underwater Menace’ is impressive. I’m able to live with the fact that I can enjoy ‘The Underwater Menace’ without resorting to the telesnap reconstructions. I look forward to when I get to revisit Season 4 of the classic TV series and hopefully in its Blu-ray box set.

As for the actual story itself…err, well, it’s very average overall. Look, I can forgive certain ‘Doctor Who’ stories for their flaws and even some stories that are disregarded by fans are ones I can actually enjoy. With ‘The Underwater Menace’ however, I found this one to be very underwhelming.

Beforehand, I’d heard that this story wasn’t regarded as one of the top favourites by the ‘Doctor Who’ fans. It’s enjoyable enough, but only to an extent. I found it interesting how the production team did a ‘cartoon’-style of story that had an unbelievable over-the-top villain in Professor Zaroff. 😐

Apparently, this story had been moved about quite a bit in term of its production slot. Originally, it was going to be the second story of Patrick Troughton’s era, following after ‘The Power of the Daleks’. It was also going to be directed by Hugh David and it had the original working title of ‘Under the Sea’.

Sebastian: ♪ Under the sea. Under the sea. ♫

Unfortunately, or fortunately however you may look at it, Hugh David didn’t want to direct the story and so in a nutshell, he ended up directing ‘The Highlanders’ instead. ‘The Underwater Menace’ was shelved for a bit to be replaced by ‘The Imps’, a story written by William Emms who did ‘Galaxy 4’. 😐

When that fell through because of William Emms being ill, ‘The Underwater Menace’ was put back on the production schedules to be directed by Julia Smith. Unfortunately, Patrick Troughton didn’t get on well with Julia Smith and it turned out he didn’t like ‘The Underwater Menace’ scripts at all. 😦

So, to summarise, ‘The Underwater Menace’ had been messed around a bit in terms of production scheduling, it went through a change of two directors and Patrick Troughton didn’t like working with the actual director and found the scripts terrible. You can see how very troubled the production was.

Apparently, according to the 2015 DVD sleeve test by Pete McTighe (way before he wrote ‘Kerblam!’ and co-wrote ‘Praxeus’), you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve tuned into 1960s ‘Batman’ when watching this ‘Doctor Who’ story. I hadn’t seen the 1960s ‘Batman’ TV series up until that stage.

Now that I have seen the 1960s ‘Batman’ TV series, I can see ‘The Underwater Menace’ having elements of that throughout. However, I do feel the 1960s ‘Batman’ TV series is funnier than ‘The Underwater Menace’ and at least the villains were charming and far enjoyable than Professor Zaroff.

In ‘The Underwater Menace’ as a story, the TARDIS arrives on a beach on Earth in the year 1970, I believe. The beach scenes were filmed in Winspit at Dorset, apparently. Sadly, the beach scenes aren’t available in live-action as they’re in ‘Episodes 1 and 4’. You can only see them in animation. 😐

Stepping out of the TARDIS, the Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie eventually come across a cave and they go down deep under the earth to uncover the lost city of Atlantis. Wow! Atlantis! And apparently, this is the first time we have an Atlantis ‘Doctor Who’ story – the next one being ‘The Time Monster’.

I should also point out that this is Jamie’s first TARDIS trip following him joining the Doctor, Ben and Polly at the end of ‘The Highlanders’. It was nice to see, especially in animation, how Jamie reacts to being inside the TARDIS, and that he’s about to embark on a series of adventures with his new friends. 🙂

In Atlantis, the Doctor and his friends come across Professor Zaroff, who is planning to penetrate the Earth’s crust so that he can blow up the world. This is before Professor Stahlman tries to penetrate the Earth’s crust in ‘Inferno’. And err…why exactly does Professor Zaroff want to blow up the world?

Zaroff: Why? You, a scientist, ask me why? The achievement, my dear Doctor. The destruction of the world. The scientists’ dream of supreme power!

Err, that’s rather weak in terms of a reason for wanting to blow up the world. I mean, it’s not going to be of much use to record your achievement if you’re dead along with everyone else for blowing up the world. I mean, is Zaroff mentally unstable and insane? He probably is, judging from this story.

I’ve done a bit of research and apparently, according to Nigel Robinson’s Target novelization of the story, Zaroff’s desire to blow up the world is explained as the result of madness from the deaths of his wife and daughter in a car crash. That would sort-of lend an explanation for why Zaroff is insane.

But on its own in terms of viewing the TV story, it’s not properly explained, and it’s easy to see why people wouldn’t regard ‘The Underwater Menace’ very highly. I mean, you have a villain who’s basically two-dimensional (not just in animation) and it’s frustrating when there’s no depth to him. 😦

The story features special guest star Joseph Fürst as Professor Zaroff. Apparently, Joseph Fürst has been in three episodes of ‘The Saint’ with Roger Moore, the James Bond film ‘Diamonds Are Forever’, and episodes of ‘The Midnight Men’ TV series, including ‘The Man From Miditz’ with Patrick Troughton.

Clearly, Joseph Fürst’s performance as Zaroff is way, way over-the-top. It’s more over the top than Graham Crowden’s Soldeed in ‘The Horns of Nimon’. And his weak reason for wanting to blow up the world doesn’t help in that regard. And of course, Zaroff is pretty well-known for his immortal line:

Zaroff: NOTHING IN THE WORLD CAN STOP ME NOW!!!!!

I’m glad in the animation version of ‘Episode 4’ of the story, Zaroff’s delivery of that line in ‘Episode 3’ is kept in the recap. After all, the delivery of the line in the telesnap reconstruction of ‘Episode 4’ is toned down and not as memorable. You want to maintain the cringy over-the-topness, don’t you?

It’s very fascinating how the Doctor makes his first visit to Atlantis in this ‘Doctor Who’ story, even though it does seem to be hairbrained and unusual. I know Patrick Troughton was keen on the Altantis mythos before he read ‘The Underwater Menace’ scripts and found how terrible they were.

The story can be a muddle to check out when watching it either hybirds of telesnap reconstructions and surviving episodes or animations and surviving episodes. It seems to be all over the place in terms of plot and structure. There are plenty of ideas and concepts featured throughout the TV story.

But they don’t seem to cooperate with each other, and the mix-matching of set designs, costumes and cast performances, particularly when mixing scientific labs and temple worship is unusual. It’s also so bizarre that the Doctor knows about Professor Zaroff already before we’re introduced to him.

I have to admit, the director Julia Smith does make a bold attempt in terms of delivering this story with fantastical elements, even if she didn’t get on well with Patrick Troughton. It ends up being a mess, but it’s fascinating when you’re checking it out in surviving episodes, animation and telesnaps.

Patrick Troughton is very good as the Doctor in this TV adventure. At the time of this review, ‘Episode 2’ of ‘The Underwater Menace’ is the earliest surviving episode of the Patrick Troughton/Second Doctor era. It’s brilliant it was recovered in 2011 for ‘Doctor Who’ fans to enjoy. 🙂

From watching the surviving ‘Episodes 2 and 3’ of the story, I do feel that Patrick Troughton is getting confident in his role as the Doctor by this point in the TV series. He clearly enjoys playing his recorder and wanting to dress up, especially as a seller man when in a market in trying to capture Zaroff.

Anneke Wills is lovely as Polly in this ‘Doctor Who’ story, although I do fear that her character is rather underused. It’s clear Geoffrey Orme didn’t know how to write for Polly’s character compared to how writers like Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis would write for her in a TV story like ‘The Tenth Planet’.

She does come across as squeamish and rather weepy at times, although it’s quite frightening when she was going to be experimented on and turned into a fish person, both in animation and in the surviving clips of ‘Episode 1’. And of course, Polly has her own catchphrase in this particular TV story.

Polly: You’re not turning me into a fish!

Michael Craze is very good as Ben in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. I don’t think he has a very major part to play in this story, even when he shares scenes with Jamie a lot of the time. He gets to be resourceful though and motivates people like Sean and Jacko once they’re attempting to escape from the mines.

I enjoyed it when Ben gets to be the voice of Amdo in ‘Episode 3’ of the story. This is so he, Polly and Jamie can rescue the Doctor and Ramo when they’re about to be sacrificed in a ceremony. It’s nice to see the animation version of ‘Episode 4’ where Ben joins the Doctor and they’re thwarting Zaroff.

Frazer Hines is equally very good as Jamie in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. Whilst Jamie has just joined the TARDIS crew following ‘The Highlanders’ and this is his first adventure, I feel like he was shoehorned into the series (and probably was), especially as Frazer was invited to become a regular TARDIS member.

Like Ben, Jamie doesn’t have a major part to play in this story, but I like how he comes across as very likeable and a good friend to the Doctor, Polly and Ben when they’re having adventures as a foursome. And it’s nice Jamie shared an adventure with Polly when escaping Atlantis in ‘Episode 4’. 🙂

Catherine Howe guest stars as Ara, an Atlantian slave girl who assists the Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie when they’re in trouble from Zaroff and others in Atlantis. Ara is a lovely girl and would have made a good companion, since she seems to be rushing around a lot in this very unusual adventure.

Tom Watson guest stars as Ramo, one of the Atlantian priests in the story. Ramo doesn’t trust Zaroff when he said he will rise Atlantis up from the waters for the people. The Doctor gains Ramo’s confidence, as he helps him with stopping Zaroff. It was a shock when Ramo got attacked and killed.

Colin Jeavons guest stars as Damon, one of the scientists who nearly turned Polly into one of the fish people. I couldn’t see why Damon would be so willing to make the Atlantian people into fish people, even if they’re meant to work as slaves for Atlantis and locate the food supplies required for the city.

There’s Paul Anil as Jacko and P.G. Stephens as Sean, two miners that Ben and Jamie when they’re forced to work in the mines with them. I assume Jacko and Sean ended up in Atlantis at the same time as Zaroff. The mine sequences featured in this story are somehow unusual and weird for me. 😐

Noel Johnson, who would go on to play Sir Charles Grover in ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’, guest stars as King Thous of Atlantis. Initially, Thous disbelieves the Doctor’s allegations about Zaroff being a madman. Gradually, he comes to realise Zaroff’s crazed look in his eyes, but sadly, he soon gets shot.

There’s Peter Stephens, who previously appeared as three characters in ‘The Celestial Toymaker’, as Lolem, the high priest of the goddess Amdo in Atlantis. There’s also Gerald Taylor as Damon’s assistant, Roma Woodnutt as Nola, Graham Ashley as an overseer and Tony Handy as Zaroff’s guard.

The fish people featured in ‘The Underwater Menace’ are rather disappointing in my opinion. They might look spectacular in the underwater sequences featured in ‘Episode 3’ when they go on strike (My Dad was put in mind of the ‘By a Waterfall’ musical number in the 1933 film ‘Footlight Parade’).

But I’m afraid the fish people didn’t do very much in the story, and the costumes and make-up for them looked terrible on-screen. I expected them to do something monstrous and evil, as you would expect ‘Doctor Who’ monsters to do at around that time. But sadly, that wasn’t to be the case here.

On the original 2015 DVD set, the special features are as follows. There’s the making-of documentary ‘A Fishy Tale’ with behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews, narrated by Peter Davison. There’s ‘The Television Centre of the Universe – Part 2’ behind-the-scenes documentary with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson, guided by ‘Blue Peter’ presenter Yvette Fielding (‘The Television Centre of the Universe – Part 1’ is included on the 2-disc Special Edition DVD set of ‘The Visitation’). I imagine the two parts of ‘The Television Centre of the Universe’ documentary will be included in the Season 21 Blu-ray box set, since ‘Part 2’ isn’t included on the 2023 2-disc DVD and Blu-ray sets of ‘The Underwater Menace’, and rightly so. There are also some Australian censored clips of the story, including surviving clips from ‘Episodes 1 and 4’ of ‘The Underwater Menace’ (I don’t know why the surviving clips weren’t included in the telesnap reconstructions of ‘Episodes 1 and 4’ of the story on the 2015 DVD release and subsequently on the 2023 2-disc DVD and Blu-ray sets). There’s a photo gallery of the story and DVD audio commentaries on selected episodes. There’s a DVD audio commentary on the telesnap reconstruction of ‘Episode 1’, featuring the second part of a two-part interview with Patrick Troughton’s son Michael Troughton (the first part is available on the 2-disc DVD set of ‘The Ice Warriors’), moderated by Toby Hadoke. There are DVD audio commentaries on the surviving ‘Episodes 2 and 3’ with Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines, Catherine Howe, special sounds supervisor Brian Hodgson and floor assistant Quentin Mann, moderated by Toby Hadoke. And there’s a DVD audio commentary on the telesnap reconstruction of ‘Episode 4’ featuring archive interviews with Patrick Troughton, director Julia Smith, director Hugh David and producer Innes Lloyd, moderated by Toby Hadoke.

On Disc 1 of the 2023 2-disc DVD and Blu-ray sets, there’s the black-and-white animation version of the story. There’s the telesnap reconstruction of ‘Episode 1’ with the options to play it on its own, to play with the DVD audio commentary featuring the second part of the two-part interview with Patrick Troughton’s son Michael Troughton, moderated by Toby Hadoke, and to play with linking narration provided by Anneke Wills. There’s the surviving ‘Episode 2’ with the options to play it on its own, and to play it with the DVD audio commentary with Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines, Catherine Howe, special sounds supervisor Brian Hodgson and floor assistant Quentin Mann, moderated by Toby Hadoke. There’s the surviving ‘Episode 3’ with the options to play it on its own, and to play it with the DVD audio commentary with Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines, Catherine Howe, special sounds supervisor Brian Hodgson and floor assistant Quentin Mann, moderated by Toby Hadoke. And there’s the telesnap reconstruction of ‘Episode 4’ with the options to play it on its own, to play with the DVD audio commentary featuring archive interviews with Patrick Troughton, director Julia Smith, director Hugh David and producer Innes Lloyd, moderated by Toby Hadoke, and to play with linking narration provided by Anneke Wills.

On Disc 2 of the 2023 2-disc DVD and Blu-ray sets, there’s the colour animation version of the story. There’s the making-of documentary ‘A Fishy Tale’ with behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews, narrated by Peter Davison. There’s the Australian censored clips of the story, including surviving clips from ‘Episodes 1 and 4’ of ‘The Underwater Menace’. There’s ‘The Midnight Men’ episode ‘The Man From Miditiz’, featuring Patrick Troughton, Joseph Fürst, Bernard Archard, Laurence Payne, John Bennett and Derek Francis. There’s Frazer Hines’ introduction for ‘Episode 3’ of ‘The Underwater Menace’ (which was originally a DVD Easter Egg, taken from Disc 2 of the ‘Lost in Time’ 2-disc DVD set). There’s a ‘BBC South Today’ news report on the recovery of ‘Episode 2’ of ‘The Underwater Menace’ as well as the third episode of ‘Galaxy 4’ in 2011, a photo gallery of the story, an animation gallery of the story, a ‘BBC Radio Solent’ report on the recovering of ‘Episode 2’ of ‘The Underwater Menace’ in 2011. There are also four camera scripts from the original TV production of ‘The Underwater Menace’ as well as a script for ‘The Midnight Men’ episode ‘The Man From Miditiz’, the original BBC PasB documentation and a ‘Radio Times Listings’ for ‘The Underwater Menace’, which can be accessed via a computer.

I found ‘The Underwater Menace’ 2015 DVD release very disappointing when I received it for Christmas in that year. The story felt incomplete for me at the time, despite the telesnap reconstructions of ‘Episodes 1 and 4’ to fill in the gaps and enjoying the surviving ‘Episodes 2 and 3’.

I hoped ‘Episodes 1 and 4’ would have been animated at the time. Thankfully, the 2023 DVD and Blu-ray releases provide that, and I’m glad I’ve been able to enjoy ‘The Underwater Menace’ in switching from animated ‘Episode 1’ to surviving ‘Episodes 2 and 3’ to animated ‘Episode 4’ in nice succession.

As for the actual ‘Underwater Menace’ story, it’s not that inspiring, and I agree when it’s said that a lot of it can be cartoonish in many manners. It has been entertaining to check out lately, both in animation episodes and surviving episodes, particularly with Joseph Fürst playing Professor Zaroff. 🙂

It’s also good to see Patrick Troughton’s earliest surviving appearance as the Second Doctor in the surviving episodes of ‘The Underwater Menace’. But I probably wouldn’t have gone for a story like this. Or at least, I would have made this story more character-driven, emotionally compelling and thrilling.

As of January 2025, I’ve had my Blu-ray cover of ‘The Underwater Menace’ signed by Anneke Wills at ‘Happy Who Year at the Playhouse’ in January 2025.

‘The Underwater Menace’ rating – 5/10

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The previous story For the Second Doctor was ‘Something at the Door’ (Penguin/Audio) For Polly was ‘Something at the Door’ (Penguin/Audio) For Ben was ‘Something at the Door’ (Penguin/Audio) For Jamie was ‘Something at the Door’ (Penguin/Audio)	The next story For the Second Doctor is ‘The Moonbase’ (TV) For Polly is ‘The Moonbase’ (TV) For Ben is ‘The Moonbase’ (TV) For Jamie is ‘The Moonbase’ (TV)
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