The Underwater Menace Episode 4

The one where the Doctor floods Atlantis and potentially drowns a load of innocent people...

This new Doctor's idea of a plan has so far left a lot to be desired. In The Power of the Daleks his plan led to the partial destruction of the Vulcan colony. In The Highlanders, he armed a bunch of angry Scotsmen and potentially caused the death of a number of highlanders and Redcoats. And now his crazy plan is to flood Atlantis to prevent Zaroff destroying the world.

"Can we all swim?" he flippantly asks. Most Atlanteans probably can, but a good few probably can't, such as children, the elderly, those who are ill, as well as the animals. It's as bonkers as the Fourth Doctor opening the TARDIS doors to flush the Master out in Logopolis, but here, there's a much higher potential loss of life. Sean admits himself that he's not a great swimmer, and there's also reference to some citizens who may have perished, including Lolem (poor Lolem).

Yes, the Doctor expresses regret at having to abandon Zaroff to drown in his laboratory, but he doesn't exactly try very hard. Plus, once he and Ben have escaped, and are reunited with Polly and Jamie on the beach, they just go. They get in the TARDIS and clear off, without any clue as to whether their friends Sean, Jacko, Ara and Thous have drowned or not. It doesn't seem like they care very much either.

It just doesn't sit right with me. I know other Doctors have come over as quite cold, hard and alien when it comes to loss of life - the Doctor often has to think of the bigger picture - but this is only his third adventure, and already I'm wondering if this Doctor feels any responsibility at all. He basically floods an entire civilisation, potentially drowning loads of people and destroying their livelihoods, and just buggers off without looking back. OK, he saved the world from being torn apart, but at what price? There should have been another way...

Some other quickfire observations about his episode:

• Joseph Furst's reprise of "Nuzzink in ze vorld can stop me now" is nowhere near as good as the episode 3 cliffhanger. It seems depressingly under-powered when he delivers the line with a bit more subtlety!
• So King Thous isn't dead (but his guards presumably are), despite being shot in the chest at point blank range (maybe that breastplate saved him?). However, Ben and the Doctor don't seem to be too bothered about his survival, and they're happy to believe he'll pull through ("He's wounded, but don't worry... he'll be alright," insists Ben).
• The scene where Ben and the Doctor try to get into Zaroff's laboratory is lovely, one of those scenes you wish you could see, if only for Patrick Troughton's inevitably crestfallen/ outraged expression when Ben tells the guard: "Blimey, look at him - he ain't normal, is he?"
• The model work of Atlantis flooding looks quite good from the telesnaps, with the face of the great goddess Amdo pouring with water, then drowning in the deluge. It's all quite apocalyptic. It's symbolic of the fall of Atlantis and its faith in the great deity, capped off later on by Damon and Thous discussing the "new" Atlantis, where religion is cast aside in favour of science.
• About that... I'm not convinced at all that a civilisation founded on faith in Amdo could just stop being religious and turn to science instead. For all they know, what happens to Atlantis could be all part of Amdo's great design. Surely people will be even more wary of science after what happens, seeing as it was all the fault of Zaroff - a scientist? If anything, it should draw people back closer to Amdo.
• That scene where Polly seems to have a total breakdown and refuses to climb any further, melting down into a flurry of pathetic "I can't, I can't, I can't!" Had she learned nothing from simpering Kirsty in The Highlanders? Polly is much more feeble in this story than before, and I imagine Anneke Wills is no fan of Geoffrey Orme's treatment of Polly.

The final scene in the TARDIS sees Jamie's position as a proper companion cemented as he accepts his new lifestyle, welcomes the adventures with open arms, and recognises the TARDIS as a place of safety (remember, he seemed a little uncomfortable in the TARDIS in episode 1). The Doctor sets the Ship's coordinates for Mars, but it doesn't look like he'll reach the Red Planet because the TARDIS lurches out of control (in fact, the Doctor doesn't visit Mars on TV until 1975's Pyramids of Mars). I do wish the new series would bring back the unpredictable, uncontrollable TARDIS - it adds so much more jeopardy and excitement to the Doctor's adventures!

"Off we go into the wild blue yonder, as someone was once heard to remark," says the Doctor. Who does he mean? The line is the first lyric from The US Air Force Song, written by Robert MacArthur Crawford, who sang his composition for the first time in September, 1939. But why he should refer directly to that, I'm not sure!

So, The Underwater Menace... it starts off in its first two episodes as quite a busy and involving adventure serial, with a hissable bad guy, a quirky civilisation, a handful of benign guest characters and a sterling performance from Patrick Troughton. But its second half degenerates into a very silly runaround which isn't thought through very well and becomes something of a farce. There's much to enjoy about the story - the madcap Joseph Furst, the bizarre costume design, the weird underwater ballet - but you have to accept that it's all very silly in order to enjoy it. It's by no means a great Doctor Who story, but for what it is, it's passable enough.

First broadcast: February 4th, 1967

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The fall of Atlantis certainly sounds very final and apocalyptic. There's a definite sense of danger and panic at times.
The Bad: The Doctor seems quite removed from proceedings, essentially sentencing an amount of people to their deaths without giving them much of a chance, or coming up with a more reasonable alternative. He may save the world, but he fails on a humanitarian level in my eyes. I'm sure other Doctors could've come up with something better.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ (story average: 6.75 out of 10)

NEXT TIME: The Moonbase...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-underwater-menace.html

The Underwater Menace is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Underwater-Menace-DVD/dp/B00URM3EWW