Patrick Troughton stars as the second Doctor in this 1967 adventure, which finds him stumbling across the lost city of Atlantis…The Tardis arrives on an extinct volcanic island, beneath which lies a fantastic subterranean world inhabited by the primitive Atlanteans.
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Oh yes, it’s tacky, but fun The Underwater Menace is my first experience of the BBC missing adventures audio releases. As indicated above, only one episode of this story survives, and my experience of the adventure was based on listening to episodes one, two and four and catching episode three on the DVD box set Lost in Time.Anneke Wills provides linking narration for the audio release of the story, and the first thing I noticed was how much like stage directions Wills’ narration sounded, occasionally taking over and spelling out events that could easily have been inferred simply from listening attentively to the soundtrack. However, the level of narration settles down from episode two onwards as the level of dialogue increases and the story begins to hit its stride.And the story? Well, it’s all a bit silly, to be honest, with Professor Zaroff as the ultimate comic book / James Bond villain (“Nothing in the world can stop me now!”) – but it’s an enjoyable romp even in audio format. The companions are good fun even if Ben’s Cockney accent grates, and there is a range of quirky supporting characters.Most interesting, however, is the design on display in the surviving third episode, with good costumes and decent sets. Episode three also features an excellent and unusually populous party scene – although the long Fish People “dance” sequence feels somewhat over-long and redundant.Overall I enjoyed listening to this missing adventure, and as a bonus feature, the CD features an interview with narrator Anneke Wills on the making of the story.
Enjoyable but bad There are many evil masterminds in Doctor Who, but none quite like Professor Zaroff who is something out of a James Bond movie. He is just like a classic mad scientist, with an absolutely ridiculous plot. There are the mysterious fish people, who look awful, but are good fun, and there’s Atlantis. And this is bad. No doubt about it, this is one bad story, but it is wonderfully bad, and very enjoyable. Absolutely unique, and enjoyable.
A Fistful of Zaroff! On January 18th, 1967, the first blockbuster spaghetti western ‘A Fistful of Dollars’ was finally released in the US. It’s hard to credit that this coincided with, of all things, The Underwater Menace. Sergio Leone had succeeded in resurrecting the moribund format of The Western in a harsh modern light but, as if to exemplify the gulf of expectation, the BBC showed that in spite of producing near-miraculous TV in some adversity week after week, they could still come up with baffling flights of fancy that just didn’t work.As an audio experience, TUM starts well, with some sparkling dialogue and the now familiar old chestnut of a new companion doing the “gosh” and “golly” routine. Yet as soon as the need for a plot arises, the script degenerates into ponderous cliché. (Zaroff is of course “the greatest scientific genius since Leonardo”. Forgive The Second Doctor’s deliberate hyperbole but how many scientific geniuses does that ignore?) The regulars are superb; it’s just that everyone else is not. As a one-off entertainment for youngsters, there was surely enough feeling for The Doctor and his chums (whom Ben describes as “our lot”) to maintain interest and the single surviving episode is surprisingly watchable but as a whole, it’s a duffer. Over the top and corny, though not without a certain retro-charm.Dr Who’s most obvious B-Movie.