Rate and Discuss: The Underwater Menace

[SiHart]

Atlantis will rise! At least accroding to Professor Zaroff it will. But will the real plan behiond Zaroff's mad scheme becone transparent? Will the Will of Amdo be followed or will Nothing in the world stop Zaroff now?

What do you think of The Underwater Menace?

[Stuart Wallis]

Better overall than part three suggests. It is at least worth listening to, but said episode brings it down a fair bit. It was daring enough to show the villain being ultimately defeated by being dragged away by water; but Zaroff himself became too bonkers towards the end. (Sad, because he started off rather well.) His plan to raise Atlantis by draining the sea could have done with a little more thought, especially since the Doctor points out that he'd blowing the planet up by doing so, and he's still intent on the whole affair being a scientific masterpiece. Says who? What good will it do anyone, let alone the atlanteans - oh, we'll all go together when we go!

Least said about the Fish people and their radiophonic waltz, the better!

6/10

[J.R. Southall]

I rather enjoy Episode Three whenever I do watch it actually... it's a bit of a guilty pleasure. And the segment they released of Episode Two shows it's a marked improvement on that, as well. I'm hedging my bets and giving it a 7, as I'm pretty sure the whole thing would be a lot more enjoyable than the returning Cybermen story to come...

[Philipnet]

Will they all be "My people now!!!"

Despite this being a black and white episode - it conjures up colourful memories of the pub .
Now where have Phillip Culley and Fatso the Wombat gone?

[SiHart]

We need their input and enthusiasm! Many pub nights ended with them both quoting this story drunkenly at us!

[Stephen Morgan]

This is actually the earliest memory I have of a Troughton episode, I remember clearly the moment an Atlantean scientist threatens Polly with a syringe at the end of the first episode and tells her she is about to be turned into a fish person, her scream ends the episode.
I'm really looking forward to seeing the recovered second episode of this serial, I enjoy part three and don't think it deserves the reputation the whole thing has got.

[Stuart Wallis]

Will they all be "My people now!!!"

If you're giving out free chocolate...

[Phillip Culley]

Best story of them all... nuff said

[Anthony Williams]

When Whitney and I did this story recently, I approached it with scepticism. I had only seen it once before, but couldn't remember much about it. I was somewhat worried by its rather poor reputation. But you know what? We both REALLY enjoyed it. At the time, Episode 3 was the only one that was known to exist, and we both felt that that episode was probably the "least good" of the four. I'm genuinely excited at the prospect of seeing Episode 2.

There's just so much here to enjoy - the story is a fun runaround with a wonderful OTT villain, with a completely bonkers plan that'd be worthy of The Master himself. Zaroff is bad not because he's evil, but because he's utterly, utterly insane. And I actually like "nuzzinkinthevorldcanschotppmenow!" line. I was surprised recently to learn that that was actually Joseph Furst's real accent!

This, to me, is where Patrick Troughton really begins to find his feet as the Second Doctor. And then there are strong performances from all the companions. Even Jamie was excellent in this story, and it wasn't even written with him in mind!

I love this. It's a lot of fun, which I genuinely feel that Season 4 utterly lacked up until this point. Maybe of surprise to some, but this gets 9/10 from me!

[SiHart]

It's a mad, mad story... as Ant says, Zaroff's plan is bonkers and the story reflects that, with none of its episodes being the same as each other. We go from barmy scientific experimentation, to bonkers runaround, to disaster movie over the four episodes, via underwater ballet with the bizarre fish people dance and some great clowning around from Patrick Troughton.

It shouldn't be, but I find it all rather endearing in a terribly innocent way.