Doctor Who 0032 The Underwater Menace Four part story that aired January 14 to February 4 1967. Written by Geoffrey Orme and directed by Julia Smith. Linking script by Sue Cowley, read by Anneke Wills. Only the 2nd and 3rd episodes survive intact, there's audio and a minuscule bit of video from episodes 1 and 4.
When I watched the series back in 2013 the library didn't have the audio CDs and the story's DVD hadn't come out yet. The CDs were released back in 2005, I have the 2020 re-release collections. All four episodes have Anneke Wills narrating the action we can't see. I enjoy these productions much more than I thought I might.
The 2015 DVD has the two surviving episodes, for the missing episodes they use still pictures over the restored original soundtrack. It's not the CD soundtrack but it works well enough with stills to flesh out the story. The Wikipedia says at one time the two episodes were going to be animated but that was cancelled.
The Tardis comes to a stop near the sea. It's Earth and they're on an island that's home to the survivors of Atlantis. The gang of four get captured and taken to the high priest.
The Tardis gang get sentenced to being sacrificed but Doctor Zaroff rescues them. Zaroff is a scientist from the surface world. He's got a plan to raise Atlantis to the surface and the King is right on his side. Little does the King know that Zaroff has a plan to blow up the world. Just as a show of power, cause he's nuts.
Polly had been separated from the Tardis men, she was sent to a crazy scientist called Damon, he's the guy who turns humans into fish people. They are slaves who supply the colony's food. The colony has no refrigeration and the food must be gathered everyday. If only Zaroff has put his person ambition aside and worked on a freezer.
Ben and Jamie run about and eventually rescue Polly. The Doctor learns of Zaroff's plan and puts all his effort in putting s top to it. The King won't listen to him, so the Doctor decides to start a revolution among the fish people, that eventually works rather well.
Zaroff gets crazier and crazier, alarming the King, sadly his stand against the plan leads Zaroff to shoot him and seize control. Things fall apart under his command, his soldier's have deserted to find food, and the Doctor's plan to flood Atlantis puts an end to nearly everything.
Zaroff slips under the water in a scene that was cut from the Australian broadcast. It's one of the only remaining bits of video for the episode. The Tardis gang escape and head back to the Tardis and they're off again.
I thought it was fairly entertaining but it seems to have some that feel it's one of the poorest stories. I was happy to watch it. The commentary was entertaining, it had quite a few people talking about the show. I usually like the extras on the DVDs. This one has some video interviews with surviving cast and crew, a photo gallery and part 2 of the documentary on the BBC's Television Center.
The Audio CD set has a bonus disc that has an interview with Anneke Wills and a nice feature on the music of Doctor Who.
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