The Underwater Menace
Encyclopedia
The Underwater Menace is a serial in the British
science fiction television series Doctor Who
, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 14 January 1967 to 4 February 1967. The story constitutes Jamie McCrimmon
's first journey with the Doctor as a travelling companion.
lands on a seemingly deserted volcanic island. The 2nd Doctor, Ben, Polly and new recruit Jamie are captured and taken in a lift down a very deep shaft that leads well below the seabed.
They are prisoners of the survivors of Atlantis. Their High Priest, Lolem, declares they are to be sacrificed to the great god Amdo. As they are about to be fed to a pool of sharks Professor Zaroff arrives. He is a renegade scientist who devised the technology from which the plankton food the Atlantians live on has been refined. The Doctor succeeds in persuading the Professor to hire him for his scientific staff. They are all in the lost city of Atlantis - but Zaroff has a plan to raise it from the sea.
Jamie and Ben are sent to work in a mine, while Polly is marked out by scientist Damon for conversion through surgery into a Fish Person, one of a band of genetically and surgically altered amphibians that farm the plankton for the city.
The Doctor interrupts the electricity supply, thereby postponing the conversion operation. Damon blames Zaroff. Zaroff is obsessed with raising Atlantis from the sea, planning to drain the sea away into the Earth's core as a means to restore the land mass to the surface. This will generate vast amounts of steam which will crack the Earth's core and destroy the planet. Zaroff tells the Doctor that this is his ultimate aim! Polly is freed by a servant girl named Ara, and the Doctor escapes from the laboratory.
Ben and Jamie have been placed to work in a mine where they meet two ship wrecked sailors similarly confined, Sean and Jacko. All four escape using a secret mine shaft which emerges in the temple of Amdo – where Polly is hiding. Ara protects them, providing food and hiding them from the guards.
The Doctor meets a priest named Ramo who is resistant to the influence of Zaroff on the Atlantean court, he warns him that Zaroff really means to destroy Atlantis. Ramo smuggles the Doctor before Thous, King of Atlantis, so that he can voice his warning. The King believes in Zaroff and hands the Doctor and Ramo over to him as prisoners.
The Doctor and Ramo are taken for execution at the Temple of Amdo where Lolem is given the opportunity to make another sacrifice. However, a ruse by Polly and the others convinces the priests that a statue of Amdo has found voice. The Doctor and Ramo are spirited away into a secret room behind the statue while Lolem believes his god has swallowed the offering. When Lolem reports this miracle at court, Zaroff denounces it, insulting Amdo and sowing seeds of doubt in the mind of King Thous.
The Doctor decides to cause a revolution by creating a food shortage. He realises the plankton-based food will not last long before perishing, so decides to cause its farmers to stop supply. Sean and Jacko are sent to persuade the Fish People to revolt. They succeed in causing a production strike relatively easily.
The Doctor and his friends head off to tackle Zaroff himself. The Doctor disguises himself as a gypsy soothsayer at the Atlantean market and helps trigger a ruse to separate Zaroff from his guards. Zaroff is captured by the Doctor's party and taken to the secret room behind the statue, where the crazed man boasts that his plan is unstoppable. Having faked a seizure, Zaroff manages to get hold of a trident and stabs Ramo, who has been left to guard him. Ramo survives, but is badly wounded, while Zaroff escapes. The megalomaniac has found his loyal guards and returns to the royal court mob-handed, where he confronts Thous. The King is aggrieved by the strike among the Fish People and has lost his faith in Zaroff to raise Atlantis from the sea. Zaroff responds by shooting Thous, while his guards take on the royal protectors in pitched combat. In Zaroff's own words, “Nothing in the world can stop me now.”
With Zaroff gone, the Doctor finds Thous bleeding but alive in the throne room and has him taken to the secret chamber for safety. He then determines to flood the lower portion of Atlantis so that the reactor and Zaroff's laboratory are destroyed. Sean and Jacko are told to alert the Atlantean populace to flee to the higher levels, while the Doctor and Ben head to the generator station to put the plan in motion. Once there, they cut through cables to render the reactor unstable. All over the lower portions of Atlantis the sea walls start to perish. Jamie and Polly are caught in the flow but succeed in swimming to safety. Sean, Jacko, Thous and a penitent Damon are also fleeing the lower reaches of the city, though Lolem is missing, presumed dead.
Zaroff has now become totally mad, obsessed with his scheme to destroy the Earth. Ben and the Doctor confront him and, with the city in ruins, his guards and technicians all flee. With the water level in Zaroff's lab rising, Ben succeeds in trapping the madman behind a grille to prevent him from reaching the detonation controls. Zaroff drowns while the Doctor and Ben flee, unable to help him.
After a long slog, they make it to the surface and are there reunited with Jamie and Polly. Knowing that some of the Atlanteans—including Thous, Sean and Jacko—will have survived, the quartet return to the TARDIS and the Doctor operates the controls. They are only just taking off, however, when an external force seizes the craft and hurls them uncontrollably around the console room.
, was published by Target Books
in February 1988.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 14 January 1967 to 4 February 1967. The story constitutes Jamie McCrimmon
Jamie McCrimmon
James Robert "Jamie" McCrimmon is a fictional character played by Frazer Hines in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A piper of the Clan McLaren who lived in 18th century Scotland, he was a companion of the Second Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1966...
's first journey with the Doctor as a travelling companion.
Plot
The TARDISTARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
lands on a seemingly deserted volcanic island. The 2nd Doctor, Ben, Polly and new recruit Jamie are captured and taken in a lift down a very deep shaft that leads well below the seabed.
They are prisoners of the survivors of Atlantis. Their High Priest, Lolem, declares they are to be sacrificed to the great god Amdo. As they are about to be fed to a pool of sharks Professor Zaroff arrives. He is a renegade scientist who devised the technology from which the plankton food the Atlantians live on has been refined. The Doctor succeeds in persuading the Professor to hire him for his scientific staff. They are all in the lost city of Atlantis - but Zaroff has a plan to raise it from the sea.
Jamie and Ben are sent to work in a mine, while Polly is marked out by scientist Damon for conversion through surgery into a Fish Person, one of a band of genetically and surgically altered amphibians that farm the plankton for the city.
The Doctor interrupts the electricity supply, thereby postponing the conversion operation. Damon blames Zaroff. Zaroff is obsessed with raising Atlantis from the sea, planning to drain the sea away into the Earth's core as a means to restore the land mass to the surface. This will generate vast amounts of steam which will crack the Earth's core and destroy the planet. Zaroff tells the Doctor that this is his ultimate aim! Polly is freed by a servant girl named Ara, and the Doctor escapes from the laboratory.
Ben and Jamie have been placed to work in a mine where they meet two ship wrecked sailors similarly confined, Sean and Jacko. All four escape using a secret mine shaft which emerges in the temple of Amdo – where Polly is hiding. Ara protects them, providing food and hiding them from the guards.
The Doctor meets a priest named Ramo who is resistant to the influence of Zaroff on the Atlantean court, he warns him that Zaroff really means to destroy Atlantis. Ramo smuggles the Doctor before Thous, King of Atlantis, so that he can voice his warning. The King believes in Zaroff and hands the Doctor and Ramo over to him as prisoners.
The Doctor and Ramo are taken for execution at the Temple of Amdo where Lolem is given the opportunity to make another sacrifice. However, a ruse by Polly and the others convinces the priests that a statue of Amdo has found voice. The Doctor and Ramo are spirited away into a secret room behind the statue while Lolem believes his god has swallowed the offering. When Lolem reports this miracle at court, Zaroff denounces it, insulting Amdo and sowing seeds of doubt in the mind of King Thous.
The Doctor decides to cause a revolution by creating a food shortage. He realises the plankton-based food will not last long before perishing, so decides to cause its farmers to stop supply. Sean and Jacko are sent to persuade the Fish People to revolt. They succeed in causing a production strike relatively easily.
The Doctor and his friends head off to tackle Zaroff himself. The Doctor disguises himself as a gypsy soothsayer at the Atlantean market and helps trigger a ruse to separate Zaroff from his guards. Zaroff is captured by the Doctor's party and taken to the secret room behind the statue, where the crazed man boasts that his plan is unstoppable. Having faked a seizure, Zaroff manages to get hold of a trident and stabs Ramo, who has been left to guard him. Ramo survives, but is badly wounded, while Zaroff escapes. The megalomaniac has found his loyal guards and returns to the royal court mob-handed, where he confronts Thous. The King is aggrieved by the strike among the Fish People and has lost his faith in Zaroff to raise Atlantis from the sea. Zaroff responds by shooting Thous, while his guards take on the royal protectors in pitched combat. In Zaroff's own words, “Nothing in the world can stop me now.”
With Zaroff gone, the Doctor finds Thous bleeding but alive in the throne room and has him taken to the secret chamber for safety. He then determines to flood the lower portion of Atlantis so that the reactor and Zaroff's laboratory are destroyed. Sean and Jacko are told to alert the Atlantean populace to flee to the higher levels, while the Doctor and Ben head to the generator station to put the plan in motion. Once there, they cut through cables to render the reactor unstable. All over the lower portions of Atlantis the sea walls start to perish. Jamie and Polly are caught in the flow but succeed in swimming to safety. Sean, Jacko, Thous and a penitent Damon are also fleeing the lower reaches of the city, though Lolem is missing, presumed dead.
Zaroff has now become totally mad, obsessed with his scheme to destroy the Earth. Ben and the Doctor confront him and, with the city in ruins, his guards and technicians all flee. With the water level in Zaroff's lab rising, Ben succeeds in trapping the madman behind a grille to prevent him from reaching the detonation controls. Zaroff drowns while the Doctor and Ben flee, unable to help him.
After a long slog, they make it to the surface and are there reunited with Jamie and Polly. Knowing that some of the Atlanteans—including Thous, Sean and Jacko—will have survived, the quartet return to the TARDIS and the Doctor operates the controls. They are only just taking off, however, when an external force seizes the craft and hurls them uncontrollably around the console room.
Continuity
- The Doctor signs a note to Professor Zaroff as "Dr. W.", apparently suggesting a surname. (See further discussion of the Doctor's name here.)
- This is the first of three different explanations for the sinking of AtlantisAtlantisAtlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
in Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, the other two being in The DæmonsThe DæmonsThe Dæmons is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts from May 22 to June 19, 1971.-Plot:...
and The Time MonsterThe Time MonsterThe Time Monster is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 20 May to 24 June 1972.- Synopsis :...
. - As the serials The Power of the DaleksThe Power of the DaleksThe Power of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 5 November to 10 December 1966. It is Patrick Troughton's first full story as the Doctor.-Plot:...
and The HighlandersThe Highlanders (Doctor Who)The Highlanders is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 17 December 1966 to 7 January 1967....
are both missing, episode three of this serial is the earliest surviving complete episode to feature Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, as well as Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon.
Production
- Working titles for this story include Doctor Who Under the Sea and The Fish People.
- The history of this script is particularly troubled. After its commission, it was dropped from the production schedule, partly because of concerns that it would require a higher budget than was available. A new script by William EmmsWilliam EmmsWilliam Emms wrote the Doctor Who serial Galaxy 4 in 1965 and also adapted the script for a Target novelisation. Later scripts for the programme from the 1960s to the 1980s were not commissioned...
, "The Imps", was commissioned to replace it; Emms, however, subsequently fell ill. When it was realized that it was unlikely that Emms would be able to complete changes to the script, which was due to begin shooting in a month, the original script, now titled "The Underwater Menace", was brought back into the schedule. A further complication arose because Frazer Hines was brought on as a regular member of the cast barely a month before the serial was due to start production, and his character, Jamie, had to be worked into the script. Because of all of these problems, the individual episodes were recorded just a week before they were due to be broadcast.
Cast notes
- Colin Jeavons later appeared in the Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
spin-off pilot K-9 and CompanyK-9 and CompanyK-9 and Company was a proposed television spin-off of the original programme run of Doctor Who . It was to feature former series regulars Sarah Jane Smith, an investigative journalist played by Elisabeth Sladen, and K-9, a robotic dog. Both characters had been companions of the Fourth Doctor, but...
. - Noel Johnson later played Sir Charles Grover in Invasion of the DinosaursInvasion of the DinosaursInvasion of the Dinosaurs is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 12 January to 16 February 1974.-Synopsis:...
. - Peter Stephens had previously appeared in The Celestial ToymakerThe Celestial ToymakerThe Celestial Toymaker is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 2 April to 23 April 1966.-Plot:...
.
In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Nigel RobinsonNigel Robinson
Nigel Robinson is an English author, known for such works as the First Contact series.Nigel was born in Preston, Lancashire and attended St Thomas More school....
, was published by Target Books
Target Books
Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of...
in February 1988.
VHS, CD and DVD releases
- Episode three was released on VHSVHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
in 1998, along with the documentary "The Missing Years" - As with all missing episodes, off-air recordings of the soundtrack exist due to contemporary fan efforts. In February 2005, these were released on CD, accompanied by linking narration from Anneke Wills.
- The episode and documentary were later included on the Lost in Time DVD set; several brief surviving film clips were also included.
External links
- Photonovel of The Underwater Menace on the BBC website
- Doctor Who Locations - The Underwater Menace