Synopsis:
The TARDIS is in flight, now with Jamie as one of its occupants, wondering what he has let himself in for. The Doctor gleefully longs for dinosaurs next, whilst Polly would love to see the Chelsea of 1966. Ben hopes not to encounter Daleks again.
The TARDIS materialises on a rocky shoreline. Exploring, they discover that they have arrived on a volcanic island. Polly is sure she sees movement amongst the rocks and then spots a piece of jewellery, but is abducted by a figure and dragged into a cave before she can show it to her friends. She manages to scream a warning however. The Doctor has found some pottery, which he identifies as Mediterranean in style. It is of an archaic type, yet recently fired.
When Polly screams, Ben and Jamie rush into the cave, only to be captured as well.
They find themselves locked in a cage with Polly. Hopes that the Doctor might rescue them are dashed when he is also pushed inside. The cage proves to be a lift, which begins to descend.
The depth they travel is such that they pass out from the change in atmospheric pressure.
Waking in a cell, Polly reveals the jewellery she found - a bracelet of Aztec design. However, it proves to be a souvenir item for the Mexico City Olympic Games, due to be held in 1968.
They are attended by guards armed with tridents, wearing costumes decorated with seashells. They take them to a reception area where they find a feast of food which the Doctor recognises as processed plankton.
A man named Ramo arrives, dressed in ornate robes and headdress. He informs them that their coming has been foreseen by their deity Amdo. He is her High Priest. The Festival of the Vernal Equinox is due, and they have an important part to play in this ritual. The Doctor doesn't like the sound of this, and insists on talking to someone named Zaroff. Ramo is surprised to hear that he knows of him. He explains that he knows of Professor Zaroff's specialism in producing food from the sea and has deduced that he must be behind the food they have just enjoyed.
The ceremony must proceed, but the Doctor gives a serving girl - Ara - a message to pass to Zaroff before they are taken to a temple.
A huge sculpted face, that of Amdo, looks down on a sacrificial area. The Doctor and his companions are tied to boards which are arranged around a pool of water in which sharks are swimming. The boards are designed to tilt as water pours from ceramic jars, so that they will all be tipped headfirst into the pool.
The sacrifice is presided over by another priest named Lolem. Ara goes to a nearby laboratory where she is met by scientist Damon. She informs him of the message for Zaroff. He reads it and sees that it claims a great secret will die with the writer if the professor does not see him.
At the last moment the ceremony is interrupted by the arrival of Zaroff, who has the authority to overrule Ramo. He orders the captives be freed. The Doctor reveals that he had no secret to impart - it was just a ruse to pique Zaroff's interest and have him intervene. He explains how he knows of the famous scientist's work, and the story of how he disappeared some 20 years ago. The Doctor then convinces him that he may be able to assist him in his work. The arrogant Zaroff agrees, but orders that his companions be put to work.
They are taken to Damon, whose role is that of Labour Controller. Ben and Jamie will be sent to the mines. After they have gone, Polly is told that she will help gather food from the sea. He indicates a large window looking out onto the sea bed, and she sees gilled humanoid creatures swimming around. She will be transformed into one of them.
The Doctor is taken to Zaroff's laboratory where he learns that this island lies west of Gibraltar, south of the Azores, on the Atlantic Ridge. The Doctor realises that this must be all that remains of the lost civilisation of Atlantis. Zaroff confirms this, and tells him that he is working on a plan to raise the city to the surface once again.
Ara tells the Doctor that Polly is about to be surgically altered to become one of the Fish People.
In Damon's operating theatre, his companion is prepared for the procedure as the creatures look on...
Written by: Geoffrey Orme
Recorded: Saturday 7th January 1967 - Riverside Studio 1
First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 14th January 1967
Ratings: 8.3 million / AI 48
Designer: Jack Robinson
Director: Julia Smith
Guest cast: Joseph Furst (Zaroff), Colin Jeavons (Damon), Tom Watson (Ramo), Peter Stephens (Lolem), Catherine Howe (Ara)
Critique:
The Underwater Menace was the culmination of a troubled period, script-wise, for the series.
A story centred around Atlantis, to be written by Geoffrey Orme, was originally intended to be the second Troughton adventure, provisionally slated to be directed by Hugh David. The third story was planned to be "The Imps", by William Emms - writer of the previous season's Galaxy Four. This would have been set around a spaceport, plagued by the small imp-like creatures of the title as well as a rampaging hostile plant. Production on this - to be directed by Julia Smith who had handled The Smugglers - was quite far advanced, even down to costume design, when Emms was taken ill and unable to work on any rewrites. As they waited for Emms to recuperate, Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis began to have qualms about his story, and The Highlanders had now been tabled as Troughton's second story.
Despite reservations about a story with an undersea setting, the Atlantis story was brought back into play, now to become the third Troughton adventure.
Orme had begun his writing career in the 1930's, much of it for theatre. He had written for Variety comics like Arthur Askey, Flanagan & Allen, and Old Mother Riley - writing some of the latter character's feature films. More recent TV work had included episodes of Ivanhoe and The Avengers.
He had submitted a story idea called "The Evil Eye" to the Doctor Who office in the spring of 1966. This had been rejected by Davis, but Orme had been invited to submit other ideas. The one accepted was for a time known simply as "Doctor Who Under the Sea".
Hugh David had a friend who had worked on the latest Bond movie which was in production at Pinewood - Thunderball. As this had a heavy underwater element David approached his friend for advice. Hearing of the budget and facilities available to him, the friend informed him that he faced an impossible task.
David went back to the production office and had himself taken off the story, and he was assigned The Highlanders instead. As she had efficiently handled filming both on the coast and offshore on her earlier production, Julia Smith was then swapped over to take on the Atlantis tale.
With filming dates rapidly approaching, Orme was obliged to make some rapid rewrites whilst Smith and designer Jack Robinson prepared. He was a late replacement for Raymond London, who had been due to design "The Imps". This would prove to be Robinson's only contribution to the series.
At this stage, the story had the working title of "Doctor Who and the Fish People".
With Frazer Hines joining the TARDIS crew as a regular in a last minute move, Davis found himself heavily involved in the rewrites to cover the new character - which sadly meant mostly reallocating lines away from Michael Craze.
Whilst the trio had got on well during the making of the Highlands story, Craze and Anneke Wills were somewhat wary of Hines joining the show, realising that he would inevitably take away screen time from them.
Another change Davis made was the motivation for Zaroff's actions. Orme had written that he sought revenge for the deaths of his wife and child, and whilst this was retained in the official story synopsis, it was never mentioned on screen.
Zaroff was to have had a female scientist as his assistant, named Steen. It was she who distracted the professor at the end of this episode, allowing Ara to slip the note about Polly to the Doctor.
Filming got underway at Winspit Quarry in Dorset on Tuesday 15th December. The regulars had rehearsed the location sequences the day before, travelling down to the production base at Swanage that night. The bulk of the production crew had already travelled down on the Sunday to set up and to film some establishing shots prior to the cast members arriving.
This location, with its distinctive square-cut cave entrances would later feature as the planet Skaro in Destiny of the Daleks.
Filming was only required for the first and fourth instalments, with the TARDIS arrival and the crew's exploration of the island in the opening episode. For this only three extras were required, wearing Atlantean guard outfits. These were based on fishing net outfits decorated with shells and armed with tridents - the symbol of the sea god Neptune / Poseidon. The guards wore bushy eyebrows, which costume designer Gillian James had decided on for all the Atlanteans.
Continuity with the previous episode was maintained with the companions wearing the outfits they had worn at the end of The Highlanders Episode Four. They would then change into new outfits to film the scenes for the conclusion of this story.
Further filming took place on Wednesday 16th December, this time at Ealing. This was for the model work for the serial. For this episode, that included the volcanic mountain and the lift descending the rock shaft.
Tests were also made with two of the performers who were to play Fish People, being flown on Kirby wires to simulate swimming underwater.
We'll discuss the Fish People design and costumes when we get to the third instalment, in which they feature more prominently.
It was decided to make some changes to Troughton's costume from this story. The trousers were replaced with a pair with a smaller check, and it was agreed that the tall Paris Beau hat would be discarded after this story. Troughton had been advised by friends to drop this anyway.
As mentioned last time, having a week's break for Christmas now meant that the series was being broadcast only one week after recording, leaving no room for error. A sudden illness in a principal cast member or a set or prop not being ready could prove catastrophic.
Tensions were high from the start as Smith was concerned about the technical challenges of the story, after having only had to cope with a historical adventure previously. Troughton felt that the production looked cheap - partly due to it being a late replacement but mainly due to this story being allocated a smaller budget. The regulars did not like the scripts and made sure that their feelings were known. There was also a conflict between director and star over the level of comedy Troughton was putting into the role. It is claimed that the cast sometimes upset Smith so much that she burst into tears.
Matters were not helped by the studio being unavailable for setting up on the eve of recording, thanks to a live current affairs programme taking over Riverside Studio 1. The Doctor Who crew could only get in after 6:30pm and had to work overnight to have the studio ready for camera rehearsals and recording next day. It was decided that the first evening would see recording run from 8:30 - 10pm, 15 minutes longer than the subsequent three instalments.
The opening captions played over a shot of the Doctor's hat sitting on a table in the TARDIS, then Troughton standing at the controls. A "thinks" track was recorded by the cast that afternoon to be played into studio as the camera dwelt on each person - letting the viewer know what each was looking forward to next. The Doctor wanted dinosaurs, whilst Polly wanted to be back home in the King's Road. Ben wanted Daleks - not - whilst Jamie simply wondered what madness he'd let himself in for. The three companions wore their outfits from the previous week, to tie in with the location filming at Winspit and to show that events continued immediately after leaving Scotland, 1746.
The script stated that they had just come from 1745, but Troughton stated the correct year on screen.
The compression chamber was redressed mid-evening to act as the operating theatre, which also doubled as Zaroff's laboratory in close-up - the full set for which wouldn't be seen until the following week.
The biggest set was the Temple of Amdo. On one side was the huge carved face of a fish-like female appearance, behind which were hidden steps, whilst four see-saw planks were set up around a square well - the sacrificial pool. Young acolytes removed plugs from water-filled pots, which caused the planks to slowly tilt.
Stock footage was used of swimming sharks, and Smith also used mirrors to get some interesting angles, such as overhead shots of the TARDIS crew during the sacrifice.
Whilst the script referred to Zaroff having a pet octopus, a scorpion fish was actually provided in studio.
Back projection was employed to show the Fish People at a window, filmed earlier at Ealing. To bulk out the population of Atlantis, some extras were called upon to play multiple roles - as guards, priests and medical attendants.
There was one significant cut made to the episode before broadcast. The Doctor initially resisted being taken to the temple by Ramo's guards - overturning the food on the table and running round the room, hiding behind the tapestries until finally caught. Other trims removed the odd line of dialogue at the end of a scene.
When it came to broadcasting the story in Australia, scenes depicting Polly being threatened with a hypodermic syringe were cut. This scene caused controversy in the UK at the time as well, with the production office being accused by the National Society for the Welfare of Children in Hospital of scaring children who were due to be given vaccinations or other injections in the coming days. Lloyd countered that children watching could understand that the programme was fantasy.
This episode is now lost, apart from the Australian censor material. The story has a bad reputation overall, and we can see from the above that concerns were being raised before it even went before the cameras. However, there is nothing to complain about with this opening instalment. We kick off with the entertaining TARDIS scene with the thought-track, then go in to some visually interesting location filming. From telesnaps we can see that the sets were not overly lit and performances are perfectly fine (so far). Even the Fish People look suitably spooky and ethereal when glimpsed briefly on the screen at the cliff-hanger. It will start coming apart at the seams later on, but it's a great pity that this opening episode is one of the two missing ones.
- The ratings begin strongly - the highest figure of the Troughton era to date. Only one episode of The Power of the Daleks had managed to make 8 million. The AI figure is under 50, but par for the course for the time.
- Future guest star Ken Dodd was the main opposition on ITV in the London region, with Batman screening in the north.
- This is the first story since The Savages to have specially composed music, as opposed to the use of library tracks. The composer is Dudley Simpson.
- There's a scene in which the travellers attempt to speak to their guards, who speak a language which they do not understand. These were the days before the TARDIS translation effect was ever considered, and everyone simply spoke English no matter where or when the ship landed. It is unusual for someone not to speak English in the series at this time.
- We've mentioned previously Gerry Davis' belief that the main character is actually called "Doctor Who" and there's another example of it here. The Doctor signs his note to Zaroff "Dr W".
- There was some discussion about Troughton's portrayal of the Doctor at the BBC weekly review meeting on Wednesday 18th January. Some thought he was "too human", whilst others felt he was giving a richer performance than Hartnell had managed. There were worries from Sydney Newman that the Doctor was coming across as an "anti-hero".
- Vienna-born Joseph Furst's biggest role is as Professor Metz, Blofeld's pet scientist in Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
- Tom Watson was well-known to TV viewers in Scotland. One role of note was as Taggart's original superior, Chief Inspector Murray (aka "The Mint") in the early days of the long-running police series.
- Peter Stephens had previously played multiple roles in The Celestial Toymaker - as the Knave of Hearts and kitchen boy / schoolboy Cyril.
- Colin Jeavons would not return to the world of Doctor Who until the Sarah Jane / K-9 spin-off at Christmas 1981.
- William Emms' abandoned "Imps" story would later form the basis of a make-your-own-adventure book featuring the Sixth Doctor, titled "Mission to Venus":
- Radio Times elected to highlight new regular Frazer Hines with a photograph, along with another featuring the latest "monster". The brief synopsis actually gave away specific details of Zaroff's scheme a week before viewers would have heard of them in the televised episode.
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