TV Review – Dr Who – The Underwater Menace

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Spoiler alerts An early Patrick Troughton story from 1967 in which the TARDIS takes the Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie to Atlantis, even though the island is still partly on the surface in 1967. There, the heroes meet mad scientists, especially Zaroff, played with demented glee by Joseph Hurst. He has turned shipwrecked sailors into mermen, and plans to blow up the World by flooding the sea into the Earth’s core, just because he can. The Doctor gets the enslaved mermen o go on strike and floods Zaroff’s city to end his project though Zaroff is too far gone to want to leave, and he drowns. Two episodes ceased to exist so the DVD edition presents them in soundtrack only illustrating the screen with production scenes and the few bits of action left. It’s a silly story, with too many different plot lines but some nice faked underwater filming, (no one gets wet but it looks well done), a temple cult right out of Tarzan movies and Furst’s scenery chewing depiction of a superbly barking mad scientist. Arthur Chappell