Serial #32: The Underwater Menace

Doctor Who does Atlantis....for the first time!

The Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jamie end up getting kidnapped by a group of people living under the ocean who want to sacrifice them to their goddess. They are saved by the scientist Zaroff, but it quickly becomes clear his plans for Atlantis will be earthshattering.

A serial that has a lot of potential it never quite realizes, but still an entertaining ride with some great moments and ideas. 


ZAROFF: Bang! Bang! Bang, bang! That's all.
DOCTOR: Yes. Just one small question. Why do you want to blow up the world?
ZAROFF: Why? You, a scientist, ask me why? The achievement, my dear Doctor. The destruction of the world. The scientists' dream of supreme power!
_____

DAMON: Any sign of the Doctor?
ARA: No. He must have died saving us.
THOUS: We'll raise a stone to him in the temple.
DAMON: No. No more temples. It was temples and priests and superstition that made us follow Zaroff in the first place. When the water's found it's own level, the temple will be buried forever. We shall never return to it. But we will have enough left to build a new Atlantis, without gods and without fish people.
THOUS: Yes. That shall be his memorial.


Upcoming:
"The Moonbase"
Episodes 1 & 3 are missing, but have been animated
Team TARDIS lands on the Moon, where humans control the weather, but a strange virus is making everyone sick, and something is lurking just in the shadows....
Monday, May 14th (returning to our regular weekly schedule after end-of-semester insanity)

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: throughthevortexpodcast@gmail.com

Transcript

Welcome all Whovians. My name is Brianna, and today, I'm going to take you Through the Vortex on this companion to Doctor Who.

Today friends, we are going to be going on Doctor Who's first but not last trip to Atlantis. This is “The Underwater Menace.”

“The Underwater Menace” is notable for several things. This is Jamie's first proper serial with Team Tardis as a companion, and he really does do a lot of bonding with Ben and Polly during this adventure. It's also an interesting serial in the sense that this is one of those that has a lot of potential that isn't really fully realized. There is an attempt to sketch this interesting underwater society, but the serial doesn't really fully develop that society. So there is some tension there with what the serial could be versus what it's trying to be. That said, there's some interesting commentary about science and the nature of superstition and religion, there's some good moments with various characters, a villain who's very memorable, and it's it's not a great serial but it is a solid fun trip to the bottom of the ocean for “The Underwater Menace.” 

Doctor Who’s thirty-second serial was written by Geoffrey Ormm; this is the first serial that he has penned for the show. This was directed by Julia Smith, who is a rare female director in this early run. She's going to be doing some directing for other serials as well, and we may be highlighting, talking about her as we continue because there are some specific things she tends to do that are interesting. Our producer, as per usual in this era, is Innes Lloyd. “The Underwater Menace” ran from the 14th of January 1967 to the 4th of February 1967.  Of its four episodes all are missing but episode number 3.

“The Underwater Menace” opens up with Team Tardis, now a team of four, landing on a beach. There's a really great scene here that contrasts Jamie as a new member of the Tardis Team with the Doctor, Ben, and Polly. Ben desperately wants to not encounter the Daleks again. Polly wants to go home, she wants to get back to her time and place. And the Doctor is really, really hoping for prehistoric monsters. And they say all this as they’re landing, and poor Jamie has no idea what is going on and is very confused as to the craziness that he has landed himself into as a new member of this team.

There is this ongoing joke with Jamie not understanding how certain things work particularly in regards to technology, which makes sense because he's obviously from the past so even the concept of a time machine is a bit much for him. There is that joke going on throughout the serial, and for that matter going forward, how Jamie frames the world is very different from Ben and Polly, who are contemporary to the show's audience.

We also have a little aside; the Doctor quotes Robert Burns and Robert Burns has not yet been born when Jamie left Scotland. So even though you would think that Jamie would be aware of this poet, obviously, he's not because he's before Robert Burns’ time. So we have a lot of that going on where people tend to forget that Jamie is from the past, and need to catch him up.

In any case, they land on a beach and are quickly all captured.

Polly’s captured first, then Ben and Jamie go back to help her, and eventually the Doctor is captured. All three are taken to this cave in a volcano that is inactive, of course, and are taken down down a very very very very very long elevator eventually arriving at what we discover later is Atlantis.

Unfortunately, once they arrive there they are promptly told that they are going to be sacrificed to the goddess Amdo for the vernal equinox. Before they're sacrificed they are permitted a nice meal of Plankton. During this meal the Doctor is very kind to a servant girl by the name of Ara. And she's going to be very important throughout this serial because she develops this deep loyalty to the Doctor.

The first instance of this is that the Doctor desperately wants to get a message to a mysterious man by the name of Zaroff. We don't know who Zaroff is at this point in the serial, but the Doctor clearly knows who he is and wants to get a note to him presumably to stop the sacrifice. So Aras is going off to take that note to the professor.

Meanwhile Team Tardis is all being put into this very strange machine where they are going to essentially slip into a big tank and get eaten by a shark.  So death by shark is our sacrifice to Amdo. 

These scenes with the temple and the priests are interesting. They definitely create a certain atmosphere because there's a lot of chanting. It reminds me a lot of like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, where it doesn't really feel authentic to any particular people group or any particular religion but it does give this sense of this strange like ceremony that's happening that's that's mysterious and we don't quite understand.

And so we have this Temple area with a big… the goddess Amdo has this big face that's carved into stone in the back of the temple, and then there's just all these priests. And they are just constantly chanting and worshiping, and apparently the goddess Amdo demands human sacrifices at certain times.

There are some deliberate call backs in the serial to “The Aztecs” in terms of the aesthetics, and I would argue in some ways with the main priest character, who is Loma and we're going to have another priest character who becomes important.

So our TARDIS team is about to be sacrificed, and the servant girl is trying to take this note to Zaroff. The notes just reads, we see it: “If I die by secret dies with me.” Like it doesn't specify anything, the Doctor has basically just sent this very very cryptic note to Zaroff, but the professor takes the bait and he comes in and stops the sacrifice. He immediately sends everyone off into custody but the Doctor, so basically the people of Atlantis are taking Ben and Jamie and sending them to the mines to work– we're not sure what the mines are for at this point– whereas Polly is being sent off to undergo a very particular… shall we say transformation? Which we'll talk about in a second.

The Doctor reveals to Zaroff that he didn't actually have a secret that he was just trying to bait him. But the professor is intrigued enough by the Doctor and his daring to let him live anyway.

So it becomes clear the reason why the Doctor knows that Zaroff has to be here is because apparently he was really famous during this time period on Earth, which is sometime in the 1970s. We know the dates because Polly determined [them] by finding an artifact from the Olympics [the 1968 Olympics]. In any case, Zaroff was a famous scientist that was specifically really deep into food production around Plankton and other Seafood creatures. So the feast that they were given alerts the Doctor to the fact that Zaroff must be present.

It's a little weak. The serial could have done a little bit more to establish why the Doctor would know this and know that this man had so much power. 

But regardless this fictional scientist we discover was essentially exiled from the upper world for various experiments and eventually found his way down to Atlantis. He was accepted into the Atlantean Society specifically because he promised the people of Atlantis that he would rise Atlantis up… he wanted to raise it up from under the sea which is the deepest held dream of all the Atlantean people: they want to to return to the surface.

So in this version of Atlantis. The details are a little confusing, and there's some issues in the story around how all of this works. And also the science is a little off because we're in the late 1960s and clearly the writers just…there things that they just didn't know. But the idea basically is that the Atlanteans live in these air pockets underneath this extinct volcano. They ended up here centuries and centuries ago after their original home was destroyed due to, it's implied, some kind of climate change. They are the inspiration for the myth of Atlantis.

 We also discover that the Atlanteans have essentially constructed this elaborate society underneath the ocean in this these caves that go very very deep down under the sea. Among other things they are employing these fish people. 

The fish people were originally native to the Atlantis area. They lived underneath the sea and had initially migrated to Atlantis to help the Atlantians out it's not very very clear… but eventually this became something that was artificially constructed. So when the atlantians would take humans who had been Shipwrecked who were from the above World when they found them on their Island where the volcano was/ They would take them and they would convert them into fish people by giving them these like artificial breathing apparatuses and lungs through this elaborate surgery that it's really heavily implied is irreversible. And these fish people are employed to gather all the food for Atlantis. 

Zaroff has been ruling with an iron fist. It's heavily implied that he significantly helped with the food intake of Atlantis though he hasn't been there very long and it seems like the fish people preceded him and his entrance into the city. 

Again, the timeline’s a little weird in this serial. I don't think that everything was thought out, but it is suggested that Zaroff when he came to Atlantis brought a lot of scientific innovation that has helped the city thrive and to be more productive. To stop worrying about food because they can apparently convert more fish people from these humans and they can do so more effectively. And that Zaroff and his knowledge of Plankton and such really helped with the food production in some way.

So that's one thing he brought to Atlantis. The other, again, is that he's promised to raise Atlantis from under the ocean. The Doctor is really curious about this, like, how are you planning on bringing Atlantis up? Is that possible? 

And Zaroff reveals that his plan is not to raise Atlantis but rather to lower the ocean. And to do this he intends to drill holes into the Earth and pour all the ocean into the Earth's core. 

The Doctor points out that if you were to do this essentially the Earth would just become this big pressure cooker and would explode and everyone would die. Like all sentient life would die.

Now I don't think that's actually true. If you were to empty the the ocean into the crust of the Earth…I don't think this is even possible? But in the event that you could thrust all the ocean into center of the earth, essentially, I would think that it would it would just kind of rupture before it would explode the whole Earth. But the Doctor’s arguing that it would…. the water would kind of turn into steam and it would just be like a big pressure cooker, and it'll just go boom. The Earth would just explode.

 Maybe it would. I'm not a scientist. I do not know, but I suspect that's not how this would work. I do think that if you try to drain the ocean into the magma, regardless, like, that would case very large problems for life on Earth if you were to do something like this.

 So the Doctor points this out. The Doctor’s like, okay so your plan is basically you're going to explode the Earth. For the purposes of this serial that's what we're saying is going to happen here. The Earth is just going to explode, and that's not a good thing, Zaroff, maybe we shouldn't do that?

And Zaroff is like, you as another scientist must understand how extraordinary it would be to be responsible for blowing up the Earth.

Yeah, Zaroff is Crazy. He's a little off his rocker. He is not the most complex villain, but he is certainly fun to watch, and he is way over the top throughout this whole serial. But yeah, he just wants the glory of having blown up the Earth, of having done something that no one else has ever done before. And he is going to fulfill his promise to Atlantis. Atlantis will rise… just in pieces and all explode-y, you know World exploding, everybody dying…

 Very early on the Doctor pretends to go along with this because he recognizes correctly that's Zaroff is extremely prideful which is going to be a problem for him going forward in the serial and ultimately his downfall. But yes, Zaroff just wants the to be the person who has done this extraordinary Godlike thing.

 He feels like a very under-baked version of Davros. This is sort of Davros’s thing. When we get to “Genesis of the Daleks,” Davros wants to be the person who who was like… Death the Destroyer of Worlds, right? He wants to be a God, and he doesn't really care about ethics and morality. What he thinks is interesting is being able to do these really crazy scientific things that show his genius and just show his sheer power.

And Zaroff feels like that kind of character that just sort of wants to just see himself as a god-like being, and being able to enact something like blowing up the world in of itself is is just an extraordinary thing and proves how extraordinary he is even if he doesn't live to see it. So he has placed himself among the gods if he succeeds in this plan.

 We discover that Zaroff has made significant progress towards his emptying the ocean into the Earth's core plan. He has been drilling for a long time. The mines are connected to this project in some blurry way. Zaroff’s also very very heavily manipulating the situation in Atlantis. So we discover Zaroff is really using these religious rituals and these religious ideas… there was a prophecy that Atlantis would rise from the ocean there's a lot around as a goddess and her needs and Zaroff’s been manipulating the people to get them on his side. He's in really deep with the leader of Atlantis, and essentially zaroff's in charge. He runs the military, and as we kind of chatted about in our last serial…or two serials ago I should say, in our last Dalek episode… if you control the guns you kind of control the society. And Zaroff essentially has positioned himself as as that person in the Atlantean Society. He pulls all the strings.

So the Doctor figures all this out and is understandably very concerned. The other thing that is concerning is Ara comes to warn the Doctor that the people of Atlantis intend to do the fish surgery on Polly.  They're going to turn her into a fish person.

 So Polly throughout this serial….

 I don't like how they write for Polly in this serial. I I just don't think the writer fully understands her as a character, and she feels like a constant Damsel in Distress throughout this entire serial. She doesn't really do very much and instead is constantly an object that needs to be saved by the other male characters. 

And I think that's unfortunate because Polly when she's written well I think is very very clever. She operates in a similar fashion to the Doctor. We talked about that in “The Highlanders,” which is a great serial for Polly. But in this one she's just constantly in trouble. She's initially in trouble when they go into the cave, she's the first person to get captured and arguably the reason why both Ben and Jamie get captured is because they're trying to help her.

At this point Ben and Jamie have been shipped off to the mines and Polly has the scene with one of the scientists where he's explaining how the fish people work and she's looking out upon them because there's this glass– well it's not really clear.

Atlantis is sort of like a cave but there are places where there's glass, and we can like look out at the sea and or they’re view screens? I don't know. Like this place is not particularly well established. There are great ideas inf the serial in terms of the society and this place and there was so much potential here. But but it is a little confusing as presented.

But in any case Polly's looking out of the fish people and is just bemused by this whole society. And then she is basically told, oh yeah you're going to undergo this operation. 

So Polly's put on the table, and she is going to undergo the surgery. The Doctor hearing from Ara that Polly is in danger asks the serving girl if there's any way that she can, you know, try to get Polly out of there if if need be. Like if she has a chance.

 And then he proceeds to mess with the power, getting in the way of the lights so the surgery operating room can't work properly. Because the lights keep like flickering on and off during one of these blackouts, Ara does in fact take Polly away out into the darkness.

And Polly is just kind of a mess throughout this. And it's kind of sad because… okay Ara as a character is kind of a great character in this she just for whatever reason well because the Doctors kind to her and it's clear that everyone treats are like like s***. She's just treated so poorly throughout the serial, so she attaches to the Doctor because he prevents people from abusing her early on. Like prevents her from experiencing like physical people are just like hitting her and yelling at her and people are not very kind to their servants in Atlantis when they make mistakes. And the Doctor kind of interferes with that, and she understandably is therefore very loyal to him. 

But in any case, she she's our clutch throughout this entire serial. Like she's the one who gets things done and who saves the day for most of the heroes most of the time. But yeah she kind of drags Polly away, and Polly is taken to this room behind Amdo, the big statue of Amdo, that overlooks the temple where they were going to get sacrificed, Polly’s put back there and Ara is going to be taking her food. And that's kind of where Polly is for the remainder of… well until things go down so.

So Polly is out of danger. One of the scientists comes to informs Zaroff of this and the Doctor distracts him and manages to escape.

So at this point the Doctor and Polly are both loose and the Atlantis Society is looking for them. Zaroff is concerned specifically about the Doctor because he knows Zaroff's plans, obviously, and while he trust the Doctor..thinks he's a fellow scientist that would understand him… he's a little unsure about what's going on now that the Doctor has escaped. 

Meanwhile Ben and Jamie in the mines befriend some of the other captured Sailors, soldiers, people who have been taken into Atlantis. The humans.

It's not really clear whether the Atlantians see themselves as humans or not throughout the serial. Presumably they are just humans that were trapped underground and made this new society but they do consistently refer to the people from above the ground as the humans so it does seem to create this distance between them and the people above the ground.

 These other people who've been captured are not very memorable with the exception of the Irishman. Now I do not remember this character's name. I just know that he is the most Irish Irish character that you've ever encountered and this is probably problematic. In fact I'm pretty pretty sure it's problematic. There's a lot of stereotypes around Irish people that's placed on this character. That said he is very funny throughout the serial and he is very memorable.

 So he befriends Jamie and Ben as well as some of the other men and they quickly discover that these men have an Escape Plan. They manage to put this plan into motion because these other men have found a tunnel. They're not sure where it leads but they're just going to go for it and try to get to the surface.

 So Ben and Jamie join in on that effort.

This whole side quest kind of gives me “The Daleks” vibes. So way way back way way back in our first season with Ian and Barbara our first Dalek episode, there's this weird side plot where Ian and Barbara and a bunch of Thals are like making their way through these caves to to get to the back end of the Dalek City. And it never goes anywhere, and it's just… like it's a fun side plot in the fact that like if you're into caving like there's some interesting intense scenes, but it doesn't really tie into the narrative in any meaningful way.

This is very similar. It's another kind of cave plot. It's not as long as the one in “The Daleks,” but it's just a giving Jamie and Ben something to do. It doesn't last that long, as I said, eventually they end up making their way to the room behind and Amdo so they find Polly. They introduce Polly to their new friends including their Irish friend. And Ara comes in and brings food and they're all happy-go-lucky in the area behind Amdo trying to regroup and figure out what to do next so that's kind of that side plot.

The Doctor meanwhile is very eager to alert Atlantis to Zaroff's true intentions. He is initially going to try to meet with the king of Atlantis, the the governor of Atlantis, the guy in charge… but while he's asking Zaroff to help him or sorry Ara to help him get to the king, he overhears one of the priests, Ramo, speak about how little he trusts Zaroff. How Zaroff is a bad man.

 So the Doctor decides he's going to reveal himself first to this priest. He does this, and Ramo agrees to hear him out. The two men meet up in private and the Doctor explains to Ramo what it is that Zaroff intends to do.

I really like this character for a lot of reasons. First off, I think that having one of the priests who is pretty overtly religious be one of our main characters and on the side of good makes the the science versus religion situation in Atlantis slightly more complicated than I think that the the serial wants it to be. But we'll get into that a little later. But I think it adds a little bit of nuance there that this very religious and superstitious character sees through Zaroff, and sees through him partially because of his beliefs. Like he he just perceives… knows on some level that Zaroff is up to no good. As the Doctor puts it, he he instinctively, like by, Instinct understands that Zaroff is a bad character a bad actor.

I also really like that Ramo cottons on very quickly to what's happening. Like the Doctor explains to him Zaroff's plan, gives him a visual demonstration of what's going to happen to the Earth and Ramo is very willing and able to understand that. Like he's not stupid or… you know sometimes there's this tendency in these kind of almost allegorical stories about Superstition and and the the problems around religion to make the adherent stupid. And Ramo is not that. Ramos very smart. He figures out what's going on. He's also very tolerant. He's willing to to talk to the Doctor. He's willing to hear him out even though, like, this man is a wanted man at this point and was a sacrifice.

 So I like all that. And I like the relationship between Ramo and the Doctor, because Ramo agrees to take the Doctor to see our king of Atlantis.

 Unfortunately that doesn't go too well.

 So Ramo and the Doctor try to present the king of Atlantis evidence that Zaroff is going to try to destroy them. And I don't think they really make their case all that great. Though the Doctor does do something very clever here. He points to something that is later going to convince the king as to what's happening. He tells the king to look into Zaroff's eyes when he talks about the project and to see the madness there, to see the obsession there, and he's basically planting the seed of Doubt.

But unfortunately the king won't listen to their more in-depth explanation, and the king, who is very clearly in Zaroff's pocket and essentially just a figurehead at this point… ends up turning them over to Zaroff.

Zaroff understandably feels betrayed by the Doctor because he thought the Doctor understood his his desires… understood his need to be like a god , his pure love for science.

So he turns Ramo and the Doctor over to the priest to be sacrificed to Amdo.

 So we end up back with the Doctor and Ramo in the sacrifice chamber. 

This time they are going to be beheaded! Fortunately the goddess Amdo speaks telling all of the priests to kneel and bow their head so they cannot look at the living representation of Amdo…they should not look upon Amdo as Amdo speaks.

 We know that this is Ben and Polly, that are, you know, putting up a clever ruse here. And that ends up being what's happening. Ben and the others get Ramo and the Doctor out of the way, and the priests believe that this is a miracle that Amdo has eaten the Doctor and Ramo. 

And they run back to inform Zaroff and the king about this. And Zaroff of course believes the Doctor is still very much at large and is now a huge problem given he is now hours away from completing his project and blowing up the Earth. Though the Atlantis don't know that. They think that they're going to be raised from the sea.

At this point our whole team is together. The Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jamie as well as our Irishman, and our other escaped prisoners, and Ara our servant girl, and Ramo the priest…..so all of them are trying to figure out what to do, and the Doctor as per usual is coming up with a plan. 

So what the Doctor’s plan is… well he's not entirely sure what he's doing! But he has some ideas.

First off, he wants to put the fish people Into a Revolt. So the fish people, remember, gather all the food for Atlantis. But they are treated like slaves. They're constantly harvesting all the food for Atlantis, and they are treated as subhuman even though many of them were human at least, you know, at some point. So the Doctor wants to disrupt that food chain supply. He he basically wants the fish people to go on strike.

The reason this would be effective is Zaroff has not discovered a way to preserve the Plankton long enough for it to stay good for more than a few hours, so they can't stockpile food. So if the fish people were to stop working there would be no food and people would go hungry.

Now this seems very complicated. The Atlantians kind of do and don't have a connection to the upper world like they can get up to the upper World, they could get things off the island. Like later they go up, I don't know, there's…

 But the basic idea here is food chain supply we're going to just like stop the food.

The Doctor’s not sure what this is going to do but he thinks it might be useful for them to stop Zaroff’s plan of blowing up the world.

 So our Irish men is sent off to do this. And he very successfully starts a Revolt by first mocking the fish people and then eventually like getting them to see that they basically have complete power over Atlantis not the other way around.

And we have like this interesting scene. So every time the fish people are filmed in this serial it has this very surreal quality. It reminds me a little bit of “The Webbed Planet” and the way in which the directors and the writers framed the the various bugs on that planet and that surreal atmosphere. There's something really similar happening with the fish people.

 They can't speak. They can just kind of make certain noises, and they they have bubbles out of their mouth their designs are very strange. Like most of them have almost like bug eyes and they have scales on their faces to help them with swimming. They…they're humanoid but they're dressed in a way and costumed in a way that make them feel otherworldly, and, and fish-like. So they they do feel like this other race.

How they move through the water kind of has this balletesque-like, interpretive dancing, like there is this….so there's this whole scene where they are passing the word that they're going to go on strike. And it's a good two to five minute scene where we're just like watching these fish people swim through the water and alert each other without any sounds. There's just music in the background and it does create this like weird atmosphere.

 Again, if this were in a better serial there are some really good ideas here. It would it would be interesting to explore the fish people to understand how the system came into place. If maybe this took place over a longer period of time you could see like, this that this food refusal to to supply food becoming a major problem for Atlantis over time rather than having this like whole “they can't stockpile food” thing, you know? 

Like how they feel about being fish people. If we had characters that could interact with the fish people, if if Polly actually had undergone the experiment and was part of this and that was like something we had to figure out and to to confront like…. there were really interesting ideas with this idea of these modified humans who have been cut off from other humans in some way and made into these quote unquote “monsters” in order to fill this economic role for the other people. And and and that… there's like there is something there!

And the way that they're filmed like the interesting otherworldliness of the direction in these parts from Julia Smith where she's clearly as a director sort of interested in creating an atmosphere and and not just with the fish people. There are other scenes which we'll talk about where you can see just how the scenes are framed you could make something of this if it were a  well constructed story….

 So yes, the fish people are basically… long story short… they're in a Revolt! They're going to stop supplying food to the Atlantis. They're just going to get their own food. And it's an interesting scene of silent communication between them as they pass the word across the ocean not to gather anymore food for the Atlantis.

 So that is stage one of the Doctor's plan.

 Stage 2 is they are going to kidnap Professor Zaroff.

They do this pretty successfully and pretty quickly and pretty easily.

So basically the Doctor. Oh my gosh! There are so many weird… the second Doctor is just so into his outfits and his hats and his…

 Again it's a very like, for those of you coming from New Who, Matt Smith reminds me so much of the second Doctor, or I should say yeah Matt Smith reminds me of the second Doctor in the sense that the second Doctor is just like constantly trying on all these hats and these head dresses and such. 

In the scene where he is going to meet the the president of of Atlantis or the king of Atlantis with Ramo, Ramo asks him to put on like the ceremonial Garb of the priest, and he's like, would you mind wearing this? The Doctors like, would I?!!!!! So excited. Just to put on like this crazy thing. It's like, oh how do I look, how do I look? Like he just loves all the clothes!

 And so anyway….

 For Professor Zaroff’s kidnapping scene he's dressed as this like hobo like like this hippie he has these black glasses and this headband and he has like these loose-fitting clothes and he's just sitting in the center of this Atlantean Street playing the recorder and again like…

 Okay, so the scene the Doctor is in the street with Polly who's dressed to the nines in this Atlantis garb as a servant alongside Ara. And these the costumes are gorgeousfor these girls. They have this very… it kind of looks like scales, the the dress, that it’s made of shells, and it's very mermaid-esque. Like it does have that aesthetic.

So the two of them are with the Doctor in the square, and Ben and Jamie and are dressed as like soldiers with the uniform… and they're basically going to just nap Zaroff from the square. It's not a very elaborate plan.

But regardless, again, with the potential of the serial. In this in this scene when they're in the square of Atlantis– it's it's not quite clear where they are? It seems like it's this outside area but they're in a cave. Like maybe it's a big big cave? Like maybe if we saw more got some establishing shots, if we got like a sense of the structure of Atlantis, that would be interesting… 

But there is like this attempt to create this interesting culture here. We have women who are selling rugs, we have musicians, we have kids playing in the streets… There's some interesting costuming. The music in the serial is fantastic throughout; it really creates this very strange atmosphere that feels like you're under the sea but in a dangerous like almost like another planet/ Under the Sea atmosphere. So all these things are there. Like there is this attempt at this really complex different alien culture that that is being hinted at throughout.

And the direction in the serial is also not bad. Again I think that Julia Smith, who I've highlighted a couple times, is actually doing a really good job with the material that she's given the framing of the scene, the sets, and everything…. Like you get a sense of this atmosphere. It's just a lot of the details are blurry and fuggy and it's a little hard to follow. 

So it's not a bad scene, is my point. And I do think again the serial had potential. It could have been really really something interesting with a slightly stronger, more thought-out world-building.

So the Doctor, Polly, and Zaroff are in the Square. Zaroff is hunting them. Eventually they pretend to take the Doctor captive— Ben and Jamie in their soldier's Garb— and instead take Zaroff captive.

So now they have captured Zaroff, and he is behind Amdo in the little cave area there.

 So okay we've captured Zaroff. We've put the fish people on strike. Zaroff tells us the infamous villain speech “I've already set it all the motion there's nothing you can do to stop me!”

And the Doctor immediately calls his bluff because the Doctor gets Zaroff. Not that Zaroff  is a particularly complicated character to get. But he understands that the reasons Zaroff wants to blow up the Earth is for this glory, for this god-like power, or sense of godhood. And Zaroff would never do that if he could not physically be present to push the button, so to speak. Like even if it's going to kill him, he wants to be the one who does the thing that that destroys the world. So he's not going to set this into motion that it can go forward without him.

 The Doctor is correct: without Zaroff the the whole procedure will stop. Like this is not going to go forward. Zaroff ends up admitting this, demands to be let go, and then Zaroff pretends that he is desperately ill and just kind of passes out.

Okay, so there are several frustrating things about how characters are written in this serial. A lot of it is around Polly. Polly is really really useless throughout the serial. But in this instance, I think, every single person in this room— and we got a lot of people at this point! We we got our main team Tardis, there's four of them, we have Ramo the priests, we have Ara, we have all the escaped convicts, our Irishman…..They ALL took stupid pills.

Because it's so obvious that Zaroff is just faking this. Like he's just faking this little fit as if he's been overcome. And he just kind of collapses.

So they decide that they're going to leave Polly and Ramo with him in the room. And they're not going to tie him up. They're not going to like make sure that he is incapacitated in any way. They're just going to leave them there, and they're going to go off and like put into place a plan to to stop Zaroff's plan by going to his laboratory to make sure that it's not going forward just in case the Doctor's wrong.

 So what you would expect to happen immediately happens.

Basically Zaroff comes back to life–well, he’s not dead, but he's pretending to be all injured and sad and and destroyed–and he's just like “Ramo I need to confess my sins…can you help me stand and pray with me?” And you know, Roman is a decent guy, so he's like, okay fine you probably don't deserve it but for the sake of your Immortal Soul or whatever I'll, I'll basically give you confession.

So Ramo gets really close to him, and Zaroff immediately stabs him with a knife that he has in his hand because of course he does. He then proceeds to kidnap Polly, and take her away heading towards his laboratory.

So Ramo comes running out to warn the team about what's going on. They haven't gotten very far. This all happens, like, they kidnap Zaroff, and they don't have him for like 5 minutes before he fit, his little thing, and then he escapes…. It's it's very frustrating, like, it's, it's…. these characters were not being smart!

So Rama comes out. He's bleeding. He tells them what's going on, and then he passes out, and Ramo ends up dying. Which is just so so sad because he's he's a great character and he's he's on this really interesting journey, which we'll talk about a little bit, but you know Ramo’s kind of going through a lot after discovering that the voice of Amdo is just like whoever's standing behind the statue, because there's clearly like this microphone or whatever, a place where you can project your voice, and he he recognizes every time he's heard the goddess like that it was just someone speaking. And so he's in this interesting crisis of faith and in a better-written script I feel like he would be around longer just so that we could fully explore his journey.

But he's dead.

 So he's dead, and Zaroff killed him, and everyone was stupid with the whole Zaroff situation.

Okay, so Zaroff has kidnapped Polly because Polly is absolutely useless in this serial. Like, she is so useless. She's more than useless. Okay, so so when Zaroff gets into his little fight with Ramo and he's going to stab him because he's like he hits him and then he like takes his big pitcher….

Polly is free and she like it's like no no! And she like hits him a few times….

Freaking Polly of “The Highlanders” totes would have figured out a way to save Ramo. That's all I'm saying. Okay? Polly of “The Highlanders” would have found a way to save herself from the whole fish people experiment without having to get rescued. Polly of “The Highlanders” is not going to be all whiny for the rest of the serial about how hard everything is.  Which will get to.

I'm just….. the writers did Polly dirty in this particular episode, in this particular serial.

I'm I'm very frustrated with this, and I don't like it.

So anyway, Zaroff kidnaps Polly and is taking her through the caves. The Doctor sends Jamie after Polly to go save her while he and Ben are going to try to get to the lab because the Doctor's plan now is to flood the laboratory and the temple to let the ocean water in to stop Zaroff.

So basically the laboratory and the temple are on the lowest level of Atlantis so they're just going to flood that and send all the people to Higher Ground. 

This seems overly complicated and dangerous for all of the, you know, people who live in this area. But this is the Doctor's plan. We're going to go with it.

So Ben and the Doctor are going back to the laboratory. Jamie is going after Polly.  He catches up with Zaroff–

There is no way in heck that Ben would not go after Polly. I'm just saying. The Doctor also I feel like getting Polly safe would be concern number one. Zaroff has like. you know, a gun and a knife and all…

But whatever.

So Jamie very quickly manages to get Polly away from Zaroff and Zaroff goes running all the way back to King of Atlantis.

So at this point the fish people Revolt is proving to be very effective. Namely people are deserting right and left from the lower levels. They're panicking there isn't enough food—

This is all happening within hours. Like I get people being concerned about the food supply, but but if the fish Revolt like just started literally you can go a few days without food! I'm just saying like it seems very quick for people to be in full, “we are starving” mode.

 So the king at this point is considering speaking with the fish people to hear their demands and to reach a treaty to like save his people. And we really get the impression this is the first time that the king of Atlantis has had to do anything as a ruler for a very very long time. He initially is asking for Zaroff who is disappeared obviously because he was kidnapped. And he is told like that he's not here, and we see the king finally step up and be like okay I'm going to negotiate with the fish people. I can't let my people starve. I'm going to be the leader that I should be.

 And literally just as the king is making his way into this this role as leader casting off Zaroff, you know, at least mentally as the the person in charge… Zaroff comes running through the doors!

And Zaroff very quickly explains that it's time to make the project go forward. That he intends to, you know, he's going to deal with the fish people. He's going to just send his guards after them and he will kill anyone who resists. 

And the king, who has been looking at Zaroff differently since the Doctor suggested that Zaroff is mad and told him to start looking at his eyes, he finally gets it. He finally realizes Zaroff is not okay. Zaroff is… I'm not going to let him start murdering innocent people just to maintain his power. So the king is like I'm I'm not letting you go forward with your experiments anymore we are going to stop this we're going to sort this we're going to like move forward and and continue on you know as necessary but you need to stop your experiment whatever it is that you're doing to raise Atlantis you shouldn't do it right now.

 And Zaroff responds by taking out his gun and shooting the king. And then having his guards kill the king's guards.

The king actually survives this even though he is very seriously wounded, and he alongside the one of Zaroff's key scientists and Ara are all going to escape from Atlantis by going up through the caves as the flood waters start to come in.

Okay, so that story line is going on. The Doctor and Ben at this point got into the laboratory, by managing to trick some of Zaroff's guards. Ben pretends to be taking the Doctor as a prisoner. There's a really funny interchange where Ben talks about how the Doctor is clearly not normal so of course he's a prisoner, and the Doctor's a little offended by this. But the two of them get past all of the guards to get to the lab.

And at this point the flood waters have started to go up because the Doctor's plan has kind of gone into motion for that, so they’re warning all of the guards to flee like all of Zaroff’s scientists, they all leave.

 And Zaroff immediately like does this weird thing because he’s back to the lab by then and he basically cuts off this room where the button is that he has to press to the blow up the world. So he he has his little button he has to press once the pressure reaches the certain point and at that point he gets to hit the button and he gets to be a God and blow up the world. And he's in this little cage that Ben and the Doctor can't reach him at.

 So the Doctor and Ben basically trick him by turning off the lights, you know that earlier little trick that got Polly out of being the fish person. He has to come out because he can't see the button he has to press, and he can't see the dial that tells him when to press it.

So he has to lift the thing to fix the lights and when he does that the Doctor and Ben manage to close the case around the room with Zaroff on the wrong side.

 So Zaroff is frantically trying to reach the button through this cage that that stops him from getting into the room and he can't reach it and the waters are starting to rise.

 Ben and the Doctor get the heck out of Dodge. They leave. The Doctor wants to go back to save Zaroff because he doesn't want him to drown, but Ben's like, yeah no. We just need to leave.

So Zaroff ends up dying because he refuses to leave his little room and the waters are just rising and rising around him and he's like frantically reaching for the button that will blow up the world and he can't do it and he just… when he realizes that he can't there's a moment where the the dial for the pressure– because it needs to like the dial needs to reach this pressure and that's the point he has to push the button– when the moment passes he just sort of surrenders to the ocean and lets himself drown.

 Because I guess if he can't be a God he just he just needs to die. It's some yeah bit of a sad end for a crazy crazy mad scientist character.

So meanwhile basically every character at this point is desperately trying to get out of the lower levels of Atlantis through the tunnels because the entire city is flooding. So the, as I said the king, Ara, and Damien who's one of Zaroff scientists alongside some other people do manage to get out. They note that the priest Loma refused to leave. He went to pray to Amdo in the temple. And they are trying to keep all the gates open as long as possible to evacuate as many people as possible.

 Again, like, this is not, I feel like there was a way to just like do this without flooding all Atlantis because like lots of people are going to die. The evacuation is not going to to be perfect. So I don't know… I feel like the Doctor’s plan here was not the best. But but from a symbolic perspective, okay Atlantis is being flooded. It it creates a cool climax. 

I think it would have made more sense if this happened due to zaroff's plan. Just like some kind of mistake he made? But whatever!

 Anyway, so our Atlanteans got to Higher Ground and they are mourning the loss of their City.

Meanwhile, Polly and Jamie are frantically getting going up and up and up through the tunnels. And Polly is just sort of falling apart. She's, I can't, I can't go any further, it's too much, I just I can't do it, I can't do it! 

She's just kind of having a complete meltdown. Like reminiscent of early Susan meltdowns. And Polly… Polly has her her moments of like doubt and such but this is this just feels a bit much for Polly, especially at this point in her story. She's much more put together usually than this. But in any case she's having a bit of a meltdown. And while I don't like how Polly’s written, I do really like how Jamie handles this situation.

So Jamie I think as a character is often seen as very very traditionally masculine to the point of parody. He's like this Scottish Warrior and that's going to get him into trouble particularly when he becomes the principal companion going forward. Jamie can have some toxic masculine traits from time to time, but I do think that something that is often ignored about Jamie is that he has moments where he can be extraordinarily gentle. And I think that this is a really good example of that.

 When Jamie is well0written I think he's just a really really interesting character. He's he's very very strong and very traditionally again traditionally masculine, but he has this kind of sensitive side to him and this almost poetic nature from time to time. But there is this gentleness there, and we see… like this moment where Polly is falling apart, and Jamie… If this were Ben… if Ben were with Polly, I feel like he would kind of tease her and make fun of her and get her to laugh or to smile and then the two of them would keep going. But what Jamie does is he just..he, his voice goes really gentle and he's like, you can do this. Like, I will help you. I will help you. Like, let me help you.

 And the amount of emotion that Fraiser Hines who plays Jamie… like gets into his voice in this moment is just deep and impactful. And it's it's a really beautiful and lovely moment. 

Jamie and Polly prior to this don't really have a relationship. They didn't really have any scenes together in “The Highlanders.” And I think this journey up through the flooding caves from Atlantis to the surface is what cements their relationship and their friendship, which is going to continue going forward. The worth of Jamie as as a person… 

Now Ben and Jamie  already kind of had that comradery from “The Highlanders.” The two of them went through that adventure together, and they're playing off each other a lot during their time in the the mines, and during the part of this story where they're together. Like they already have that relationship.

 But I do think that this frantic journey running from the waters cement Ben or sorry cement Jamie and Polly and their dynamic. And there is something very soft and gentle about how both of them treat each other. We're going to see this going forward into the next serial with “The Moonbase.” Like I never get romantic vibes from them at all because Polly and Ben just feel like the couple. But they do have this deep friendship that I think is not often commented upon and you see it in these small little moments

 So while I do not like how Polly is represented in this serial, I do think that the payoff if you will is on Jamie's end. That we get to see Jamie in a very protective role saving her from Zaroff. We get to see him guiding her up through through these caves and being very gentle and supportive and kind about it…

And that's a side of Jamie that I think is sometimes ignored or overlooked, so I wanted to highlight it.

 So our various prisoners led by our Irishman, they're also making their way up through the cave and they're going to successfully get out. Like they all managed to escape and of course the Doctor and Ben are frantically trying to get above the surface.

 So the Atlanteans have this lovely scene where they're contemplating all that was lost and they're thinking about rebuilding the temple, when they decide that they should not rebuild the Temple. And they suggest that the reason they fell for Zaroff and Zaroff’s scheming was because of their rituals and their superstitions and the religion without thought.  And that this Temple should should be buried.

 They believe that the Doctor is now dead, and that the Doctor has saved them from Zaroff's plan. So they believe, in his honor, they're going to try to rebuild Atlantis in such a way that it no longer relies on the fish people and the slave labor that they had created and it's no longer run through the superstitious fear. 

So they're going to try to rebuild a new society of Atlantis from the ruins.

Honestly, that's not a bad place to leave. Like the Atlanteans… again, this… the ending of this serial is better than it has a right to be given the rest of the story!

I think that if the rest of the story had been stronger, I think this ending actually would be really impactful.  Because while we're told many times, for instance, that the superstition of the Atlanteans and their connection to human sacrifice… all these these other like outdated rituals and superstitions… are the reason why they're so susceptible to a leader like Zaroff. We’re TOLD, but we're not really shown that. It's like something that's almost an afterthought in the in the story? And again like obviously there's a problem with how they're treating the fish people and how they're treating their servants but none of that's explored enough for us to fully understand,  I guess, the implications of of the society.

 How much of this is Zaroff? How much of it was a pre-existing problem with Atlantis? We just don't understand enough about how Atlantis works to understand exactly what's wrong with it, if that makes sense.

 So this ending feels really poignant, but it it feels like a denouement to a a story that has not fully been told. And while there is this this great emotional force behind this idea that they believe the Doctor and his companions are all dead and they want to rebuild and to to bring honor back to Atlantis and to to change their ways and all that's good and dandy…. but at the same time we haven't established the problems that were there to begin with. 

So I do think there's… it could be one of the great powerful endings to a Doctor Who serial, but it doesn't quite get there because the rest of the story doesn't provide the meat that was needed to get to this ending. 

So that's kind of where we leave the Atlanteans.

 Both Polly and Jamie end up getting to the surface, and they're both exhausted. They're laying on the beach, and they also believe at this point that the Doctor and Ben are most certainly dead. And the two of them are trying to process this, particularly Polly, obviously is the one who has the stronger connection to the two. But even Jamie seems pretty down-hearted, in the dumps, about the situation, just you know, that they're not quite sure what to do.

Meanwhile, in the caves, the Doctor and Ben, as they're getting up through the water, Ben has this lament. “Well what about Polly, what about Polly?” And the Doctor just sort of looks away and like pats him on the shoulder. And it's very clear that the Doctor and Ben also believe that Polly and presumably Jamie probably didn't make it.

 So this is the first time we've seen this for a little while in Doctor Who where we've had members of the team very convinced that other members of the team are not alive and we actually do feel the weight of that. And, you know, what it would mean for especially for Jamie and Polly, I think, who are just stranded on this beach. They they can't operate the Tardis. They're just kind of stuck in this brand new world and they just lost two people who matter deeply to them.

But for Ben, obviously, like Polly is his his second half, like he's been through all this with her, and the loss of her would be devastating. And, you know, he would blame himself. Like Ben would blame himself forever because he sent Jamie after her instead of going after her himself. 

And it's a good moment, it's, again… if the serial had more time, I think it would probably draw this out a little bit longer, but it does feel really good when our team reunites. When the Doctor and Jamie or sorry the Doctor and Ben stagger out of the cave, and Jamie and Polly run up to greet them and they're all just like we thought you were dead! They're very happy to see each other and then go back to the TARDIS.

Jamie has this great moment where he talks about how like he feels really safe in the Tardis now, that it's everything that's out there like outside the Tardis that's that's actually scary. 

And they go ahead and take off. 

The stinger into “The Moonbase,” which is going to be our next serial, is that Jamie kind of goads the Doctor into trying to land in a place that he he wants to land, like to prove he can control the Tardis, and the Doctor tries to land on Mars, and loses control the Tardis… but they are actually going to be landing on the moon. 

But that ends “The Underwater Menace.” 

Okay, let's talk.

 So, as I've said, and I think should be clear from the discussion throughout this, I think that this is an okay serial that could have been a really great serial. It has a lot of the elements there that would make it great. The the concept of doing Atlantis I think is just innately really interesting. I think that with a little bit more worldbuilding, with a little bit more time to sort out how Atlantis worked, it could have been just a really fascinating cultural place.

 Because the little breadcrumbs we get are actually really good. I think the whole idea of the fish people is different and strange like a Sci-Fi take on mermaids that's really horrific. Like the idea of transforming people into these economic commodities.

The ritualistic aspect of Atlantis coupled with this really advanced science is fascinating… like that's something… we see that in other elements like in other places in sci-fi… but it's always interesting to explore a worldview that seems very rooted in these older traditions with this really really like Advanced technological prowess. Which is Atlantis sort of has that going for it. Where it can do things like give you artificial gills so you can swim in the sea, but it's also practicing these bizarre chanting rituals to a stone goddess that it believes, you know, keeps everyone alive.

And that there's just a really interesting balance there.

 But I do think that in order for us to have really explored the rich cultural landscape some of the plot holes would have had to be filled in. Like we had to have a better sense of how Atlantis worked, why it was cut off from the upper world. Like why didn't people just walk out of the volcano and join the upper world? They're clearly aware that humans live on the surface of the Earth. There isn't a really compelling reason why they have stayed below if they believe that they should rise up, you know. Like, so none of that's really explored. Why they go through all these elaborate things with the fish people? How Zaroff was integrated into the society. Like how much is him and how much is pre-issues had to be sorted.

 Even like the physical location of Atlantis. Like is this a constructed man-made city? Is it a series of caves? Both? Like how does all of the stuff work?

 And it didn't have to be like this in-depth thing, but we need to understand a little bit more in order for these ideas to be fully explored and for this place to feel real.

 Because I do think as a viewer, you are constantly asking, but, but why? We're like, how does that work and it's very distracting.

 And that's a shame because I do think there are some really good ideas and this is a unique and different version of Atlantis.

Likewise, I think that Zaroff had the potential to be a fascinating villain. As is, he's he just feels very over the top, and I think that the thing is the performance is not bad… like he's hamming for the camera, the the actor who's playing Zaroff, Joseph Furst. But he does a good job. I think he could definitely play a slightly more nuanced version of this character. 

I think that it would have been really interesting if we didn't realize that Zaroff was a villain so early in the serial. Like if we were kept in suspense longer. He reveals his cards very quickly to the Doctor, and it would have been fascinating if we kind of were drawn into his magnetism just like the people of Atlantis presumably were. And and then gradually we realize that he actually was a monster. Wanted this like God-like power. I just think that would have been more, like, you, could have pretty much the exact same character, but how we're introduced, how we see him, I think needed to to be a little bit more gradual.

Because this character has potential. Like I said, it he feels very similar in a lot of ways to Davros. Davros has a little bit more depth in the sense that he has an interesting backstory. He's a child of the war. He he's trying to protect against and against these horrors. But ultimately, at the end of the day, Davros wants to be like a god. Like, that is what he wants. He justifies everything he's doing with all these other things, but but at the end of the day, his motivation is actually very similar to Zaroff.

Zaroff just doesn't bother with all the justification like his justification is Science!!! So and and Davros, I think, is a very compelling villain, is a very interesting villain. And Zaroff kind of has that potential. He's very entertaining on screen. Like flat-out, like he every time he's on screen it's fun to watch, but I do think he could have just been really really interesting with just a few minor tweaks with how we're introduced to him…

I think if he… okay here's the thing: so the serial wants to contrast like scientific thinking enlightened thinking, if you will, like the not enlightened but the enlightenment like the Age of Reason, right?, with this more quote unquote primitive religious ritualistic society.

Like that's something the serial wants to do. How much more interesting would it be if we were with Zaroff? If we saw Zaroff as the person who's trying to reform Atlantis, is trying to push them towards this this Age of Reason? This this like he’s trying to overthrow these these priests and these rituals and maybe he kind of goes along with it but he wants to lead them into the surface world and these new things and he's at least presenting himself in that way.

 And then it's revealed that what he ultimately wants is, you know, to be a god and destroy the world.

 I think that would be really interesting and it would make some of the commentary a little bit clearer. Because ultimately what destroys Atlantis, we could say the serial wants to place this on Amdo and the rituals and the people being gullible. But when we actually see on screen is a scientist who is misusing science and his power and his knowledge to do something pretty horrific, to to overstep the realms of what he should be doing. And who doesn't care about ethics or morality in any real and meaningful way.

 So I think the message that the serial is trying to get across is a little unclear because of that.

Now,  you could say that adds nuance: that there are problems with both of these approaches and maybe it's not as cut and dry. But I think that might be giving the serial a little too much credit. Like I don't know if it's fully thought through some of those those ideas and those issues.

But I do think that presenting Zaroff as as the figure for this more enlightened vision of Atlantis would have been really interesting. And and for us to gradually realize… if we had Ramo and like as a character who's denouncing Zaroff saying, “No, this this guy means us ill!” and he ends up being right!

 Like that would have been just… there were there was potential in this character, and how you could have used him, but because his plan is revealed so early it's it's almost immediately shown that he's just kind of off his rocker and he wants to blow up the world, it takes a lot of the power of his character away.

 And it makes the people of Atlantis seem stupider for following him then I think they actually are because like clearly he has this Magnetic Personality and this this ability to convince others that he, you know, can be their savior their leader. And I don't know… I think it would be really interesting if we were more on board with them [the Atlanteans].

 So yeah, I think that all the setup could have worked. This is one of the rare serials where I think it either was trying to do too much or it needed to be longer. Like I know in early early Doctor Who I was consistently saying for the longer serials that you should have cut this down a couple of episodes, but this is one of those where I'm just like I think for everything that this story wanted to do it could have stood being a couple more episodes long to fill out some of the cracks in the story and to round out some of these characters.

 Now, as is, it's kind of a fast-paced adventure. It it's it's still fun. Like there's always things happening. All the characters have things to do except for Polly.

It is good, but it can never be great because it doesn't take time to to fully build its world and to just breathe and explore those characters a bit more, and I think that's unfortunate because there was a lot of potential here.

 So I do think that the second Doctor is fantastic in this. Patrick Troughton is just great this entire first season. It's it's so much fun when you have a regeneration, you get to know a new version of the Doctor, and the second Doctor is just… I really really love the second Doctor. I forgot how much I enjoy watching this character on screen. 

But yeah Patrick Troughton’s having a grand old time. He gets to wear lots of costumes. He gets to be silly. He has a plan, even though the flooding of Atlantic seems like a very bad plan, I don't think that's a “oh the Doctor, Bad Doctor” so much as bad writing. We didn't fully understand like how this all works. But he he's having a grand old time throughout this and I do think that he carries a lot of the story. We're seeing the second Doctor very quickly grow to be very very competent and in control. Like there was kind of this distance particularly in “Power of the Daleks,” his first serial where he you were quite sure what to make of him yet and he felt almost like he was holding his cards too tight to the chest. I do feel like in “The Highlanders” and particularly in this episode we're starting to see the second Doctor fully blossom, and you know he's silly and ridiculous at times, but he's also a strategist, he's very aware of how other people think and how to use that, he doesn't always have a plan but he can kind of make do with what he gets, and he really enjoys every aspect of the adventure.

And yeah, I I think it's a good episode for him. I've already said I think that Jamie has some good moments in this. Again Jamie I don't think really fully comes into his own until Ben and Polly, leave because there's just a lot of characters to be juggling, but I do like his relationship with Ben and I enjoy his relationship with Polly that's starting to develop. We'll get a little bit more of Jamie in “The Moonbase” even though he's he's sick and like Jamie is ill /injured through most of “The Moonbase,” but we do get a lot of interesting character beats with him despite that.

But so yeah, I think I think there are a lot of good ideas in this serial, and there are a lot of good moments. And it is fun to watch. It just kind of it feels like a popcorn serial, where you just kind of you're watching and it's just a little nuts and crazy and ridiculous and there's lots of good ideas and moments in it but it doesn't quite all come together into something spectacular and I think what's frustrating for me, is I do think this one actually could have been a great serial with just a little bit more care put into the script and into the world building. And that's always kind of a shame.

So for now, I’ll close my thoughts on “The Underwater Menace.” We may return briefly to this one when we get to Doctor Who's other Atlantis serial during the third Doctor's era that is “The Time Monster. “The Time Monster” might be the most objectively ridiculous serials that Doctor Who's ever done, and I love it so much, I can't even possibly express to you how much I love that serial it's it's my kind of ridiculous, and I'm very excited to talk about that sometime in the future. But we may return to this one just for continuity sake… the Atlantis seems very very different, but you know, we'll talk about that.

 Next time, we are going to be looking at “The Moonbase.” So while “The Moonbase” is partially missing, it has been animated by the BBC so you can watch this one in its entirety.

It is a very very cool atmospheric serial with a very well-regarded villain that creeps around in the shadows for a while, so I won’t give it away, but it's it's great I really enjoy “The Moonbase” quite a bit, and I'm excited to talk about it next time.

 So y'all should go and watch some classic Doctor Who. If you're interested in “The Underwater Menace,” you can check it out! I I think again it's it's a lot of fun to watch it's a quick watch. It's not difficult to watch by any means and while there are problems with it it is it's a fun popcorn flick. You get yourself some popcorn don't don't think about it too hard, you know, and certainly go and watch “The Moonbase,” which we'll talk about next time. 

Thank you all so very much for listening this has been Through the Vortex, a companion to Doctor Who.