The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Underwater Menace
The Underwater Menace - Part One (14/01/07)
Another Story, another terrible German accent. Really don't know what to make of this so far. It's okay, but the guards and the priests are reminiscent of 1930s Flash Gordon serials and Professor Zaroff is hammier than a pork factory.
It started quite well with Jamie getting a bit of an introduction after the surprise inclusion of him in the TARDIS last week. Their exploration of the volcanic island was good and quite refreshing, as was their capture. The Doctor is an improvement on the last story, seeming to settle into the role and actually giving us an idea of what he's like now - willing to play the fool, but underneath that quite smart (his deduction that Zaroff was on Atlantis - oh, it's set on a sunken Atlantis, by the way - was very well written and played. Polly also had some good lines and scenes, particularly where she deduced the date.
The awkwardness of the last story has gone, and this seems to be much lighter, albeit with mad scientists and psychotic surgeons. The Doctor conning Zaroff to rescue his companions was entertaining, but I'm not entirely sure where the plot's going. Zaroff says he's going to help raise Atlantis out of the sea, but considering the Doctor knows him as a nutritional scientist who extrapolated food from plankton, you're left wondering how. Also, he's obviously a bit of a nutter - the accent says it all. Oh, and evil surgeon Damon is going to turn Polly into a fish. One of the weirder stories, then.
The Underwater Menace - Part Two (21/01/07)
Only episode two and the plot has begun to crawl. Oh dear. Polly was rescued by Ara, a serving girl; Ben and Jamie were taken to the mines where they teamed up with Jacko and Sean - two more prisoners. They then escaped and spent some time walking through tunnels.
Meanwhile, the Doctor has teamed up with a priest called Ramo who hates the clearly bonkers Zaroff, and both have tried to persuade King Thous that Zaroff's plan (to drain the ocean into the Earth's core and thus blow the planet apart) is clearly bonkers. Ben, Jamie et al. have met up with Polly and hidden behind an idol in the temple, but Thous has handed the Doctor and Ramo over to Zaroff.
I think this i the first time the Doctor has encountered an enemy who is completely barmy. The story itself is okay; a fun, if slightly bland runaround with clear villains, but both Zaroff's plan and accent are so ridiculous it's hard to decide what to think. It could be a comedy, but there's not a lot of humour. It could be a fast paced drama, but it's too slow and undramatic. It could be a sci-fi adventure, but the science is even more shaky than in some of the first season's stories (I'm thinking of that awful Marinus story). It's quite childish, but still quite brutal - such as Damon (of the dodgy eyebrows) and his hypodermic needle. Not as heavy as The Highlanders, but not as intelligent, either. And I really can't see where this is going!
The Underwater Menace - Part Three (28/01/07)
"NUSSINK IN ZE VORLD CAN STOP ME NOW!!!"
Dear oh dear oh dear. This episode plumbed the depths of silliness and bad acting. The plot has gone out of the window, Polly has degenerated from a smart, feisty girl in parts one and two into a gullible screamer. There was a two minute segment which consisted of awful music and 'arty' wire-work showing Fish People floating around 'underwater'. Fat, camp priest Lolem overacted almost as much as Zaroff. The Script seemed crammed with awful, cliche lines about 'auras of goodness' and 'other fish to fry'. The scene in the market was so badly recorded half of Polly and the Doctor's lines were inaudible. Zaroff fired a gun that had no kick-back and a shot that sounded like it was in another room, and almost everyone's delivery was absolutely terrible.
You could almost see the cast thinking "Oh my god, are we still filming this story? Er, what's it about again?". The one redeeming point was the grotesque way the spear juddered after Zaroff had plunged it off-screen into Ramo's chest. As I said last week, a bit of an odd one. It could be quite good, given half a brain, but that seems to be the problem. Geoffrey Orme doesn't seem to have thought it through. This has to be the least convincing episode of the least convincing story so far in the series.
And just as I thought I was starting to get used to the new Doctor he starts dressing up again and obsessing about hats! I can hardly believe this is the same series that, one year ago, had the original Doctor battling the Daleks and Sara Kingdom ageing to death. This story is making Terry Nation look like a genius!
The Underwater Menace - Part Four (04/02/07)
This week had the feel of a Bond film or The Poseidon Adventure. However, after the Doctor and Ben found Thous, it seemed to be simply a series of scenes of people walking along corridors and trying to get away from the rising water. Nevertheless, it was better than last week.
There were actually some very good lines for the Doctor and Ben where Ben called the Doctor a berk and said he wasn't normal. I think that's the closest to swearing there's been in the series! You actually did feel for the Atlanteans as the lower levels were drowned and there was even a line stating that fat, camp priest Lolem had headed to the temple to be saved by the Goddess Amdo and had drowned. I suppose the pace of the episode was good, adding to and building on the slow, unstoppable rise of the water, but this also meant that the episode was somewhat dull.
It's not even like there was a mad rush or any tension, either, with Polly and Jamie walking out of the caves and back to the TARDIS and good 5-10 minutes before the closing credits! I have to note that this has been the most changeable story of the series entire run - the plotting, Direction, atmosphere and quality were all over the place! There seemed to be no continuity or direction which is a shame because the central idea was okay - it just needed redrafting a few more times.
On the note of the Doctor, I'm starting to like him more, especially the bit where he was going to go back and save Zaroff but was stopped by Ben. Jamie, however, does still seem to be a little superfluous. Still, early days. And at least the next story can't be any worse!
Another Story, another terrible German accent. Really don't know what to make of this so far. It's okay, but the guards and the priests are reminiscent of 1930s Flash Gordon serials and Professor Zaroff is hammier than a pork factory.
It started quite well with Jamie getting a bit of an introduction after the surprise inclusion of him in the TARDIS last week. Their exploration of the volcanic island was good and quite refreshing, as was their capture. The Doctor is an improvement on the last story, seeming to settle into the role and actually giving us an idea of what he's like now - willing to play the fool, but underneath that quite smart (his deduction that Zaroff was on Atlantis - oh, it's set on a sunken Atlantis, by the way - was very well written and played. Polly also had some good lines and scenes, particularly where she deduced the date.
The awkwardness of the last story has gone, and this seems to be much lighter, albeit with mad scientists and psychotic surgeons. The Doctor conning Zaroff to rescue his companions was entertaining, but I'm not entirely sure where the plot's going. Zaroff says he's going to help raise Atlantis out of the sea, but considering the Doctor knows him as a nutritional scientist who extrapolated food from plankton, you're left wondering how. Also, he's obviously a bit of a nutter - the accent says it all. Oh, and evil surgeon Damon is going to turn Polly into a fish. One of the weirder stories, then.
The Underwater Menace - Part Two (21/01/07)
Only episode two and the plot has begun to crawl. Oh dear. Polly was rescued by Ara, a serving girl; Ben and Jamie were taken to the mines where they teamed up with Jacko and Sean - two more prisoners. They then escaped and spent some time walking through tunnels.
Meanwhile, the Doctor has teamed up with a priest called Ramo who hates the clearly bonkers Zaroff, and both have tried to persuade King Thous that Zaroff's plan (to drain the ocean into the Earth's core and thus blow the planet apart) is clearly bonkers. Ben, Jamie et al. have met up with Polly and hidden behind an idol in the temple, but Thous has handed the Doctor and Ramo over to Zaroff.
I think this i the first time the Doctor has encountered an enemy who is completely barmy. The story itself is okay; a fun, if slightly bland runaround with clear villains, but both Zaroff's plan and accent are so ridiculous it's hard to decide what to think. It could be a comedy, but there's not a lot of humour. It could be a fast paced drama, but it's too slow and undramatic. It could be a sci-fi adventure, but the science is even more shaky than in some of the first season's stories (I'm thinking of that awful Marinus story). It's quite childish, but still quite brutal - such as Damon (of the dodgy eyebrows) and his hypodermic needle. Not as heavy as The Highlanders, but not as intelligent, either. And I really can't see where this is going!
The Underwater Menace - Part Three (28/01/07)
"NUSSINK IN ZE VORLD CAN STOP ME NOW!!!"
Dear oh dear oh dear. This episode plumbed the depths of silliness and bad acting. The plot has gone out of the window, Polly has degenerated from a smart, feisty girl in parts one and two into a gullible screamer. There was a two minute segment which consisted of awful music and 'arty' wire-work showing Fish People floating around 'underwater'. Fat, camp priest Lolem overacted almost as much as Zaroff. The Script seemed crammed with awful, cliche lines about 'auras of goodness' and 'other fish to fry'. The scene in the market was so badly recorded half of Polly and the Doctor's lines were inaudible. Zaroff fired a gun that had no kick-back and a shot that sounded like it was in another room, and almost everyone's delivery was absolutely terrible.
You could almost see the cast thinking "Oh my god, are we still filming this story? Er, what's it about again?". The one redeeming point was the grotesque way the spear juddered after Zaroff had plunged it off-screen into Ramo's chest. As I said last week, a bit of an odd one. It could be quite good, given half a brain, but that seems to be the problem. Geoffrey Orme doesn't seem to have thought it through. This has to be the least convincing episode of the least convincing story so far in the series.
And just as I thought I was starting to get used to the new Doctor he starts dressing up again and obsessing about hats! I can hardly believe this is the same series that, one year ago, had the original Doctor battling the Daleks and Sara Kingdom ageing to death. This story is making Terry Nation look like a genius!
The Underwater Menace - Part Four (04/02/07)
This week had the feel of a Bond film or The Poseidon Adventure. However, after the Doctor and Ben found Thous, it seemed to be simply a series of scenes of people walking along corridors and trying to get away from the rising water. Nevertheless, it was better than last week.
There were actually some very good lines for the Doctor and Ben where Ben called the Doctor a berk and said he wasn't normal. I think that's the closest to swearing there's been in the series! You actually did feel for the Atlanteans as the lower levels were drowned and there was even a line stating that fat, camp priest Lolem had headed to the temple to be saved by the Goddess Amdo and had drowned. I suppose the pace of the episode was good, adding to and building on the slow, unstoppable rise of the water, but this also meant that the episode was somewhat dull.
It's not even like there was a mad rush or any tension, either, with Polly and Jamie walking out of the caves and back to the TARDIS and good 5-10 minutes before the closing credits! I have to note that this has been the most changeable story of the series entire run - the plotting, Direction, atmosphere and quality were all over the place! There seemed to be no continuity or direction which is a shame because the central idea was okay - it just needed redrafting a few more times.
On the note of the Doctor, I'm starting to like him more, especially the bit where he was going to go back and save Zaroff but was stopped by Ben. Jamie, however, does still seem to be a little superfluous. Still, early days. And at least the next story can't be any worse!
As one of the series' more experimental (bonkers) stories it *is* arguably the least successful, but I've always felt it's at least slightly better than its reputation suggests. Joseph Furst, while clearly overegging the pudding 99% of the time, still shows flashes of steel that hint at him not being total ham, and as you say this is the first indication of the Second Doctor crystallising as a character. It's also the first example of the Patrick Troughton era's love affair with multinational, multi-accent casts of characters.
ReplyDeleteI do agree, however, that it's a terrible story for Polly - and sadly it doesn't really improve much hereafter.