Power of the Daleks is easily one of the better Dalek stories, both in terms of plot and characterization. I recently listened to the BBC audio with Anneke Wills providing narration where needed to cover the missing visuals. I’ve also read the novelization and seen the existing clips from the story, along with the telesnaps. All of it falls somewhat short of actually watching the story, which is sadly impossible, but regardless I found that Power easily held my attention over the entire six episodes. This has to be attributed in large part to the variety of plot threads present in the story. A lot is happening, leaving little need for story padding. There are the Daleks of course, who spend the majority of the story biding their time until they can get the power they need. There is the political unrest in the colony and the power struggle between security chief Bragen and deputy governor Quinn. There is Lesterson, the scientist determined to unlock the secret of the Daleks and put them to work for the colony. And there is the newly regenerated Doctor.

It would be interesting to see this story without being as comfortable with the idea of regeneration as I am after seeing most of the series. As it is, it’s not difficult at all for me as the listener to accept the new Doctor right away. Had I been watching in 1966 I might have felt differently. The dialogue given to Ben and Polly in episode 1 is very good, since it has to mirror the reactions from the audience. Polly is ready to accept the new man as the Doctor while Ben is determined not to believe that it’s possible. The closest I can come to understanding the feeling of the contemporary audience is perhaps experiencing the switch in actors playing James Bond. I really like Pierce Brosnan in the role, and I’m not eager to see someone else play it, but the new actor will probably do well and I’ll end up enjoying his performance. I imagine that there was a similar reaction to Doctor Who’s change of lead actor at the time. It’s a credit to all involved in the show that the switch from Hartnell to Troughton was successfully executed. 

Ben and Polly both get strong roles, even though both are missing for an episode. Ben is the voice of disbelief for the first two episodes. He’s very strong in his denunciation of the "impostor", but once he’s convinced of the Doctor’s identity, he’s as loyal to him as he was to his previous incarnation, even attempting to draw off the rebels at one point so that the Doctor can remain free. Polly accepts the Doctor’s change far more easily than Ben, and shows here, as in The Faceless Ones a strong sense of moral indignation and disdain for the violent and self-serving actions of the rebels.

Troughton plays the Doctor far differently in this story than he does later on in his mostly intact third year. One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about his performance is the utter conviction he brings to the role, and that is very evident in Power. You can really believe that the Doctor hates and fears the Daleks, and considers them to be a major threat. When it comes to other topics he’s evasive, often dodging questions about himself or his actions, even from Ben and Polly. He is single-minded in his purpose of thwarting the Daleks, even to the point of ignoring the politics of the colony. Some scenes of note in this regard are his warning to the Dalek at the start of episode 3 (ТI will stop you. I will!") and his solution at the end of the story, where he is not content simply to cut the power to the Dalek capsule, but instead overloads it and destroys them. "I prefer to do things my way" he says at the time. He also adopts some of his eccentricities, such as his recorder, five hundred year diary and very tall hat, which thankfully seems to have been lost rather early on in his tenure. I liked his very loud checked trousers though, and it’s a shame they toned those down.

The Daleks are at their best here. This story showcases their arrogance and xenophobia better than almost any other, as well as their almost joyful exuberance at the thought of exterminating the humans in the colony. They are hardly emotionless, and can barely conceal their real feelings, slipping up several times. "Daleks are bett... different than humans" being one example. Another occurs when the three Daleks join in a chorus in front of Lesterson saying "We will get our power!" over and over again. They also look forward to the coming exterminations at the end of part five when the Daleks sit around in a group and chant "Daleks conquer and destroy!" over and over again. One of the few clips we have from part two shows the Dalek chanting, "I am your servant" over the Doctor’s insistence that they be destroyed. There is slyness in the Dalek’s voice in several other places in the story that would not readily be apparent if the visuals were there to distract the viewer.

The other subplots keep the action moving along well. The rebels are, for once, not rebelling against an oppressive regime, but are themselves simply hungry for power. They want to use the Daleks to their advantage. The scientist Lesterson also wants to use them, though for more benevolent reasons. The main flaw in the story is that no one realizes for the longest time just what a danger the Daleks are. You could argue that each side is so caught up in their own agenda that they are blinded to the danger, and this is reasonable enough to make the story work until the light starts to dawn. Lesterson in particular undergoes a role reversal when he finds out for himself just what is going on and is pretty much driven mad with fear. As an aside, since no one knows what Daleks are, I have to assume this story takes place before Dalek Invasion of Earth in 2164, though the date of 2020 mentioned in the trailer seems unlikely. The Dalek Invasion trailer gets the date of that story wrong, so it’s easy to assume this one does too. Perhaps the Daleks learn of humanity in this time period and this leads to the invasion of Earth.

Mention has to be made of Anneke Wills’ narration, which is uniformly good throughout the story. I greatly enjoy Fraser Hines’ narration on the other audios, and he does an excellent job. However, it’s refreshing to hear Anneke for a change of pace, and she does have a lovely speaking voice. Power of the Daleks is unique among the Troughton stories in that it doesn’t feature Jamie and so she’s certainly appropriate here, but I hope that this is not her only narration job for the Troughton audios. 

In my opinion, this is a better story than Evil of the Daleks, even though both are stories that put the Daleks in their best light. Power of the Daleks stands out strong even in a season that featured both the debut and return of the Cybermen, the first regeneration and another excellent Dalek tale in Evil. I’d highly recommend this story. Get the audio, download the telesnaps from the BBC website, and enjoy a lost classic.

Doctor Who’s final historical story, ‘The Highlanders’ is in much the same vein as ‘The Smugglers’. Like ‘The Smugglers’ it is populated by well-drawn supporting characters and is draws more on romantic fiction than specific historical events. Also as with ‘The Smugglers’, it is neither serious historical drama like ‘The Crusade’ or ‘The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve’, but nor is it a out-and-out comedy like ‘The Romans’ or ‘The Gunfighters’. Overall however, it is wittier than ‘The Smugglers’, thanks largely to Troughton. 

If the Doctor clowned round during the first two episodes of ‘The Power of the Daleks’, here he goes on step further. Near the beginning of episode one, he cowers from a cannonball, and later in the episode he is nearly hanged, but after this he gives an impression of being in complete control of his situation. From the moment he meets Solicitor Grey, he cheerfully sets about extricating himself and his companions from their predicament, and is clearly enjoying himself all the way. In ‘The Power of the Daleks’ he was frequently tense thanks to the urgency of the threat presented by the Daleks. Here, he clearly realises that he is smarter than his enemies, and runs rings around them, enjoying himself enormously in the process. He adopts disguises, including the outrageously accented “Doctor von Wer” (oh, very funny), a washerwoman and a Redcoat, and does so with relish. His over-the-top performance as the German doctor is very entertaining, my favourite scene being the one in which he repeatedly bangs Perkins’ head on the desk and then asks him if he has a headache. His ludicrous washerwoman voice is very Monty Python, and the scene in episode four where an escaped and exhausted Ben climbs out of the sea and bumps straight into a Redcoat who turns out to be, by coincidence, the Doctor, is almost farcical, but Troughton plays it with such panache that it works. His eventual defeat of the arrogant Solicitor Grey first by baiting him with the Prince’s seal and then by picking his pocket resulting in his arrest is delightful. His first meeting with Jamie and the Laird, when he treats Colin’s wounds and orders Ben to surrender the pistol, is a very typical Doctor moment; Alexander has just threatened him, but he’s always prepared to help those in need. 

Ben and Polly get arguably their best roles here since ‘The War Machines’. Despite his English accent, the ever-likeable Ben soon manages to earn the trust of the Highlanders and takes the initiative on board the Annabelle, an action that gets him keelhauled. By utilizing an old Harry Houdini trick, he then escapes, demonstrating once more his considerable resourcefulness. Polly meanwhile gets perhaps her finest hour in the series so far, as she puts the pompous and cowardly Algernon ffinch at her mercy and forces him to help her and Kirsty out on several occasions. She clearly makes quite an impact on him, since when he finally gets the chance to get revenge for being manipulated, he instead arrests the scheming Solicitor Grey and gallantly bids Polly farewell. 

The guest cast is uniformly excellent, with the arguable exception of Dallas Cavell as Trask; for the most part, his OTT performance is rather entertaining, but there are occasions when his ridiculous cries of “ye scurvy swaaaabs!” grate somewhat. Then again, this is more the fault of the script than Cavell. David Garth as Solicitor Grey makes an interesting villain, motivated purely by money rather than power as such. It’s an understated performance and rather fine, helped along by Sydney Arnold’s rather comic Perkins, Grey’s foil for most of the story until he rebels at the end and joins the Highlanders purely to save his own skin. Of the Highlanders, Hannah Gordon’s Kirsty and Donald Bisset’s Laird are both decent characters. Kirsty provides a nice contrast to the increasingly doughty Polly, as she struggles to live up to her far more confident friend’s expectations whilst helping to save her father and the others. Frazer Hines as Jamie doesn’t actually get much to do here, but he’s immediately likeable and plays the role with ease. His last minute joining of the TARDIS crew is not signposted in the story, and might have been quite a surprise on first broadcast, since this current TARDIS crew was hardly crying out for a new member (a problem that is evident in the next two stories…), but at least he has promise. 

Overall then, ‘The Highlanders’ ends Doctor Who’s tradition of historical stories on a merry high and sees Troughton cement an already assured performance.

The most surprising thing about The Underwater Menace is its appalling reputation. This is hardly one of the worst Doctor Who stories ever, its not even the worst story of season four (that belongs to the horribly dull The Faceless Ones) and taken as a whole (I listened to the audio of episodes one, two and four with Anekke Wills excellent narration with the aid of telesnaps from DWM and of course I watched the infamous episode three on DVD) it is actually a great deal of fun. Of course it is impossible to take the thing seriously for a million and one reasons but it has some effective moments and the story flows along nicely and (surprisingly considering how cheap this story is known for) there are some lovely visuals too. I kid you not. I put of listening to this BBC audio for quite some time and only surrendered when I was so bored one day there was no other options. 

Most terrifying of all is Joseph Furst’s stratospheric performance as the evil and misguided Professor Zarroff. Isn’t he great? Finally a villain who is bad because he just totally around the twist, a Master before his time and just like the Doctor’s arch fiend his motives are just as crazy. He wants to destroy the entire world (and Atlantis)…just because! Why not? It would make him the most amazing scientist in the world to achieve such a feat…although he doesn’t seem to realise he himself will be destroyed along with everyone else because he…is on the Earth himself! Furst plays the part as OTT as it is possible to get, screaming like a loony, brandishing guns in as camp a fashion as possible and laughing like a totally loon even when he is real trouble. His eventual fate is a shame, drowning along with Atlantis as this denies us a re-match with this most memorable of baddies. A mad scientist with a big bad octopus as a pet who wants to blow up the entire world for a laugh…what a guy!

Setting a story in Atlantis is always a dubious idea but they manage to pull it off with a reasonable amount of style, certainly with more effort than the Doctor’s next visit to the esteemed lost city, The Time Monster. I quite like the sets overall even if they are a bit cramped in places. Especially good are the fish people tank which helps to convince this is underwater (whilst they do their crazy underwater ballet you can actually see water bubbles floating towards the surface) and the temple of Amdo, which is full of echo-ey and full of shadows and pretty creepy. Even the market place with its stalls, springs and a host of extras is pretty good. 

Most distracting of all is the horrific incidental music, which accompanies the story. It sounds like it has been performed by some mad drunk Australian on a kazoo! It is really distracting in places plink, plink, plonking its way through the marketplace and the fish person dance…you can squeeze your buttocks together and let rip some delicious farts that sound just like it! Hardly good for building up the atmosphere, the music I fear does contribute to this stories silly reputation. 

The regulars however all come across very well, including Patrick Troughton who is still clearly finding his feet at this stage. It would be in the next two stories, The Moonbase and The Macra Terror where you would see Troughton finally settle and become the dangerous little imp he would always be known as but there are strong signs of that here too, its just the script doesn’t let him play to all his strengths. He gets to fight the system as always but he is still a little muted, still dressing up in silly costumes (I’m glad this was dropped…although his old woman gypsy persona is probably his best yet!) and still holding back from really letting rip on the bad guys. Still his scenes with Zarroff are a delight, pampering to the nutters ego and then trying to foil his schemes however possible. I love his attempts to go back and save Zarroff at the end, that feels very right and his boasting at the end that of course he can control the TARDIS before to spirals madly out of control is classic Troughton clowning. 

In a story packed with companions somebody has to be left out and this time it is Jaime, who was never supposed to be included anyway and was added to the script at a late stage. Who cares, he looks damn hot in divers gear so I’ll forgive him anything. Polly finally succumbs to the helpless screamer state the 60’s demand of its female companions (she has been surprisingly resistant until this point) and wails and moans as scientists surround her attempt to turn her into a fish person. I love it when she dresses up later and gets in on all the fun of chasing around and getting tricked by Zarroff, it is proof of how good the combination of her and Ben was before they were abruptly written out. As for Ben, what can one say. What a babe. If there was ever a TARDIS crew I would like to dive into naked…oh sorry, distracted for a second. Ben is cool, a mouthy cockney years before Rose, a muscle brain who is fiercely loyal…there really isn’t much to not like about Ben. Michael Craze seems to be aware of how absurd the script is but still gives 100% and gets a fab moment when he pretends to be the false God Amdo. He dresses up too, so they are all in the fancy dress mood in this one! 

Most of the other guest performances are pretty subdued but then any acting would seem mil mannered next to Fursts! You get a nice turn from Noel Johnson, Tom Watson and Catherine Howe as Leader, High Priest and Slave…all trying their hardest to salvage some dignity from the absurd script and lend some believability to Atlantis. They don’t really succeed but all praise for their efforts. 

Did director Julia Smith (creator of Eastenders and this…ooh she’s got a lot to answer for!) fall asleep during the production and let her actors just carry on? There are a number of hilariously bad sequences that never fail to make me chuckle! What about when Zarroff pretends to be dying and asks is he can be helped up by his captor Ramo so he can ‘feel the goodness of his aura!’ and then he subsequently spears him to death! Or Zarroff’s mad laughing through the caves as he drags Polly along to be his hostage? Or best of all…his “You are a fool! You are a fool!” mad man speech at the end of episode three climaxing with (well it had to get mentioned sooner or later) “Nothing in the world can stop me now!” In fact all the rubbishy scenes involve Zarroff in one way or another but considering he is so damn likeable because of it I cannot bring upon me to condemn the story. 

And the script? Who on Earth would write a story containing Atlantis, an Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman, a cross dressing Doctor, Fish People, a mad sacrificing cult and big camp scheme to blow up the world? What was Geoffrey Orme on and can I have some please? 

Ridiculously fun throughout and played mostly tongue in cheek so you don’t die of embarrassment whilst watching/listening, The Underwater Menace is a pretty silly story in a time when Doctor Who was consistently good. Saying that, its never boring and has some scenes in it that you will never forget the rest of your life. Just don’t go into it expecting a masterpiece of drama and you may just have a lot of fun with it.

You’ve got to feel a little sorry for ‘The Underwater Menace’. Here is a story that is never quite hated, but then again it is never really respected. It’s a story that is treated with acceptance rather than anything else: “It’s there, it was made, now deal with it!” Why is it then that I happen to rather enjoy it? Also, why is it that my enjoyment of it is marred by a sense of ‘I know I shouldn’t like you, but I cannot help it…’; why is this a guilty pleasure?

Perhaps it’s the fact that it is shameless in its stupidity, that for the most part it’s never trying to be anything other than fun (only the occasional educational fact popped in changes this), or maybe it’s because I have a secret love for B-movies: this is just that- ‘Doctor Who’ does B-movie.

Taking even a brief look at the plot is surely enough to confirm this. Under the sea in the world of Atlantis, genetically engineered Fish People go about their every day business. Despite being surrounded by salt, food cannot be preserved (silly, I know, but there you have it) and so things are on the unhappy side of things. But all is not lost- the world renowned Professor Zaroff has vowed to raise Atlantis from the seabed onto the surface… but is that really his plan, or does he simply wish to cause a massive explosion that will destroy the planet, thus earning him fame for life? Well, obviously the latter. Thank goodness the Doctor and his merry crew are at hand to save them all, with the help of some Zaroff-hating people and a hefty dose of common sense that seems to have avoided the good people of Atlantis. Throw in a false goddess (Amdo), a fish revolution and the Doctor dressing up as a Sailor (apparently- looks more like a sixties’ groovy Gypsy to me) and there you have ‘The Underwater Menace’ in all its glory.

It’s daft, but at least it’s fun and daft.

As mentioned above, the moments that briefly halt it from being totally silly are when they attempt to inject educational moments into the story. We get a short piece on Robert Burns in Episode 1 and a brief Science Lesson in Episode 2, both of which jar a little with the rest of the story, though the latter is needed to convince people that Zaroff is as ‘mad as a hatter’.

One of the things that makes ‘The Underwater Menace’ as strangely enjoyable as I find it to be is its dialogue. There are so many memorable lines throughout the story, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous:

“I could feed you to my pet Octopus!”

“May the wrath of Amdo engulf you!” / ”I’ll take my chance!”

“Look at him- he ain’t normal is he?”

and then, of course, we have the famous ending to Episode 3: “Nothing in the world can sop me now!”

It’s a line so good, we get it delivered in a different way at the start of Episode 4, but nothing quite matches the insanity of the first time.

Amongst all the madness too, there are some truly nice moments, especially in Episode 3, which at the time of writing is the only one to exist in the BBC archives. A throwaway line concerning the madness in Zaroff’s eyes in Episode 2 is carried on over briefly into Episode 3; there is a nice part where the Doctor, Ben and Jamie pop up from behind a stone, each wearing a Fish Mask to disguise themselves; the Market scene in this Episode also looks great. Considering how poor crowd scenes can sometimes look in ‘Doctor Who’ stories owing to budgetary restraints, poor Directing and lacklustre set design, the Market looks brilliant. Julia Smith brings the Market place to life with lots of talking, animated citizens and a general feeling of claustrophobic busyness. Another visually stunning part of Episode 3 is the sequence with the Fish People swimming to tell one another about a forthcoming rebellion. Again, Smith uses Jack Robinson’s excellent set design to full advantage, making these moments really impressive. There are two things, however, that let this part down: firstly, it is simply too long, which is party forgivable due to how nice it looks but despite this is still a problem; secondly, the Fish People themselves vary in quality. Those in full Fish-garb look brilliant, but they are sadly overshadowed by the fact that several of the actors are blatantly just wearing goggles and some plastic ‘gills’.

There are some other disappointing moments; Zaroff’s escape in Episode 3 for example makes the TARDIS crew look very foolish indeed, especially Polly, fooling as they do for the age old ‘pretend-you’re-ill-and-collapse’ trick. Also, in Episode 3, I’m amazed that the Doctor and Ramo were able to flee the sacrifice, considering how noisy they are when making their escape. Episode 2 suffers from the overlong and rather dull sequences in the mine, with the only value to the overall story being the introduction of Sean and Jacko, two supporting characters that are rather fun but not as likeable as either Ramo or Ara. The worst Episode of them all is the final one; Episode 4 is very slow compared to the rest of the story and also quite dark. The death of Zaroff by drowning is visually impressive but rather at odds with everything else seen in the story; also, the ending is surprisingly dull, with the TARDIS crew leaving without any real farewells to the rest of the cast. In short, it comes across as a bit rushed and boring.

The acting on the whole is good here; the regular cast play everything well. Patrick Troughton is never anything less than great and he plays the Doctor here with a real sense of fun; Michael Craze and Anneke Wills also impress, sustaining the thus far enjoyable pairing of Ben and Polly. Frazer Hines as Jamie is also great; when considering how this is only his second story in the part, it is impressive to see just how comfortable Hines is in the role; there is no sense of him finding his feet or seeming decidedly new. Instead, he comes across as if he has been doing the part for a far longer time than he had been- a sign, if nothing else, of him being a really good actor.

The supporting cast are also quite strong; as Ara and Ramo respectively, Catherine Howe and Tom Watson give their roles everything they’ve got. As Thous, Noel Johnson is also good, as is Peter Stephens as Lolem, though I couldn’t watch him or listen to him without thinking of his performance as Cyril in ‘The Celestial Toymaker’.

However, all of these actors are overshadowed- and rightly so- by Joseph Furst as Professor Zaroff. Taking the script at face value, Furst invests a remarkably large amount of energy into the role, playing it totally over-the-top and exactly as it should be played. He takes the stereotypical Mad Scientist role and plays it with all the eccentricities and craziness that it warrants. He is, easily, the highlight of the story, and it is a pity that he never returned to ‘Doctor Who’.

‘The Underwater Menace’ is not as bad as everyone makes out. Sure, it’s very, very silly indeed and is certainly a little lacking in parts- the ending is out of place compared to the rest of the story for example- but it is on the whole a fun affair. Zaroff is a great creation, and Furst plays the role superbly; everyone seems to having a lot of fun and Julia Smith’s Directing is excellent. Geoffrey Orme’s script is not going to win any awards, but it fulfils the fun-but-flawed category amply.

So daft it encourages you to laugh along with it, and so B-moiveesque that Ed Wood could have written it, ‘The Underwater Menace’ isn’t bad at all. It’s just a bit silly.

‘The Underwater Menace’ is an absurdity. The Discontinuity Guide describes it as Doctor Who’s equivalent of Plan 9 From Outer Space, but fails to note that Plan 9 From Outer Space is a much loved turkey with a cult following, whereas ‘The Underwater Menace’ is a story rarely mentioned and discussed with stunned disbelief on those rare occasions.

The plot of ‘The Underwater Menace’ is ludicrous. Professor Zaroff wants to destroy the world and everyone including himself along with it (for the recognition that this achievement will bring him – no, really) because he is mad. He intends to achieve this aim by drilling a hole through the Earth’s crust and emptying the sea into it magma, producing steam that will make the planet explode. And not in any way simply produce an undersea volcano, which are a common phenomenon. I think this all speaks for itself really; what is most alarming about Zaroff’s plan is that the Doctor believes that it will work, so either he knows something we don’t, or he’s suffering from delayed post-regenerative trauma. It doesn’t help that Zaroff has absolutely no motivation whatsoever that we learn about, he’s merely a clichйd B-movie megalomaniac mad scientist who is obviously a nutter but suffers from no discernable actual convincing mental illness or personality disorder that exists in real life. As preposterous as this plot is, ‘The Underwater Menace’ could save some face by having superb characterisation and marvelous production values. Sadly, it does not. 

The Atlanteans are all your basic Superstitious Primitives, one or two of whom Zaroff has trained in scientific disciplines but most of whom are either stupid enough to trust a blatantly raving lunatic (stand up, King Thous), or spend their time sacrificing strangers to a giant fish with rather unsubtle frothing religious mania. Some of the Atlanteans are stupid beyond words, the scene in which Ben and Polly trick Lolem armed only with amateur ventriloquist skills in particular of note. Still, at least it distracts the viewer from the almost terminally wooden acting of Paul Anil and P. G. Stephens as Jacko and Sean, respectively, the latter exhibiting the least convincing Irish accent in television history. Then there’s the costumes and set design. Listening to episodes one and two spares the listener the sight of these until the fully surviving episode three, when it transpires that the costume designer thought that hanging fake clamshell bathroom ornaments on the actors would be a good idea. The Atlanteans look ridiculous, especially Lolem, who appears to have modeled himself on Christopher Biggins in full panto dame mode and is wearing the most preposterous headdress ever seen in the series. At least this extravagance compensates for Zaroff however, who is dressed in a white boiler suit, although his status as a lunatic compels him to don a cloak. The sets on the other hand are rather good, especially the water-filled home of the Fish People. 

In the midst of all this twaddle, surely we can turn to the regulars to salvage the story? Only to an extent; Troughton could act in his sleep, and he rises to the challenge of the script of ‘The Underwater Menace’ admirably, although why exactly the Doctor decides that wearing a large pair of shades will make him look inconspicuous in Atlantis in episode three is anyone’s guess. In addition, there is some witty dialogue, including his scene with Ben, when his companion, posing as a guard, argues of his “prisoner”, “blimey, look at him – he ain’t normal, is he?” On the other hand, it stretches credibility that Polly, let alone the Doctor, would fall for Zaroff’s transparent heart attack trick. Another problem is that of Ben and Jamie. Whilst I like both companions, they both vie for the same role in the Doctor/Companion dynamic, a problem of which the production team is clearly aware and for which at least Geoffrey Orme can’t be blamed. Consequently, they spend most of the time paired up here to very little effect, suggesting that Jamie has been crow barred into the script at the last minute and given half of Ben’s action and dialogue. Worse still, they are then teamed up with the functionally equivalent Jacko and Sean, which leaves them with even less to do; had Ben or Jamie been the one to rouse the Fish People to rebellion for example, it would have been a far more appropriate use of their characters. Polly provides the cliffhanger to episode one, but does little else save fall for the line “allow me to stand by your side, so that I may feel ze aura of your goodness”, about which less said the better. 

So is ‘The Underwater Menace’ totally unsalvageable? Actually, no: almost in spite of itself it is bizarrely entertaining. Joseph Furst as Zaroff is totally over the top, but given his character’s complete lack of scripted motivation and deranged B-movie plan, he probably realized that this was the only way to play the part, and he seems to be enjoying himself immensely, especially in his scenes with the Doctor. The infamous “Nothing in the world can stop me now!” line at the end of episode three has passed somewhat surprisingly into fan consciousness and is certainly memorable. Troughton too, perhaps recognizing the paucity of the script, throws caution to the wind and acts with mania, as witnessed in the daft chase scene in episode three. The Fish People too are notable, since the fully transformed ones look quite good. The notoriously pointless scene of them swimming about in episode three is indeed superfluous but is well staged. 

On the whole, ‘The Underwater Menace’ is rubbish, but it is mildly diverting rubbish.

Despite being the first of several rip-offs of The Tenth Planet, The Moonbase is dynamic fun from a consistently high-quality period of the show’s history. It is a glimpse of Troughton before he injected the humour into his characters, and is one of the few stories featuring Ben and Polly that have any notable amount left in the archives. That, and it sees the Cybermen at the peak of their design. While it has its critics, it’s essential viewing.

The handy thing about having a decent amount of material left is that it becomes quite easy to visualise the missing stuff in my head. The turbulence in the TARDIS at the beginning is particularly easy to see, since it’s the kind of thing that’s been done several times elsewhere – but then this is a Pedler / Davis story, and nobody milked successful ideas quite like them. Like many opening scenes this one is slightly stiff, although even without visuals it’s plainly obvious that Troughton is at his menacing best and out-acting everyone in the room. It’s as if only he knows how to play the scene properly.

The film-recorded lunar surface looks brilliant (although it’s hardly a complex set) as does the model work of the moonbase itself; however, call me a cynic but those comedy sound-effects do not bode well for how the scene may have played out. As it is, it just sounds as if they’re being attacked by a giant Clanger moving in slow-motion. It is helped though, as is the story in general, by some excellent stock music. The audio-only episode is helped a great deal by the ambient sounds of the moonbase; the whine of the Gravitron and the peaceful breathing sound of the sick-bay (which you can first hear in The Keys Of Marinus, trivia fans!), which serve to spoon ambience onto the story.

While I mention the Gravitron: it’s a seriously pulpy idea I grant you, but simplicity doesn’t have to be a bad thing as long as the episode doesn’t try to be complex in other departments that then clash with it. This episode makes no claim to be particularly groundbreaking: it removes all unnecessary material in favour of tension and action. I wouldn’t like it if the programme was like this all the time, but every so often it’s great.

The actors sound appropriately worn out by the problems they are facing; their complete lack of horror when one of their members is struck down by the virus is disconcerting to the viewer, who is not so familiar with what is happening at this stage. The revelation that something is monitoring the humans sets up a nice bit o’ mystery for me; people who read my reviews will be sick of hearing me go on about mystery, but it’s what I love the most about the early stages of episodes. Hobson dismisses what he sees as fantasy; he is well played by Patrick Barr who manages to make him a practical and sceptical man without being pompous or narrow-minded. 

The first scene in the sickroom is charming, as Poly is a much underrated companion. The Doctor noting the importance of Jamie’s beliefs is a good moment of characterisation, helped by the fact that it’s just a quick sentence rather than a great soliloquy about All Getting Along. In general, the dialogue in this story is very naturalistic, although in the second half the Cybermen’s comes across as simply functional.

The scene in the food store falls a bit flat, tension-by-numbers. You can feel Mark Heath waiting a set number of seconds before jumping and crying “who’s there?”; the effect is that you think “this is tense” without actually feeling it. However, the simple but dramatic special effect of the Cyberman weapon firing may have helped.

The time-cycle sequence in the sickbay is a nice idea (adding to the realism), but is let down by the Doctor explaining it exhaustively; the exposition is probably the main failing of the story. It’s a natural enough inclusion in the script, but it goes into so much unnecessary detail that it just ends up patronising the audience. However, like most of the episode’s problems it has a mitigating moment right alongside it, in this case the Doctor quizzing Polly about whether she’s making fun of him. However, Evans’s cry of “the silver hand!” spoils things a bit; it tries too hard to be enigmatic and come across as merely an unlikely thing to scream out (why just the hands?), which dents the episode’s realistic feel for a moment.

Polly’s scream as she sees something, and the subsequent tension, is made all the more effective by the ever-peaceful sound of the sickbay; this episode works extremely well on audio. The cliffhanger, assuming it’s the same as the reprise (sometimes they were re-recorded), would be great.

The fact that we can see the second episode properly doesn’t dent its atmosphere, as happened to some when Day Of Armageddon was found. This is a very tense episode, focussing on the mystery virus; the Cybermen add to the tension by only appearing fleetingly, and not having any lines. They look so good here that it’s difficult to believe that there are only three serials separating this from The Tenth Planet.

The Doctor’s much-quoted “some corners of the universe” speech is brilliantly delivered by Troughton, but does express a rather simplistic moral code; this is something given to him by Pedler and Davis, as the line that best sums that attitude up (“evil must be destrooooooooyed!”) comes from their next story The Tomb Of The Cybermen.

The Doctor claims to have received a medical degree from Lister in 1888; the Doctor’s changing qualifications have been controversial, but I explain them by feeling that the Doctor, when pressed, just tells whatever story is convenient to him. After all, it is his supposed medical qualification that is keeping him on the moonbase.

The long scene of trying to get the Gravitron under control is let down by excess technobabble, although Denis McCarthy does a good job as controller Rinberg, a laconic politician with no idea of the reality of the situation. I shouldn’t be churlish, but a big tickertape computer is funny in a story set in 2070 (almost as funny as Terry Nation writing in a tape recorder in a story set in the year 4000). The sight of the Doctor going round stealing specimens is priceless, as is his later scene of bluffing Hobson into giving him more time.

The Cybermen, although amazingly dramatic when they’re not speaking, do spoil the mystery a bit (“Who’s responsible for this virus? What, them? Oh, alright then”). The killing of the spacewalkers could have been much better; the shadows falling over them have the makings of a great shot, but it’s cut away to some very crudely edited “action”. Also, isn’t putting the virus in the sugar leaving things to chance a bit, plot wise? You could pass it off as the Cybermen not fully understanding human custom, but even so it seems a bit of an unlikely scheme for these perfectly logical creatures. The scene where the Doctor realises that a Cybermen is in the room with them is amazingly tense, but the sight of a huge pair of boots sticking out from under a sheet is unintentionally funny. One thing I want to know: how do the Cybermen tie their bootlaces with only three fingers?

Their voices, though, are amazing; probably the programme’s best ever sound effect after the TARDIS. Peter Hawkins suffered for it, but nothing that came afterwards could compare to the inhuman drone that you here in this story. The best part of it is that it has no human element at all; later voices had a tendency to sound like someone talking into a modulator. However, its lack of emotion contrasts with some of their dialogue, particularly the baffling “clever, clever, clever”.

The pacing of the third episode is a bit crude with Jamie making a miraculous recovery right at the start of it. Polly explaining about the nail-varnish remover is another example of the plot being explained to the extent that it sounds childish. This contrasts with the thought that the Cybermen can manipulate their victims’ nervous systems and pilot them around by remote control, which is a very adult, horrific concept when you think about it.

The Doctor’s internal monologue is interesting for its novelty value, although I suspect it sounds better than it may have looked. The Cybermen’s different-weakness-each-time clichй begins here, and it would have been less obvious if their previous weakness to radiation hadn’t been mentioned.

The companions get to play Macho Man and Girly Girl witch each other for a bit; gender stereotypes seem to be a prerogative of the Pedler / Davis team, as it wouldn’t be until the David Whitaker-written The Wheel In Space that a woman appeared in a position of authority in a Cyberman story. I suspect that Davis is more to blame for this – in Revenge Of The Cybermen, for example, Sarah is the only female character.

I can imagine that the action scenes may have looked fairly good if Morris Barry’s work on The Tomb Of The Cybermen is anything to judge by; he’s not bad when it comes to spectacle, and the scenes with Benoit on the moon’s surface (film-recorded, don’t forget) could well have been fantastic. The third episode has another impressive cliffhanger, at least in concept.

The fourth episode sees a brief recap of the plot, showing a fairly crude grasp of the episodic format; this is worrying since Gerry Davis was script editor at the time. The sight of the saucers on the moon’s surface is not impressive, which is a shame as the visuals in this story are on the whole quite accomplished.

Is it me or is the Cyberman that operates the control box shorter than the rest? Alan Rowe is impressive in his limited role as a zombie, and the very realistic sound effect of him clubbing Sam to death is a rare moment of violence in Doctor Who that genuinely makes me wince – ironic in a story with a mortality rate of just 33.3%. Marching zombies seem a bit out of place in this episode, although they are well presented. However, it’s unlikely that nobody would notice Evans sneak through the control room, and when he gets to the ante-chamber he puts his hat on backwards.

The deflected rocket is a horrible idea, a slow and inevitable death; it contrasts with the more lightweight aspects of the story. “You’ll never get inside” – “We are inside already” is a cool exchange, followed by the brilliantly shot sequence where the dome is punctured; the Cyberman’s bazooka is also a high-quality special effect. However, the movement of the Gravitron to deal with the Cybermen is drawn out and slow, a moment of padding right when there should be a dramatic conclusion – which eventually consists of the Cybermen drifting away doing little dances, which is a shame. The time-scanner, right at the end, is a cheap excuse for a cliffhanger but it’s so minor I won’t complain about it much.

Despite slowing down in the second half The Moonbase is a strong, exciting story that shows the Cybermen at their best in design terms if not in writing. It is a worthy Cyberman episode, bettering any colour episode featuring them, and does not let the Troughton era down.