How many fans can claim the expectant pleasure of sitting down and watching a Tom Baker story that they had never seen before and better still, knew very little about? Oooh, how many times I have sat and watched Who, wishing to supernatural entities, that somehow, at the age of 29, no matter how infeasible, I could forget that I had watched a favourite story 50 times before, and experience its excitement afresh?

Well, now I can, and crumbs it was almost like a saturday teatime. The story in question was fan "not-favourite", Underworld. How I came to have not seen it before, is (rather like Underworlds repute) a dull story, consisting of UKGold video mishaps, late teen "I'm too old for it now.." pretentions, and general apathy to a story that everyone says is a steaming pile of cakka....

Revisionism is all the rage in fandom right now, not surprising, given that all of us are at a stage where we have endlessly raked over a finite number of stories an infinite number of times and lets face it, what we thought was cool at 10, looks like Resurrection now. On the face of it, Underworld has committed more heinous sins than most of the loathed stories over the years, the at a glance loathometer sites the following reasons to loathe: 

1. It was done on the cheap with 80% of sets being CSO travesties.

2. It appeared in Graham Williams "Silly" era

3. Tom Baker is as mad as a fish in it.

4. The story's poop.

Now, I hate to succum to the revisionist fever, so I won't, because I've never seen Underworld before. But, I will say this, I thoroughly enjoyed every second of this wretched adventure!!

Firstly, lets address the number one gripe, the CSO. I find it very odd that this is the oft sited reason for this stories alleged Turkeydom, surely crap budgets are part and parcel of what Doctor Who is? "Its about the scripts!" was the oft quoted defense on the school playground when someone laughed at cybermen with cricket gloves...(and boy, didn't it put that bully in his place..) but we digress...let me tell you something, the CSO's not as bad as you've been told, at no stage did it detract from the believability of the programme, at no stage did anyones foot disappear (as I've often heard said) and by and large, considering what it is, its done amazingly well. The perspective is always correct, people walk accurately behind things and Tom Bakers hair is never ablaze with electronic fuzz like ole Perter's is in the Green Death mine shaft...

Funnily enough, considering the story is awash with what must have been a nightmare workload for the VidFX folk, the rest of the video effects and model work are very, very good by Who standards. The opening Nebula is tremendously effective (100 times more so than the mandragora helix just a couple of years previously) and all the ray gun zaps are also well done. I think we know where the budget from the sets went....

Okay, point 2 and 3. I like Tom Baker being a crazy assed mofo and I like Who being silly, and whats more, so does my girlfriend who easily bores of Who without Tom's arrogantly witty put downs. Whats good for her, is good for me.

Point 4. Bob Baker and Dave Martin get a lot of very unfair stick. I have to say I think these two have come up with some of the best, most imaginative stories of all time and they always write excellent dialogue for the Doc. Concepts seem to be their strong point, but not at the expense of plot or story. As most folk probably know, there are vague allusions to Jason and the Argonauts through out, it doesn't really add anything, but its an additional layer to muse over. OK, so I was left wondering if the guards were robots or simply wearing radiation suits, but as long as you don't scratch too deep...The concept of the Timelords being gods to the minyans and effectively ruining them in the process is excellent. We all imagine that this sort of Galifreyan interventionist/imperialist bashing only happens later in TOTL and such, but here it is, much more subtly and understated. I'll grant you, the idea of a computer gone megalomaniac is not the worlds most original premise, but look at the other concepts; a spaceship that has a planet formed around it, legends being the portents of things to come..etc. Even the design ideas are spot on, the radiation suits and robots look wonderfully old fashioned and the shield guns, whilst clearly made of lightweight plastic, are far more interesting than the usual bog standard generic space laser we are treated to.

At the end of the day, without looking too closely and doing anything silly like drawing a comparison with Talons of Weng Chiang, I found Underworld to be hugely enjoyable romp with excellent ideas and some smart direction. Tom always makes these stories for me and its easy to forget that really, Tom IS the show, just like he thought he was. I cant imagine any of the later Doctors carrying this story so well. He always elevates it above the bog standard. On any other day of the week, this would be a 3 stars or less, but for pure enjoyment, (and surely thats what its all about?) I'm gonna give it 4. The TV viewing public agreed with me, ratings at this stage of the shows history were high and any future producers of the show would do well to remember that and do their damndest to ignore the fanboys....

The opening sequence of 'Four to Doomsday' is remarkably effective: an ominous and enigmatic score accompanies a series of panning and tracking shots of a dark, mysterious, and (presumably) gigantic spaceship; a tone both mysterious and threatening is established. The viewer (this viewer, at least) is not disappointed by what follows, for whatever the flaws of 'Four to Doomsday' it manages to work as an intriguing, textured, and sinister piece of science fiction. 

Although on a plot-only level 'Four to Doomsday' is a bit long, and a bit of a drag at times, it does succeed in telling a story tinged with engaging ideas and concepts. The first two cliff-hangers rely not on a terrible fate for the Doctor, but on a revelation: the drama for much of 'Four to Doomsday' is the discovery of more and more of the details of the science fiction set up. One theme which emerges from this SF set up is that of 'difference' and 'alienness': the themes split. Perception, and the different ways different people view 'others', is everywhere. There is Adric, in his usual, petulant self-important tone, making notably bigoted comments about what he sees as being the difference between men and women and girls. The whole premise of the plot is the fact that the spaceship is full of different cultures and races, collected from Earth at various points in history by the Urbankans. And although they are not fully developed, 'Four to Doomsday' touches on questions of how we define 'cultures', and whether it is possible that cultures can be recorded, and stored, and preserved in stasis. What the Urbankans fail to see is the speed with which culture changes: their ability to alter their appearance to become 'like' other cultures is flawed, because it does not allow for natural evolution and change, and also because it is only skin deep. Culture is more than just accent and clothing and native dances. 

On other levels, 'Four to Doomsday' is classic Doctor Who hokum. Questions of race, culture, and class aside, there is no doubt that the Urbankans neatly fill the role of the classic, unambiguous, atypical, nasty Doctor Who aliens we see so frequently, and hopefully will see more of soon! Monarch's eloquent, mannered, and 'civilized' English diction, rather than making him sympathetic, simply makes him more sinister, and more alien. There is a superb line during episode two (when Adric and Nyssa are suffocating) where Enlightenment notes that Adric and Nyssa "have lungs", and Monarch replies with sadistic pleasure: "Let them remember that." Chilling. 

Overall, deficiencies of plot aside (well, not 'deficiencies', as such'... there just isn't a lot happening), 'Four to Doomsday' is an entertaining story. And it has a brain. Recommended.