We watched an LC recon of ep1 and BBC DVD versions of ep2 and 3.
Memo stick to LC recons as the ones on the BBC DVD aren't as good.
TUM is not as bad as its reputation suggests.
Outrageous and different it may be but it's reputation is execrable. This is bobbing along the bottom.
The cast is quite good.
Joseph Furst (who really did talk like that) had lots of TV roles in the 50's and 60's and later in Diamonds are Forever (1971) and A Country Practice (when he moved to Australia.)
Colin Jeavons (at the time known for his work in adaptations of Dickens), later went on to a varied career in The Avengers, Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and House of Cards.
Noel Johnson (who'll be back in Invasion of the Dinosaurs) was a veteran of dozens of cop shows.
Catherine Howe was just 16 years old when she appeared in this. She went on to be an award winning studio singer (doubling voices for other actors in movies), a writer of two history books and had a string of singles released as a folk music singer.
Interesting true fact... Peter Stephens who played Lolem in this story also played Cyril in The Celestial Toymaker. He directed a Hollywood western called "Mustang" released in 1959 which was an abominable flop.
So what's wrong with The Underwater Menace.?
The premise is ridiculous (Atlantis exists and there's fish people there), the execution is piss poor (the costumes of the fish people and the priests) the direction is lame (explain what happens in episode 4), the characters are imbecilic (Zaroff 's motives, Thous' approach, the way Ara gets rundown by everyone), the drama is not believable (people get killed and no one reacts, the fish people can't work out how to strike for themselves). No one can take this seriously, least of all the viewers.
The script is cack. Ep2 looks quite ok when the Doctor and Zaroff are squaring off but it goes seriously off the rails after that. The resolution is haphazard. The last two episodes consist of a series of silly plot twists and half hearted conclusions, many of which are illogical or not very clear.
The director was Julia Smith, one the very few women to direct a DW story (Paddy Russell. Fiona Cumming, Mary Ridge, Sarah Hellings, Hettie MacDonald, Alice Troughton, Catherine Morshead, Sheree Folkson and Rachel Talalay are the others). She would later be famous as co-creator and producer on Eastenders and, less successfully, El Dorado. She showed here that her previous effort on DW (The Smugglers) was no fluke. She clearly was not a good director for DW.
This ain't even a hot mess. It's cold and tastes of puke.
In the DW Discontuity Guide, Topping and Day compares TUM to Ed Wood's magnum opus. It's not as outrightly ludicrous as Plan 9 From Outer Space. But it seems to be striving to be.
1967 had arrived during the last serial. DW's third full year had seen a transformation from top to bottom. Viewers at the time must have been wondering if the fatigue from the change would finish the show off. But no... even despite the fish people.
ABM Rating 2.05/4.00
LJM Rating 2.75/5.00
SPJ Rating 1.60/10.00
No. 26 (out of 32)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
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