The Underwater Menace - Episode 1

As I listen to this episode there have been those rumours again that over 100 lost episodes of Doctor Who have been found and so there is a possibility that soon I could actually see this story but for now I will have to put up with the narration from Anneke Willis (as the announcer at the very beginning announces). This is the first episode for Jamie in the TARDIS and his initial reaction to what is going on is a nice relieve after the suspicions that we have had from Ben, Polly and Steven in the past. He doesn’t seem to be the Jamie we know yet but it’s like he’s been left to run free in a sweet shop and he’s a bit unsure of things. This is what happens when you take the boy out of 1749. It’s the most crowded that the TARDIS has been since The Chase when there was Ian, Barbara and Vicki. It’s a question as to whether they are used to right to see whether the TARDIS will be too crowded yet.

Apparently the regulars arrival was expected which was something that happened in ‘The Savages’. Yet this story is better than The Savages (just). The story starts off with them trying to figure out the time was quite fun because Polly bases her assumption on a Mexico Olympics souvenir so assuming that its after 1968. If a story is being set on Atlantis then you would expect it to be in the past not just three years after this story was transmitted.

Zaroff is a character that is one of the few good things about this story. From the moment he is involved in the story he is great. He even has a pet octopus. How much better could you get. Joseph Furst is one of those actors that can chew up the scenery yet still be a great presence on the screen as everyone is taking it serious. Zaroff wants to use his scientific knowledge to help raise Atlantis which is quite an ambitious plan even though he is crazy.

At the end of the episode Polly is about to meet a quite grim end. In those days you wouldn’t know whether a regular would make it and based on what happened to Katarina and Sara, anything is possible. It was an ok opening episode. It does seem that the crowded TARDIS isn’t going to be an issue at the moment because everyone seems to be having enough to do to keep them from looking like a spare part. Tomorrow’s episode is a DVD one yipeeeee. I’ve gotten use to just listening to a story and what this episode has over previous opening episodes is that starts off quietly and not with a bang. By the end of the episode it seems like it has picked up speed and it bodes well for the rest of the series.