Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace

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The Underwater Menace is the fifth serial of Season 4 of the classic Doctor Who series. It originally aired in four episodes from 14 January to 4 February 1967. It was written by Geoffrey Orme and directed by Julia Smith. It stars Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, Anneke Wills as Polly, Michael Craze as Ben Jackson, Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon, and Joseph Furst as Professor Zaroff

The TARDIS arrives in the lost city of Atlantis, where the mad scientist Zaroff promises to raise the city by draining the oceans, a plan that will destroy the world. The Doctor plays the fool to get close to Zaroff and uncover his scheme, while Polly is threatened with a terrible operation to become a fish-person and Ben and Jamie work to free slaves and unite allies.

Strange rituals, underwater labour, and narrow escapes create a lively, pulpy adventure, and the Doctor turns chaos against Zaroff’s pride to save Atlantis from ruin. Only Episodes 2 and 3 survive in the BBC archives; Episodes 1 and 4 are missing, though reconstructions and animations exist.

Episode 1

The TARDIS lands on a bleak volcanic island. The Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jamie follow footprints to a cave and are ambushed by armed men who speak of “the temple below.” Through passageways and pressure doors they are taken into an underwater city: Atlantis, a faded glory kept alive by strange science. The ruler, King Thous, balances power between the zealous High Priest Lolem and a visiting genius, Professor Zaroff, who promises to raise Atlantis to the surface.

The Doctor recognises Zaroff as a famous chemist and is alarmed by the fanatic light in his eyes. Ben and Jamie are sent to labour gangs. Polly is seized by Damon, the surgeon, who plans to “adapt” her into a Fish Person: gills, webbing, and a lifetime harvesting plankton for the city’s food. Ara, a young Atlantean servant, whispers warnings and plots to help.

Lolem demands the strangers be sacrificed to the goddess Amdo; Zaroff overrules him, wanting the Doctor’s mind. In private, Zaroff hints at a grand experiment: draining the oceans into the Earth’s core to boil the planet and remake the world. The Doctor realises the experiment will end everything. In the surgical chamber, Polly is strapped down as the knife nears her throat.

Episode 2

The Doctor scrambles to save Polly, barging into Damon’s theatre and stalling with a flurry of medical jargon and impossible requests. Ara spirits Polly away through service tunnels and hides her in a store. Ben and Jamie, forced to haul equipment, quietly map guards and exits. Taken before King Thous, the Doctor tries to expose Zaroff’s plan; Lolem sneers, and Zaroff charms with promises of sunlight and power.

When Lolem arranges a ritual punishment, the Doctor slips into the idol of Amdo and throws his voice, “speaking” as the goddess to scatter the priests and free his friends. Damon relents in exchange for technical tips, and the Doctor gleans more details of Zaroff’s scheme: a chain of reactors will rupture the Earth’s crust once ocean pressure drops. Polly, shaken but fierce, rejoins Ben and Jamie. The companions see the enslaved Fish People (surgically altered divers kept on a diet of chemicals) dragging nets through the sea to feed Atlantis.

The Doctor senses a pressure point: if the food stops, the city stops. He seeds rumours among workers, plots with Ara, and gathers scraps to sabotage Zaroff’s equipment. Zaroff, suspecting interference, orders tighter patrols and whispers to Thous that only absolute authority can keep Atlantis alive.

Episode 3

Zaroff makes his move. He brings soldiers into the throne room, arrests dissenters, and turns Thous into a figurehead while he grabs the control labs. The Doctor, Polly, Ben, and Jamie split up. Polly carries messages for Ara. Ben and Jamie creep through pumping galleries, snapping cables and jamming valves. The Doctor heads for the conditioning plant that drug-feeds the Fish People.

He meets them in a flooded chamber and tells them the truth: their labour fuels their own chains. With Ara’s help, he convinces them to stop. In a haunting ballet beneath the water, nets are dropped, lights go dark, and the waterways empty of workers. Within hours, Atlantis starves. Markets riot, guards waver, and Damon, seeing the ruin, turns against Zaroff. The professor rants that “nothing in the world can stop me now” and drives his team to trigger the ocean-drain regardless.

Lolem, furious that faith has been mocked, throws his priests behind Zaroff’s soldiers, and the city divides. Jamie leads a group of labourers into the power hub and seizes tools. The Doctor calculates a counter-plan: flood Zaroff’s control rooms with seawater to short the systems and stall the reaction. But the sluice controls sit beyond a corridor already cracking with pressure.

Episode 4

Everything crashes toward catastrophe. Zaroff shoots his way to the main chamber and begins the sequence that will burst the planet. The Doctor, ankle-deep in rising water, gambles on the only fix left: drown the laboratory before the reaction peaks.

Ben and Jamie haul wheel after wheel, forcing ancient sluices open as Polly and Ara guide citizens to escape routes. Damon helps them cut power lines. Thous, wounded but resolute, orders evacuation to the upper caverns.

Lolem’s fanatics try a last stand in the temple and are swept aside by the flood. Water roars through the city. Gauges explode; lights die. The Doctor reaches the core switch and yanks it as a wall gives way. Zaroff, still exulting, is trapped behind a grill as the sea surges in. The experiment dies with him. Atlantis shudders and collapses by degrees, not in a planet-killing blast but in a drowning ruin.

On the surface, survivors scramble aboard fishing boats as vents belch foam. The travellers shepherd Ara and Damon to safety, then slip back to the caves. Ben and Jamie heave the last door shut; Polly looks back at the sinking domes. In the TARDIS, the Doctor allows himself one weary smile, and sets course for anywhere but here.

Themes

As a mid-season romp, The Underwater Menace sits a notch below the precision of The Power of the Daleks and the icy tension of The Moonbase, but it has a gaudy charm all its own. Its mad-science bravado, colourful Atlantean world, and Patrick Troughton’s impish mischief make it livelier than its reputation.

It’s closer in spirit to the gleeful excess of The Romans or The Gunfighters than to the austere “base-under-siege” greats. Taken on its own terms (bold, messy, and theatrical)it’s an enjoyable curio, buoyed by Ben, Polly, and Jamie finding their rhythm.

Linking past to future, it follows directly from The Highlanders and gives Jamie his first full outing before the tone tightens in The Moonbase, The Macra Terror, and The Evil of the Daleks. The Doctor’s playful disguises and sly sabotage anticipate the duplicities of The Enemy of the World.

The drowned-world imagery and sea-borne perils echo forward into The Sea Devils and Warriors of the Deep. Even Atlantis itself ripples back into the series with The Time Monster. In that sense, The Underwater Menace is a bright, bubbly bridge: less essential than the classics around it, but an energetic waypoint on the road to the Troughton era’s defining heights.

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This is a chapter from Craig Hill’s book “Doctor Who – The Second Doctor”, chronicling every episode featuring the Second Doctor. It is available on Amazon.

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To view the list of other Doctor Who serials, please click this link

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