Doctor Who/Recap/S4/E05 The Underwater Menace
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Nossing in ze vorld can stop me now!
—What many fans think Zaroff said.
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Nothing in the world can stop me now!
—What Zaroff really said.
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The Doctor, with Polly, Ben and Jamie in tow, lands the TARDIS on a volcanic island where they are captured and taken into a cave complex. It soon becomes clear that this tiny island is all that remains of the ancient Atlantean civilisation.
Mad scientist Professor Zaroff (played with a Large Ham by Joseph Furst) has convinced the Atlanteans that he can raise the city from the sea, but in reality he plans to drain the ocean into the Earth's core and thereby destroy the planet. Just because, OK?
Polly is taken off to be converted into an aquatic Fish Person, while the others meet two shipwrecked sailors who help them convince the Fish People to rebel. Eventually, the Doctor manages to foil Zaroff's plan by flooding the city before he can complete the drilling. Zaroff drowns, but everyone else makes it out and the Doctor and companions depart.
For a long time it was thought that only episode 3 remained, until episode 2 turned up in 2011.
Tropes
- Atlantis: Or at least the last remnants of that civilization, living underground.
- Author Filibuster: Against organized religion in part 4.
- Earthshattering Kaboom: What Zaroff hopes to create.
- Fish People: Created by surgery rather than a natural species. Polly almost becomes one in some of the few clips to survive from episode 1 and in the newly-recovered episode 2.
- Human Sacrifice: The Atlanteans try to sacrifice the Doctor and company to the goddess Ando...using sharks.
- I Can't Believe I'm Saying This:
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Jamie McCrimmon: You know I never thought I'd say this, but well it's great. |
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- Mad Scientist: Zaroff is a classic example.
- At the end of the Episode 2 clip on the BBC site, he sounds like a proto-Davros, on how succeeding with his omnicidal mania would be the ultimate power.
- Missing Episode: Only parts 2 and 3 survive.
- Mythpunk
- La Résistance
- Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: Zaroff.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: It's Joseph Furst's real one accent, that's what.