THE UNDERWATER MEACE sees the last Classic DOCTOR WHO story being released to DVD excluding any future finds of any of the still missing 97 episodes.  So the two surviving episodes of the story (episode 2 and 3) are presented on the DVD with episodes 1 and 4 reconstructed with stills and an audio soundtrack (instead of animating them like originally planned (because the BBC decided it was too costly for animation that was already done at bargain prices for previous Classic DVD releases which used animation to recreate missing episodes of stories).  THE UNDERWATER MENACE is a miss of a story which involves Atlantis, a mad scientist who wants to blow up the world for the achievement of it, and the Doctor and his companions working to find their footings as characters (since this is the third story of the Second Doctor run).  Too bad some other missing story couldn’t have been found than an additional episode of this story.   However, Joseph Furst does shine in his performance as mad scientist Professor Zaroff.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio commentary for all four episodes

 

A FISHY TALE:  Peter Davison narrates this making-of documentary about the history and making of THE UNDERWTAER MENACE which was bounced around the schedule and the actors thought was a silly story. This documentary features interviews with Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines, Catherine Howe, Assistant Floor Manager Gareth Gwenlan, Production Assistant Barry Butler, and writer Robert Shearman

THE TELEVISION CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE Part Two where Yvette Fielding continues her tour of BBC Television Centre with actors Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, and Mark Strickson and various appearances by various BBC crew members as they chare memories from working on Doctor Who at filming at Television Centre.

 

Censor cuts from episode 1 and 4 which are the only surviving footage from those episodes which oddly weren’t included in the telesnap reconstructions of those two episodes (which the BBC didn’t want to spend any money on and wanted to be very basic).

 

A photo gallery of stills from the story

 

FINAL ANALYSIS: DOCTOR WHO: THE UNDERWATER MENACE is the final DVD release in the classic DOCTOR WHO range (unless they recover some more missing episodes or decide to do special editions/ re-issues of previous releases).   It is one of the Second Doctor’s rubbish stories and it is a sad way to end the range where the BBC made some odd decisions on how to reconstruct the two missing episodes, but the extras are great as usual.  Joseph Furst is great as Zaroff as so is the main cast, but this story should remain with the fishes since there are better DOCTOR WHO episodes to be found and this release is only for fans looking to complete their DVD collection of classic DOCTOR WHO.

 

This review is ©6-7-2016 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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