Classic Dr. Who Review: Underworld
Article by: Tribrix
“The quest is the quest”. The catchphrase of this four part serial which
originally aired from January 7 to 28, 1978, with Tom Baker and Louise
Jameson.
Many fans of Doctor Who remember this one as a story they’d like to forget. With a new box set out, including this particular story, many will be viewing it anew, and may be surprised at what they find. The Doctor and Leela land on a ship engaged in a long, long quest for the genetic material of their long lost planet/race (contained in two golden cylinders), that they may rebuild it on a new home. Initially, the doctor compares this vessel to the flying Dutchman, which would have been a very interesting story, indeed. Instead, what we have is a retelling of the less interesting Jason and the Argonauts. If you need more evidence of this, they are searching for the P-7E, which sounds an awful lot like Persephone, and that’s on purpose too.
Writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who produced several scripts of unevenquality for Doctor Who, even credited the ancient writers they borrowed so freely from. I believe this is a decent effort on their part, and there’s a lot I like about what they brought to the table, in the inventive ways they interpreted the old stories for a modern science fiction audience.
Another good quality about this one is the model work, which is first rate, especially for Doctor Who at that time. I’m not going to lie and say all the effects are perfect by todays standards, but there’s some good stuff there, and the bad stuff ain’t too bad. And I’m going to include the use of CSO (bluescreen) for the sets. As I understand it, inflation was so rampant at the time, in the months that passed from the time the show was budgeted until it was made, the Pound had lost so much value, they had to cut any corner they could, which included shooting all the cave scenes (it is called Underworld), against a blue screen. This save tons of money, but has dismayed fans a great deal over the years.
At times, K-9 seems to float over the landscape he’s supposed to be traversing. The backgrounds have a short depth of field which doesn’t match the sharp, deep focus on the actors. And the shadows don’t seem to match at all. I love it though. It gives the episode a very otherworldly quality it could never have had in the studio. Plus, the rocky floors have texture, which the studio shoots never achieve, even in the much lauded Caves of Androzani (more on that one later).
One last thing that’s nice about Underworld. When you get to the end, it will have a ring of familiarity to it, even though, it seems to differ slightly from the source material, making for a very satisfying end, IMO. A lot of fans would try to dissuade you from checking this one out, but I’m not one of them. This is never going to make a top ten or top twenty list, but it’s certainly worth checking out if you see it on cable somewhere or have access to watching it free on Netflix.
*About Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British sci-fi show which aired from 1963 – 1989 and again
from 2005 to the present. In the UK, it is ubiquitous, watched by boys and
girls, men and women, ages 9-99, most people, even if they are not watching,
know what’s happening in the show each week. It typically airs in the early
evening on Saturdays, right after the sports finish up.
Doctor Who in America is a bit more divisive. Some fans love it, while a
lot of people in the genre community can’t stand it. It’s easy, even for
fans, to understand this schism, because the show has a lot of rough edges,
on account of low budgets and quirky temperament.
In Doctor Who, the main character, the Doctor, wanders the universe through
time and space, in a telephone booth called the Tardis, which is larger on
in the inside. He cannot completely control the Tardis, and often doesn’t
know where he’s going or where he is. He is usually accompanied by a
companion or more and they are usually female, though some have been male
and/or robotic.
Originally it was to have been a time traveling educational show for kids,
but the show’s first producer, Verity Lambert, keen on making a career for
herself with a ‘hit’ show, gave it her own spin, downplaying the historical
aspect, upping the sci-fi, and gearing it towards all audiences, instead of
just children. This tradition continues today.
I am in the process of watching every episode of Doctor Who in chronological
order (where those episodes have been destroyed, I am watching one of the
recons). I have been at it for a couple of years and expect to be at it a
couple more. I may occasionally post reviews out of order, but mostly I’m
going to post them as I watch them.
Table of contents for Classic Dr. Who Review
- Classic Dr. Who Review: Robots of Death
- Classic Dr. Who Review: The Talons of Weng Chaing
- Classic Dr. Who Review: Horror of Fang Rock
- Classic Dr. Who Review: Underworld
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Tags: dr. who, louise jameson, tom baker
March 29th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Oh, I’ve got to disagree with you on this one. I love Doctor Who; I love the whole thing from An Unearthly Child to Survival. Obviously there are things I like better than others, but mostly I like it all. However I draw the line in a few places and Underworld is one of them. I’ve seen Underworld at least half a dozen times and I still couldn’t really tell you how it ends because it’s so boring that my mind starts wandering every time I watch it. I believe it may be the worst Tom Baker Doctor Who story, although primarily because his really bad later stories are often interesting in a kooky or so-bad-they’re-funny kind of way. Underworld is watching-paint-dry bad, Monster-of-Peladon bad, The-Twin-Dilemma bad. Well, maybe not that bad, but boy howdy it isn’t good. I agree with you though that it gets a lot of stick for its special effects which it doesn’t deserve. The CSO is as bad as it’s ever been, but the models are quite good. (My opinion of Doctor Who modelwork generally is that it’s usually quite excellent, but the models are often so incompetently shot that they look terrible.) I think it got its “terrible CSO” reputation, though, just because nobody else could think of anything to say about it. You have to wonder why they thought it would be a good idea to guest star a crew of people who have been traveling for thousands of years and are consequently all tired and bored out of their skulls. The actors pulled off their brief, but at the cost of putting the audience to sleep as Jackson and company make for the most boring band of heroes ever to appear on television. Okay, Herrick has a little bit of life to him, but he’s supposed to be Heracles for pity’s sake.
I love how they’re releasing Underworld, The Time Monster, and Horns of Nimon in a boxed set. Three stories which are usually reviled all together in one package. I happen to think both The Time Monster and Horns of Nimon are a lot of fun in a campy way, but I can’t claim the same affection for Underworld.