Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace [Paperback]

Nigel Robinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1988

Mass Market paperback.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Carol Pub Group; New edition edition (August 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0426203267
• ISBN-13: 978-0426203261
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,655,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A story that transcends it's limited handling, January 11, 2000

By 

James J. J. Janis - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace (Paperback)

The Underwater menace is written in an average manner but it doesn't make a difference. The story is so strong, the characters are so big that everything leaps off the page. The Doctor and his trio of companions end up in Atlantis nearly get sacrificed to a pagan god and murdered by a mad scientist intent on destroying the world. What we actually have here is a mediation on the old religion vs. science conflict told in very broad terms. Professor Hermann Zaroff is not just a mad scientist but a really really REALLY mad scientist! The climax is suitably ironic with both science and religion destroying one another then the story pulls back in favor of science. A bit of a cheat really since it was science that comes within three minutes of destroying the planet and, only the intervention of religion, allowed the Doctor to save the world. Incidentally, the story takes place far in the future of 1976. A fun novelization of yet another destroyed serial. Darn that BBC anyway!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars For completists only!, October 19, 2000

By 

"grrreg" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace (Paperback)

A number of stories vie for the unenviable position of the worst Doctor Who story ever made. This is one of them.

'The Underwater Menace' is a tale of unbelievable science being practiced by a truly insane megalomaniac (his plan must result in his own death) in an unlikely setting.

The TARDIS arrives on a desert island, and its crew are captured one by one. They find themselves prisoners in the lost kingdom of Atlantis. The Atlanteans are being aided by Professor Zaroff in their plan to raise the island back to the surface. But there is more to Zaroff's plans than even the Atlanteans know...

About the only thing we are spared is the over the top acting of Joseph Furst as Professor Zaroff in this fairly straightforward adaptation of a Doctor Who series that should never have been made. Get it if you must.

4.0 out of 5 stars A guilty pleasure, August 12, 2009

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace (Paperback)

Making a new landing, (the second) Doctor Who and Ben, Polly and Jamie (the newest addition to the Doctor's team) find themselves on a volcanic island. When they are captured they find that they actually on Earth sometime after 1968, but in the hands of the people of sunken Atlantis. To make matters worse, a mad scientist named Professor Zaroff is working for the Atlantians promising to raise their island once more to the surface. But, Zaroff has a secret plan, he is going to create the biggest bang in the history of the world, not just raising Atlantis, but blowing it up, along with the rest of the planet. It's up to the Doctor to keep himself and his companions alive, and save the Earth!

OK, I must admit that I love Doctor Who, and enjoy all of the Doctor Who stories, even this one. Taking a step back, though, I must admit that this story really is over the top, and suspends disbelief high, high up. The humans turned into fish people were somewhat unbelievable, the whole Atlantian society seems rather half-baked, and the whole religion vs. science angle is bollocksed up.

But, having said all that, it must be admitted that the Doctor Who stories, especially the old ones, never are good science or even good fiction. Their good-natured zaniness makes them fun to read, more or less a guilty pleasure for those of us who like good science-fiction. I enjoyed seeing the second Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie working their way through the wild and daring situations. As such, I must say that I did like this book, and I do recommend it!