Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: Underworld (Story 96)

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I hadn't seen this episode since the mid-80s, so I was pretty eager to lay my hands on it when I discovered the BBC was finally going to put it out on VHS after a slight delay of, oh, 28 years. The few fan reviews I had read were pretty harsh, and my own memories of the episode were very few, but I kept an open mind when I popped the tape in.

My first impression was that this episode had been done a great wrong. It was witty and seemed to have a mysterious and inventive premise. By the time I was finished watching, though, my main feeling was that this was a classic case of a "what might have been" story. Had it been directed by someone who knew how to use close-ups, had the cliffhangers been properly done instead of just happening with the abruptness of a guillotine, had the producers not elected to save a few quid by using horribly fake blue screen backgrounds of the caves instead of going on location as they did for "Revenge of the Cybermen," and had they actually done a second draft on the story, this could have been a real classic. Instead, we have an entertaining but cliche-ridden mess, that takes way too long to move the storyline, stumbles around the plot holes, and then wraps up so fast you have a feeling they forgot to shoot 20 or so minutes of the episode. Call it "enjoyable mediocrity."

The plot has some nice window dressings that conceal a familiar story. Basically, the doctor must battle a demented computer which thinks it is a god, free a bunch of slaves from servitude, re-unite two branches of a race which diverged 100,000 years ago, and try to make amends for being indirectly responsible for the whole mess to begin with. This story was told previously, and much better, in "Face of Evil", and would be told again in "State of Decay." There are other self-plagarisms as well, and to get around these, the writers decided that it would be a good idea to simply not explain a lot of what happens. This works for David Lynch fans, but not for me: they should have added an extra episode, done a re-write and fleshed out what needed to be fleshed, instead of just cobbling this thing together. I'd tell the boys how I felt, but oh yeah, this was shot in 1975. I forgot time machines aren't real. What a nerd!

So now you are thinking I hated it. No, I just had to vent. It is fun, particularly the first two episodes. The villain costumes are creepy, those shield-guns are cool, and the idea of planets forming around stranded ships, the computers becoming the gods of the crews, and the crews eventually turning into slaves of the computers is a fun concept, however many times it has been tried before (and again!). Overall, it is not an episode I would recommend to buy unless you are a hard-core fan, but if you aren't a hard-core fan, why the hell are you reading this?

After "The Deadly Assassin", there always seemed to be a story or two in a season that helped fill new Gallifrey/Time Lord continuity. "Underworld" is one of them. Giving us the explanation of the Time Lords' noninvervention with other peoples and planets. That's the interesting bit. The rest is a mix of sloppy extras acting, repeated scenes of guards walking and running up and down and some bad CSO that hadn't been seen since the Pertwee era. There's a neat premise with the Minyons looking for their long lost race bank so their culture and people won't disappear. Their race bank is hidden in the middle of the newly born planet protected by the insane computer, the Oracle. Sounds decent, but it just moves at a snail pace. And besides the interior of the Minyons spaceship, it has a REAL cheap feel to the production. Still, there is some humor to help, and the leads, Baker and Jameson are consistent.

The Doctor and his latest traveling compaion Leela find themselves on a ship built by the Minyans a race visted upon by the Time Lords long ago. The Minyans proclaimed them gods and were given such advancements that they destoyed one another. Save for two ships the P7e which held the race banks of the minyan people to start over again and the second sent to find the lost P7E. The Doctor and Leela help those searhing for the ship only to find themselves at the very edge of the universe where planets are made. A strange dicovery that the P7E has become the core of a new found planet and inside the ship's computer has placed itself as a god. Now the Doctor with the minyans has to stop the evil computer calling itself the Oracle from keeping the desendants of the P7E in ignorance and a grip of evil.

Underworld is one of those Doctor Who serials that has generated a lot of bashers amongst fandom over the years, while simultaneously garnering a small number of defenders. Count me among that latter.

First and foremost, the story is patterned after the ancient Greek myth about Jason and the Argonauts seeking the Golden Fleece--in this case, Jackson and his crew searching for the P7E, a ship containing the race banks of the Minyans. Remember, Doctor Who was a children's show (which also appealed to a wider, adult audience). The educational elements, transparent as they may be at times, bring a certain charm to the story, in my view. A certain suspension of disbelief is called for--this isn't gritty, "realistic" sci-fi, in the spirit of Ridley Scott's Alien or Blade Runner. But then again, Doctor Who never aspired to such qualities, with the exception perhaps of Season 7.

Second, and speaking of suspension of disbelief, the CSO is often flagged as a major reason to condemn the story. The BBC was running out of funding for the show during the period this serial was shot, and could not afford location shooting in caves (as was done, for example, at Wookey Hole for Revenge of the Cybermen). Consequently, director Norman Stewart and his production team had to use CSO to create the desired effects. Given the level of technology in the late 1970s, the result, far from being inept, deserves respect and admiration. We must judge the efforts in Underworld not against modern CGI standards, but against the standards of the day in which those efforts were mounted. By those lights, what Stewart and his crew were able to accomplish is nothing short of remarkable. Just use your imagination a bit, as was intended, and the effects work just fine.

Third, the acting of the guest stars (particularly Imogen Bickford-Smith) is often criticized for being wooden, placid, and lifeless. Here, one must remember the details of the story. The Minyan crew has been searching for the lost P7E for tens of thousands of years, regenerating over and over, without rest. The weariness of the quest has gotten to some of them, to the point that by the time the Doctor and Leela arrive, only four of the original crew are left. So the acting is consistent with what is supposed to be the state of mind of the characters.

I recommend the story because the plot is entertaining and moves along nicely, with little padding. Baker and Jameson are wonderful, and K-9 doesn't get in the way too much. Those who like the way the Doctor is always looking to right wrongs and help the less fortunate will appreciate this story a great deal, as he not only tries to make amends to the Minyans for a wrong the Timelords long ago inflicted on them (and along the way you'll learn the reason for the Timelord policy on non-intervention), but also tries to free some enslaved Minyans. I like seeing the Doctor fight for justice, and I think a lot of other fans do, too.

Those with a love of Greek myth will have fun spotting the references and allusions, and those without such an affinity can simply enjoy the story on its own merits. Either way, what you have in Underworld is an under-appreciated, entertaining story. It's by no means a classic, but it works well nonetheless.

I must admit, I'm a little biased over this one, because it was the first Doctor Who story I ever saw. Over the years alot of people have complained about the production values(it was shot almost entirely using CSO), and they also gripe about the plot being too close to "Face of Evil." So I watched it expecting it not to hold up, and you know what? It's still pretty damn good! Tom Baker is in his prime here, and so is Louise Jameson as Leela. The supporting players are very good here too. The story is loosely based on "Jason and the Argonauts." I very much agree with the Doctor Who writter's that Greek mythology is very rich source of inspiration. It is also a bit more fast paced than most 70's Who. There is a great documentary about how they made this story under impossible odds. There are all the elements here of any classic Doctor Who story, so give this one a second look. Doctor Who: Underworld (Story 96)

Any1 fluent with Greek history and language will recognize the comparisons in
"Dr. Who: Underworld" and the Oracle of Delphi and the collapse of the Spartans.

BLUE-screen technology is recognizable thru-out the repetitious cave sequences of the episode.

No CGI is necessary for the visual effects.

Whoever did the SOUND effects for this episode knew what they were doing; it holds up even to "Star Wars: A New Hope"; that film also came out the same year (1977).

The story stands the test of time.

I hadn't seen this since PBS had dropped the original Doctor Who series. It is one of my favorite episodes. At a time were the BBC was getting budget cuts the special effects are fantastic for a television series of the 1970s. Great space ship control centers sets and costumes for the aliens. Doctor Who Tom Baker art work is interrupted by a cosmic event and the Tardis is remateralized inside a space ship being buried inside a newly formed planet. The doctor and Leela find the planet is also inhabited and helping the Minyan race find their lost race banks left behind by the crew of the P7E. Those living on the planet has a secret of their own and only by helping one another out can the planet's slaves and the Minyan crew possibly succeed in their mission.

Exras include a fantastic audio commentary, making of Underworld documentary, photo gallery, radio time listings and more.

Much like the other stories from this season, "Underworld" is serious, dangerous, and overall a great concept. However, the story does drag a little in episodes 3 and 4, which is typical in many Whos. I recommend this to the die hard fan and the now not so casual viewer, who has seen Doctor Who, know what it is and wants to see more.

Nevermind that "the quest is the quest". The Minyons are idiots but Leela is hott as hell in her little leather dress and knee high leather boots. Oh, and the story...2 groups of humanoids separate to reach a utopian destiation; one becomes the center of a new planet which the other group discovers thousands of years later and both have to admit that they are different versions of the same people. blardey, blardey, blar...

Other Doctor Who stories draw on Greek mythology, but none so elaborately or comprehensively as "Underworld," a science-fictional retelling of the story of Jason and the Argonauts. The Doctor and Leela land on a spacecraft carrying the survivors of the ancient Minyan race on a 100,000-year quest to recover their "race banks" from the P7E, a ship that left their home planet millennia ago.

For viewers a little sketchy on their classics, this disc includes "Into the Unknown," a mini-documentary in the Special Features menu that spells out in detail all the parallels between "Underworld" and Jason and the Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece, as well as the many technical challenges the show had to overcome to be delivered on time and under budget.

"Underworld" made extensive use of "color separation overlay," or CSO, technology to create scenery that would otherwise have been prohibitively expensive to build. This, of course, required the actors to perform complicated scenes in an empty studio covered in blue fabric for some 30 minutes of the story's 89 minutes of airtime. The show's designers also made double use of the set for the Minyan spacecraft, converting it into the lost P7E when needed. Meanwhile, laser effects had to be painstakingly added to fight scenes.

"Underworld" was a remarkable achievement for its time, a rip-roaring action adventure with fantastic costume designs and cutting-edge effects at the dawn of the Star Wars era.