4.22: Underworld

In which we are bored bloody shitless.

Broadcast: January 1978

Watched: July 2020

Underworld, Part One

This is one of those frustrating opening episodes that’s actually okay – not just okay; it’s good! – but I know full well it all goes off the rails afterwards. Funny how often that happens when Bob and Dave are around.

Anyway, things they do well: like Invisible Enemy 1 there’s a “wonder of space” thing going on here, the idea that the universe is incredible and exciting even if it is full of things that want to kill you. And there are so many ideas in this episode. The regeneration stuff, the pacification gun, the eternal quest, the cliffhanger of the ship getting buried in meteorites, doomed by gravity. I really enjoyed it, even if I know the next three are bobbins.

Feels like a missed opportunity not having the recently regenerated captain be 17 years old or something. Herrick is the most 70s looking man who has ever lived. Orfe visibly feels Leela up when she’s pacified.

Funny how, since we went to Gallifrey, everyone the Doctor meets knows who the Time Lords are, isn’t it.

I think this is the first example of K9 outwitting the Doctor without his noticing.

Underworld, Part Two

I definitely watched it. It kind of slid off me. Erm. It’s almost impressive that they manage to make caves unconvincing in Doctor Who? The slave society stuff is rubbish and done worse than in the last story. The overseers masks look like weird fetish gear. I have already lost the thread of this story. All of the ideas that made the last episode interesting have vanished.

This may be the most vertiginous drop between episodes 1 and 2 of any story yet, or possibly ever.

Underworld, Part Two – second attempt! 

Right let’s try this again and pay attention.

“Officer Klimt has retired, suddenly.” Herrick nearly accidentally killing a guard who attacks him is almost amusing.

The Doctor saying “the quest is the quest” is weird. Love the idea he’s been boring on about Aberdeen though.

But no, while I now have plot information I spot first time round I feel like I didn’t really miss anything. What an incredibly thin episode.

Underworld, Part Three

“He has saved many fathers.”

The recaps in this all feel ridiculously long. As did the last one actually. This isn’t a great sign.

I like how, now Leela knows what revolution is, she’s really really into it. I do not like the lengthy shots of K9 just rolling through some tunnels. 

The anti gravity sequence also looks like shit. Like Axos this is one of those Doctor Who stories that’s exactly like the jokes about the series.

Was Herrick written as a sort of action hero character? Because he makes no sense as someone who looks like a wussy 70s footballer. Anyway his attempt at s glorious death that ends in 20 seconds with him captured and howling in pain is hilarious but I’m not sure the production has noticed.

Underworld, Part Four

“Another insane object, another self-aggrandising artefact.”

Totally missed the Trojan Horse reference the other day. Probably for the same reason I have no idea what’s going on, that is, it’s all incredibly boring and difficult to follow. There’s a mad computer with some robots that’s enslaved some people and the Minyans want their race banks but there’s also a thread with a revolution and I don’t know which is meant to be the story but to be fair neither does anyone involved in the production jesus christ it’s shit.

There’s no sense whatsoever that this is the culmination of a 100,000 year search. Herrick says, “The quest is over” in the same tone he might say, “I’ve finished the biscuits”.

I quite like the twist, where Jackson is so obsessed about his f*cking race banks that he doesn’t realise he’s literally just rescued his actual, literal race.

One problem with the Williams era – every second story, give or take, is appallingly badly made. This has never been a problem before on this scale – there’s been the occasional effect that doesn’t work, or even entire stories (Axos), but generally speaking the actual production is a lot better than the show’s 90s reputation would have it.

Then Graham Williams arrived and that isn’t true any more. For the first time, Doctor Who often looks shit. [Sorry to any fans of seasons 15-17 reading, but I think he’s Who’s worst producer. No, I am not excluding Chris Chibnall from that. And he’s around for another two seasons yet! Oh joy.]

Still at least that’s done, and I’m quite looking forward to the next three.

Here are two other excellent things about Doctor Who you should read right now

Excellent thing number one: My pal James Cooray-Smith, who comes up in these blogs more than if I’m entirely comfortable with, has launched his own Who substack, The Psychic Paper. The first post concerns the first episode he remembers seeing, all the way back in December 1981, and it’s frankly quite annoyingly good.

Excellent thing number two: Another friend, Blair Bidmead, has republished a piece he wrote about the New Adventures back in 2013. The NAs ran from 1991 to 1997, continued the story of the 7th Doctor after the original TV show ended, and are frankly the best bit. This is admittedly because they’re my era, but: Blair’s post came embarrassingly close to making me cry.