By James Cooray Smith

Obverse Books, out now

 

Obverse Books’ ongoing series of monographs focusing on a Doctor Who serial or story hits 1967’s Season Four’s serial The Underwater Menace.

There’s not a lot of fan love for Geoffrey Orme’s Atlantean drama, it being ranked 194 out of 200 in Doctor Who Magazine’s poll, and it’s not hard to see why, with over the top acting, bizarre production design and dull story. And yet author James Cooray Smith does something remarkable here, pausing us in our collective scoffing and making us having another think about this black sheep of the family. At no point does he suggest we’re wrong, rather we should ignore the negative hype and see it for what it actually is.

As with the best entries in this series, the book does not spend time finding allusions and metaphors that might not be there, instead focusing on the production and reception of the serial. At times it feels like everything was stacked against it – the writer never wrote for Doctor Who again, he was never interviewed, about it, it’s not influential, there’s no significant monster and it doesn’t feature a key entry or departure of a character. No wonder it was one of the last Troughtons to be novelised.

Cooray Smith argues that perception shifted in 2011 following the screening of the newly found episode 2, though it’s telling that it took four years before it was released on DVD, and with tele-snap recons rather than animations. You’ll enjoy chapters on the making of this serial (including a detailed production timeline) and how Professor Zaroff’s (Joseph Furst) delivery of his line ‘Nothing in ze world…’ has unfairly been hyped up over the years. We discuss Troughton’s Doctor’s fascination with hats and how he grew into the role, discuss what little is known about Geoffrey Orme, the show’s earliest born writer (1904) and go over that old chestnut again – why the Doctor signed a note as ‘Dr. W’. Dr. Who?

Verdict: One of my favourite entries to date in this series. Well done to the author for not taking the easy, mocking route and instead wading through the fan prejudice and hype to present the serial sensibly and in context. Hooray for Cooray Smith! 10/10

Nick Joy

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