Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...
Day 491: Underworld, Episode One
Things everyone knows about Underworld number one: due to crippling lack of budget, it was mostly shot in the studio against CSO backgrounds.
Things everyone knows about Underworld number two: the factory in Coronation Street was named after it because writers on the soap were huge fans of Doctor Who.
Things everyone knows about Underworld number three: it’s not very good. In fact, it’s terrible. When Doctor Who Online ran a poll last year to get readers to rank every Doctor Who story, it placed in position 234 (out of a total 239) with an average rating of 43.45%. It was the lowest-ranking story of the 1970s (by quite some margin - the next lowest was The Monster of Peladon, in position 217 with a score of 52.46 - almost 10% higher!). It’s hardly a glowing advertisement for this tale, is it?
Things Will didn’t know about Underworld: this first episode is brilliant. Like, genuinely, fantastic. That was a surprise!
As I’ve said above, Underworld has something of a reputation within Doctor Who. I remember when it came out on DVD (in a box set along with two other less-than-well-received stories), people weren’t exactly rushing to purchase it. It didn’t help that it was one of the first box set releases of that style, grouping various stories together with a tenuous linking theme, and had a rather high price tag attached. I wouldn’t say that I’ve been dreading getting to this point, but I’ve certainly not been relishing it. I’ve been through enough stories by now to know that when the bad ones come along, you just have to grit your teeth and bear them.
Imagine my surprise, then, when this episode started and I found myself completely captivated by it! We open with that love space vista, panning into a screen of blackness for the TARDIS to fly across. I was ready to say what a shame it was that the TARDIS couldn’t have been flying through that beautiful space shot… but then it’s part of the story that we’ve got a blank screen! And then a few minutes later, a beautiful model spaceship comes flying past us, too. I complained during The Sun Makers that the model of the city was far from being the best shot of the decade - but the various shots of this ship (both in flight and when it’s being turned into the core of a planet) are probably fairly good contenders. They look brilliant.
And then there’s that set! No wonder they ran out of money to build all the sets they’d need for later episodes (or to venture out onto location), because it’s all been sunk into creating this bridge! It’s massive which is always a good sign when they’re trying to impress you on this show, and it’s so nicely detailed. There’s a lovely shot when we first see the set, as the camera pulls forward to show us everything and it simply looks stunning. The one slight disappointment is that they seem to have forgotten to CSO in the images behind the view screens in a few shots (I assume, at least, that it’s the reason we get green windows from time to time).
If all that wasn’t good enough, you’ve got Tom Baker and Louise Jameson on fine form as ever. I love they was they joke and banter - the Doctor’s description of them being the first intelligent, and semi-intelligent, life to witness the spiral nebula is a real highlight and elicited a good laugh from me.
I worry that Underworld is already cursed, though. I’m fully expecting it to all go to pot once we start venturing outside the ship (I know most of the CSO sequences are set in caves, so I’m guessing that’s where we’re heading), which means that the story could fall into one of two categories. Either, the next three episodes will really work for me, be better than expected and earn an unexpected high score… or they’ll be so bad that they let down everything I’ve loved about this first episode. Frankly, I’m looking forward to finding out…
