This story has a place as my least favourite Troughton story. Which isn't a criticism, I should point out, as Troughton doesn't have a bad story. We'll see if it keeps its reputation up. It does start badly, and Polly seems to think we're in a repeat of the Smugglers, as she thinks it's Cornwall. It takes an age for anything to happen, though. Our regulars are captured and sent down a lift. Eventually a man appears and Ben rather amusingly says, "Polly, you speak foreign, go talk to him". Why they all suddenly assume that the people there can't speak English is bizarre, as if that happens in every adventure, rather than never. There's a rather amusing reference to the Doctor's hat obsession as he greedily tucks in to the food they're given, as Polly remarks, "I've never seen him go for food like this before, it's usually hats". The God Amdo foresaw the TARDIS crew arriving, apparently. You know you're in trouble in Doctor Who when you come across a cult. I find it interesting the Doctor knows who Zaroff is. He gets the very cute girl Ara to send him a message, which contains yet another Doctor Who? joke, as it goes, "vital secret will die with me, Dr W." It's rather amusing that the Doctor doesn't even try and make up a secret, he comes clean immediately that he just wrote that to get them out of the sacrifice! Also amusing is the reference to Zaroff being the greatest scientific genius since Da Vinci! Yeah, of course he is...
It is a fairly dull opening though, to be fair. It has little of the mystery and intrigue that I like from first episodes, and it seems a bit early for a mass attempted sacrifice of the regulars, only for them to escape, only for Polly to be put in danger again. I’m not sure which is worse, Polly calling the plastic gills “breathtaking,” or the line “you’re not turning me into a fish!” Still, you have the loveliness of Ara to just about keep going. 4/10.
Episode Two
It’s quite a good Doctor moment at the start here, as he “accidentally” cuts the power to save Polly from being turned into a fish. Damon is rather angry about the lights being turned off. He actually likes turning people into fish. Maybe because it’s such a ridiculous concept, it amuses him. If the story had ever actually started, this episode would be where it would have fallen down. At least starting rubbish means there isn’t any real drop in quality as we find out Zaroff wants to destroy the world for the achievement of doing so. That’s awful. Even the bloody Cybermen had an actual reason for wanting to do it. The music at this point is quite good, though, although it soon won’t be.
The Doctor’s conversation with Ramo is an interesting one. They haven’t met properly, but Ramo decides to trust the Doctor anyway. It’s a slightly odd conversation, and even odder considering what happens later. The Doctor brings Ramo to the Goddess Amdo and demonstrates using reasoned argument what Zaroff is doing. Later, when the Doctor is trying to convince others, he just says, “look, Zaroff’s all boggly-eyed, he must be mad!” Why not use the same sensible argument rather than just pointing and accusing like an idiot? This story could have been half the length if he hadn’t done that.
This episode does have two of Troughton’s early traits in it, which can only be a good thing. When Ramo suggests that the Doctor disguise himself in priest’s clothes, the Doctor gets all excited about getting to wear such a magnificent hat. He also gets out his recorder, which he uses frequently throughout his first season.
Again, though, this episode is rather uneventful. It’s just not quite silly enough to make the lack of plot work. It’s ridiculous, but not that silly. After Troughton’s strong start, this is a shame, but it’s trying something new, which is never a bad thing. And there are still moments of good here, such as Ben’s giggle as he hears they wanted to turn Polly into a fish. It’s a world above the Celestial Toymaker, but, overall, there isn’t a great deal for me to praise, here. 3/10
Episode Three
There’s a sequence with the fish people in this episode that feels endless. It isn’t helped by the awful music by Dudley Simpson, either. It’s just dreadful. It looks okay, but it serves no purpose and is dull. Serving no purpose is fine if it’s interesting, but this just wastes time. Wasting time of one of the very few Troughton episodes from this season still to exist! That is a serious crime. Particularly as it's the first Troughton episode that exists, and the first since the Tenth Planet episode three. I'd have thought I'd love anything, which shows how bad this is.
All of Zaroff's food goes off in a matter of hours. That's terrible! Think of the waste. Don't they have fridges or freezers in Atlantis? They clearly have electricity, so it isn't as if that's a problem. The Doctor and friends capture Zaroff ridiculously easily, and then Polly and Ramo fall for the "falling to the floor and pretending to be hurt" trick and let him go. And of course, Zaroff has the ridiculous cliffhanger, but just before it he murders Thous in cold blood, which is pretty horrible. Maybe I'm being slightly harsh with this score, as it isn't this episode's fault it's the first one of the Troughton era to survive, but I really wish it had been any episode at all but this one. 2/10
Episode Four
Dudley Simpson’s clearly been at the happy pills again after his bizarre interlude in the previous episode. He needs them, I guess, and so do we after three episodes of this. The Doctor doesn’t have Dudley keeping him happy happy, and as a result he’s flooding Atlantis. Troughton and Anneke Wills are great together, and get some lovely Doctor/Polly moments in the next story, but here it’s the Doctor and Ben having the great moments. They work well together. Ben pretends to be a guard having captured the Doctor ("I've been out chasing this berk all day"). Another guard asks Ben, “how do I know he’s a wanted man?” and Ben replies, a bit too eagerly, “blimey, look at him. He ain’t normal, is he?” Then, a few moments later, Ben asks the Doctor if he knows what he’s doing and the Doctor says, “oh what a question, of course I don’t!” which seems like yet another early Troughton theme developing.
Polly starts crying and moaning as they try and get out of the caves, moaning over and over how she can’t do it, and needing Jamie to essentially drag her along. Which would be fair enough usually, but she was having a right go at Kirsty in the previous story for doing exactly the same thing! I find it rather amusing how Jamie says he feels safe in the TARDIS, considering the things he’d say about it in later stories! It’s a very sweet scene at the end, though, with Polly wearing the Doctor’s hat and the regulars all seeming so happy together. And we get the Doctor being teased again about how he can’t control the TARDIS. He claims he can, he just doesn’t want to, but agrees to take them to Mars. It’s a silly, contrived cliffhanger, but compared to the story we’ve just had, it works well, and it is a fairly nice ending to a terrible story which went nowhere. The final episode was as poor as the rest, mostly involving people climbing, after a not very exciting face-off between the Doctor and Zaroff, the only good bit of which was the Doctor wanting to go back and help Zaroff (and Ben refusing to let him). It did have Ben making the most of his chance to insult the Doctor, though, which was very amusing. 3/10
Conclusion
Not the finest moment of Troughton’s era. As I mentioned at the start, this is my least favourite Troughton story. I tried to enjoy it, and look for the positives, but I struggled. It’s just dull. I like silliness, but this doesn’t have anywhere near enough to save it. The plot is absurd, and the acting is interesting, but not a lot actually happens. The fish ballet in episode three goes on forever. I think I was generous to call this a world above Toymaker. It’s not actually that much better, saved only by the regulars all being fantastic, and Troughton’s Doctor being brilliant to watch at all times. Still, as this is my least favourite Troughton story, things can only get better. Let's go off to the moon!
Average rating: 3
Old Rating: 4
New Rating: 3
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