For a long time we had no idea if these Doctor Who animations would continue in anyway shape or form. As such it came as a complete surprise when the BBC dropped the teaser trailer announcing that we would be getting new missing storyline fully animated and well as we really have quite a bit of a tradition of reviewing these new animations as when it's possible to do so you all just know that I had to review this classic episode the very first chance that I got and so then join me as I review the episode that really is the most OK Patrick Troughton Doctor Who story released thus far with the episode in question being called simply just "The Underwater Menace" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is The Doctor , Jamie , Polly and Ben find themselves in Atlantis and have to stop a mad scientist who wants to raise Atlantis in a way that could mean the end of all life on earth itself. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty just OK which is a shame as the episode had alot of potential to be really one of the greatest Doctor Who plots out there and yet really every aspect of the episodes plot just really feels either rather undercooked or just really underwhelming at best with the plot of the episode being not that really entertaining and not that really engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Patrick Troughton as The Doctor , Anneke Wills as Polly and Michael Craze as Ben Jackson. Also starring in this episode is Frazer Hines as Jamie McCrimmon , Joseph Furst as Zaroff , Colin Jeavons as Damon , Noel Johnson as King Thous , Tom Watson as Ramo , Peter Stephens as Lolem , Gerald Taylor as Damon's Assistant , Catherine Howe as Ara , P.G. Stephens as Sean , Paul Anil as Jacko , Roma Woodnutt as Nola , Graham Ashley as The Overseer and Tony Handy as Zaroff's Guard.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was on all honesty not that that bad. With alot of the episodes cast doing the best that they can do with the material that's been given to them the issue is tho is that the episodes script given the cast nothing to work interms of what their respective characters personalities are even meant to be and as such the cast can't really turn in a good performance as the episodes really just won't allow the cast to do so as the episodes script is just that bad.
Try is I might I cannot find out which animation company did the animation for this episode anywhere online. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us un this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. However that's also the issue as the animation in this episode isn't that good either as there episodes that have better animation with the animation in this episode really feeling very cheap which of course isn't the fault of the animation team as the BBC don't give the animations teams alot of time and alot of money to make these animations look that good and while this animation really does have some nice looking visuals the animation itself really isn't as good as it perhaps could or maybe really even should have been.
Sadly as with alot of the early Doctor Who episodes there are some episodes missing from this story with this episodes missing episodes one and for. With this episode being one of the very few Patrick Troughton stories to have quite alot of it's story still existing with this being a case where making the whole thing animated does make alot of sense as it would have been jarring going from photograph reconstruction to fully animated episodes and back again and while it would be nice if the remaining two episodes were found as it it's always nice to have fully completed Doctor Who episodes there sadly due to the fact that this episode isn't that much of a fan favorite that's not something that I can see happening anytime soon which is a shame but it's also rather understandable as there are alot of episodes that are sadly still missing.
This episode is full to the brim with wasted potential as the episodes writer Geoffrey Orme being deemed a safe bet for a good writer by the production team. However with this script he just doesn't turn in a good story as the story lacked any stakes with there being no reason whatsoever for The Doctor and his companions to remain in Atlantis as they could left at any time during the stories first episode this is made even worse when you take into account that this was his only script for the show which means that he had no chance to take what huge learned from this script and apply it to the next script and then there the episodes director Julia Smith who is directing her last episode for the show and who here just feels lost like she doesn't understand the material and isn't really trying to turn in a good episode.
Rather shockingly there are quite a few dark moments in this episodes with there being an implied stabbing which results in us seeing blood. On top of that we also see a character getting shot in the chest which again results in us seeing blood all of which are thinks that were rather unexpected as they were things you don't usually expect to see in Doctor Who in general let alone classic Doctor Who and so it came as a complete shock to see them here in this episode and while it was shocking to see them in this episode it also felt out of place this stories main villain really doesn't seem like the type of character that would stab or shoot anyone as he instead feels like the the of character who would hire people to do those things for him as he's a showman with a bit of an ego which means that he really wouldn't let anyone stop him from completing his work and if that really means letting other people stab and shoot his enemies for him then so be it.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever this episodes grand total running time even was I do know for a fact that this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly one hour and thirty seven minuets. Which isn't a bad running time for this episode to have but at the same time tho the story does start to drag quite a bit during episode two with alot of episode two not really being that important to the actual plot of the episode as a whole which is a shame as the story did have the potential to be a really good Doctor Who with this not really helped by the fact that the episode doesn't really have alot of plot to cover that large of running time which means that this episode really should have been around two episodes long but on the flip side of that if this episode was longer it would allow for things to move at a more natural pace and it would allow for the story and characters to be more fully developed but I will admit that for the most the episode does have some fairly good pacing to it.
So ow then as this is an action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in his very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As the episodes only fight scene was really done considering that classic Doctor Who very rarely if ever did fight scenes and yet for the time that they had to put together a small fight scene what we did get worked really well for the episode and was a really solid small and short fight scene in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall while it is great to see that these Doctor Who animations are continuing this one really wasn't that strong of an episode which is a shame because what little good things in this episode really do make the episode worth watching in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that means that this very episode earns itself a grand old score of exactly a 5.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page , Amazon . Co . Uk and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episode that I used in this very review being Google Images simply just due to the fact that alot of the images that are on Google Images are all really fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.