Season 15, Story 5/6, Serial 4Y: 4 x 25min episodes, 7th to 28th January 1978, Writers: Bob Baker & Dave Martin, Director: Norman Stewart, Script Editor: Antony Read, Producer: Graham Williams
Adele's Bond theme was inspired by the references to "Skyfall" in this story. Mendes, big fan of Williams-era Who, pinched "Skyfall" from Underworld, but only cos nothing rhymed with The Creature From the Pit.
Carl Pinckert @CarlPinckert · the quest is the quest! 
50dw50 @50dw50 · i know its supposed to be but this is a very beige and grey story, not good for depressives 
Ooh, space. Looks busy.
The TARDIS does a weird swoop through space instead of spinning...
Leela flying the TARDIS! Blimey! Not bad for a "savage"!
50dw50 @50dw50 · Leela flying the Tardis seems a tad unlikely, no wonder she breaks it"Negative dead!" Good old K9 :-)
Which Tom is it this week?
K9 has detected some pulsing.
Mark Walker @Mark_Walker · perhaps it's Leela's outfit that's done it. 
Ah, it's bad-tempered Tom. "Shut up K9!"
50dw50 @50dw50 · well he had read the script 
With just a few stars this model shot wouldn't look half as awful.
The TARDIS lands aboard the R1C; the Minyans aboard hear the materialisation and try to pinpoint it...
"Have you ever heard of the flying dutchman?" Total red herring.
50dw50 @50dw50 ·
they recognise the sound of a Tardis, note that they do all make that sound unless all Timelords leave the breaks on.
"Signal identified as relative dimensional stabiliser in materialisation phase"
So nothing to do with silly lines about breaks, then! 
One of the Minyans collapses...
That's got to be Tom's biggest ever scarf.
The Doctor tells Leela not to play with strange weapons.
The Minyans aren't too pleased to see one of their "Gods" are they?
That laser shield thing is really crap, isn't it? You can see they're trying to be different but what a bad idea
That laser shield thing is really crap, isn't it? You can see they're trying to be different but what a bad idea
50dw50 @50dw50 · the shield guns are rather fun, to be honest the design in part 1 is really good, pity it was not to last...
Orf fires a pacifier ray at Leela, and then his own crewmate, Herrick.
That pacification ray's handy. Why do they ever need guns?
Tala, the Minyan that collapsed has been youth-ed in a regenerating machine!
Matthew Kilburn @Matthew_Kilburn Ah, Imogen of the ambitious agent...
Matthew Kilburn @Matthew_Kilburn Ah, Imogen of the ambitious agent...
Aw, love it when the doctor calls K9 his 2nd best friend.
50dw50 @50dw50 · is he insulting Leela or the Tardis?
Leela is no longer pacified and throws a strop about being zapped.
50dw50 @50dw50 · a nice bit off character stuff for Leela, reports that her character deteriorated in time really is not true 
Though there's a pretty steep decline in the Invasion of Time part 6!!
I'm *already* sick of "the quest is the quest".
They're being smashed to pieces by meteorites. They'll never find the P7E at this rate.
50dw50 @50dw50 · the rocks on the windows are rather good, as is the lesson about gravity for the kiddies 
The hull starts to buckle under the weight of all the meteorites being attracted to the ship...
...but Tala's so bored she's texting.
50dw50 @50dw50 ·getting their rocks off on a saturday night. i am surprised but episode 1 is rather good!I still feel it's rather unengaging. Not enough happening, too much boring around the bridge talking about stuff happening. Tom is clearly bored shitless, and I don't blame him one bit. Terrible for an episode 1; I don't care about any of it and next to nothing has actually happened. The guest cast are alright, I'll give you that.
End of part 1, with the ship being buried!
The ships blasts free...
...so the crew live to bore another day.
50dw50 @50dw50 ·more beige on the planet of the CSO, i remember as a child thinking it all looked a bit fake, the space helmets are yuk! 
Guard 1: There's never anything on, just this boring prisoner channel.
Most of the population live as slaves digging rocks up.
Rather than attempt any sort of communication or peaceful approach, the Doctor has Jackson et al attack the guards.
Mark Walker @Mark_Walker · I wonder if it seemed as laughable at the time? 50dw50 @50dw50 · as a child i remember finding it a bit dull, amazing to think a year before Robots of Death was in the same slot 
Such a shame, as the idea of basing a story on Greek Myths is sound on paper.
Mark Walker @Mark_Walker · it is among the poorest of Tom Baker stories 
50dw50 @50dw50 · i would still rather watch this than any of season 18!I'm the opposite; every single story of s18 is better than this, even Meglos.
50dw50 @50dw50 · they did not spend much on the slaves costumes #TheVestIsTheVestThe Doctor and Leela hide in a rock cart, for... reasons.
Herrick goes for a wander to kill some time.
"Don't Trog me!"
The Doctor and Leela encounter Idas, a pathetic and boring Trog.
When the guards try to gas them all...
...Leela takes Idas to safety...
...while the Doctor tries to get the fan extractor working, and collapses in the attempt.
"Whatever blows can be sucked."
"Tom... Tom, the microphone's on... we're filming!""Whatever blows can be sucked."
Robert Holmes may have left by now, but it looks like he's nearby with his pipe, as the clouds envelope the Doctor...
So far... Part 1 - OK; Part 2 - Off the rails pretty quick. Let's see if Underworld can recover in Part 3.
Cheeky MonkeyPicture @ChkyMnkyPicture · whilst some of the time it looks rubbish, it was a brave try at a new technique.I certainly can't fault them for giving it a go, and to be fair I suppose it paved the way for later more successful work but it badly affects the performances; actors clearly not au fait with the tech, so give up taking it seriously.
Cheeky MonkeyPicture @ChkyMnkyPicture · totally agree. It's also the early stages of the whole technique of actors against a full green screen room used so much now. its one of the productions that introduces the idea to actors. TV actors having to be more like stage actors!50dw50 @50dw50 · the guards are very poor, amdram acting at its worst. i have a memory of drawing when this was on and one of my sisters trying to get my attention with "look a robot". the young slave whose name i cannot be bothered to remember is giving a nice performanceIdas? Bit of a wet lettuce.
Tom's totally disinterested in this story and seems not to care who knows it.
He's talking to the camera again. Never a good sign. Means the script bores him and he feels the need to jazz it up.
He and K9 set about tracking down the P7E and the race banks.
Jackson and his bunch of bores shoot through a wall to track down Herrick.
The Doctor, Leela and Idas follow the map and find a chamber that will allow them to simply float down to the nerve centre...
The floaty music's quite jolly. Raises a smile as opposed to everything else raising a groan, anyway. Tom flapping his scarf like wings is just plain stupid, though.
It's quite hard to care about the trogs really. By this point they hadn't had a hit in years.
50dw50 @50dw50 · Tee hee! The Trogs!The Trogs are in full revolt now, and with alarms sounding, Herrick and Leela start gunning down the guards.
The picture quality whenever there's a video effect is noticeably poorer. Bad production choices.
The guards stun and capture Herrick and take him for interrogation.
The guards don't believe Herrick is from Minyos and claim that *they* are the only survivors.
Those poor trogs don't even have the strength to move a wooden trolley of polystyrene.
The red eyes in the guards helmets are really weird. It's a CSO effect isn't it? Probably the one CSO effect that works in this story; the picture wobble actually makes their eyes look like flickering flames.
I think they should have done the guards up like skeletons to echo Harryhausen.
The Trogs dump the hiding Doctor and Leela down the rock chute!
Oh. End of Part 3. Er... good? I mean good that it's ended.
The Doctor and Leela hang on...
...and are hauled up when Jackson and co. storm in.
The guards offer a deal; leave with what you came for and leave us to our ways so if they want the race banks they have to abandon the descendants of Minyos to their fate as slaves.
"The quest is over!" says Herrick. "Thank f*** for that!" says the audience, but it keeps on going.
Charles Auchterlonie @Geniussssss · the quest is the quest!The Doctor realizes they've been given dud race banks so decides to take them back for a refund.
"Get rid of them! Get rid of them!" The oracle works for the BBC's archives.
So the day is saved...
...and the Doctor gets to call Jackson Jason to sledgehammer what the source of the story is.
"Can he paint?" I'd like to see K9 paint. Ah, well, that's that. Not the complete horror story some say but it commits the cardinal sin of being boring, which is much worse than having a bit of dodgy CSO.
I remember RTD wrote a piece in DWM about re-evaluating Underworld and being pleasantly surprised that he found something to enjoy after years of disliking it. Well I have to say I am still not there! I've tried a few times now and it still totally fails to grab or hold my attention. Easily my least favourite Tom Baker story, I think.
Nick Mellish @nickmellish · Underworld is a brave experiment. It's also shit.
I find it immensely hard work. Not "so naff it's hilarious" either; just plain dull. Instantly forgettable.
Nick Mellish @nickmellish · One of my least favourites by far. I appreciate the effort, but it fails for me. A pity.TTFN, K.
Coming Soon: Carnival of Monsters
I always liked the mythology in this story. It gives us a glimpse at the early behavior of the Gallifreyans when they became lords of time, learning lessons about not interfering. I also liked the idea of the perverted, turned to planet, lost ship with the demented computer "goddess" and her robots (those aren't helmets). I liked the shield guns too, including how they are also shown as "corrupted" versions on the planet/lost ship, missing their shields (like the purpose of them was forgotten by someone who mindlessly maintained them over the centuries).
ReplyDeleteYeah, the CSO was bad. The spacesuit helmets were beyond rubbish (looks only marginally better than the space pirates helmets in Terminus). The space stuff was pretty good, though, with decent models and visuals.