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Underworld

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Underworld
Series: Doctor Who - TV Stories
Season Number: Season 15
Story Number: 96
Doctor: Fourth Doctor
Companions: Leela
K9
Enemy: The Oracle
Setting: the P7E and R1C
Writer: Bob Baker and
Dave Martin
Director: Norman Stewart
Producer: Graham Williams
Broadcast: 7th January - 28th January 1978
Format: 4 25-minute Episodes
Prod. Code: 4Y
Previous Story: The Sun Makers
Following Story: The Invasion of Time
"The Quest is the Quest."
―Jackson

Underworld was the penultimate story of Season 15, and the first over which script editor Anthony Read had complete creative control. Read had requested that writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin make the script explicitly allegorical of the ancient myth of Jason and the Quest for the Golden Fleece.

Beyond this, though, Underworld was unusual in number of regards. Perhaps most obviously, it was the serial that used by far the most colour separation overlay (CSO) in the programme's history. Rampant inflation had eaten away at the budget for the back half of the season, and using CSO in virtually every shot of Underworld was the only feasible way to preserve production of The Invasion of Time. It also advanced the mythos of the Time Lords, by explaining the origin of their non-interference policy. Ultimately, though, these novelties may not have impressed the average Doctor Who fan. According to one large, if unscientific, poll, Underworld was the worst adventure starring Tom Baker, and one of the five worst of all time.[1]

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives on a Minyan space craft, the R1C, commanded by a man named Jackson. Jackson and his crew are on a long quest to recover the Minyan race banks from a ship called the P7E which left their planet centuries ago. The Doctor helps to free the R1C after it becomes buried in a meteorite storm, but it then crashes into another newly-formed planet.

Inside the planet is a system of caves at the heart of which is the P7E. The P7E's computer, the Oracle, was programmed to protect the race banks but subsequently went insane and - with the aid of its servants, the Seers - imposed its rule upon the Minyan survivors and their descendants. It allows Jackson to take what appear to be the race banks, but they are actually imitations containing fission grenades.

The Doctor realises the deception and obtains the genuine race banks. He then tricks the Oracle's guards into taking the grenades back to their leader. The resulting explosion destroys the planet and the P7E and boosts the R1C off on a voyage to Minyos II, carrying with it the Minyan survivors.

[edit] Plot

to be added

[edit] Cast

[edit] Crew

[edit] References

  • The Minyans, when living on Minyos, accepted Time Lord technology, then kicked them out by force, went to war and destroyed their world, 100,000 years previously.
  • Minyans can regenerate thousands of times, with mechanical help, but retain the same persona each time.
  • The Doctor has been to Aberdeen and Blackpool.

[edit] Story Notes

  • The Minyan spacecraft set turned out to be more expensive than anticipated thus almost all other scenes were created using CSO.
  • The story is a very obvious play on the story of Jason and the Argonauts as the names of various characters are quite similar: Jackson/Jason, Herrick/Heracles, Tala/Atalanta, Orfe/Orpheus, Minyos/Minos, R1C/Argossey, P7E/Persephone.
  • This story had a working title of Underground.

[edit] Ratings

  • Part 1 - 8.9 million viewers
  • Part 2 - 9.1 million viewers
  • Part 3 - 8.9 million viewers
  • Part 4 - 11.7 million viewers

[edit] Myths

  • Imogen Bickford-Smith was going to replace Louise Jameson as the Doctor's companion. Though an actual news story at the time, it was a complete fabrication of the actor's agent, who had gotten wind of Jameson's impending departure. Producer Graham Williams never considered retaining Bickford-Smith beyond Underworld.

[edit] Filming Locations

[edit] Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

  • The climax to episode one relies on some very odd ideas about the laws of gravity. Particles of rock would not typically be attracted so rapidly to the hull of such a small spaceship, unless some additional force(s) were at work.
  • How does firing the ships laser canons (presumably in a fixed direction) shift the rock from the whole of the hull?

[edit] Continuity

  • Further information is revealed of Minyos in BFG: The Inquiry.
  • In DW: Mawdryn Undead there is seen another example of Time Lord technology allowing for perpetual regeneration.

[edit] Timeline

[edit] Video and DVD Releases

Released as Doctor Who: Underworld.

VHS release:

DVD release:

[edit] Novelisation

Main article: Doctor Who and the Underworld

Novelised as Doctor Who and the Underworld by Terrance Dicks in 1980.

[edit] References

  1. ↑ Doctor Who Dynamic Rankings - filter for the Fourth Doctor's stories to see how Underworld ranks.
  2. ↑ Bob Baker talks about the K9 series

[edit] External Links

Season 15
Horror of Fang Rock  • The Invisible Enemy  • Image of the Fendahl  • The Sun Makers  • Underworld  • The Invasion of Time

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