DOCTOR WHO:  UNDERWORLD

commentary by Judy Harris

visit my home page at http://judyharris.net/index.htm

or E-mail me at foosie@bestweb.net

index of all Tom Baker WHO stories:  http://judyharris.net/whoindex.htm

#22:  UNDERWORLD (4 Parts)	
ORIGINALLY AIRED:  1/7/78 to 1/28/78
WRITTEN BY:  Bob Baker and Dave Martin
DIRECTED BY:  Norman Stewart
PRODUCER:  Graham Williams	
SCRIPT EDITOR:  Anthony Read

In Britain, where DOCTOR WHO is shown on a first run basis weekly during a 24-week season, it is popular among fans to pick the best and worst shows of each season. However, when the series was originally syndicated on American TV, a block of the first 4 years' worth of Tom Baker stories was shown continuously, so American fans have less of an inclination to think in terms of the best story of a particular season.

Of those first four years of Tom Baker stories--which I think of as the vintage Bakers--UNDERWORLD is by far the worst. The plot is not very interesting. It's basically a reworking of Jason and the Argonauts, but whereas previous shows had been partly based on the plots of recognizable works of cinema or literature, such as FORBIDDEN PLANET or FRANKENSTEIN, this show really rubbed the viewers' nose in the similarities.

UNDERWORLD has no interesting monsters and, in fact, no interesting characters at all. It's hard to tell one character from another. Many of them wear a black costume with a black mask, so there is no way to tell them apart.

Finally, the Color Separation Overlay work is very bad. The models of the underground caverns are not bad, but they are all dark and dreary, and when the live action performers are joined with these miniatures, the backgrounds look very drab and fakey.

Leela is at the controls of the TARDIS (putting a final nail in the coffin of the myth of isomorphic controls--see PYRAMIDS OF MARS for details). The TARDIS stops. The Doctor enters from another room, wearing an artist's beret and smock and carrying a large paint brush.

The Doctor activates the scanner, which shows nothing--just blackness. "That's intensely interesting; do you realize there's nowhere to go?" the Doctor tells Leela. "We're on the edge of the cosmos, the frontiers of creation, the boundary between what is and isn't--or isn't yet, anyway." The Doctor feels like a goldfish looking out on a new world.

Leela and the Doctor argue about how interesting nothing is, while K9 observes they are not alone. His receptors indicate a space craft with an ion drive is in the vicinity at location 34701175005.

Suddenly the nothing on the scanner is replaced by a whirling mass of brilliant light. "Leela, that's a spiral nebula, a gas cloud coalescing to form a whole new star system. It's sucking in everything around it like a gigantic whirlpool, including us," the Doctor says.

K9 gives the escape coordinates to get away from the nebula; they are identical to the location of the ion drive space craft. The TARDIS materializes aboard this unrealistically roomy patrol vessel, the R1C. The commander is Jackson; his crew of 3 includes Herrick, Orfe and Tala, a very old woman. They hear the sound of the TARDIS and record it to run it through Ident.

The Doctor, Leela and K9 exit the TARDIS. The Doctor picks up an artifact and reads "Made in Minyos" on it. He decides they're probably on a Minyan patrol vessel. K9 says the isotope decay rate indicates the artifact is in the 100K range--100,000 years old. The Doctor tells Leela, "The Minyan civilization was destroyed 100,000 years ago on the other side of the Universe."

The Minyans have identified the TARDIS noise as a Relative Dimensional Stabilizer in materialization phase, used in "time ships of the gods."

"It's what happened on Minyos that led to our policy of nonintervention," the Doctor tells Leela. "Well, the Minyans thought of us as gods, you see, which was all very flattering when we were new at space-time exploration, so we thought we could help. Gave them medicine and scientific aid, better communications, better weapons." The Minyans then kicked the Time Lords out at gun point and went to war with each other, "learned how to split the atom, discovered the toothbrush and finally split the planet," the Doctor concludes.

The patrol vessel is on a sweep which takes it close to the nebula, as part of its quest. The ship is very old; its control gets stuck on maximum; the craft is headed into the nebula. The turbulence tosses everyone to the floor, damaging K9's blaster. Leela blows the door open with a shield gun she finds. The Doctor tells her it's a Lieberman maser, which fires charged particles along a laser beam. He advises her to switch the safety catch off and never to play with strange weapons.

The Doctor arrives on the command deck and, when he admits he's a Time Lord, Herrick attacks him. Leela threatens Herrick with the maser. Orfe shoots Leela and Herrick, who both thank him and immediately become calm. They've been shot by a Pacifier; since Leela is a primitive, the effect could last several hours.

Jackson tells the Doctor the equipment is worn out; the ship and crew have been on their mission 100,000 years. Each crew member has regenerated 1000 times plus. Tala has collapsed and Herrick takes her to Regen. She emerges looking young--in her 20s.

One of the crystals powering the ship shatters. Jackson says it's the end of their quest--the search for the P7E, a missing space ship, carrying the Minyan race bank.

The Doctor summons K9, whom he introduces as his second best friend. The Doctor hooks power cables up to K9's ears and tells him he's in charge and is to avoid the nebula.

The Doctor talks Leela out of the effects of the Pacifier. With the ship back on full power, they pick up a signal from the P7E. It's coming from the nebula, so Jackson heads the ship there.

The Doctor says, "She must have been there at the beginning and the nebula formed around her," which is "elementary physics--the still center of a raging storm." Jackson is willing to risk destruction for his quest. The Doctor tells K9 to stop, so Herrick grabs him. Leela pulls her knife, so Jackson threatens them all with the shield gun, ordering the Doctor to tell K9 to go on.

The Doctor and Leela are locked on the flight deck in carbo magnetic seat locks. The Doctor explains, "We're being sucked through a layer of meteorites; they're smashing us to pieces."

When the heat shields are lowered, there's no visibility, and the ship loses acceleration. The hull thickness has increased from 3 to 70 meters. The ship is being turned into a planet because of gravity. "The ship's a large, heavy object surrounded by smaller, lighter objects. Our gravitational pull is greater than theirs. We attract them; they stick to us; it all snowballs," the Doctor explains the ship is being buried alive. This is demonstrated in a nice miniature. "If it weren't for this layer of debris, the asteroid belt would have smashed us to pieces. Still, you can't have everything, can you?" the Doctor says.

He suggests trying to blast a tunnel with the laser cannon and blow their way out on ion drive. It will use up all the reserve fuel, but they try it and it works. They pick up the P7E signal again; it's right in the middle of the nebula; a planet has formed around it. They crash into it at mach 12, but fortunately, "it's a soft planet in the process of formation; only the core will be solid, and with any luck, this stuff should slow us down so we don't hit with too much of a bang," the Doctor says.

On the planet, the R1C crash has caused a skyfall--a cave in. The planet, which has no name, has four social levels:

	The Trogs, who do all the mining work
	The Guards, whose duty is security
	The Seers, whose duty is to protect the Oracle; and 
	The Oracle

The Guards and Seers are dressed identically in black or grey with hoods that have multiple eyeholes.

Idmon tries to get some help from the other Trogs to dig his family out from under the skyfall, but the guards come to arrest him. His son Idas runs off.

Jackson and Herrick try to exit but the way is blocked by solid rock--igneous hematite. The Doctor tells Leela new planets have a molten slurry around a solid core. He suggests using a shield gun to blast the rock. Herrick clears the entrance. He sees a surveillance device outside and realizes the planet is inhabited. The Minyans leave on their quest; the Doctor and Leela, uninvited, follow. The Doctor detects radiation: "Igneous rock core, new planet--bound to be radiation," he tells Leela.

While the Doctor reminisces about Aberdeen, the Granite City, and how organisms can adapt to any environment, Leela catches sight of Idas and his pursuers. The Doctor whistles and he and Leela draw the guards away, allowing Idas to enter the R1C. The Doctor and Leela hide in a mine car, and the guards give up the search. They decide to close down the tunnels and fumigate them. The Doctor and Leela return to the ship and find Idas, whose leg is wounded.

Jackson sends Herrick ahead to reconnoiter. Klimt sees him and they fire on each other. Herrick knocks Klimt out.

The Doctor tends to Idas' wound and asks Leela to unplug K9. The Doctor tells Idas the ship comes from the stars. Idas replies his father, Idmon, spoke of a prophecy about travelers from the stars. Idmon is going to be sacrificed to the Oracle.

Fumigation starts; gas comes out a vent in the wall. Idas sees the gas entering the ship and thinks it's a trap to kill him, so he attacks the Doctor. He's overcome by the gas, so Leela takes him to the command deck. The Doctor goes out to see if he can stop the gas, using his scarf as protection for his nose and mouth.

He finds the equipment controlling the gas. "Whatever blows can be sucked," he says, using his sonic screwdriver to reset the direction the flow. It works; the gas reverses, causing the guards to pass out back at the control center.

On the ship, Idas recognizes the command deck as "the Citadel" and says his people have one also, where the Seers live and where sacrifices are held. Idas doesn't want to see his father sacrificed, so he tells the Doctor there's no time to get to the Citadel. "No time?," the Doctor snaps, "Don't say that to me--I'm a Time Lord!"

Leela, K9, Idas and the Doctor set off at a leisurely pace. K9 makes a map of the tunnel. The Doctor sends K9 to find Jackson and have him follow: "Off you go," he says.

Idas recognizes the map as "the tree." "The tree at the end of the world," the Doctor muses. Idas says a direct route to the Citadel is guarded by invisible dragons. "The tree at the end of the world's always guarded by dragons; they're fire dragons, aren't they, with tongues of flame," the Doctor states, striding off.

He gives Leela an apple from his pocket to throw at the entrance to the dragons' tunnel. It is booby trapped but Leela blasts the source and the door. There's nothing in the center--just gravity--but as they're already at the center of the planet it's zero gravity, so Idas, Leela and the Doctor just push upward on the air to float to a lower level.

In the Citadel, the sacrifice is prepared. A fire is lit which will burn through a rope, causing a sword suspended over Idmon to fall. The Oracle and the Seers chant a ritual.

The Doctor, Leela and Idas are captured and taken to the Citadel, where Idas pushes his father out of the way, just as the sword drops. Leela and the Doctor lead the trogs into the tunnels. They're hemmed in on two sides, until Herrick and the others arrive. K9 has found them and led them here. Herrick volunteers to hold off the guards, until the trogs escape. He's shot by a guard and taken away to be questioned.

One of the trogs, Naia, tells Leela the rock is used for fuel and reprocessed into food. "Did I ever tell you about the time I went to Blackpool," the Doctor irrelavently asks, "If they process rock, they must take it in somewhere." The Doctor tells Leela the trogs and the guards are the descendants of the Minyans from the P7E.

The Doctor checks out the Crusher. He's got a plan but it's not original. "A fellow called Ulysses pulled it off a little while ago," he says.

Herrick is tortured by the Seers, who don't believe he's from Minyas. Herrick tells him they seek the race bank containing the genetic inheritance of the Minyan people. The Seers say the guards and the slaves are of true Minyan descent. They remove their masks to reveal they are robots.

Idmon pushes the Doctor and Leela in a mine cart toward the Crusher. He slips and the cart tips them into the Crusher, but they manage to catch hold of the edge, and dangle dangerously in place. Jackson's people attack and overpower the guards, but not before they set off an alarm. The Doctor and Leela are rescued, but must find another way into the Citadel.

The Doctor sends K9 back to the ship. He, Leela and Idas find a vent, which leads to the Citadel.

The Seers decide to give the Minyans the race bank if they will leave. Herrick describes this as 2 solid gold cylinders, stamped with the mark of Minyos, the length of a man's hand. The Oracle, which is a disembodied female voice, produces two cylinders. They're given to Herrick, who hands them over to Jackson. The quest is over. The Minyans return to their ship.

The Doctor, Leela and Idas enter the Citadel. The Oracle calls itself a god and claims to have created itself and be all powerful. "You're just another machine with megalomania," the Doctor tells it, "Another insane object, another self-aggrandizing artifact. You're nothing, nothing but a mass of superheated junk with delusions of grandeur."

This tirade achieves the Doctor's intent of forcing the Oracle into boasting it's the Keeper of the Race Bank. The Doctor uses the ceremonial sword to pry open a panel which contains the real race bank cylinders. He grabs these and he, Leela and Idas leave through the vent. As the Oracle rants, "Destroy," the Doctor says, "No hard feelings."

The guards close down the tunnel and collapse it, trapping Leela, Idas and the Doctor in a cave in. Jackson sends K9 to find them and tell them the ship is taking off. K9 tracks them down and blasts them out. "What kept you, K9?" the Doctor asks. "Gratitude is unnecessary," K9 replies.

The Doctor arrives at the R1C in time to stop the blastoff. He gives Jackson the true race bank cylinders. K9 says the cylinders Herrick brought back are fission grenades, impossible to defuse, with explosive contents in excess of 2,000 megatons.

The Doctor returns to the caverns and gives the cylinders to Rask, telling him they're the wrong ones, but Rask doesn't believe him. Leela arrives and shoots the guards holding the Doctor. He tells the remaining Trogs to get to the ship: "Off you go now."

Rask returns the cylinders to the Oracle, who replaces them in their compartment.

Jackson tries to eject the Trogs from the ship because they're low on fuel (food must be pretty low after 100,000 years as well). The Doctor tells him these are his people, descendants of the Minyans from the P7E. The planet is going to explode any minute.

The ship takes off. The Oracle discovers the cylinders are the fission grenades and demands the Seers get rid of them. The R1C runs out of fuel and has no power to reach escape velocity because of the added weight of the extra people on board.

The Oracle realizes it has failed in its duty and deserves destruction. One of the Seers opens a fission grenade, which explodes, destroying the planet. The blast propels the R1C away; it heads toward Minyos 2, a mere 370-year trip.

The Doctor, Leela and K9 leave. "Goodbye, Jason," the Doctor calls. Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor redons his painter's beret and smock. "Why did you call him Jason?" Leela asks. "Jason was another captain on a long quest," the Doctor says. "He was looking for the Golden Fleece. He found it hanging on a tree at the end of the world. Perhaps those myths are not just old stories of the past, you see, but prophecies of the future; who knows? What do you think, K9?" the Doctor asks.

"Negative," K9 replies, breaking the Doctor's poetic mood. He stalks off to paint, while Leela kisses K9.

Jimmy Gardner, who plays Idmon, played Chenchu in the Hartnell story MARCO POLO.

James Marcus, who plays Rask, played a Peasant in the Pertwee story INVASION OF THE DINOSAURS.

Jay Neill, who plays Klimt, played Silvey in the Tom Baker story THE INVISIBLE ENEMY.

Frank Jarvis, who plays Ankh, played a Corporal in the Hartnell story THE WAR MACHINES and Skart in a future Tom Baker story THE POWER OF KROLL.

Richard Shaw, who plays Lahk, played Cross in the Pertwee story FRONTIER IN SPACE and Lobos in the Hartnell story THE SPACE MUSEUM.