“Underworld” is an adventure of the fifteenth season of “Doctor Who” classic series which aired in 1978. It follows “The Sun Makers” and it’s a four parts adventure written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin and directed by Norman Stewart.
The story
The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) brings Leela (Louise Jameson) to the edge of the universe, where they encounter a Minyan starship, whose crew has been looking for the other survivors of their planet for a hundred thousand years, especially for the genetic bank of their species they could use to give their civilization a new beginning.
The Minyan starship enters a nebula in which the crew localized the signal from the other survivors but the material that compose it is attracted to the ship forming a planetoid around it. At the center of the planetoid they find the other Minyan spaceship and discover that they use the rocks to create fuel and food but most of the population are slaves.
Extras
This DVD contains a limited amount of extras. There are typical contents such as production subtitles, Radio Times Billings, a trailer about the next “Doctor Who” DVDs to be released and a gallery of pictures from this adventure.
There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonists Tom Baker and Louise Jameson and co-author Bob Baker.
Into the Unknown. A documentary on the production of this adventure focused on its extensive use of the Colour Separation Overlay (CSO) technology.
Underworld – In The Studio. Some clips of the time showing the shooting of this adventure which give us an idea of how they did it using the CSO technology.
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In the production of “Doctor Who” classic series it was normal to have budget issues but in some cases these problems were almost insurmountable. In the late ’70s in UK there was a high inflation rate so the budget at the beginning of a season had a value significantly greater than at the end of the season.
The budget available for the production of “Underworld” was very limited even by the standards of the time. One extreme possibility was to cancel that adventure but to a producer that was a really hard choice to consider. In that situation they tried to invent some way to cut costs and in that case it was decided to heavily use the Colour Separation Overlay (CSO) technology, in those days typically used in a limited way.
A good part of “Underworld” is set in caves and shooting all those scenes in location would’ve cost a lot. Shooting the scenes in a set using the CSO technology to superimpose the images of the actors to the ones of the virtual caves allowed them to save a lot of money.
The result was far from perfect and in some scenes various parts of the actors vanish into thin air. The biggest problem though is that the actors can’t really interact with an environment that doesn’t actually exist nor have shadows so its realism is limited. However, watching the classic “Doctor Who” series you always needed to turn a blind eye on cheap special effects.
Certainly it’s not a good thing to have so many scenes set in those virtual caves, sometimes almost as a filler. In the classic “Doctor Who” series scenes that made the pace slow were acceptable when they accompanied elements that gave strength to the story, unfortunately this isn’t the case.
In fact, the biggest problem of this adventure is in my opinion in the dullness of a story that had good potential. Its plot is heavily inspired by the story of Jason and the Argonauts with a quantity of more or less explicit references. There’s also the explanation of the origin of the Time Lords’ non-intervention policy: they provided advanced technology to the Minyans, who used it to fight each other almost to extinction.
A group of Minyan survivors traveled for a hundred thousand years looking for the genetic bank of their species to revive it but what’s supposed to be a dramatic point throughout “Underworld” eventually maybe it’s the dullest. Other adventures are also appreciated by the fans because there are actors who, through their performance, can fulfill the potential of the story, unfortunately this is not the case. In fact, in “Underworld” the actors who play the Minyans seem more bored than exhausted by a hundred thousand years of searching.
Even the story isn’t without flaws. Its base is Greek mythology but the Oracle is but a computer which due to an unexplained reason turned into a tyrant. The problem is that a computer had been used several times as a villain in “Doctor Who” and in a better way, with a greater sense of threat.
Some fans can see the good elements of “Underworld” and enjoy this adventure but in general its reputation is of a dull and boring story. I too find that unfortunately the potential of this story has been wasted in many ways and overall my judgement is rather negative.
In region 1 countries, “Underworld” DVD is sold on its own. Considering that it’s in the bottom 5 in many “Doctor Who” adventures rankings and the DVD extras are quite poor I think it’s good only for the fans who appreciate it and the ones who want to have the complete collection of DVDs.
In Region 2 and Region 4 countries this DVD is part of the “Myths & Legends” box set – available on Amazon UK
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