Okay, so first up, this story has the most ridiculous attempts at costume and makeup, ever. It’s actually a little painful. However, this blog is not about the quality of the production it’s about stories and dialogue, but I just need to get that out of the way first…
So, we somehow discover Atlantis. It’s been under the water all this time. And there’s people there trying to get it to the surface. That’s fair, right? And there’s a bloke who, for no readily apparent reason, wants to blow up the earth. Just because he can.
It is upon that rather shaky premise that the foundations of this story - such as they are - are set.
The odd thing about this story is that the seriously daft story set up is actually punctuated with some fantastic lines.
“Go on Polly, you speak foreign”
“Women and children last”
“I’ve never seen him go for food like this. It’s usually hats”
The story somehow clunks along, with some of the most ridiculous costumes imaginable (and hats that wouldn’t look out of place in a primary school play about weird looking fish) but it’s frankly the dialogue that saves it being utter crap.
The main villain, who’s plan is patently absurd, does at least have the courtesy to completely over play the role. Frankly, the line, “Nothing in the world can stop me now” is delivered in such an utterly perfect manner you forget, very briefly, the fact that it’s also utter tosh.
Very strange story this. It’s hard to take the whole premise seriously but the dialogue has its moments and for the first time Troughton does seem to start to feel like The Doctor. There’s a lot of affection between the team and it reminds me how much I love it when the Doctor has an ensemble around him. We can only hope the ensemble gets something better to work with next time…
5/10 – Not terrible but certainly not good. Points for dialogue only and a few nice double entendres tucked away in there..,.