The Doctor and his friends find themselves in the lost city of Atlantis, where the crazed Professor Zaroff has convinced the people of Atlantis that he can raise their sunken city from beneath the sea. However, the Doctor discovers a terrible secret behind Zaroff's plan — a secret that could destroy all life on Earth.
It’s worth noting that the first and last parts are reconstructions. The Underwater Menace is a spiritual sequel to The Web Planet, in the sense that this is an overly ambitious slog. It takes a really remarkable feat to make a story that involves a mad scientist in Atlantis turning humans into fish people so incredibly dull. The story is mixture of spy thriller, religious sacrifice, ballet and disaster film but isn’t particularly effective at any of theses elements. In part it’s the lack of focus that makes this so unengaging, but let’s not dismiss the fact the villain’s plot making no sense (blowing up the world purely because he’s crazy), the use of three companions (which means none of them are particularly fleshed out or productive), the pointlessness of the fishpeople (and their dance sequence) and most importantly of all the poor production values. I admire that Doctor Who attempts to tell ambitious stories, but surely it was clear on the budget the show had that the effects req
