Day 147: The Underwater Menace Episode 3

The video clip at the top of this entry represents so much about this story. Because it really gets a wonderful chance to showcase the villain of the piece, Professor Zaroff, who has obviously gone on diving tours of French rivers, which is to say, he is completely In-Seine. But what's interesting about his insanity is how brutally it is portrayed. We see a man who is relatively in control of his actions at the start of the adventure, but he slowly loses it until, at the end of episode 3, he comes out with "NOTHING IN THE WORLD CAN STOP ME NOW!". Not that this insanity comes from nowhere, given that he is a man who is aiming to destroy the world not for revenge, but for the achievement of being the guy who blew up the Earth. So, what we have here is a character who is written and portrayed as hammily as possible, but is this actually a bad thing? On the one hand, it stretches credulity for the storyline, drawing to attention the fact that it is just a cheap BBC programme, where actors don't go to to engage with dramatic material, they just do it for a bit of fun. But, on the other hand, it is remarkably fun. And it's difficult to deny whilst watching Professor Zaroff go insane that you can't help but smile at what's happening, and that means that the series has the ability to not just have actors having fun on the set, but for this to translate through the screen to the audience. And that is part of why Doctor Who is successful, in that it can be an incredible amount of fun to watch. The question that has been over our heads for the past couple of weeks remains though, of whether Doctor Who can survive without William Hartnell. The answer is obvious though, as the show will now continue and continue. You see, NOTHING IN THE WORLD CAN STOP IT NOW!!