The one where Atlantis rises, fish people dance, and the Doctor’s wig game gets even stronger.
Short Synopsis
The Doctor, Ben, Polly, and brand-new kilted tagalong Jamie land in Atlantis. Unfortunately, the locals are being terrorized by Professor Zaroff, a mad scientist whose plan is so bonkers it makes the Daleks look reasonable: he wants to drain the oceans into the Earth’s core and blow the planet sky-high. As plans go, it’s not exactly subtle. Cue disguises, rebellions, and an awful lot of gill-based costuming.
Extended Storyline
Fresh from the Scottish moors, the TARDIS crew decide it’s time for a beach holiday — only to end up smack in the middle of Atlantis. Not the mythic paradise, mind you, but an underwater city full of paranoid priests, gullible rulers, and glittery costumes that scream “school panto budget.”
Our heroes are swiftly captured (surprise, surprise) and dragged before Professor Zaroff. Played with eye-popping gusto by Joseph Furst, Zaroff is a scientist so mad he makes Victor Frankenstein look like a cautious bureaucrat. His plan? Drain the oceans into the Earth’s molten core, destroy the planet, and… laugh a lot. Honestly, that’s the whole plan. He doesn’t even want money or power — he just wants to see it all blow up. Respect the commitment, if nothing else.
The Doctor, naturally, isn’t impressed. But Polly is less than thrilled when she learns she’s earmarked for some good old-fashioned Atlantean surgery to become a Fish Person. (And you thought your office dress code was bad.) Luckily, the Doctor and Ben manage to spring her from the operating table just in time, with Jamie tagging along in wide-eyed confusion, still adjusting to life after Culloden.
Meanwhile, the Fish People themselves — humans surgically modified with gills and fins to work as slave labor — stage an underwater ballet strike. Their big rebellion scene is supposed to be powerful, but it mostly looks like a synchronized swimming routine gone wrong, complete with sparkly costumes and excessive waving about.
The Doctor concocts a plan to expose Zaroff’s scheme, infiltrating Atlantis while pretending to be — you guessed it — yet another eccentric authority figure. (At this point, Troughton may as well have kept a trunk of disguises in the TARDIS.) Polly and Ben stir up rebellion, while Jamie proves surprisingly handy at helping with the whole “don’t drown” thing.
Eventually, Zaroff’s master plan gets its dramatic comeuppance: the city floods, Atlantis crumbles, and the villain himself dies shouting the immortal line, “NOTHING IN THE WORLD CAN STOP ME NOW!” Spoiler: something stopped him. Specifically, walls of water.
The Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jamie escape back to the TARDIS, dripping wet but triumphant. Atlantis, however, probably wishes they’d just stuck to postcards.