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In August 1966, writer Geoffrey Orme submitted a script to the Doctor Who production office

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entitled Under the Sea. The story was commissioned, but the production team soon realized that

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this ambitious script would be difficult to produce on the standard Doctor Who budget.

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Orme's story was dropped in favor of The Imps by Galaxy 4 writer William Eames. Unfortunately,

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Eames fell ill and was unable to complete the script. So the production team elected

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to reintroduce Orme's story, which was at this point known as The Fish People. The story

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underwent a succession of hasty rewrites to reduce the cast numbers and also to introduce

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new regular companion Jamie McCrimmon. But the late decision to continue with Orme's

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scripts meant that the serial was late going into production. By the time location filming

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began in December 1966, the serial had acquired its final title of The Underwater Menace.

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Windspit Caverns in Dorset were used for the establishing shots of the volcanic island

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and the sequences featuring the series regulars in the first and last episodes. The studio

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sequences were filmed in Ealing Television Film Studios, utilizing the facility's water

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tank for material involving the fish people, plus the drowning of Professor Zaroff. The

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underwater swimming sequences featuring the fish people were achieved by having the artists

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playing the creatures suspended by wires. The additional effects of back projection

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and slow motion helped to create the illusion of being underwater.

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Several of the cast members who featured in The Underwater Menace have notable links with

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other Doctor Who stories. King Thousand Atlantis was played by Noel Johnson, who was better

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known as the voice of Dick Barton in the famous radio serial Dick Barton's Special Agent.

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He would later play Charles Grover, MP, in the John Pertwee story Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

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High Priest Lolan, played by Peter Stevens, had appeared in the surreal William Hartner

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story The Celestial Toymaker, where he had taken three roles as the knave of Harts, the

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kitchen boy and the Billy Bunter type character Cyril.

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Scientist Damon, played by Colin Jemans, returned to the world of Doctor Who in 1981 to play

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George Tracy in T9 and Company.

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Remaining on Earth, the TARDIS leaves the highlands of 18th century Scotland and arrives

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on a small volcanic island sometime after 1968. The Doctor and his companions soon find

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themselves in the lost city of Atlantis. But is Atlantis really the idyllic city of legend?