In the seventies,
Doctor Who started using a special effects process called colour-separation overlay (CSO), an early form of green screen technology. The results weren't always convincing, but it allowed the budget-conscious show to put actors into any number of exotic locales. When done well, CSO was hardly noticeable. When done poorly, CSO could be very distracting. The
Underworld serial is a prime example of bad CSO. A lot of
Underworld, fittingly, takes place underground in caves. But instead of filming in actual caves, which had been done well in earlier stories like
The Mutants and
Revenge of the Cybermen, CSO was used extensively to insert the actors into cave backdrops. The end results were far from seamless. Logistically, I can understand why they did it. Trying to have K9 move around inside an actual cave would have been impossible. But, unfortunately, the CSO winds up tarnishing an already mediocre story. As far as the plot goes,
Underworld is very similar to the First Doctor story
The Ark. So much so that I can't really be bothered to recap it here. Ultimately,
Underworld isn't a terrible serial. At the very least, it's better than
The Invisible Enemy, which isn't saying much.
Rating: No hard feelings%
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