Underworld:

The impact of Star Wars on Doctor Who

"The very first Star Wars movie came out on the 25th of May 1977 and its impact on the world of Science fiction on both the big and small screen was huge as it set a new standard for science fiction special effects work. "After Graham Williams (the then producer of Doctor Who),Tom Baker (the then Doctor at the time), Anthony Read (the then script editor) went to see Star Wars, Anthony Read and Tom Baker came out feeling pretty good, while Graham Williams came out feeling woeful and frustrated as he felt if only Doctor Who had the same budget as Star Wars what could they not do." The first Doctor Who story to be influenced by Star Wars was Underworld, which had a troubled production."Because of the economic inflation going on at the time it meant that the stories at the latter end of each season suffered because of this and the pressure to deliver each story on time and on budget was a constant struggle." Because there was very little money left by the end of this season it meant that the guys working on Underworld, the second to last story of Tom Baker's fourth season as The Doctor had to be very creative indeed." This meant relying heavily on colour separation overlay (CSO) to save on building expensive sets and location work." Today, the idea of using blue screen or green screen and creating digital shots is quite normal, thanks to movies like Avatar but in the 1970s the technology was still in its infancy." it was a bold but extremely challenging decision for the production, Often leaving the director restricted to static camera shots and created a stressful working environments for the actors." One of the biggest influences on Underworld was the Greek legend of Jason and the Argonauts, this influence can be best seen in the names of the characters in the story (watch it you'll see what I mean)." What was great about this story when I first saw it was the fact that I got to learn more about the history of the Time Lords which was great." When I first saw this story, the fact that Underworld was so experimental didn't faze me at all. "I remember really enjoying the story and I think it may have even been my first expose to the Greek myths." All in all I enjoyed the story the first time round and I still enjoy it now.