In ancient mythology, a vast city called Atlantis once ruled the world’s oceans, until it sank without a trace. Atlantis was a primitive civilisation that worshipped the god Amdo. However, Atlantis did have its own scientific community, but some of the scientists were more sane than others… The Doctor and his companions have visited Atlantis a few times throughout Doctor Who‘s history. But each time they visited, the city of Atlantis became lost once again.

The Underwater Menace

★☆☆☆☆

TX: 14/01/1967 – 04/02/1967

Written by Geoffrey Orme    Directed by Julia Smith

The Second Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie arrive on the coast where they stumble across the entrance to a cave system that leads them to the ancient, lost city of Atlantis. Atlantis is a primitive civilisation that worships the god Amdo. A mad scientist called Professor Zaroff is turning native Atlantians into fish people, who then harvest food for the city. Zaroff plans to drain the world’s oceans into the Earth’s core and boil them away, creating enough steam and pressure to lift Atlantis to the surface. However, Zaroff’s plan entails the destruction of the planet. The Doctor tries to convince King Thous that Zaroff is insane, to no avail. The Doctor and a priest called Ramo are taken to be sacrificed to Lolem at the temple of Amdo. They are saved by Ben faking the voice of the statue of Amdo and giving them a chance to escape. The Doctor kidnaps Zaroff and takes him to the temple of Amdo where Ramo and Polly are left as his guards. Zaroff then fakes a seizure, stabs Ramo, and takes Polly as a hostage. Ramo survives and goes to warn the Doctor, which gives Jamie, Sean, and Jacko the chance to rescue Polly. Zaroff escapes and goes straight to Thous. Thous begins to worry about the strike amongst the Fish People and realises Zaroff is mad. He immediately orders him to stop his plans, but this angers Zaroff, who shoots Thous and his royal protectors. With Zaroff out of sight, the Doctor finds Thous bleeding but alive and takes him to the temple of Amdo for safety. He plans to stop Zaroff by sinking Atlantis even further so the reactor and Zaroff’s laboratory could be destroyed. The Doctor and Ben cause a radiation leak to put their plan in action while Sean and Jacko warn the Atlanteans to get to higher level. The walls of Atlantis start to crumble but Polly and Jamie find a way out to the surface. When the Doctor and Ben find Zaroff, he is determined to not let anything stop him, even the flooding. They trick Zaroff and lock him out of his laboratory just in time but he won’t give up which results in his death by drowning. The Doctor and Ben make their way towards the surface where they reunite with Jamie and Polly. Knowing many will have survived the crisis, the Doctor and his companions flee in the TARDIS.

The Dæmons

★★★★★

TX: 22/05/1971 – 19/06/1971

Written by Guy Leopold    Directed by Christopher Barry

The Dæmon Azal claimed to the Third Doctor that Atlantis had risen to its state of advancement because the Dæmons had helped its development, and that, when the Atlanteans disappointed them, the Dæmons were the ones to destroy Atlantis as a failed experiment. The Master, posing as a local vicar, summoned Azal in the sleepy English village of Devil’s End. U.N.I.T were called in to battle Azal’s gargoyle slave Bok, after penetrating a heat barrier around the village. The Master commands Azal to destroy the Doctor. But Jo offers to sacrifice herself instead of the Doctor. The irrationality of Jo’s act confuses Azal so much that he vanishes and the church is destroyed, shortly after the Doctor and his companions escape.

The Time Monster

★☆☆☆☆

TX: 20/05/1972 – 24/06/1972

Written by Robert Sloman    Directed by Paul Bernard

The Third Doctor, Jo and U.N.I.T investigate a new scientific project called T.O.M.T.I.T (Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time) lead by Professor Thascalos, the latest disguise for the Master. The Master has constructed T.O.M.T.I.T at the Newton Institute in Wootton — to gain control over Kronos, a time-eating Chronovore from outside time. The creature is summoned but proves to be uncontrollable. It is clear that the Chronovores were the inspiration for the Reapers in Father’s Day. The Doctor explains that Kronos is a “chronovore”, a creature from outside time that feeds on it, attracted from the vortex to ancient Atlantis using a crystal trident larger than one seen to have been used by the Master. The Doctor suspects capturing the chronovore is the Master’s purpose, and that this represents a danger to the entire universe.

Meanwhile, the Atlantean High Priest of Poseidon, Krasis, is transported through interstitial time by the Master and brought to an office at the institute. The Master seizes the Seal of Kronos from the priest and uses it to conjure Kronos, a white, bird-like figure, who devours the Institute’s Director, Dr Percival. Kronos is briefly contained by the Master, but breaks free, Krasis surmising the Master only has the smaller fragment of the original crystal. The Doctor and his allies, alerted by the Master’s actions, build a time flow analogue to interrupt the experiments. The Time Lords then duel using time as a weapon, leading to a series of bizarre temporal effects. When they pit their TARDISes against one another, the Doctor is ejected into the vortex, but survives thanks to Jo and his TARDIS.

In ancient Atlantis, King Dalios is troubled by the disappearance of Krasis and the threat to the Kronos crystal, which is guarded by the Minotaur at the heart of a maze. The Master has travelled to Atlantis in search of the crystal and soon inveigles himself at court, wooing Queen Galleia. When the Doctor and Jo arrive, the unnaturally long-lived King confides that Atlantis turned from Kronos and sought to end the link by which the chronovore could be controlled, by destroying the crystal, but they could only splinter it. The Doctor then faces the Minotaur to rescue Jo, duped into the maze by Krasis, and the creature is destroyed. The crystal is now produced from the maze – but the Master’s schemes have borne fruit and he has usurped the throne. Jo and the Doctor are soon detained and witness Dalios’ death after being smitten with a trident. Krasis uses the crystal to summon Kronos to Atlantis once more. The enraged chronovore begins to destroy Atlantis while the Master flees in his TARDIS, with Jo Grant in tow. The Doctor heads off in his own TARDIS in pursuit while Kronos destroys the city and people of Atlantis. In the vortex, the Doctor threatens the mutually assured destruction of both TARDISes by a “time ram” in which both vehicles would occupy the same space/time co-ordinates. When he carries this threat out, a thankful Kronos is set free, saving the Doctor and Jo and returning them to their TARDIS. On the Doctor’s insistence, the Master is spared, too, but he flees in his own TARDIS before he can be apprehended. The Doctor and Jo return to the institute, where normality is returning, through a final use of the Master’s machine, which now overloads, and the time experiments end. During U.N.I.T’s search for the Twelfth Doctor in The Magician’s Apprentice, Kate Stewart and Jac identify “three possible versions of Atlantis” that the Doctor previously visited.