EPISODE 1

Tom Baker to Louise Jameson as Leela operates the TARDIS console controls: You're handling that knob quite carefully.
Louise Jameson: You remember that so well.

Tom Baker commenting on the Doctor's painting smock: Perhaps, that was my idea.

Tom Baker on the "tight two shot" made infamous by the Fourth Doctor and K9: The latest K9 can fly. He (Bob Baker) has just finished a filming marathon in Australia.
Bob Baker relating to the K9 animated-live action series: 26 episodes!

Tom Baker: Norman Stewart was a great director.

Tom Baker on Leela's legs: They've been good those legs.

Bob Baker discusses the passion that former DOCTOR WHO Script Editor, Robert Holmes had for taking "classic novels" and turning them in to WHO stories, and that he loved the Greek tale of "Jason and Argonauts" being adapted for the series.

On seeing Tala being regenerated, Tom Baker: Let me kiss. Those lips were made for kissing. (The actor provides a "kissing FX").

The first episode commentary was slightly more subdued than most of Baker's previous ones; either demonstrating the actor's less garrulous personality as he ages or the fact that UNDERWORLD's episode one was more absorbing than previously thought.

EPISODE 2

Tom Baker on Producer, Graham Williams' appreciation of STAR WARS: We were smuggled into the cinema in Tottenham Court Road to watch it. The minute & half opening sequence of STAR WARS overwhelmed him. Alec Guinness always spoke lines as if he was reading the AutoCue.
Bob Baker: I think Graham was scared of us, as we often put stuff in that was too expensive.
Tom Baker: He couldn't deal with me. I'm sorry about that now. I wasn't diplomatic. Because he was so nice he suffered more. I'm full of regrets. I could have been nicer to him.
Louise Jameson: I always described him as a "man of cardigans"

Tom Baker: I was going to call my autobiography, "FRIENDS BETRAYED".

Tom Baker on seeing a group of mining slaves escaping the guards: What's this? An outbreak of "Swine Fever"!

Tom Baker on his performance as the Doctor: The more preposterous it was I didn't have to reach for it. I was not embarrassed about my performance.

Tom Baker on smoking on camera: I wouldn't accept a job now if I had to smoke in it.

On accepting the lead in DOCTOR WHO, Tom Baker: An amazing feeling of elation. A real feeling of ecstasy.

On the gas-filled caves, Tom Baker's suggestion sometimes irked the Director: I think I suggested it should be "laughing gas" but Norman (Stewart) wanted to open up his vein.

EPISODE THREE

On watching the broadcast of DOCTOR WHO, Louise Jameson: Did you ever watch it when it went out?
Tom Baker: Very rarely.

On seeing the tunnel guards marching passed, Tom Baker: There's a "hoodie". And another "hoodie". This started a trend.
Bob Baker: It certainly did.

On Leela's comment about the inhabitants "eating rock" and the Doctor's glib answer, Tom Baker was repentant: For God's sake, Tom! I bet I put that in! "Rock" "Blackpool".

On the lead actor's penchant for tinkering with his script, Tom Baker recalled: David Maloney would say, "Has anyone got any lines that Tom Baker hasn't changed?" I'm sorry for that now. It was all ego.
Louise Jameson supports her co-star: You earned them.

EPISODE 4

On the start of the final episode, Tom Baker: Oh, goody-goody! I'm really enjoying myself in this one.

On his writing partnership with Dave Martin, Bob Baker: We did a great body of work. He did all the typing, as I couldn't spell. Dave Martin wanted to be a novelist, and wanted to burst out. He went on to write five novels.

On see the mass evacuation of the slave workforce from the tunnels, Tom Baker: "Britain's Got Talent".

On the model effects work of the spaceship departing the planet, Tom Baker: That looks fantastic.
Bob Baker: It looked really good.
Louise Jameson: It's really stood-up well!
Bob Baker: Not cringing - really good.

On the final shot of Leela giving K9 a peck on the "nose", Tom Baker: You never kissed me!
Louise Jameson: We were never allowed.
Tom Baker: They are now!

THE DVD EXTRAS FEATURETTES

As per his right, Anthony Read (the story's script editor) is the driving force behind the featurette INTO THE UNKNOWN - THE MAKING OF "UNDERWORLD". Fans for have poorly regarded this story decades and it that is understandable however this production crew & cast's dissertation clearly, I feel, redeems the four-parter. From the beginning UNDERWORLD was as compromised as Titanic's hull but unlike that benighted vessel this DOCTOR WHO production survived and, now, fans will be able to assess anew the tortuous journey that it had.

It was fascinating to hear that the plotline for UNDERWORLD was submitted as a "gamble" on the behalf of writing team, Bob Baker & Dave Martin; "Submit a page and see what happens". Surprisingly, Anthony Read loved the idea of tweaking the Greek myths & legends tale of Jason & and the Argonauts.

Set Designer, Dick Coles revealed that due to the UK's rampaging inflation (approximately 16% in 1978) and the BBC's self-constraint on internal-external "pricing" UNDERWORLD was pushed to the limit, and that new technological advancements (resulting in over 30 minutes of "Colour Separation Overlay") had to be created to surmount the immediate pressures.

The second featurette, UNDERWORLD - IN STUDIO, is a guarantee for a replay once you have watched it once. The "timecoded" videotape is, due to its age, grainy & blurred but that is the pure pleasure of it. Renown for his lack of patience during filming, Tom Baker is seen in a more jovial mood (his Avuncular charm with "Claire the Trog" is wonderful) rather than throwing a professional tantrum (see THE LEISURE HIVE DVD featurette).

DOCTOR WHO - UNDERWORLD DVD release is, to be perfectly honest, a revelation - watch it and appreciate the almost impossible task of bringing this story to broadcast in the most difficult of circumstances.