There's no reason the doctor series couldn't have kicked on for a few more films at least, with more vigorous handling - as proved by the success of the subsequent TV series, there is always a market for a comedy about young doctors - but this entry in the series is tired and sad.
The films were at their best with some young fresh faced medico learning the trade - when there was an underlying seriousness. Ralph Thomas frequently attributed the success of the first film to the fac there were no comics in it, and the cast played things straight. Here everyone is Trying To Be Funny.
Leslie Phillips is the lead - playing a character with the same name as Doctor in Love but a different name than Doctor in Clover. He looks like an aging, balding lech, and it's not that fun to watch a film focused on him.
This one is a rehash of Doctor at Sea with Philips and a bunch of other passengers going on a ship. There's a whole lot of subplots and frantic running around plus a lot more TNA than we've seen before, to reflect changing times.
There's a strong cast - John Le Mesurier as an officer; Robert Morley as the captain; James Robertson Justice in a small role as Sir Lancelot Spratt; Harry Secombe as a passenger; Angela Scoular (Ruby from On Her Majesty's Secret Service) as a model Phillips is keen on (she goes topless in few scenes and married Phillips in real life); Monty Python's Graham Chapman as a gay photographer keen on Phillips (the two look alike); Irene Handl is a concerned mother; Joan Sims as a Russian photographer. Someone called Simon Dee is a TV star who plays a doctor. Graham Stark is in brownface as a servant. Thinking about it, Secombe, Sims, Dee and Chapman would have all made ideal doctors in a doctor film but Phillips is the only one.
There are actually decent ideas here - the passengers include a pools winner, a TV star, a bunch of models and a stripper; there's shenanigans involving dressing up in drag and a climax where the doctor has to perform on a Russian ship. But the filmmakers sacrifice any seriousness for gags - the Carry On influence perhaps. You never care for Phillips at all, or him proving himself to Morley or other people, or his romance with Scoular. It's a sell out of the spirit of the first few movies.
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