Warriors of the Deep

Jokingly called ‘Warriors of the Cheap’ by fans, ‘Warriors of the Deep’ actually, for the most part, looks like a good deal of money was spent on it, but it just wasn’t quite enough to cover the bad bits – the wobbly rubber door, the Myrka and to a lesser extent the Sea Devils and Silurians. We have a large set, though overlit and maybe not exactly right for the story I think it’s a good set that works. For me, the greatest issues are with the story, as always. Johnny Byrnes is not my favourite writer, as I have alluded to in the past. The thing is - I think this is his best story.

Maddox in the Sync machine with Ian McCulloch

Doesn’t mean I think this is a good story, mind you!

So what did I like? Well, two power blocks poised to blow each other up in 2084? The cold war was still very much alive when the story was written, and I wouldn’t have a hard time believing we could end up there again. I liked the idea of the ‘sync operator’ and the character Maddox, the espionage, and I feel that if Byrnes had concentrated on that and got rid of the Silurians and Sea Devils, it would have been a great script. But, he didn’t.

Not convinced by these Sea Devils

The Silurians are written even more one-dimensionally than in their first story. Apparently Ikhtar, the leader, survived which seems unlikely. So all the story is essentially about is a very slow invasion of an underwater base, a declaration of war and a very bad monster. The two power blocks are merely a setting for the story and little else, and mores the pity that they are. The costumes for the Silurians are ok, the ones for the Sea Devil, with added armour, are a bit dodgier and it’s twice as obvious as it was in ‘The Sea Devils’ that the actors’ heads are in the necks.

Solow (Ingrid Pitt) and the Myrka

Why did they decide to bring them both back? Well, JNT was in the mood for bringing things back – he had been since ‘Earthshock’. It’s just a pity they didn’t use them in an interesting way because the idea behind the Silurians and Sea Devils is interesting. Instead we have over an episode of them just slowly taking over the sea base. The direction is so rushed by Pennant Roberts, because they lost two weeks of production time thanks to a general election at the time, that these long sequences look ridiculous. It’s basically ‘stand in a line two metres from the Sea Devils. Shoot at them. They shoot at you. Eventually most of the humans die and one or two retreat’. And then it gets repeated scene after scene.

I won’t go into the Myrka. I feel for

the effects team and Marr Irvine because with no time or money (they were still adding paint as filming went on) it was never going to work. And then it was shot out in the open in bright white corridors. It could not have possibly worked. Some bits just needed to be scrapped altogether. Byrnes asked a lot of the production team, and then two weeks were taken from them. It’s a real pity because so much of ‘Warriors of the Deep’ looks really good, slick and like money was spent on it. We have some underwater scenes and ripping end to episode one when the Doctor appears to have drowned. A lot of the model work is good too.

Then we have a guest cast featuring Ian McCulloch, from ‘Survivors’ fame, who gives a great performance, balancing out Ingrid Pitt’s return to Doctor Who where she has no idea what she’s saying half the time and dies inexplicably trying to karate-kick the Myrka. Now that is definitely one of the most bizarre (and to be honest, bad) sequences in Who-history. Peter Davison is in full control as the Doctor by now which is nice, Janet Fielding doesn’t get a lot to do, Mark Strickson as Turlough gets a bit more. He’s quite cowardly in this one actually, but that flip flops a bit.

I just think there was an opportunity missed here to make a really interesting futuristic political thriller.

4.5/10

The Sea Devils

Malcolm Hulke’s ‘The Sea Devils’ capitalised on the success of his season 7 story, ‘The Silurians’. It also capitalised on the location chosen with a castle, a fort, a navy base and several navy vessels a real feature of this six-part adventure, the only Pertwee story so far set on Earth but without UNIT.

He's back! And he's an Admiral?

We do, however, see the return of the Master. Inevitable, yes, predictable – even more so. I’m surprised after five stories in a row with him, Barry Letts didn’t hold off a little longer before bringing him back. It’s a pretty good story for Roger Delgado too. On top of that the story has two government officials of dubious moral character to infuriate the Doctor – such characters have become the staple of the Pertwee-era as far as I can see.

Trenchard and Captain Hart.

We have Trenchard, the prison-warden in charge of looking after the Master but ever so easily manipulated by him, and Walker from the ministry, who keeps ordering food and wanting to blow things up. Trenchard ends up dead when he realises the folly of his way, and it is a sad death in the end at the hands of the sea-devils.

The Master comes to the aid of the Sea Devils.

The monsters of this piece, the ‘Sea-Devils’, are a more successful form than the Silurians, if still far from being perfect. Their eyes don’t move at all which always results in the destruction of belief on behalf of the audience, the actors inside the suits had their heads in the necks of the costumes so the heads wobble but not in a believable way, but the skin is pretty well done and if you don’t look too hard you could be convinced. Maybe.

More to the point only one can speak, and the voice is better than that of the Silurians, and we are spared the dreadful dialogue those particular ancient reptiles had forced upon them. A definite plus. It’s great to see a story with so much shot on film too. Minor quibbles are the end of episode four (I think) when the Doctor disappears in the diving vessel. Jo pokes her head inside and the Doctor is gone, but it’s not very clear. Then at the start of episode five she reinforces the point with ‘he’s gone’. I really hate it when they spell things out like that!

A great story for Jon Pertwee.

The combination of stock footage coupled with filming on actual navy vessels gives it a really authentic feel. Hulke writes a bunch of different characters – two men on the sea fort and the men in the submarine in particular – which don’t see a lot of action but are both well written and well played.

Pertwee clamours through passageways.

There’s some wonderful humour injected at times which Jon Pertwee plays superbly – especially when a radio blows up in his hand. He has a particularly good story, finding himself in diving suits, boats and being very much the action hero. The navy were happy to join in as extras and provide all the vessels etc. Pertwee himself had a military history and had starred for many years on the radio drama ‘The Navy Lark’.

Sets are very good, especially the castle and navy base ones. The Sea-Devils’ base suggests that they had run out of cash, mostly just black walls, but effective in its own way. Definitely preferable to white or light walls. The final episode seems an ‘almost’ pre-emptive nuclear strike, the Master fake his own death, boat chases and the Doctor blow up the Sea-Devil base. He turned on them a bit quickly for mine, to be fair, to resort to that when he was so upset by the Brigadier taking the same action in ‘The Silurians’. The Master also is very trusting of the Doctor considering their history. But minor quibbles.

Episode Six is action-packed indeed as I have mentioned, it needed another five minutes as it ends very abruptly. The story keeps good pace for a six-parter throughout. A great Doctor Who tale.

8/10