Review: Doctor Who Classic: Warriors of the Deep

The Silurians and the Sea Devils are back.

Doctor Who - Season 21, Story One - Warriors of the Deep

Warriors of the Deep is well known for being one of the worst things, bar Time-Flight, that ever happened to the Fifth Doctor. Its infamy mainly stems from the use of the Silurians and Sea Devils, classic monsters from the Pertwee Era, in a way which didn't live up to their previous adventures. Well. And the fact that this sole story is responsible for Doctor Who's cancellation. Despite the fact that great Who came immediately before and some time after it, this one story pissed off Doctor-Who hater Michael Grade so much that he began to set plans in motion to have the program cancelled. That's right - this story is directly responsible for the 1985 hiatus, the shoddy treatment of Colin Baker in 86 and the end of the program in 89.
      But the question we must ask is whether this story is irresponsibly bad, like, say, Time-Flight, or whether it is simply a victim of circumstances. The story's production schedule was decimated when Margaret Thatcher declared a sudden election, meaning that a lot of the team's resources were diverted towards coverage. JNT had two options: continue with a schedule that would leave the story deprived of time and money or simply can the story. Intent on using the script he had received, JNT chose the former. This included the production of the story's big show-monster, the Myrka, which has gone down in sci-fi history as one of the worst monsters ever presented.
     Presumebly after The Five Doctors, The Doctor and crew head to Earth to show Tegan some of the future. They arrive on a Sea Base in 2084, where the Earth is in a different Cold War between two power blocks. While enemy spies have inflitrated the base, there are also plans by an alliance of the Silurians and the Sea Devils to attack the base and use its missile system to spark a nuclear war, killing off Humanity and allowing them to take over once the dust has settled. The Myrka, a towering genetically engineered creature, is used as heavy infantry as the Silurians invade the base. Forced into retreat, The Doctor reluctantly saves the day by releasing a gas used in the base's construction that is poisonous to cold-blooded life forms.
     The Myrka was never really properly planned out, and the lack of time made it worse. A horrifically shoddy looking concoction, the creature had the appearance and gait of a fat-bodied panto horse. It wasn't finished by the time production needed it, and so a lot of the actors are noticeably covered in green paint. Worse, the actors inside were choking from the fumes. The Myrka is this story's point of total meltdown. I find the rest of the story relatively tense and dramatic, but the ridiculousness of this thing takes one out of it all.

High Death Count. Yeah.

       Johnny Byrne, the writer of The Keeper of Traken and Arc of Infinity, was commisioned to write this story. I've found that the further he got from Traken, the more unfocused his writing became. Arc of Infinity's script was forgiveable because Byrne was forced to juggle so many plotlines, but it's less forgiveable here when you consider that the actual concepts at hand aren't affected much by the budget issue. Byrne identifies that the two reptilian races have a complex history and are used mainly to demonstrate that not everything different is evil. Instead of actually portraying them as such, however, they act like normal villains and there isn't any greater context to their actions. It just seems so strange when the story does cover, in depth, the issues from the past.
     But, strangely, I find myself liking this story. It's your average dark Eighties story, where a dark theme and tone is mixed with the hilarity of camp, shoddy special effects. I enjoy loving a dark, sinister tone and then out of nowwhere being able to giggle at the Myrka or Ingrid Pitt's karaté chops. Warriors of the Deep is not the unwatchable story that I was expecting it to be, and in ways I looked forward to watching it more than I do for its more classically good predecessors. It's just Eighties Who, and I love it - simple as that.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: The Awakening... wait, no. Haven't got access to that. Frontios? Nada. Ressurection of the Daleks? Already reviewed it. Planet of Fire... Nicola Bryant in a bikini? I'm in!