Review: Doctor Who Classic: The Sea Devils

The Sea Devils invade! Mwahahaha!

Doctor Who - Season 9, Story Three - The Sea Devils

What would happen if the Silurians was done again, with all of the soldiers as Navymen and with The Master as a spanner in the works? Malcolm Hulke's six-part sequel to The Silurians is by and large a much more consistently entertaining outing, if only by its comparative brevity. I wasn't looking forward to the Sea Devils because of my disinterest with this era of the show, but I was pleasantly surprised once the rather dull beginning gave way to a tale that most definitely surpassed its predecessor.
     Having been imprisoned by the authorities after Season Eight finale The Daemons, The Doctor and companion Jo Grant visit The Master (Roger Delgado). As they're about to leave, they discover that there have been a spate of killings in the area; boats going missing. As The Master conspires, The Doctor discovers that the killings are the fault of The Sea Devils, a soldier caste of reptiles that lived under the Silurians and had adapted for amphibious life. The Master reveals that he plans to help the Sea Devils, reviving their colonies and allowing them to commit Genocide upon humanity. When The Doctor attempts to make peace, human beaurocrats follow the orders given in The Silurians and try to destroy them with artillary. This fails, only making them angry. The Doctor sabotages their machinery and escapes, just as the base self-destructs.
     The most immediate thing you notice is the music, which is similar to that of its predecessor. It's jarring and often painful - sharp techno slurs at pitches usually reserved for the ears of small animals. A lot of the time it adds to the feel of the story, but quite often it just doesn't fit at all. However, nothing comes close to one scene in The Silurians where the already high-pitched beeping increases in pitch and volume for about a minute. Ouch.

Ol' Roger Delgado is helping the Devils.

     As for my opinion of the Delgado Master... this was somewhat of a new experience for me. The Delgado Master is a very different beast than the Ainley one I've been used to on my Five marathon, mainly because Delgado is the origin of all of Ainley's traits (at least in Season 19). He's suarve yet dirty, confident yet cowardly. A schemer of the more realistic kind. His presence here at least gives the six-parter something more to do, but it's a shame he takes over in a story called, "The Sea Devils." The eponymous creatures, in the end, only end up sprouting the same ideas from The Silurians but being a bit more aggressive about it.
     In this period of Doctor Who there are a lot of imperialist themes, and this story uses the Navy a hell of a lot. It helped that both producer Barry Letts and John Pertwee served in the Navy, and so they had the experience to go on. The presence is rather noticable, but it is to the story's benefit, as the eager Navy servicemen formed an army of extras for the team to use. It's a very sharp contrast for the anti-authoritatian attitudes of the Saward era.
     One of my problems is that the first half of the story is spent in the Prison environment, which is an interesting detour in the first part but then does drag a lot, considering that everyone there ends up dead anyway. This is still a four-part story that's had to be extended, and it drags. There's this one scene in Part Two where the the Doctor, out of nowhere, begins to have a swordfight with The Master. It made me giggle like mad, because it was completely over the top and clearly there just to bolster the story.

Sea Devilssss ssssay Byeeee Byeeee

      Still a little flabby around the edges, but The Sea Devils continues the Silurians' pedigree in theme and style. In parts it was a tremendously exciting piece of television. It may be from an era that isn't particularly my style, but it was very well made and performed by all those involved. The Sea Devils is yet another Doctor Who Classic to go down in the history of television.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: We start to look at the impressive Season 22, with Attack of the Cybermen (Revisited).