The Sea Devils

The Doctor and Jo pay a visit to the Master at the high security prison that has become his home. Located on an island, it is the perfect escape-proof facility, with a naval base as a neighbour across the quay. A series of mysterious sinkings prompts the Doctor to assist the navy with their investigations, and it is revealed that the Master has coerced the prison warden to assist him in contacting the Sea Devils, underwater cousins of the Silurians, who are behind the attacks. The Master seeks to ignite a war between the Sea Devils and the humans, but just as the Doctor tries to broker peace once more, the navy attacks and drives the Sea Devils further down the road to war. Once again, there can be no peace between the two races, and the end result is another massive loss of reptilian life.

As the title suggests, a lot of this adventure happens in and around the sea, and with the co-operation of the Royal Navy this ambitious plan was realized. A lot of stock footage was provided of course, but there is extensive location work on a naval base and on a ship equipped with a diving bell. In a show of what was high tech for it's day, a hovercraft is also used to aid Jo's escape from the base, and her return with armed reinforcements to counter a Sea Devil incursion. Why the Royal Navy had two sea-doos standing by is a bit of a mystery but they provided a good high speed chase for the Doctor and the Master.

The idea of the Silurians having undersea counterparts is an interesting one, seeing as most alien menaces have one look, one species, one mode of dress, and everything else that is homogenized. The Sea Devils are designed to appear aquatic as opposed to the land-based look of the Silurians, complete with impressive fins on their heads (which were actually made as hats to make them appear that much taller) and some funky mesh wear. Only the chief Sea Devil actually speaks, in tones that one would expect from a giant reptile, the others just scream when they are shot or blown up. We don't get much of a look at their technology though; with the adventure being 6 episodes long and including so much location work it's possible there wasn't time or budget to build something for just a couple episodes, for the Sea Devil threat is not brought forward until the end of episode 4.

Prior to then, the plot is more concerned with the Doctor and the Master crossing swords (literally at the climax of episode 2) and the bluster and bull of Trenchard trying to keep the goings on at his prison a secret. Trenchard gets replaced as the annoying man in authority by a private parliamentary secretary, who does nothing more than demand food and give orders, and just to make you hate him more, there's a close up of his mouth while he's eating. In Claws of Axos we were treated to the wheedling Chin as government representative, and now this, which makes me wonder if the Doctor Who production crew had some big axe to grind with the British government at the time.

I keep saying this more and more, but I really want this one on DVD sometime soon. It's a classic Jon Pertwee adventure, even if it does suffer from what the late producer John Nathan-Turner said was the problem with 6 episode stories, being that the plot develops in such a way that it feels like a 4 episode story with another 2 thrown on for the heck of it. 3 of Jon Pertwee's 5 seasons follow the format brewing here: 2 adventures of 4 episodes, and 3 epic 6 episode stories, which efectively reduces the amount of scripts to 5 per season, as opposed to the 13 we enjoyed in the 2005 season.

So next up, 6 more episodes. With the Master escaped and on the loose, he's going to pop up again sometime soon.

But not just yet.

NEXT EPISODE : THE MUTANTS