3.12: The Sea Devils
In which the Master meets the Clangers, and we meet some damp lizards.
Broadcast: February-April 1972
Watched: March 2020
The Sea Devils, Episode One
“He’s putting on weight!”
Well that’s a FANTASTIC episode isn’t it. The Doctor bribes someone! So does Jo, to get a motorbike! Her outfit! The Master speaking Clanger, the most charming scene in all of TV history! The knitwear! The beards! Non-stop incident! It’s lovely.
Is quite funny the way it is just like they’ve replaced the desktop theme, so it’s now naval instead of army.
WTF is with the doorless car? The conceit of the Doctor popping out to visit his imprisoned nemesis is rather sweet. As is quite how pathetic the Master looks when he realises his hypnosis doesn't work.
Slightly thrown how brief the Doctor’s visit is – all that trouble and he only stays three minutes. Also thrown by how quickly we find out the Master’s in league with the governor. Nice to see the original version of the “Oh, I’ve reformed!” plot thread with the Master, though.
Cliffhanger is badly edited but otherwise, glorious.
The Sea Devils, Episode Two
And again! The Doctor builds a radio, and accidentally gets a pirate DJ! The sword fight, from which the Doctor breaks off for a sandwich! Blindfold golf! A REAL HELICOPTER!1 I said that Axos was like the platonic ideal of a form of early 70s Who (UNIT, makes no sense, everything a bit rubbish) – this is like that inverted, it’s the *good* version of Who we have in our heads, where it’s knowing and silly and witty.
Anyway: I realised there’s a reason why it’s badly edited, it was to disguise the fact it wasn’t a monster. Nice.
Some nice direction during the chase sequence, with wonky cameras and so on. “The sea devils!” is quite clearly a nickname, not a species.
The Sea Devils, Episode Three
“DANGER: MINEFIELD.”
They were clearly proud of the fight, they recap the whole bloody thing. We’re a whole tenth of the way into the episode before we get any new material.
Love how easily Jo slips into beating the crap out of soldiers.
Also, the way Hart’s secretary is only there to say things like “Shouldn’t we check the Doctor isn’t dead, sir?” every few minutes is lovely.
Submarine! The special effects with it dropping to the bottom of the sea are very charming. Though the Doctor and Jo’s silent teamwork is even more charming. Is this nicked from The Avengers? I’ve barely seen any.
The Sea Devils, Episode Four
Pertwee’s a sandwich thieving prick. And his minefield gymnastics is hilarious, and not in a good way. The bit where the Doctor starts blowing mines up and the sea devil screams is another scene that’s so familiar I can only assume it’s from Resistance is Useless. [A 1992 “best of” documentary that I saw at far too formative an age.]
I like the sub-plot with the heroic submarine captain. The sea devil just wanting a lift home is kind of lovely.
Lot of good cloaks in this story. Don’t get many good cloaks in Doctor Who that aren’t on Pertwee.
Was just thinking that I’ve been looking forward to Trenchard’s pointless death when it happened. Off screen though. Bit rubbish. He’s another Carrington-type isn’t he? Little Englander, remnant of empire, slightly sad rather than evil, etc. Why he fell for the Master’s bullshit isn’t really explored though.
The diving bell sequence goes on forever and isn’t very exciting. The cliffhanger of Jo looking shocked without us knowing why is quite nice though.
The Sea Devils, Episode Five
“He’s gone!” Well that was not in any way surprising.
I’m not sure that [writer] Malcolm Hulke knows what a Parliamentary Private Secretary is. He has someone going around announcing they have an extremely junior unpaid job.
The actress playing Blythe does a lot with a completely thankless role. The scene with the submariners playing consequences is quite fun too – this one has lots of nice turns for actors in minor roles.
Funny how the entire moral argument from The Silurians gets crunched into all of two scenes. It’s like they think we can take that stuff as read and focus on action and jokes and so on.
Top use of stock footage in the naval battle scenes. The scene in which the Doctor escapes capture literally the second before his sea devil guard gets crushed is quite convenient.
Bloody hell, I really didn’t realise that was Donald Sumpter until I looked at the cast list. [He’d already been in 1968’s The Wheel in Space; later he’ll show up in The Sarah Jane Adventures, and then as Rassilon in 2015’s Hell Bent.]
There is a problem with the sea devils themselves which is that they look... stupid? It’s really hard to feel threatened by screaming fish creatures in string vests. Also they don’t get enough dialogue to make them characters. The Silurians felt far more real somehow.
The Sea Devils, Episode Six
Hovercraft! They really do run the gamut of naval vessels in this one don’t they, it’s like Thunderbirds or something.
The Extremely Junior Minister randomly announcing a nuclear strike is a *bit* tense, I admit.
The Doctor looking smug when the sea devils betray the Master is hilarious. Not clear how the Master gets away at the end, but hey.
Anyway, after such a promising start this one’s quite dull. Everything charming about this story has been the wit and the little bits of business for minor characters, this is just a load of action nonsense. But you know the Doctor’s going to win and you don’t care about the fate of the sea devils so bleurgh.
Okay, I need to explain the helicopter bit. In the early years of the revived series, there was a “making of” show called Doctor Who Confidential, which, after several years, entirely ran out of things to do: in one episode we saw Karen Gillan learn to drive. Anyway, because it would often earnestly explain how various tricks were done – for example, using lights on cranes to give the impression of expensive aircraft – “Was it a real helicopter?” became a running joke in my corner of fandom. The important thing is that we enjoyed ourselves, okay? Anyway: back to the episode.