A new year, a new story, and some new sounds never heard by Sue before…
Episode One
It only takes a few seconds for Sue to pass judgement on Malcolm Clarke’s avant-garde soundtrack.
Sue: I really like the music.
Well, I certainly didn’t expect that.
Sue: It’s nice and bassy. This isn’t Dudley, is it?
The next thing to elicit a response from Sue is the mode of transportation that picks the Doctor and Jo up from the dock.
Sue: What the hell is that supposed to be?
Me: They did that on purpose, to make the cars seem more futuristic.
Sue: Futuristic!? It looks like it’s had all its doors nicked! The security at this place must be atrocious.
When Sue discovers that the Doctor and Jo are visiting the Master in prison, she isn’t all that interested to be honest. No, she’s far more interested in Katy Manning’s state of mind.
Sue: Jo looks knackered. Did she have a late night? Or was she sick on that boat?
The Doctor and Jo are taken to the Master’s cell.
Sue: The Master has his own gym! I have to pay a small fortune to visit a gym. That doesn’t seem fair. He’s killed loads of people, hasn’t he? Shouldn’t he be strapped to a table or something?
The Doctor starts treating the Master like an old friend, instead of a mass murdering fiend.
Sue: This is all very pleasant but it’s blatantly obvious that the Master hasn’t changed one bit. I bet the governor has been hypnotised by him. The Doctor can be such an idiot, sometimes.
Meanwhile, at a nearby naval base…
Sue: Ooh, sexy secretary alert. Is that shot supposed to be an homage to The Graduate?
While Captain Hart concerns himself with missing boats, the Master is watching television in his cell.
Me: I told you The Clangers would appear in Doctor Who eventually.
When the Master tells Trenchard that he believes the knitted creatures are genuine alien lifeforms, Sue knows precisely what he’s doing.
Sue: He’s taking the piss.
When I tell her that some fans take umbrage at that scene because they believe the Master is undermined when he suggests that the Clangers are real, she doesn’t take any prisoners.
Sue: He rolled his eyes after he said it! What more do they want? A diagram? It’s a very funny scene. Jesus.
Our attention then moves to an old sea fort (“It’s Fort Boyard!”) that is staffed by a skeleton crew. One of them has a face that only a mother could love.
v
Sue: This bloke has been smashed in the face by the ugly stick. Everyone has the right to be ugly but this bloke is abusing it.
She is, however, very complementary when it comes to Michael Briant’s direction.
Sue: It’s very good. There are some nice angles and the lighting is very atmospheric. They are just showing enough of the monster to get away with it. I’m sure this would have scared the kids.
When Jo climbs the ladder to the fort, “her” bum wiggle instantly gives the game away.
Sue: That’s not Jo, is it? She’s moving up that ladder like a constipated Donkey Kong.
And then, looming out of the shadows, we get our first good look at a Sea Devil.
Sue: Is that a giant pig? What is it with this show and giant pigs all of a sudden?
The episode concludes with a figure in the darkness advancing menacingly towards the Doctor and Jo.
Sue: That was a very odd cliffhanger. Why bother hiding the monster at the end like that? They already revealed it a few minutes ago. That was very strange. Still, that episode wasn’t a bad start. Let’s crack on.
Episode Two
It turns out that the shambling monster in the corridor was actually the ugly chap in the Aran sweater.
Sue: On second thoughts, that’s probably just as scary.
But it’s the Sea Devil’s attire that causes the most concern for Sue.
Sue: Is it really wearing a string vest? Seriously? A string vest?
Me: It’s a net. Like a fishing net, I suppose. They looked a bit rude without any clothes on. Allegedly.
Sue: I’m surprised they didn’t just wheel out some shower curtains. Was the person who designed the monsters for Doctor Who in the 1970s a sex maniac?
Me: Don’t the Sea Devils ring any bells?
Sue: No.
Me: There’s a six-inch Sea Devil action figure sitting on the bookshelf behind you. It’s been there for about three years, I think.
Sue: Really? That’s a bit sad.
Me: I have very vivid memories of watching The Sea Devils. I distinctly remember pretending to be one in a playground at nursery school.
Sue: How did you pretend to be a Sea Devil? Did you just walk around in your vest?
Me: No, they hold their weapons in a very specific manner and it’s easy to mimic them. I would demonstrate it with my action figure, but one of our cats ate his gun.
Sue: Hang on, when did this story go out?
Me: Early 1972.
Sue: You would have been far too young to remember this, and you wouldn’t have been at nursery either.
Me: There was an omnibus repeat in May 1974. It replaced a cancelled cricket match, I think. I must have seen it then.
Sue: Omnibus?
Me: They edited the story down into a 90 minute movie.
Sue: What? So why aren’t we watching that version? We’d be halfway through it by now!
Me: The episode counter on the website is confusing enough as it is. Anyway, we haven’t got a copy. Believe me, I’d have been sorely tempted if we did. There will be another opportunity to watch an omnibus that has been released on DVD a little later, but we might get lynched if we do. Just forget I even mentioned it.
The Doctor explains to Jo that the Sea Devils are related to the Silurians.
Sue: That’s a bit of a leap – they don’t look anything like them.
The Doctor explains that the term Silurian is really a misnomer; they should have been called Eocenes.
Sue: Eh? So what do we call the Silurians now? This is becoming very confusing. I’m pretty sure they’re still called Silurians in the new series. And why didn’t anyone check the name out before they made the first one? This never would have happened if Wikipedia had been around in 1972.
The Doctor decides to radio for help.
Sue: The Doctor puts on a posh voice whenever he’s on the phone. That’s quite funny.
Incredibly, the person who answers the Doctor’s distress call sounds even posher.
Sue: Was it a rule that only the landed gentry could use a CB radio in 1972?
Sue still can’t take her eyes off 3rd Officer Jane Blythe.
Sue: She’s definitely in on it. She is acting suspiciously. She’s slutting it up as well. She was checking her make-up in the background a minute ago. I don’t trust her.
The Doctor returns to the prison to check on the Master, who has been spotted waltzing around the naval base. Their meeting results in an epic sword fight.
Sue: What are swords doing in a ****ing prison? That’s ridiculous!
It doesn’t matter how effectively the resultant fight is choreographed, Sue can’t forgive this contrivance. Even worse, when the Doctor clearly has the upper hand in this duel (he even finds the time to stuff his face with a sandwich) he chooses to give the Master back his sword so the fight can continue.
Sue: What the hell is he doing!?
The episode concludes with the Master throwing a knife at the Doctor’s back.
Sue: That was a pretty good cliffhanger but the set-up was unforgivable. Swords? In a prison? Eh?
Episode Three
Sue: Do we really have to watch this sword fight again?
Me: Yes. I’m sorry.
Sue: Well in that case, I’m going to make a cup of tea.
And she did. And she still made it back in time to see the Master throw a knife at the Doctor’s back at point-blank range again. He misses, of course.
Sue: You know, there are a lot of really ugly people in this story. The governor looks like a bulldog chewing a wasp. Ugly people and moustaches. That sums up The Sea Devils so far.
The Doctor grows increasingly angry about the Master’s ability to treat the prison like a hotel.
Sue: You shouldn’t have given him his ****ing sword back then, should you? You ****ing idiot.
As Jo tiptoes around the prison’s grounds, Malcolm Clarke really decides to let rip.
Sue: OK, the music is just ****ing weird now. Please get Dudley on the phone.
With the Doctor in chains, the Master unveils his nefarious plan.
Sue: Don’t tell me – the Sea Devils will betray him five minutes before the end of Episode Six? He never learns, does he?
Meanwhile, Jane Blythe has deduced that something untoward is going on at the prison.
Sue: It looks like I was wrong about her. She’s not just a pretty face after all. Unless it’s a trap. Am I sexist for thinking that?
Me: Very.
Jo sneaks back into the prison via an open window. It’s a very tight squeeze, and at one point we are treated to a close-up of Katy Manning’s derriere in all its glory.
Sue: Pippa Middleton has nothing on Jo. That shot was definitely one for the dads, wasn’t it?
As Jo prepares to free the Doctor from his bonds, Sue sighs.
Sue: Three episodes in and we aren’t exactly being overrun by Sea Devils, are we?
Me: Just think, if we were watching the omnibus repeat, we’d have finished this by now.
Sue: Nothing is happening. It’s just shameless padding. And the music is just taking the piss now. I can’t tell what is supposed to be music and what is supposed to be a sound effect anymore. It’s driving the pets crazy as well. You know I have to knock marks off whenever an episode drives the cats out of the room, don’t you?
The worst culprit in this department is the Master’s machine.
Sue: It’s a cross between a hair dryer and a Singer sewing machine. I like the Master’s little radar dish, though. It’s very cute.
Meanwhile, on a nuclear submarine…
Sue: This is the most spacious submarine I’ve ever seen. You could play table tennis in it! I thought submarines were supposed to be cramped? The model shots are great but the interior isn’t quite right.
Me: We are in the near future; submarines are very different here. A bit like the cars with no doors.
The submarine’s captain is played by Donald Sumpter and Sue can spot talent when she sees it.
Sue: I love his nervous twitch. That’s a very nice touch. Unless the actor really does suffer from a nervous twitch, in which case I’m sorry I brought it up.
The episode concludes with the Doctor and Jo escaping to the beach, just as a titular monster rises from the sea.
Sue: Finally! Some Sea Devil action! It doesn’t look that bad, actually. For a monster in a dress.
Episode Four
Sue: Oh dear. Boom in shot.
Yes, Sue’s far more interested in the production errors than she is in the Doctor flinging himself over some barbed wire.
Sue: Why didn’t he just blow up the mines with his sonic screwdriver before they went into the minefield?
Me: It’s a good job he didn’t or they’d probably both be dead now.
Sue: True. Sometimes the Doctor’s stupidity can come in handy, I suppose.
Me: This is a very iconic scene. Isn’t it doing anything for you?
Sue: Not really. The Sea Devil looks ridiculous in his little blue dress. Who in their right mind goes swimming in a dress?
And when we are treated to an extreme close up of a Sea Devil’s face:
Sue: It’s Lady Ga Ga!
Meanwhile, Donald Sumpter is still twitching as the Sea Devils prepare to storm his submarine.
Sue: He’ll be giving Hitler salutes like Robert Lindsay in GBH, next.
And then, back at the naval base, the Doctor does something truly horrid. Forget blowing up Gallifrey, this is much, much worse. Yes, the Doctor steals some sandwiches from a clearly famished Jo.
Sue: What a ****! He had a sandwich in the last ****ing episode!
I’ve never seen Sue get so het up about Doctor Who before.
Sue: That’s probably the worst thing I’ve ever seen the Doctor do.
Me: Calm down. It’s just a bit of harmless comedy.
Sue: There’s nothing even remotely funny about it. Poor Jo. Why does she put up with it? She’s like an abused wife who keeps coming back for more. It’s sad.
As Leading Telegraphist Bowman monitors the situation, Jane Blythe brings him a nice cup of kai.
Sue: A cup of what? Are you sure she isn’t a spy? Is ‘kai’ Russian for ‘tea’? Did she just slip up and give herself away?
As the action moves out to sea, Sue is impressed by the Navy’s co-operation.
Sue: Why would the Navy help out Doctor Who like this?
Me: It’s good PR. They probably thought it would help with recruitment, especially if any impressionable teenagers happened to be watching.
Sue: Gary joined the Navy in 1972.
Me: What? You don’t think…? Nah, surely not.
Sue: He only lasted six weeks.
The Doctor decides to use to a diving bell to investigate the fate of the stricken submarine.
Sue: Nice anorak. Do Doctor Who fans pretend to be Jon Pertwee in The Sea Devils whenever they turn up at a convention wearing an anorak? Is that how it works?
As the Doctor prepares to begin his dangerous journey, Jo is beside herself with worry.
Sue: Why is she so upset? He stole her ****ing sandwich!
The Doctor reaches the sea bed and a Sea Devil leers into view. The diving bell is winched back to the surface and Jo eagerly takes a look inside. She gazes up in horror.
Sue: Is the Doctor splattered all over the ceiling or something?
Episode Five
Sue: I had a polo neck just like Jos. Although mine was lime green.
As we chew over the ramifications of that, the Doctor is brought inside the Sea Devils’ secret base.
Sue: So this is basically exactly the same story as last time, yes? I’m pretty sure I enjoyed it the last time I saw it, so do I really need to see it again?
Me: Don’t the Sea Devils’ voices remind you of something else? Another children’s television character, perhaps?
Sue: The Mysterons?
Me: Not Larry the Lamb?
Sue: Never heard of him. I have heard of Larry Lamb, if that’s any help.
The Sea Devils decide to trust the Doctor and they agree to share planet Earth with humanity.
Sue: The Earth is two-thirds water so they are getting a pretty good deal.
However, the Master wants to stir up hostilities between the two species.
Sue: Just think, if it wasn’t for the Master, we could be living next door to a Sea Devil.
Sadly, the Master isn’t alone in his thirst for war – he is inadvertently helped by Parliamentary Private Secretary, Walker, who has turned up at the naval base demanding a cooked breakfast and some nuclear warheads.
Sue basically tuts every time he speaks.
Just as the Doctor appears to have made peace with the Sea Devils, the base is pounded by explosions. The Master is triumphant.
Sue: The Master just broke the fourth wall!
Then, as bits of the first, second and third walls break under the impact of the Navy’s attack, the Doctor manages to escape. But the respite is short-lived and the episode concludes with the Sea Devils invading the naval base.
Sue: That was the best episode so far. The performances were very good and the script included some great dialogue. This story is finishing strongly.
Episode Six
Sue: Guns or music? Music or guns? I really can’t tell anymore. Just make it stop. Please.
The Sea Devils take Captain Hart, Walker and Jo prisoner. They lock their quarry in a store room but they don’t take into account the ventilation shafts. Captain Hart decides that the hole is too tight for him to fit inside, so Jo volunteers instead.
Sue: He could easily get through that hatch. It’s just a normal loft hatch! Does he make his wife go into the attic for the Christmas decorations? I don’t think so! And Jo can’t go in there or she’ll get her trouser suit dirty.
Sue suddenly notices that one of the Sea Devils is a little on the short side.
Sue: Awww, there’s a little baby Sea Devil. That’s sweet. Oh, he just killed someone. That isn’t so sweet.
When the same Sea Devil is shot, he decides to forward-flip himself to death.
Sue: He’s like the little one in Diversity.
Me: That’s the stuntman Stuart Fell.
Sue: That’s a great name for a stuntman. Stuart Fell very well.
As Captain Hart pummels several Sea Devils into the sand with a very large gun, Sue sighs.
Sue: I feel a bit sorry for the Sea Devils. This isn’t really their fault, is it?
Meanwhile, the Doctor escapes from the clutches of the Master with the help of a Chief Petty Officer. The Doctor runs off, leaving the Master in the CPO’s custody.
Sue: Don’t leave him there! He’ll just hypnotise the guard! There, see! He’s hypnotising the guard! The Doctor is an idiot!
As the Master escapes with a machine that will supposedly reawaken Sea Devils across the globe, Sue tries to look on the bright side.
Sue: Oh well, at least the Sea Devils haven’t betrayed the Master this time.
The Doctor pursues the Master to a beach…
Sue: What a handy pair of jet-skis. I’m surprised they don’t have ‘The Doctor’ and ‘The Master’ stencilled on the front. Maybe there are some swords lying around as well? And while that’s definitely Jon Pertwee on his jet-ski – he’s such a petrolhead – that certainly isn’t the Master. I don’t think the stuntman even has a beard! It’s no good hiding your face, mate, it’s too late for that now.
The Doctor and the Master return to the Sea Devils’ base, and as soon as the Master’s machine is switched on, the Sea Devils turn on the errant Time Lord.
Sue: Oh look, the Sea Devils have betrayed the Master. Oh well, at least this show is consistent. Maybe next time he’ll take over the planet on his own. At least he’ll only have himself to blame when he ****s it up.
Thankfully, the Doctor sneakily reversed the polarity of the neutron flow and the machine eventually overloads, blowing the Sea Devils’ base to bits. The Master and the Doctor escape to the surface just in time, and a Navy hovercraft picks them up.
Sue: A lot of this is just an advert for the Royal Navy. It’s like a corporate video. With added sea monsters. You know, there’s a massive gap between documentary realism and some of the more bizarre stuff we’ve seen, and putting them both together like this can be quite jarring. It’s a very strange mix. But I appreciate what they are trying to do. It’s trying to be epic and it’s almost succeeding.
The story concludes with the Master escaping in the hovercraft, after he somehow manages to disguise an innocent man as himself when no one is looking. The Doctor is furious.
Sue: So the Master just happened to have a mask of himself in his pocket, did he? I’m not sure I buy that. Oh well, it’s too late now, he’s off again.
The Final Score
Sue: That wasn’t bad at all. It was two episodes too long (but that’s nothing new) and the music (if you can call it music) was very iffy in places. Still, the direction was very good, the performances were very good and the plot was, well, the plot was the same as the last time they did this story. But I enjoyed large portions of it. It was definitely one of the better Pertwees. I bet the omnibus repeat was great.
7/10
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The omnibus repeat of ‘The Sea Devils’ in May 1974 probably set me on the direction towards fanhood – who was Jo and where was Sarah? Why was the title sequence different? Ah, this was an earlier story from when I was just over a year old and not paying attention…
The first episode is very stylised in its forefronting of design – the cars, the Venetian blind screen – and it was years before I realised that Clive Morton is repeating his role as prison governor from ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’. The Doctor is Alec Guinness, come to haunt Dennis Price.
“Was the person who designed the monsters for Doctor Who in the 1970s a sex maniac?”
Not just the monsters (and Sue’s forgotten the 60′s already, hasn’t she?)
Proper Dr Who….
I don’t think Sue’s ever made me laugh as hard as she did this week! I have to say, I found it very satisfying that she got as annoyed over the Doctor’s sandwich-poaching as I did…
Good luck with the next two stories, you have my deepest sympathies…..
It’s odd – if you knew two crap stories were ahead but you also knew the great story after it was going to happen, I’m sure it’d be easier to get through. But, unfortunately for Sue… she has no idea :/
I actually have a suspicion Sue may quite like The Mutants – there is a decent story in there, trapped in a somewhat dodgy production. As for The Time Monster though, let’s just hope Sue isn’t filing for divorce by the end of it!
We are now exactly halfway through Pertwee, a much shorter era than Hartnells and one without any recons. There is hope, if they can get past the next two..
It’s not actually that much shorter – Pertwee’s era lasted for 128 episodes compared to Hartnell’s 134. I would agree though that the Hartnell era does feel longer, not least because it has five more stories than Pertwee’s.
I dunno. There’s a few more long slogs to get through (I’m guessing Sue won’t bother looking up serial codes so that’s how I’ll discuss them…) such as Serials NNN, OOO (apt enough – noooo!), QQQ which is just a hell of a lot of padding with escape/capture/escape, SSS which is just Terry Nation redoing the first Hartnell Dalek story, WWW which has a lot of unfortunately bad effects, and YYY which … yeah. Ouch. Even ZZZ is quite a chore to sit through – particularly in the middle which is pure padding and naff.
What I think I meant is that with RRR there’ll be a feeling of hope!
I think my brother joined the navy because of this!
Royal not Merchant before someone asks….
I’m looking forward to seeing what Sue makes of the next two stories. Much to mock, but I genuinely have a soft spot for The Mutants and The Time Monster. They are overlong and pretty ridiculous in places, but that’s partly why I enjoy them – they’re trying to do something a bit different with Pertwee than the usual Master-turns-up-and-gets-betrayed-by-aliens routine that Sue has spotted. Spaceships, alien planets, budgie-men, timey-wimey nonsense… no lack of ideas, even if the reach often exceeds the grasp. And Sue has been known to defy fan convention, as Colony in Space and The Daemons proved in quick succession…
I spy with my little eye the words “weird crabby alien things” (for the Mutants) and “massive flying chicken” (for the Chronovore) coming :p
I got Beneath The Surface for Christmas & knowing where abouts you were with this, I have watched The Silurians & Warriors of the Deep first of all.
First saw this around 92 or so when a few repeats were on and I really liked it then. So far, I watched 1-4 last night and I thoroughly enjoyed this again. I disagree about padding, I think that the story builds up nicely and is very well paced. I think I would go so far as to say it is my favourite Pertwee story. Though, I haven’t seen em all. I am waiting on Peledon Tales as well!
Sue is always defying fan convention. She doesnt care at all about any of the nerd rage controversies we do. And I love her for it.
The bit with the sandwich is one of the Doctor’s most all-time gittish – and sexist – moments. I’m not surprised Sue was pissed off.
The show is called Doctor Who, not Jo Grant; Pertwee gets first dibs on all catering (it was probably in his contract).
So glad Sue liked it in the end. I was upset when she didn’t appear to like the first few episodes.
Then along came the genius of “Just think, if it wasn’t for the Master, we could be living next door to a Sea Devil.” and it all started looking up
(If she likes the name Stuart Fell, wait til she finds out about Tip Tipping!!)
“And why didn’t anyone check the name out before they made the first one? This never would have happened if Wikipedia had been around in 1972.”
Hah! Chris Chibnal didn’t bother either…
‘Serpo Sapien’ (wise lizard) is a much more scientifically accurate name than the fundamentally wrong ‘homo reptilica’ (scaly ape), plus it has a suitably sibilant sound.
Wouldn’t want to hear Pertwee say it too often, though.
Yes, they’d all have to have been wearing sowesters in the studio if he had.
“Doctor Who and the Therpo Thapienth”
Came after “Thpearhead from Thpath”
I wonder if Sue’ll catch on about the vehicles. There seem to be a hell of a lot of convenient and weird forms of transport, thanks to Jon Pertwee wanting more and more. His final story certainly is the worst when it comes to having daft vehicles. It’s like every Doctor had his mark… Pertwee wanted weird vehiches; that’s his ‘trademark’. But, in the end, as Sue mentions, they’re just bizarre and convenient.
Neil, when “The Mutants” flashes up on screen, it’d be great if you could quickly convince Sue that it’s actually just a repeat of the Hartnell episode of the same name…
I donn’t believe Sue hadn’t been forewarned at some point about the Clangers before the marathon ever started. Neil’s bound to have pointed it out during The Sound Of Drums – God knows he had to watch it enough times – but Sue wouldn’t have taken it in at the time.
RTD’s version isn’t quite the same though. Here, the Master gets frustrated at how humourless and closed-mindedly literal humans can be; in his remake, he’s fascinated by a culture so freakishly obsessed with media that they invented creatures with television screens in their stomachs. Less charming, but arguably a better joke.
She’s not saying ‘Kai’ but ‘Ky’. You see, she’s actually a Time Lord agent subtly hinting who the Doctor should give the football to in the next story.
Merry new wotsits all.
Misc notes:
A “Singer sowing machine”? I’m put in mind of a Heath Robinson rig involving a pram, a windup gramophone playing the Wurzels and a cunningly retasked bingo ball dispenser for spraying out seeds…
Tea in Russian (and lots of other languages, as well as forces slang) is pronounced “CHai”. Another one in the occasional “K vs CH” series – viz “CHIT-in” and “CHARnel house” – but that’s what happens when scriptwriters and actors meet dictionaries. BTW, Pertwee’s Mandarin in Mind of Evil was passable, if tonally humorous.
If Larry Lamb was the inspiration for the Sea Devils’ voices, we have to be thankful that it wasn’t his successor – in which case the wet-look reptiles would certainly not have had string vests to cover their modesty…
Pleasantly surprised by Sue’s (at least initial) response to the music – really quite ambitious for TV of the period. The feature films of the day were packed with analogue synthesis wibbles and squaddly-plonks, but to do it on the Beeb at teatime was adventurous.
Very good. I’ve fixed that. And your last comment has been removed for being off-topic
Sorry Neil.
Quite right too. Or where would it all end.
From one prickly to another, best wishes to little Orac.
It is CHarnel, isn’t it? Or so the OED seems to think.
I was taught KARnel – cognate with “carnal”, pretaining to the body. Might be one of those words where wrong is becoming right through usage.
Or I could be wrong.
Yes, I’m pretty sure it is CHarnel…
As Im attempting to also convert a Not We to it, and have had some success, well with Baker 1 and Davison. Tried a McCoy (Battlefield SE) . He wasnt that taken with him.
He did roar as I told him about your experiement and Sue’s rant as The Doctor stole Jo’s sandwich and the typical WHO mentality of letting Jo climb up a ventilation shaft (and ruin her trouser suit)
Loving your adventures, keep it up…as it were
“That’s not Jo, is it? She’s moving up that ladder like a constipated Donkey Kong.”
Happy New Year – your festive break certainly don’t appear to have dulled Sue’s capacity for a cracking one-liner! As to the story, if The Silurians didn’t exist, I think I would enjoy this one more than I do. It does have some excellent production values, and as Sue points out the Navy’s cooperation makes all the difference. The development of the Doctor-Master relationship is also handled well, and Captain Hart is quite an effective nautical substitute for the Brig. Also, I don’t think the story is particularly padded – if Sue thinks it is, wait till she sees Frontier in Space!
The real trouble is that Malcolm Hulke has already told this tale once before, in superb fashion, and the plot of The Sea Devils feels very much like a half-hearted retread of The Silurians, lacking the dramatic power and strong characterisation of the earlier story. The eponymous creatures themselves, though well-designed, are never as effective as the Silurians because they are forced to play second fiddle to the Master, and ultimately feel a bit two-dimensional. I hate the Walker character as well, as he is just another cliched stereotype of an establishment figure who comes over as even more cartoonish than Mr Chinn; his casual sexism also grates just as much as the Doctor’s sandwich thievery.
Anyway, next up it’s…
I like Edwin Richfield in this. He has a very good line in exasperated eye-rolls. Sue was quite uglyist this time, wasn’t she? Maybe Clive Morton and Declan Mulholland were lookers as children or young adults… ?!?!
The guy hit by the ugly stick looked far uglier in Star Wars once they’d turned him into a giant slug.
To top that for ugly, he gets to be a hunchback and ham it up with Tom Baker on Tara, too…
Let’s not forget that Captain Hart will be returning as a giant slug in 12 years’ time…
“Is ‘kai’ Russian for ‘tea’?” Or… it’s also Māori for ‘food’ – which would make a mouthful from that cuppa rather interesting to swallow…
Well… this is one Pertwee I’m not too familiar with. But I do like the music too – very ’60s Pink Floyd.
T-shirts:
“It’s trying to be epic and it’s almost succeeding.” – is begging to be used but I think I’ll just go with,
“Stuart Fell very well” for sheer brilliance. In fact I think it’s the best joke on his name I’ve heard yet…
Onya Sue! I’m quite keen on seeing your verdict for the next one – IT’S one I quite like…
All your sarnie are belong to us!
The New Year T-shirt comment for me is:
Sue: “The Master just broke the fourth wall!”
Love it.
Sue has identified the central problem with the whole “Doctor trapped on Earth with the Master as recurring villain” idea. It tends to mean that the same basic story gets told over and over again. Still, I have a lot of fondness for this one and I remember being utterly terrified of the Sea Devils when I was a nipper.
For me, the T-shirt should be one of the following:-
1) “Everyone has the right to be ugly but this bloke is abusing it.”
2) “Ugly people and moustaches. That sums up The Sea Devils”
3) “Please get Dudley on the phone.”
4) “Awww, there’s a little baby Sea Devil. That’s sweet. Oh, he just killed someone. That isn’t so sweet.”
Personally I rather like the idea of wearing a t-shirt with no. 1 on it!
***It’s nice and bassy.***
Sue’s contributions and Ian’s spelling become ever more bizarre. Shirley Bassey sang the 007 theme tunes, not the incidental music for Doctor Who.
Who the **** is Ian?
You know? Ian? Ian?!?! The SHOW should have been called Ian!
This is quite meta, actually.
I think it’s pronounced “base-ey”
As in Count Basie?
But more sibilant.
No, if it’s sibilant, it’s pronounced “treble-y”.
Sorry, slip of the keyboard. Got mixed up as had just been speaking to someone on the phone called Ian (the person was called Ian, I mean – I don’t name my phones). And let’s face it, Ian and Neil are pretty similar names, aren’t they? There’s a particular type of person for whom, at their christening, it’s always going to be a coin toss between Ian or Neil. If you’re told that you’re going to be introduced to someone called Neil at a party and someone else called Ian, you might as well say – save time by only introducing me to Neil because, once I’ve met him, I’ll know what Ian is going to be like.
P.S. I mean of course that they’ll both be brilliant guys who you’d want as your personal role models. (phew, think I dodged the bullet there).
P.P.S. Yet more apropos-of-bugger-all mentions of “poshness” in these reviews. This blog seems to be a two-person crusade to sustain class consciousness.
To be fair, there’s a lot of class to be conscious of.
All the more reason to avoid defining people by their class. Especially with such a crass word like “posh”. Occasionally is OK but when some people use it over and over again, you begin to wonder if it’s not just the people at the top of the tree who have a need to cling to class stereotypes in order to make themselves feel secure in life. Imagine what we’d think of someone who kept describing characters as “common”. Inverted snobbery isn’t more virtuous than ordinary snobbery.
Unfortunately class is a fact of life in Britain, and I doubt that the use of the word posh on this blog will make an enormous difference to that… And isn’t the blog basically two people talking rather than a formal submission or an academic essay?
Among others, the word “posh” has been used by P. G. Wodehouse, J. B. Priestley and Dylan Thomas… I hope I haven’t started a controversy, but I would defend the use of the word.
I don’t know that I’d say Pertwee is my *favorite* but he’s cetlainry *one* of my favorites. His Arrogant Doctor goes right along with Baker’s Quirky Doctor, Eccleston’s Tragic Doctor, and Tennant’s Lonely Doctor. And if I’d ever watched much of the others, they’d likely be favorites in their own ways, too.
“P.P.S. Yet more apropos-of-bugger-all mentions of “poshness” in these reviews.”
Have you actually listened to the scene in question? FFS.
I think it’s more of a generational thing than a poshness thing.
People of Pertwee’s generation were old enough to remember when phones had very, very poor sound quality, and you had to use a very clear, precise, well-spoken voice to be sure of the other person hearing you. It had the side-effect of making them sound posh, but that wasn’t the reason why they did it.
Yes, things had improved a lot by the 1970s, but old habits die hard!
“Ian, Ian, worm before the might of Sutekh”. No, it doesn’t work.
No wonder Sue doesn’t recognise the six-inch Sea Devil action figure.
It looks like a flamin’ Terrileptil.
“If it wasn’t for the Master, we could be living next door to a Sea Devil.”
Ha-ha! That’s got to be the prime t-shirt slogan contender.
In fact, I even stopped reading the review to post this forthwith.
Happy New Year! And as we celebrated both Christmas and New Year’s Day with new matching Husband-In-Space T-shirts (the latter to celebrate the birthday of Doctor Who’s most famous elephant), today’s votes from the Isle of Dogs jury: a Sea Devil with “It’s Lady Ga Ga!”, obviously; “You know I have to knock marks off whenever an episode drives the cats out of the room, don’t you?” – I love the Newt Gingrich-a-like rise and plummet in the music’s popularity, with even Mark Ayres’ sleeve notes calling it “uncompromising”; or, of course, “Do we really have to watch this sword fight again?” and “Well in that case, I’m going to make a cup of tea” above and below silhouettes of fencing Time Lords.
As I said when reviewing The King’s Demons, at least that’s one thing it gets better than The Sea Devils. Oh, two things: and the music. And – one for Sue – it’s a third the length. That’s three. I’ll come in again…
Glad you both had fun watching it, but I’m starting to worry about Sue (having worried about Neil’s penis, for obvious reasons, in the previous story). For this, the most morally compromised of all Pertwees, a lobotomised remake that utterly reverses the moral sense of …and the Silurians by having the Doctor blow them up rather than complain about it, she praises the story and marks it highly, and after doing down the far less offensive The Curse of Peladon; I’m wondering if the sinister hypnotic Time Lord here is not in fact the Master, but Pertwee. For all that she says what a git he is for stealing sandwiches, he waggles his glowing bouffant at her from out of the screen and she must obey: Sue’s been awarding points in inverse proportion to her stated opinions about the gittish Doctor putting Jo down. Jo put him in his place properly last time, and a much better story to boot, yet only half the marks – Pertwee hypnotism is the only explanation.
One other mystery: when exactly did Gary join the Navy for just six weeks in 1972? Was it in fact to get away from this story?
I’m going against the consensus, here. I’d never been a fan of Pertwee’s Doctor (as an adult, I had Target novelisations I enjoyed as a kid, and I enjoyed the repeats of his stories, too). The sandwich theft was the first time I actually “got” him, and I’ve liked him ever since.
“You know I have to knock marks off whenever an episode drives the cats out of the room, don’t you?”
Too lon to fit on a T-shirt or mug, but this would be a great tagline for a mock-inspirational cat/kitten poster.
T-Shirt suggestion…
Is there some sort of Ignore List feature on these comments? Noticed a few weeks back that PolarityReversed’s comments haven’t got a “reply” link underneath them (at least on my browser anyway).
Have I p*ssed him off? I remember contradicting something he said about Shada and getting a hilariously humourless reply along the lines of “Be still beatings hearts”. And knowing how sensitive certain DW fans can be about these things I was wondering if he decided to deliberately ignore me? Not that I give a toss.
Anyway, very much enjoyed this post, I certainly haven’t laughed at one of your reviews so much for quite a while.
I can be a bit forthright, grumpy too, and boy can I ramble… But I certainly don’t expect everyone to agree with me and I assure you I’m not deliberately ignoring anyone.
I never meant to be rude. My genuine apologies if I have unintentionally offended you, or anyone else here.
(Still don’t like bloody Shada, though!)
I really liked the look of the Sea Devils; they are really bizarre-looking. and scary; Just wished their eyes blinked. Also, did every bloody Sea Devil have to wear the same fish net outfit? How can you tell one from the other? I suppose for the sake of simplicity, they all dressed alike, but did you ever see a fish wearing a costume? I doubt they wore anything at all (if they were real, which they aren’t, but still…). Any rate, they were scary enough. The monster making has moved up a notch in the show; the next story has pretty interesting monsters too.
I also don’t buy they are cousins to the Silurians. They are fishlike, swim in the sea. Silurians are reptiles… unless their common ancestor was a sea slug or an amoeba; but so was ours. So indirectly we are cousins too. Nevermind.
The story wasn’t half bad, all things considered. Just a bit too long. They really did big up the Royal Navy though. All that footage of big ships at sea. It was almost like they were recruiting for sailors…
The Master is jail was a hoot. So was that sword fight; who ever dreamed that up should have been shot. Filler, anyone? Not only that, but they showed it twice. The Doctor seems to be playing around with the Master here… you can tell he likes him around to cause trouble. He never really tries to get rid of him. Maybe he’s bored, like Sherlock. He loves a bad boy. Note: They could have turned episode 3 and 4 into one episode, nothing really happens here much… There is al this running around, the Doctor gets tied up, the Master twists his evil mustache… it’s so slow we have to watch the Doctor stealing sandwiches from Jo.
Then the Doctor and the Master get to ride jet skis! LOL! And the Navy gets more screen time. Is this still Doctor Who?
Then they do the bit where the Doctor tries to negotiate with the Sea Devils so everyone can live happy on earth. Come on. THAT will never work. But anyway, the head Sea Devil gets turned around by the Master and the next thing you know the Doctor is blowing them all up! A preparation for the Time War, I suppose.
Anyway, one of Pertwee’s most famous catch phrases gets muttered here: “I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow.”
7/10 is about right.