The Doctor and Jo visit the Master in his high-security prison on an island off the south coast of England. The governor, Colonel Trenchard, says ships have been disappearing mysteriously at sea. The Doctor discovers that Trenchard and the Master are in league to contact the Sea Devils, a race of reptiles in hibernation in a base beneath the sea, who have been awoken by recent work on a nearby sea fort. The Master intends to use his new allies to help him conquer the world.
I had so much fun with this one. I enjoyed the introduction of the Sea Devil’s and thought they were pretty interesting. But what I really loved was watching the Doctor, Jo, and the Master play off each other all through the story. The sword fight was also a joy to watch. Also nice to have the Master out and about again after his arrest in the previous story.
I really enjoy this one. It is the first classic story I watched all the way through, and so it will always be a special story for me. Delgado is brilliant as the Master, and the dynamic between the Master and the Doctor is done so well. Their swordfight is one of my favourite moments of Pertwee’s Doctor. Jo is a great companion too, and she brings a lot to the story.
I think the Sea Devils in this look fantastic, and it is still the best story of theirs. The scene where they rise out of the water and on to the beach is iconic for a reason.
But perhaps it is maybe a little bit too long. That is my only complaint about it, but even then, it isn’t tedious, and still interesting all the way through.
One of my favorite classic stories. As somebody who uses it a lot for other stories, Ive never understood the critisisum that it’s just The Silurian Story™ again. Its. Agreat afventure with a lot of great moments. And Im not even a Delgado Master fan
I started properly participating in the TV club threads with the start of season eight. All of the stories so far I’ve seen before but for the majority, I had fairly little recollection - until now. I’m far more familiar with The Sea Devils than with the rest of seasons eight and nine, but I am looking forward to rewatching now. My overriding feeling is that it’s a fairly strong story with a lot of really brilliant moments, surrounded by quite a number of padded, fluffy moments that drag it out. I think I’m on record as saying previously that this was by far the best and most sensible choice of the three classic serials that were truncated on iPlayer in recent years - The Daleks and The War Games are long, but they’re packed with a lot of glorious stuff and most things that could be cut would be something of a loss. The Sea Devils on the other hand has the potential to be an incredibly tight and engaging story, if the excess fluff is trimmed well (which it was in this case). If anyone’s struggled with the pacing (or music) of this story previously, I’d highly recommend the shortened version (something I probably wouldn’t often recommend for the other two stories) as I think it keeps all the brilliant wheat, cuts all the tiresome chaff and leaves you with the story that The Sea Devilscould have been. That said, I’m going to watch the original, as it’s been a while…
Part One
I love the scene of the Doctor and Jo on the boat, there’s something so charming about it.
Not Doc and Master having their little giggles together, I love it.
Oh Delgado is just delicious, I’ve missed him if I’m honest, even just from two serials without him.
Nothing like a good ‘oi, you!’ to get your blood pumping.
Big old slay outfit from Jo today, quite the upgrade on previous attempts.
I’m glad we’ve got a return of the cape for the Doctor too.
The Master watching The Clangers is great and the fact they had him watch The Teletubbies in 2007 as homage still makes me smile.
It always bothers me a bit when the Doctor acts like somebody is stupid for not understanding his historical name-dropping. Like, why are you offended that somebody thinks you can’t have met Horatio Nelson, when they know nothing about you?
Jo is still a little irritating, but you can really track the improvements in her acting across the two (so far) seasons, it’s quite a fascinating exercise.
Oof, that’s a bit of a clunky cliff-hanger.
Verdict after Part One - Those who’ve said above that the highlight is the dynamics of the interactions between the three key players are absolutely bang on. This story would be nothing without those relationships. Not much actually happened here.
Part Two
Fascinated by a sea devil happily and easily hopping down the rungs of a ladder - not something you might expect to come naturally to them on land?
There’s some nice direction here actually, it’s a shame the music distracts so much from it.
That’s some reeaal unsubtle expositionary dialogue to recall the events of The Silurians.
I feel like the Master’s hypnosis is unsuccessful more often than it is successful.
Not loving the Colonel’s attitude towards Jo. Telling myself it’s all to play for time.
The sword fight rightly gets a lot of praise, but the whole scene that precedes it (‘good afternoon!’) is excellent too.
Verdict after Part Two - A solid, if very gradual, ramping up of events. Exactly as I remembered - very strong on the whole but particularly slow in getting anywhere.
Part Three
This is an unusually long recap. They were clearly very proud of the sword fight. Or possibly six episodes was just too many and this part was struggling to fill the runtime…
Oooh we love a badass moment for Jo.
This era is full of really strong supporting characters, but I just don’t quite buy into the colonel as well as I do others, and I wonder if that’s a big part of what holds back this serial.
As is so often the case with Master stories, the Master thread is considerably more fun and interesting than the alien threat thread.
So far, the music’s been… odd… but not nearly as painful as I remembered. Am I getting it mixed up with The Silurians?
The scene with Jo at the window walked so the scene with Donna at the window could run.[1]
The location work in this serial is really something. They went above and beyond anything they’ve done previously and it adds a lot.
The Doctor’s and Jo’s ambush of the guard is really laughable and yet still a lot of fun.
It’s a cool shot of the sea devil coming out of the water of course. But I can’t help feeling it could have a bit more of a threatening stance/gait, it rather detracts from the vibe!
Verdict after Part Three - This was a fun one, it’s not slowing down as painfully as I remembered, so my hopes are high for the second half.
I really can’t figure out how I feel about the sea devil design. The lack of mobility is unfortunate but I think the base design itself is pretty strong, particularly the face and the weapon - I think the clothing looks a bit silly and detracts slightly.
That mine detector thing sure would have been handy three years later, 43 years later and 52 years later.
Why is the Doctor such a douche to Jo sometimes? If you dislike Twelve for his abrasiveness but have no problem with Three, kindly explain why it’s not totally savage to tell Jo off for eating before eating and giving away the food himself a second later. What a bully. Far from the only moment he’s like this and I don’t really understand what they’re getting at with it.
The scene with the Doctor on the boat prepping to go into the sea is giving me all the flashbacks to that Turf & Surf episode that felt like it was going somewhere and then very much wasn’t. I hadn’t realised until now what a clear homage that whole sequence was to this episode.
Verdict after Part Four - Yeah, I think this is maybe the point things start to really dip. Less Master and more sea devils make Mellis a sad boi. Some nice shots though, and cool to have some action on a boat.
Part Five
We’re in the realms of treading familiar ground now, which feels a shame. But other than the fact we’ve seen it before, the explosions occurring just as the Doctor is managing to win over the sea devils, so they then turn against him, is a nice bit of storytelling.
The navy chaps playing cards leave a fair amount to be desired when it comes to acting, don’t they?
The captain is the spitting image of my childhood best friend though, so there’s that.
The netting garment on the sea devil looks better than whatever that first one had - gives vibes of fish getting trapped in pollution.
Verdict after Part Five - It’s sad how rapidly I’m losing interest. Here’s hoping an increased presence of the Master in the final instalment will turn things around…
Part Six
Watching classic Who out of order, I think I quite often thought ‘ooo, this time he’s having to work with the Master, that’s different!’ Watching Pertwee through in order, I realise that seems to happen almost every time…
Is that a hovercraft? ‘My hovercraft is full of eels.’ If you get that reference, I love you.
The sea devils may be the worst culprit yet for the Pertwee-era (or maybe just classic-era) problem of 'a reasonably well-designed ‘alien’ still looks ridiculous when placed on a pavement in front of a 20th-century office building.
Pertwee wouldn’t be Perwtee without someone falling off a high roof.
The Doctor on a jet ski is absolutely wild, what even is this show? It’s so blatantly just there for the sake of it. Still cool though.
Oh hey, he reversed the polarity of the neutron flow. Fun fact, the only time that full phrase was actually used by Pertwee in his original run in the show.
Even when it’s getting ‘exciting’, there’s a lot of splashing around without much happening. It’s a shame.
I also had high hopes for Jo in this story but she’s ended up fairly sidelined yet again.
The Doctor seems awfully chipper at the end of this, in stark contrast to the end of The Silurians. Shame really, it cheapens it a little.
Verdict after Part Six - Very much a story of two halves that starts of incredibly strongly, but as the sea devils become the main event and the Master takes a back seat, it starts to really drag. I think I’m sticking with my initial consensus that the shortened omnibus treatment may be the superior version of this story. Still, some nice direction and some very strong performances from the leads. Just a shame it descends into a very padded version of what we’ve seen before, albeit with occasional Very Cool action sequences.
The Sea Devils is one of my all-time favorites. It’s probably my favorite Master episode ever, and maybe by a notable margin at that. As much as I love UNIT in this era, it is interesting to see the Doctor and Jo working with the regular military too, with their to-be-expected incredulity and lack of familiarity and trust with the Doctor. The Sea Devil costume seems to have been ambitious for the time (I’m certainly no costume, make-up, etc. expert), but what’s delivered is one of my favorite creature designs in all of DW.
It is, and I hate it. And if 3 did stuff like that almost every episode I’ld probably hate him. But unlike 12 this is weird for him, or at least in a minority of his (much longer) stories
I’m not sure that’s true… watching through his era in order for the first time, I’m noticing moments like that more and more, roughly once per story I’d hazard.
