6 Episodes
Aired between 26th February 1972 and 1st April 1972
Written by Malcolm Hulke
Produced by Barry Letts
Directed by Michael Bryant
Synopsis
The Story begins with the Doctor and Jo visiting their old adversary, the Master who's been imprisoned on a maximum security facility on a remote island. The island is well guarded and on the assurance of the governor - Colonel Trenchard, the cell block is monitored via CCTV, and all the guards are immune to hypnosis. The beaches are even mined!
The Doctor seems to pity the Master but is still wary of him when he claims to be reformed, especially as he refuses to reveal the location of his own TARDIS.
As the Doctor and Jo leave, Colonel Trenchard mentions the mysterious sinking of local ships in passing.
Once they're gone, Trenchard visits the Master, panicking about the Doctor's visit and claiming that UNIT might have discovered their plans. The Master is nonchalant about everything except the fact that Trenchard put the Doctor onto the trail of the ships.
The Master is indeed right to be concerned as the Doctor slips away from Jo and pays a local fisherman a tenner to use his boat and visit the local top secret naval base: HMS Seaspite. As soon as he runs ashore, he sees one of the wrecked boats and investigates only to be confronted by a unit of armed sailors. They take him to the base's commander, Captain John Hart when he points out that the boat has scorch marks on the underside of it, indicating a laser of some sort.
Not long after the Doctor meets Captain Hart, Jo turns up on a motorbike she borrowed from the same sailor. Hart tells the Doctor and Jo that the ships have been going down near an old sea fort that the navy have recently restored and converted into a sonar testing station.
Despite revealing this, Hart is reluctant to accept the Doctor's help in the investigation and shows them the door.
The Doctor decides to visit the fort with Jo.
As they arrive, the two sailors stationed at the fort are attacked by some kind of reptilian sea creature. As they explore, the sea creatures destroy the Doctor's boat and begin hunting them.
Jo and the Doctor are assaulted by the half mad remaining sailor, who says he saw "Sea Devils". The Doctor and Jo manage to sedate him and go to radio Hart but find that it's been disabled. Using his scientific knowledge, the Doctor reckons he can turn the radio into a transmitter. As he goes to get some equipment, he encounters the Sea Devil in the fort.
It tries to shoot the Doctor but he escapes and wires up some electricity to the steel door frame. As the Sea Devil attempts to break into the dorm where the Doctor, Jo and the sailor hole up, the power is switched on and shocks the creature, causing it to flee back into the sea with fear. This allows the Doctor time to jerry rig the radio and call for help.
In a matter of minutes, an air/sea rescue helicopter appears and brings them back to shore.
Back at HMS Seaspite, the Doctor and Jo try to convince Captain Hart of the Sea Devil's existence and ask him to contact UNIT. As they are arguing, they're paid a visit by none other than Colonel Trenchard who turns up with a flimsy excuse that he's trying to organise a golf tournament with Captain Hart.
The reality is of course, that he's smuggled the master into the naval base using his doorless Citroen. The Master, dressed up as a naval officer goes to the stores, knocks out the quartermaster and steals some electronic equipment.
As Colonel Trenchard leaves Hart's office, Jo spots the Master swanning about the base and warns Hart and the Doctor. Trenchard leaves with the master back in his boot just as the alarms sound. The Doctor rushes off with Jo back to the island prison and confronts Trenchard about the Master's sighting. Trenchard refutes it, stating that the Master's been in his cell all along, and shows them him on CCTV as proof. The Doctor asks to see the Master and Trenchard goes off to ask for clearance.
As the CCTV is switched off, the Master knocks out one of the guards and steals his knife. He then tells an anxious Trenchard to send the Doctor down to see him.
As Trenchard and the Master are formulating their plan, the Doctor sends Jo away to contact UNIT whilst he tries to uncover more of their plans. Trenchard returns and invites the Doctor to go and see the Master. When he complies, the Master pulls a gun on him. The lightning reflexes of the Doctor allow him to escape and indeed disarm the Master, who then grabs a sword from the wall outside. The pair begin a fencing match, with the Doctor proving that he's the better of the two.
Thinking he's defeated, the Doctor turns his back on the Master, who pulls out the knife and throws it. He's such a crap shot though that even that misses. Trenchard arrives and arrests the Doctor on trumped up charges, and gives orders to his guards to capture Jo.
As Jo plays hide and seek on the island with the prison guards, the Master explains to the Doctor that he found out about the Sea Devil's from the Time Lord files he stole.
He intends to use them to conquer the planet. Trenchard knows none of this, of course. He believe's they're doing some kind of secret mission to uncover enemy agents of the crown.
The Doctor is taken to another cell whilst the Master uses the components he stole to create a device capable of summoning and controlling the Sea Devil's.
Jo turns up and manages to sneak into the Doctor's cell, freeing him from his handcuffs and helping him escape.
They both rush to the beach, but are confronted by a bunch of guards as well as Trenchard and the Master.
The Master sees it as a perfect opportunity to use his device and summons a Sea Devil from the waters.
The Sea Devil attacks the guards, killing them all and then turns towards the Doctor and Jo. The pair are forced to make their way through the minefield, with the help of the Doctor's trusty Sonic Screwdriver that bleeps when mines are near.
As the Sea Devil comes after them, the Doctor uses his Sonic Screwdriver to activate the mines behind them, wounding the creature and sending it scurrying back into the sea.
Meanwhile, at HMS Seaspite, Captain Hart decides that the Doctor and Jo's warnings are serious enough to warrant further investigation. He sends a submarine crew to come the depths near the sea fort and report anything suspicious. It's naturally not long before the submarine is attacked by the Sea Devils and it looses power, becoming stranded on the sea bed.
Back at the prison, the Master returns to his cell and begins modifying the device to summon multiple Sea Devil's.
Trenchard becomes inconsolable at the thought of working with the creatures. The Master ultimately summons a bunch of them to invade the prison and kill all the guards, including Trenchard.
The Doctor and Jo get back to Seaspite and chastise Hart for sending the submarine down. The Doctor decides he's dealing with creatures similar to the Silurians and he must try and talk to them to arrange a peaceful resolution to all of this.
Despite Jo's protests, he convinces Captain Hart to take him out to sea on a ship with a diving bell. He goes down alone and is taken by the Sea Devils.
Despite Jo fearing he's dead, the Doctor is taken to the Sea Devil's base, where he gets an audience with the leader of the Sea Devils.
Even though the Master turns up and tries to convince the creatures that the Doctor means to double cross them, the Doctor succeeds in getting the Sea Devils to agree to talk with the humans about co-existing.
As negotiations are ongoing, Captain Hart and Jo go back to the base, where they are met by Mr Walker, Parliamentary Private Secretary, who's been sent to the base to help deal with the Sea Devils in line with official Government policy, i.e. blow them up. He orders that the naval ships in the area drop tons of depth charges into the area and smash the Sea Devil's base. Jo protests, insisting that the Doctor could be alive. Captain Hart echoes her sentiment, stating that the submarine crew could as well. Walker doesn't listen and forces the order through.
The Doctor just gets the Sea Devils to agree to the negotiations as the depth charges pound the base. The leader becomes angry and orders the Doctor to be taken away and killed. Once he's out of the picture, the Master works his magic, convincing the leader to send up some of the bodies and debris to "fake" the fact that the base has been destroyed, then they can plan a retaliation against humanity.
What the Master didn't count on, is the fact that the Doctor escapes during the explosions and manages to obtain one of the Sea Devils guns. He soon finds a prison block and discovers that the submarine crew were captured and brought onboard. He frees them and together they flee back to the submarine, killing the Sea Devil guarding it (much to the Doctor's annoyance).
They power up the sub and try to get out of the underwater harbour, but the Sea Devil leader stops them by activating a force field over the entrance.
The Doctor convinces the sub Captain that he has to fire torpedoes into the base in the hopes of disabling the force field. They do this, despite the considerable risk of blowing themselves up. It pays off and the sub breaks free, returning to HMS Seaspite.
The Master consoles the leader of the Sea Devil's and assures them that it won't do the humans any good, as he proposes an immediate attack on HMS Seaspite itself.
The Doctor storms into Hart's office and demands to know what idiot sent down the depth charges. He confronts Walker with the events and convinces him that they can't take any more aggressive action until the Doctor has had a chance to go back down there and negotiate with the Sea Devils. Again, despite Jo's protests to the contrary, the Doctor heads off to go down in the diving bell once more. On their way, the Doctor, Jo and Captain Hart are confronted by a Sea Devil that's stormed the base!
He belts it with some Venusian Karate, but is ultimately overpowered and the group are captured.
The officers are all held prisoner in Hart's office, and once he's recovered, the Doctor is taken to see the Master who offers him his life in return for helping him perfect a device that will awaken all the Sea Devil's across the world. The Doctor has little choice but to comply.
As the Doctor and the Master get to work, Captain Hart helps Jo escape through the ventilation shaft.
She quickly finds the Doctor and arranges to free Hart and Mr Walker once the Doctor has created a distraction. Sure enough, when the Doctor finishes work on the device, he switches it on and all the Sea Devil's reel in agony at the high pitched noise it creates. Jo rushes into Hart's office and they escape, but Mr Walker is afraid and stays behind.
The Master shuts off the machine and the Doctor coyly apologises, saying that he put the leads in wrong. The Doctor, the Master and the leader of the Sea Devils all head off towards the sea, only to find that Hart and Jo have tootled off in a hovercraft and returned again with a bunch of armed sailors. A gun fight begins and the humans manage to recapture the base, killing most of the Sea Devils.
The Doctor tells the sailor who saves him to watch the Master carefully and then rushes off to find Jo. The Master seizes the opportunity and hypnotises said sailor.
The Doctor does catch up with Jo and Hart, but soon sees the Master fleeing with the device. He races after him on some kind of mini speedboat before the Master grounds himself ashore once more. The Doctor grabs him but soon realises they're surrounded by Sea Devils.
Finally freed from imprisonment, Mr Walker becomes irrational and demands that the Sea Devil base is hit with nuclear strikes.
The Sea Devils take the Doctor and the Master back to their base and take the device from them, locking them both in prison so they can use it for their own gain.
The Doctor doesn't seem too upset by this, and reveals to the Master that he "reversed the polarity of the neutron flow", meaning that it will overload and blow up. He also says that he's booby trapped the ignition switch so that it will self destruct if they try to turn it off. The Master is forced to help the Doctor to escape using the Sonic Screwdriver and they both get to the surface using a pair of diving suits. The pair of them are rescued by the hovercraft just as the Sea Devil base blows up from the device.
After his rescue, the Master becomes suddenly ill and the hovercraft crew call for an ambulance on their arrival. The Doctor gets out of the hovercraft and greets Jo and Captain Hart, only to discover that the man they bring out on the stretcher isn't the Master at all, but one of the crew who's been hypnotised and had a Master-like mask put on him.
The Master waves from the controls of the Hovercraft and leaves.
Trivia
- This story was actually filmed before the Curse of Peladon, in order to take advantage of the October weather (as opposed to filming it out at sea in Nov / Dec). The gamble paid off and the weather was good to them
- The Sea Devil's came about as a concept when Barry Letts looked back on how well the liason with the RAF had been during The Mind of Evil. With both him and Pertwee having served in the Navy during WW2, he decided to try and convince the Navy to get in on the action. As it happened, Prince Charles had just left active service and they wanted something to boost their profile, so they jumped at the chance!
- The Doctor's sonic screwdriver had a bit of a redesign and was specially made for this story
- Some of the film sequences proved a bit tricky as many of the crew got sea sick and Roger Delgado wasn't particularly fond of water. Despite this, they did an admirable job.
- If you've read the write up for Day of the Daleks, you'll not be surprised to know that the mini speedboat chase was used on a whim by Pertwee who saw them and thought they were cool
- The Navy didn't want any actors touching the AA gun, but the actor who played Captain Hart looked so much like an officer, that the Navy staff mistook him for one and let him go on it! Michael Bryant jumped at the chance and filmed him, using it in the final episode
- Sadly, this is last time the Havoc stunt team were used on Doctor Who
- Not long after this story went on air, the Production Team were visited by the Ministry of Defence. The government it seems were very interested to know how the Doctor Who crew had got access to top secret plans for the Polaris nuclear submarine that was being tested at the time. In actual fact, the special effects crew decided that the standard submarine kit they'd bought from Woolworths wanted a bit of an overhaul and added a new propeller that just happened to have the precise number of blades on it that the Polaris sub had!
What worked
- Right off the bat, the soundtrack is unlike anything heard before or since. It's weird and beautiful all at the same time. Even 50 years on, you'll still be listening to it in with the same wonder.
- The Sea Devils themselves are actually pretty good monsters. It's hard to believe that only one story previous we were having to make do with Alpha Centauri!
- The amount of filming this story has gives the impression that it's almost like a feature film
- In the same vein, the amount of Navy hardware makes it feel like there's a lot more budget than what there actually is
- Its also nice to see Jo's relationship with the Doctor developing. He's clearly more of a father figure now than a work colleague
- The bit with the clangers is always amusing too and reminds us not to take it too seriously
What didn't work
- Even calling the Silurians the Eocenes was still factually wrong
- The helicopter changes colour between shots.
- Why order a massive nuclear strike on an island a hairs breadth away from England?
- How exactly do the Navy get away with all the speedboats and hovercraft just sitting on the beach without getting pinched?
- Why does the Master laugh at the Doctor's death sentence when he reveals later he needed him alive after all?
Overall Feelings
For generations after the making of the Sea Devils, this was a story that people would point to and say this is what Doctor Who in the 1970's was all about. Even I'm happy to say that I got to see this story in 1986 and as a seven year old, I basked in all its cheesy glory.
Perhaps more so than the Silurians, this story has serious flaws in it, and just as in a lot of the previous season, would have no doubt worked a little better without the inclusion of the Master to muddy the waters so to speak. But as fans, we don't watch it or appreciate it for its brilliance in plot. There's nothing here that's not been done before in that sense. What we do appreciate it for is everything else that does make it unique.
Michael Bryant spent far too much money on the filmed shots and had to save money, so he asked the Radiophonic workshop to do all the soundtrack. The result is unlike anything we've ever heard in 2016, so imagine how weird it would have been in 1972.
Similarly, the coercion of the Royal Navy meant that this story could go well beyond the boundaries of its budget and deliver shipboard shenanigans that have been hitherto unavailable. The sets are dark and gloomy and look great (with the exception of the sea devil base).
So, although people point at the Sea Devils and say this was what Doctor Who was about, I point at it and say this is what it could and probably should have been like, with the proper budget and minds behind it.
Rating
10 out of 10!
Sorry, I know it's flawed in plot and logic, but there's so much more here that makes me want to forgive it
Rewatchability Factor
9 out of 10
there's a few scenes in it to pad it out to 6 episodes, otherwise I'd give it a 10 on this as well
Watch this if you liked...
- Cold War (Doctor Who, Series 7)
Consulting the Matrix
Who do you prefer? Sea Devils or Silurians?
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