6 episodes
Aired between 16th March 1968 and 20th April 1968
Written by Victor Pemberton
Produced by Peter Bryant
Directed by Hugh David
Synopsis
The TARDIS arrives somewhere on the coast of the north sea. For some reason, it appears in mid air and slowly descends onto the surface of the water.
A moment later, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria emerge, and use a rubber dingy to get to shore.
The Doctor gets into the part and dons a wooly hat.
Jamie reckons they're in England, judging by the weather. They soon enough find some foam on the beach, and have a foam fight with it until the Doctor spies a huge pipe running from the sea, to the shore.
They realise that the pipe is the source of the foam. It has a logo on it: EuroSea Gas. The Doctor locates a control box on the pipe and uses his sonic screwdriver to open it up.
After a little bit of messing about with the controls, he hears a low rumbling inside the pipe, a strange sound like a steady heartbeat.
Victoria begins to sense that they're being watched. Low and behold, they are. A security camera with a telescopic sight focuses on the group and fires tranquilisers at them, knocking them all unconscious.
When they awake, they find themselves watched over by armed security guards.
Their boss: a grumpy man called Robson, turns up and accuses the TARDIS crew of being saboteurs. A fellow scientist, Harris tries to calm Robson down, but Robson refuses to be reasonable, and orders them locked up and storms out.
Harris takes them through what they discover is a shore based complex that monitors a series of interlinked gas refinery rigs, with a central Control Rig. He's apologetic to the Doctor, stating that Robson is in charge and has been under a lot of stress because one of the gas rigs they control has lost contact. The Doctor explains the noise they heard in the pipe and assures he's not a saboteur. He does however recommend that they shut off the gas flow and check the pipe. Harris says Robson will never agree to it.
Back in the main control centre, technician Price calls Robson in. He explains that they've just regained contact with the gas rig, Robson asks the rig commander if everything is alright, and he monotonously answers that everything is fine and not to worry, shortly before the contact is lost again.
After locking the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria in one of the bunk rooms, Harris returns to Robson and explains what the Doctor found. He adds that the pressure has been sporadic in the pipes for the last week or so, and recommends shutting off the gas to check the pipe. Robson is scornful of Harris, but agrees to look over Harris' previous reports, if only to prove him wrong. As Harris opens his briefcase however, he discovers that his paperwork is gone. He pops home to see if he left it in his desk.
Back in the bunk room, Jamie and the Doctor get to work using the air vent to escape, whilst Victoria decides to use the simple way and pick the lock with her hairpin. As they are escaping, they overhear Harris talking to his wife, Maggie. He asks her to go to their living quarters and fetch the report he needs.
Once Harris and Maggie have gone, Jamie makes it out, falling out of the air vent, just as Victoria unlocks the door and steps over him into the corridor!
Maggie returns to her quarters and finds the report her husband, Harris wanted, but discovers an odd sprig of seaweed inside it. She is somehow stung by the thing. She curses and throws the thing out of the window, unaware that it begins to bubble and writhe outside.
Back in the control centre, The Doctor and co. watch from hiding as Van Lutyens, a Dutch official approaches Robson with his conerns about the downed comms with Rig B. Robson via a lot of yelling tells the Dutch official that he'll deal with it as he sees fit.
Once he's dealt with that, Chief Baxter from the Control Rig calls Robson and explains that they've picked up the sound of a heartbeat within the main pipe. He requests shutting the pipe down, but Robson refuses. Hearing this, the Doctor and Jamie decide to go to the Control Rig, leaving Victoria to explore on her own.
As she wanders about the place, she ducks inside one of the offshoot rooms when she hears someone coming, and accidentally interrupts a tall, thin, gas masked man who is opening oxygen valves to let them all seep away. The man rushes past her and locks her inside. As Victoria uses her hair pin once more, the man flicks a switch to the emergency vent and sneaks away.
The Doctor and Jamie stealthily make their way through the complex until they find a section of the main gas pipe that's transparent. The Doctor explains it's there to check for condensation in the pipe and debris. The Doctor uses his stethoscope once again, listening for a heartbeat inside the pipe.
Victoria meanwhile begins to call for help as foam floods into the room from the emergency vent, and large seaweed like tentacles move towards her. The Doctor and Jamie hear her call echoing through the pipes and corridors and rush off to find her as the sea monster draws ever closer.
Victoria panics even more and screams hysterically as the tentacles approach. The Doctor and Jamie rush into the room and go to rescue her, but discover oddly that the monster has withdrawn. Victoria explains what happened. Robson turns up and accuses Victoria of getting rid of all the oxygen but technicians note the presence of some kind of toxic gas, and the fact that the door was locked from the outside.
Meanwhile, Harris goes to see his wife for the file and finds her unconscious. He brings her round and leaves her on the couch whilst he goes to get help.
Robson, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria return to the control centre, and are met by Van Lutyens. They are told that the pipe's impeller is slowing down. Van Lutyens says that it's the same sound he heard in the pipes, and the Doctor too. Robson is adamant that it's just a mechanical fault and refuses to close off the gas. Harris turns up and after yet more arguments with Robson, gets permission to take the Doctor to see his wife.
At the living quarters, Maggie woozily answers the door to two of the technicians: Mr Oak and Mr Quill.
They explain that Robson has ordered them to check their appliances for gas leaks. She lets them in. They go about their fake inspection, but when Maggie leaves the room, they open the patio door, letting the foaming tentacles of the monster inside.
Back at the centre, Van Lutyens and the Chief Engineer determine that the impeller is the problem, because the pressure maybe either too high or too low. Van Lutyens reckons the whole pipe is going to explode if they don't close off the gas, but Robson yells that he knows what he's doing and orders them to burn off the pressure. This improves things in the main pipe, but the pressure in the relaying pipes from the rigs continues to drop, and the impeller still slows. Price informs them that they've now lost contact with Rig C.
In her room, Maggie is feeling decidedly ill. Mr Quill enters and when she turns to address him, he opens his mouth, releasing toxic gas into the air.
Maggie's screams become coughs and gasps for air as she falls to the ground.
The Doctor, Jamie, Victoria and Harris arrive at the living quarters not long afterwards and find Maggie unconscious. Jamie smashes the window to release the gas. The Doctor pronounces that she is in a coma, and explains his theory that the gas is not natural. Harris explains what happened with her in regards to the seaweed, and Victoria finds a sample of it moving. The Doctor scoops it up, puts it in a bag, and tells Harris to arrange for his wife to go to hospital. Harris rushes off to find Robson, and Jamie points out that they're no longer under supervision. The Doctor smiles and leads his friends back to the TARDIS to carry out some tests on the seaweed.
Back in the central control room, Van Lutyens again tries to reason with Robson, who in turn looses it, screaming and yelling that everyone is trying to tell him what to do.
As they argue, the impeller grinds to a halt, and is replaced by the steady throbbing of a heartbeat.
At the TARDIS, the Doctor tests the seaweed's reaction to natural gases. Victoria in turn, uses an experiment to discover that the weed itself releases the toxic gas.
They discuss that the seaweed is "just as alive as you or me".
Harris gets to the control centre and asks Price to call for medical help. Robson explodes when he finds out that Harris has left the Doctor unguarded, but Harris tells him the safety of his wife is more important. After some messing about with the buttons, the Chief Engineer announces that they can start the impeller again, which works for 30 seconds before stopping again. They all scratch their heads and decide that the impeller is jammed internally. Robson screams and yells again, storming off in a huff. Van Lutyens points out that Robson is loosing it and asks Harris to take over. Harris is reluctant, but spares time to go with Van Lutyens and the Chief Engineer to convince Robson to take action. They do indeed try to convince Robson, but the boss is angrier than ever. Van Lutyens has had enough and storms off to call his superiors.
Back in the TARDIS, the Doctor finds a reference to the weed in a book on myths and legends from the sea.
They realise that the weed is escaping from the tank and after Victoria panics, they manage to get the lid back on. The Doctor remarks that that was a little bit too easy, but he hasn't got time to figure out why.
The weed is obviously entering the pipeline from the sea and needs to be stopped.
Robson's so exhausted from all that yelling that he needs to go and lay down in his quarters. Mr Oak repeats the old trick of locking him in and opening the emergency vent. Toxic gas and foamy seaweed enter the room as Robson cries for help. Harris hears it and comes running. As soon as the door is open, Robson runs off down the corridor in terror, leaving Harris to see the creature moving back into the vent.
The Doctor and co, go back to the Harris' home, only to find it covered in foam and they are forced to escape through a skylight.
Victoria begins to moan how everything they get up to is so dangerous.
Now Robson has gone AWOL, Harris takes command and calls his superiors in London to let them know what's happening. They agree to send some inspectors round. Harris informs Van Lutyens just before the TARDIS crew rejoin them all, and relate their findings on the nature of the weed. As they update each other, Harris becomes panicked when he hears that his home is full of foam and Maggie in fact hasn't received medical attention yet. He rushes off to save her, but it's too late.
Out on the beach, Maggie approaches a silent Robson. She is as much under a spell as he, and explains that there's not much time, but he knows what to do. He looks onwards as Maggie steps into the sea until she is totally submerged.
The Doctor asks Van Lutyens to take charge seeing as Harris is more bothered about his wife, and the fact that a third Rig has gone down, but Van Lutyens says he has no authority. They have little option left but to wait for Harris. Jamie and Victoria go to get some rest. She once again mentions that she feels unsafe, but Jamie assures her the the Doctor will figure it out.
Harris meanwhile follows Maggie's trail down the beach and comes across the rogue Robson. He asks him if he's seen his wife, and Robson answers in a sinister tone that he will find his wife soon enough. He then walks off.
Van Lutyens decides that he's fed up of waiting and prepares to go down the impeller shaft and find out once and for all what's down there. The Doctor tries to convince him otherwise, but fails.
He dons a gas mask and orders the technicians to lower him down on a lift. When he gets to the bottom, he finds a service hatch. When he opens it, he discovers that it's full of foam and weed. He is attacked and pulled down into the hatch with a hideous death cry.
Hearing the scream, the Doctor and Jamie decide to go in and rescue him.
Once they're down there, Harris returns distraught that he hasn't found his wife, and more on edge when he's informed of Van Lutyen's mission, the Doctor's rescue attempt and the fact that Megan Jones, Chief Executive of EuroSea Gas has arrived, along with her assistant: Perkins. Harris orders the technicians to bring the Doctor and Jamie back up. Mr Oak and Mr Quill who are operating the lift look forlorn and say it's too late.
Victoria is fearing the worst and waits for news as Harris leaves to greet Megan Jones and bring her up to speed. Jones is dismissive of the seaweed nonsense and tries to pass it off as crew stress, but Harris is adamant that he's seen it himself and explains about the Rig's going down. She relents and agrees to use the company helicopter she's arrived in to fly to one of the outlying rigs and check what's happening.
No one notices Oak and Quill skulk away, leaving the Doctor and Jamie to their fate.
Down the impeller shaft, the Doctor and Jamie discover that Van Lutyens has been gobbled. The weed attacks them and they rush back to the lift, only to find that it's been raised again. They begin scrambling up a maintenance ladder and make it out.
In the control centre, the helicopter pilot reports that all three Rigs that have gone down are now covered in foam. Harris implores Megan to blow them up. Robson bursts in, having somehow overheard the plan and denies it, yelling that "we will not allow it". He runs off again as the Doctor joins them in the control centre.
Megan is once again putting it all down to stress, but the Doctor explains his findings and what's happened to Van Lutyens. Shorly after, Chief Baxter at the control rig contacts them frantically saying that the creatures are all around them, and they are being attacked just before the feed goes dead.
Jamie meanwhile is scouring the base for Victoria. He finds her unconscious in one of the rooms. She is unsure how she got there, but is even more upset with things now, claiming that they're not safe and things have stopped being fun for her.
Back at the control centre, the Doctor theorises that the weed intends to cut off the gas supply to England and take over everyone using the gas pipes. Their only way of defeating them is to find the nerve centre of the weed. He is interrupted by Jamies shouts and when they rush over to find them, they see a huge seaweed tentacle in the transparent part of the pipe.
Price calls out that they've lost contact with all the remaining Rigs. Harris repeats his request to blow them all up, but the Doctor says it will simply help spread the weed. The Doctor takes a logical approach, theorising how the weed was brought up from under the sea by the drilling, and began with the engineers, possessing its way through the crew until its now reached Robson. He also deduces that the weed must be adverse to pure oxygen, hence what the masked technician was doing when Victoria stumbled upon him.
Robson is found back inside his quarters. Harris, Jones and Perkins go to see him. Jones anticipates that her old friendship with Robson will bring him round. Unfortunately, despite her attempts, there is no useful response from him.
Victoria meanwhile is so worried that she even suggests getting out of the area by jumping back onboard the TARDIS but Jamie refuses,
Harris, Megan and Perkins return, explaining what's happened with Robson. Together, they all huddle down to think of their next course of action.
In his quarters, Robson suddenly sits up, and nods at the empty air vent. He sneaks outside and disables the guard with his gas attack, revealing that he has seaweed growing on his hands in the process.
Back at the control centre, they decide to put a guard on the oxygen cylinders, but realise that it's too late. Jamie and Victoria spy Oak and Quill leaving the area and give chase. The Scotsman subdues Quill as Victoria panics, whilst Oak gets away. They go back to the control room and find that the seaweed is cracking out of the pipe, The Doctor explains that it's expanding, just like it did in the experiments. As they are investigating it, Robson grabs Victoria, muffling her cries and taking her away.
The weed creature breaks the pipe and begins infiltrating the pipe room. The Doctor holds the door open just long enough for everyone to get out, realising that Victoria is missing.
Robson drags Victoria to a nearby vehicle and bundles her in, driving off at speed along the clifftops until he reaches a nearby helicopter.
The Doctor contacts Robson on the radio and begs with Robson to bring Victoria back. Robson gives them an ultimatum: come and join the weed people and they will get Victoria back.
The Doctor convinces Harris to provide him and Jamie with a helicopter of their own so they can pursue. Harris gives them an hour before he will begin to evacuate.
As the Doctor and Jamie approach the Rigs, they see the Control Rig platform is covered in foam.
He deduces that it must be the nerve centre of the creature. They use a rope ladder and drop down onto the Rig, leaving the pilot to wait for them whilst they go inside via a hatch. Once inside, they hear Victoria's cries, but the Doctor holds Jamie back saying its a trap. They move cautiously through the Rig until they come across the main control room. when they open the doors, they find the room full of foam, with Robson waiting for them, beckoning them inside.
Whilst Jamie finds Victoria inside the foam, the Doctor occupies Robson, pleading to his human nature. Robson opens his mouth, emitting toxic gas into the room. They heroes run away, pursued by Robson,
Victoria screams when she see's him after them, causing him to clutch his ears and retreat back to the control room. It buys them enough time to get out onto the helipad and wave at the pilot. Unfortunately, they're too deep inside the foam to be noticed.
The Doctor spies Robson's helicopter amidst all the white foam and decides to hijack it. Jamie and Victoria are worried about his piloting abilities, but he assures them that it's a primitive machine and he'll be fine.
As it turns out, he really IS hopeless at flying helicopters, and takes them on a death defying ramshackle flight through the Rigs, loop-the-loops and all over the place until they're guided down by the other pilots instructions.
After they land, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria have a quick stop off at the medicare centre to discover the Mr Quill has completely recovered from the possession of the weed. It turns out that Victoria's screams are the key to combating the monster.
They go back and fill everyone in on this. Harris still wants to evacuate, but the Doctor asks for half an hour to send recordings of her screams down through the pipe to the Control Rig. As they prepare the equipment, they are unaware that the seaweed is breaking through the impeller and moving towards the control centre. They are just about ready when the foam and tentacles begin to bust into the room and flood the place. The remaining engineers quickly gather speakers together and aim them at the foamy mass. The Doctor gives the order to flip the switch, but Price has frozen in fear, leaving the Doctor to have to make a mad dash across the room and activate it himself. Victoria's screams tear into the creature and send it fleeing back to the depths of the sea.
Afterwards, Harris checks that all the Rigs are back online, and Megan gives the TARDIS crew a hearty thank you. Everyone turns out to be fine. Van Lutyens, Harris' wife, and Robson are all over at the Control Rig perfectly fine. Victoria is still down in the dumps though.
Later, after a nice meal provided by the Harris', the Doctor and Jamie make their excuses to leave but turn to see Victoria still seated. She says she doesn't want to leave them, but she can't carry on with them either. The Doctor understands and asks the Harris' to take her in, which they agree to do. Jamie doesn't like it at all, but the Doctor makes him respect her decision. Despite this, he chooses to stay one more night to give her chance to think it all over.
That night, Jamie goes to Victoria and tries to persuade her to leave with them, but tearfully, she says that she's not cut out for life on the TARDIS, and there's nothing left for her in Victorian England, so she would prefer to stay there. Jamie reluctantly accepts her point and leaves.
In the morning, the Harris' take Victoria to the beach and they watch as Jamie and the Doctor go back to the TARDIS.
Inside the time machine, the Doctor asks Jamie where he wants to go, but he doesn't care.
The Doctor sets the controls and Victoria watches as the TARDIS rises into the air once more and dematerialises without her.
Trivia
- If you've been following these in sequence, you will see that this is the first appearance of the Sonic Screwdriver. Although, it is suspiciously looking like the same prop used for William Hartnell's pen torch.
- The foam fight at the beginning was completely ad libbed.
- Oak and Quill were meant to be like Laurel and Hardy. Even their accompanying music is rather suggesting buffoonery. Interestingly though, the writer must have loved them because he tried to convince the BBC to do a spin off show with these characters. All I can say is why?!
- Bit of an odd one, but this is the only story title in all of the second Doctor's run that doesn't start with "The"
What worked
- The hinted threat of something alive in the pipes
- The comedy scene of Jamie escaping through the air vent
- Harris being distraught at the fate of his wife
- Mr Quill's terrifying attack on Maggie
- The tension Van Lutyens builds by saying "it's down there, in the dark, waiting"
- The use of the helicopter stunts seemed cool
- The full on foam scenes with the tentacle are quite good
- Jamie's distraught when they leave Victoria
What didn't work
- The dirty beggars didn't even stop to think that the foam they were playing in on the beach could be pollution!
- Oooh Robson is so mean. It's to the point where his stupidity is beyond belief, and the scene with him in the foam is stupid too
- Mr Oak's more than necessary posh voice
- All the mention of toxic gases and there's not one fart joke
- In any other story, the Doctor or Jamie would have followed Harris when he ran off to rescue his wife
- The method of killing the creature is a bit daft
Overall Feelings
We've seen many base under siege stories during our time with Patrick Troughton, and we'll see many more before it's over. You'd think by this point that they'd honed it to a fine art or what works and what doesn't. It's frustrating then when I can see that Fury from the Deep wants to work but doesn't.
The pace is slow, there's a lot of exposition about how a north sea gas rig works, and tons of characters in it. With that sort of set up, you'd expect a detailed and pretty complicated motivation from the monster in the first instance, and you'd expect a pretty complicated method of defeating it, using some or all of the information given. What we get is a mass of telepathic seaweed that runs off whenever anyone gets scared at it.
Robson is just infuriating to watch and it's not until halfway through the story before he's out of the way and people with more common sense can turn up to deal with the situation. Also, in the Web of Fear, we had loads and loads of plans being made and abandoned, but I could forgive that because the tension was always quite high and there was a mystery saboteur to keep your attention. In this, it's inexcusable because it slows the pacing right down, and Mr Oak and Mr Quill are a long long way from a sinister pawn of the Great Intelligence.
It's not all doom and gloom though. There are some captivating bits like the end conversation between Victoria and Jamie, the terrifying look on Mr Quills face as he attacks Maggie, and some of the scenes with the seaweed tentacles. It's just not enough to save this from being a very dreary and bland experience.
Rating
6 out of 10
It wants to be better than it actually is.
Rewatchability Factor
4 out of 10
Only worth the watch to see Victoria leave
Watch this if you liked...
- The Waters of Mars (Doctor Who: The Specials)
Consulting the Matrix
The Great Intelligence vs the Weed. Who would win?
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