The Sea Devils

Ships have been disappearing in a small area off the coast of England and the Doctor and Jo discover that a group of intelligent reptiles related to those on Wenley Moor are responsible and the Doctor must join forces with the Navy to investigate. Meanwhile, the Master's incarceration may not be as secure as it seems and he may not be entirely ignorant of the saurian threat.

Doctor Who and the Silurians was one of the highlights of the truly outstanding seventh season of Doctor Who and many of the same themes are revisited in this sequel. Indeed, the overall aim of the story is identical, in much the same way as the repetitive Cybermen stories of the Patrick Troughton era. Thankfully, Malcolm Hulke was a far better writer than Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis and there are enough differences to make this story more than a straight remake. Hulke takes care to make as many of the speaking roles proper characters. Trenchard is portrayed as a former colonial governor of the old school and Walker, the Private Secretary, is portrayed as a man who seldom talks without his mouth full (Pertwee-era Doctor Who seems to have little love for high ranking civil servants, what with Chinn and Brownrose). This care in characterisation is especially impressive when one notes just how many speaking roles there are, but even minor characters, such as the boatman, are given real personality. This is supported by a fine guest cast. Clive Morton makes Trenchard both bluff and sympathetic and Edwin Richfield gamely attempts to compensate for the lack of the Brigadier, with some success. I also love Martin Boddey's performance as the gluttonous Walker.

Michael Briant's direction is hugely effective, helped by extensive use of stock footage and naval hardware courtesy of the Royal Navy, making this a very lavish production. Briant also shoots very atmospherically, showing great aptitude with action scenes and moody, unsettling ones, with interesting camera angles and very effective lighting. The gradual revelation of the Sea Devils is very well done. The titular saurians are very well designed (although close ups of their heads tend to draw attention to the fact that their eyes are painted on). Most impressively, the Sea Devils are not slow and lumbering, but are shown running on several occasions. The music is even more bizarre than on Doctor Who and the Silurians, but is far less ridiculous, thanks to the lack of crumhorns!

However, the fact remains that this story does not build and expand on its predecessor in the way that a good sequel should do, but covers the same themes. The Sea Devils, unlike the Silurians, are not portrayed as characters- indeed only one of them (the leader) even speaks, which makes them less sympathetic than their land-based cousins. The fact that they are portrayed as being more aggressive than their relatives does not help matters. They are not antagonists with understandable motives of their own, they are The Enemy. The fact that the Master is involved does not help matters as he takes the role of 'Young Silurian' and there is no real reason why he should have been included at all. This is unfortunate, as Roger Delgado gives his best performance yet as the Master. More seriously, the story implies that the Doctor has learnt nothing from his previous encounter with the reptiles as he takes exactly the same tack in dealing with them. Indeed, the fact that it is the Doctor, not the armed forces, who destroy the Sea Devil base implies that he is moving towards the Government's way of thinking, which is somewhat disturbing and very out of character.

The script is also far less structured than Doctor Who and the Silurians. The earlier story used its seven parts well, but The Sea Devils seems overlong at six parts. There is obvious padding, such as the sword fight between the Doctor and the Master and the last episode is somewhat anticlimactic and, as said before, has a rather unsavoury conclusion. The regulars are on excellent form, with Pertwee balancing humour and authority excellently. Jo Grant is at her best when she is not depicted as a totally scatter-brained moron, and Katy Manning is excellent here.

The Sea Devils is rarely boring, is well acted with much good dialogue and characterisation and has a good race of monsters. However, it fails to build on its predecessor and can only really be seen as a qualified success.

Next: The Mutants