The sight of the Sea Devils in the trailer for this story made me incredibly happy. I have loved the aquatic saurians (and their land-based allies) since I was a child. The setting for this adventure, the last century of the Qing dynasty, is a fascinating one and, again, we meet a notable figure from that period, Madam Ching. Yet, with these ingredients, the blend is uneasy, due to a script that barely deserves to be called a first draft. This is not the first time in the programme's history that a script has been filmed before it has been properly fine-tuned, but the way in which the plot fails to properly hang together, how the two main journeys – Madam Ching's quest to regain her crew and the Sea Devils' plan to flood the Earth – fail to resonate with each other are a serious problem. Worst of all, we have short-cuts made for the convenience of the writer – Dan scythes through a squad of Sea Devils, like he's suddenly the TARDIS weapons expert. Chibnall co-writes with Ella Road, a promising playwright (although I am unfamiliar with her work) but neither should be proud of what they have written.
The guest cast is good. Amongst the humans, Crystal Yu brings effortless charisma to her portrayal of Madam Ching and with the reptiles, we have the return of Craig Els, but this time as the Sea Devil leader. The regulars do their good work, although their roles in the main plot are very functional. However, in the more emotional scenes, the strengths of the regulars is put to good use. The relationship between Yas and the Doctor is very well written and beautifully acted by Jodie Whittaker and Mandeep Gill. John Bishop's charisma goes a long way to compensating for the very poor character writing for him.
The triumph of the story is in its design. The look is magnificent, redolent of the vivid colours of wuxia graphic novels, with the beautiful blue sky and the green ocean. We have the wonder of the TARDIS on the sea bed and the sight of the Sea Devil ship flying over the sea. the titular saurians themselves instantly impress. Unlike the Silurians, there are only slight tweaks to the look of the Pertwee originals and I love the way in which their moving lips do not seem to be intoning English. However, whilst Haolu Wang makes it look fantastic, there are problems once the shot-length reduces and parts of the fight scenes flow very poorly as if, they too, have suffered under time constraints, as there are some shocking editing failures.
The production of modern Doctor Who makes it impossible for a story to fail in the same way as, to pick a random example, Warriors of the Deep. The script we have is less polished than the one for the Sea Devils' last appearance, although it's refreshing that Chibnall has not applied his palaeontological expertise to the Sea Devils' back story. however, as a whole, the script shows every sign of carelessness and even indifference to its eventual effectiveness. I really enjoyed "Eve of the Daleks" and I find it sad that, in the penultimate story of his era, Chibnall exhibits most of his worst tendencies.
NEXT: "The Power of the Doctor"
