"Legend of the Sea Devils"

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"

Warriors of the Deep

Warriors of the Deep saw the return of the Silurians and the Sea Devils to Doctor Who. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that Johnny Byrne wrote this story having never even seen the two Pertwee stories, but his script is reasonably good. The plot is reminiscent of the Troughton era monster stories, but Warriors of the Deep has the advantage of not having been broadcast between stories with exactly the same 'base-under-siege' plot. The very early introduction of the hexachromite gas makes the outcome extremely predictable and, indeed, the plot is a bit too straightforward. However, there are some nice concepts, such as the need to link to a human brain to launch nuclear missiles (Byrne is considerably more skilful in using technobabble than in the interminably dull Arc of Infinity) and there is some great dialogue for the regulars and, incidentally, the first fart gag in Doctor Who.

However, the story's visualisation is close to catastrophic. Pennant Roberts has never been the most skilful of directors, but his work here shows a fundamental lack of understanding of how to use visual images to tell a story. The Silurians are revealed by a simple cut, like they were a recurring adversary on Stingray. The camera work is incredibly lazy with any scene not requiring basic composition just being shot statically. This all comes to a head in the storming of the sea base. This takes up a good deal of the story, but, thanks to Roberts's ineptitude, what we get are lumbering Sea Devils moving against humans inching carefully backwards- not very exciting! The lighting has been criticised as being excessive, which is not quite the case- it is uniform and does not create atmosphere, as well as not conforming to expectations of what a sea base should look like. The realisation of the Silurians and Sea Devils are considerably less successful than the originals. They do not move their lips when speaking (which the originals did) and they move very slowly- a far cry from the fast moving Sea Devils of the Pertwee era. There is the nice touch of having blinking eyelids for Sauvix, but this is, incredibly, only utilised twice! Roberts has conversations between the reptiles take ages, with huge pauses between the speakers, almost as if it were a satellite link. Then there is the Myrka, one of the most pathetic looking monsters to ever appear in the programme. The sterile lighting only amplifies the problems in the realisation of the saurians. On the good side, although it is overlit, the set for the base is actually quite good and the music is wonderfully atmospheric. The production was rushed, by all accounts, but that does not excuse things like the Silurians' costumes not being fitted properly.

The guest performances are rather lacklustre, with some being downright dreadful. Ingrid Pitt has great screen presence, but she is not a very good actress, but Ian McCulloch as Nilson and Nitza Saul as Karina are far worse. Tom Adams is good as Vorshak, but he succumbs to Roberts's poor direction- Vorshak does not even react when he is shot. However, if there is one great thing about this story it is, again, Peter Davison. The Doctor is brilliantly characterised in the script, his handing over of his gun being a great touch and Davison attacks the part with gusto, giving one of his finest performances. Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson also work very well with the material they are given.

The end of the story is superlative- both the reptiles and the humans are dead and the Doctor, with a tremor in his voice, says 'There should have been another way'. This could easily be applied to the story as a whole, a story that could easily have been so much better.

NEXT: The Awakening

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