Fury from the Deep Episode 5

The one where the Doctor goes to the Weed's nerve centre...

Ooh, it's the Hartnell theme again! Has the production team decided the 1967 version of the theme tune just isn't up to scratch, and ditched it in favour of the original? Is it just the music that's different, or is the title sequence too? Was it the 1963 title sequence, or was it the 1968 titles with the 1963 theme over the top? Well, the telesnaps for episode 5 show Troughton's face, so this combination of 1963 audio and 1967 visuals refers back to The Macra Terror and the first two episodes of The Faceless Ones, where it was old music with new titles until the debut of the updated theme in episode 3. Still, it's odd that this aberration occurs in the middle of a story.

This is another excellent episode, written with balanced pace by Victor Pemberton, who manages to squeeze in jeopardy and action alongside some real human scenes too. The scene where Megan Jones goes to Robson's room to try and convince him to help them is so well written and acted, a moment of tenderness between the two which hints - nothing more - at a possible past between the two. They revert to calling each other by their first names (Megan and John), which is one subtle way of showing that both have let their guard down a little.

The character of Megan Jones is a very special one when you think about it. Actress Margaret John (ooh, same initials!) was 41 at the time of recording, a few years older than most other women being cast in Doctor Who at that time (eg, Tina Packer = 29; Mary Peach = 33; Carmen Munroe = 35; Wendy Gifford = 35; Shirley Cooklin = 37). You have to go back to 46-year-old Madalena Nicol (Nurse Pinto in The Faceless Ones) to find a woman over 40 in Doctor Who of this time. It's also pretty special that the director of Eurogas is a woman, and that it isn't commented on at all. Megan is a strong, successful woman in a very male world, but she effortlessly takes charge and isn't questioned or doubted. Her tactics with old friend Robson, where she firstly tries a gentle persuasion, then tries to pull rank and gets strict with him, are thoughtful and truthful. It's such a shame Pemberton never wrote for the series again (although we do have The Pescatons to look forward to!).

This is also the episode in which the scheming Oak and Quill get found out too. The discovery that there are traitors among them is reminiscent of The Web of Fear, but this time we've known who the baddies are all along. While they are one of the stand-out aspects of Fury from the Deep (thanks largely to that terrifying surviving clip from episode 2!), Oak and Quill don't have as great a role to play as one might think. Maybe they suffer from the story only existing on audio - maybe they lurk menacingly in the back of scenes which we cannot see - but it's a shame they don't feature more than they do. Here, their cover is scuppered, and they try to escape, with Jamie almost falling victim to Mr Quill's gas-spewing breath before he clobbers him (and the horrific expression on Bill Burridge's face in the telesnap is chilling!). Interestingly, Mr Oak gets away, and Mr Quill does not appear again after this scene, so perhaps the two of them are still out there, somewhere... It'd be fascinating to find out what happened next for them!

I had to chuckle when Victoria was abducted by Robson, taken aboard a helicopter and flown across the North Sea to a gas rig infested with poisonous sentient seaweed. I mean, she's been referring for weeks now to her exhaustion and fear about the dangerous lives they lead aboard the TARDIS, hankering after peace, quiet and safety. And then this goes and happens! I'm pretty sure this will be the last straw for the poor girl, and I don't really blame her!

The location footage involving jeeps and mini-mokes, and two helicopters, looks like it was directed stylishly by Hugh David, and the shot looking down at the weed-infested gas rig is wonderfully epic. When the Doctor and Jamie clamber down the rope ladder from the helicopter onto the foam-filled rig platform, there are strong echoes of The Enemy of the World, and a foreshadowing of the hardware and action heavy stories of the UNIT years. The programme's modest budget was being spent very wisely at this point (for which I think we ought to credit producer Peter Bryant), adding such scale and ambition to Doctor Who on a weekly basis. These sorts of scenes are inconceivable in the Hartnell era, although the use of location filming was becoming more prevalent toward the end of his tenure (The Savages, The War Machines, The Smugglers). However, action scenes like this involving the Doctor would have been impossible with Hartnell.

The cliffhanger is magnificent, or at least I'm sure it looked that way. The Doctor and Jamie move along the eerily silent rig corridor, opening door after door in search of Victoria, until they open one into darkness. When the Doctor switches on the light, we see the room is filled with deadly foam and writhing tendrils, and standing calmly at the heart of it all is Robson, almost engulfed in weed himself. He hisses: "Come in, Doctor. We've been waiting for you..."

Truly magnificent. I so wish we could see it!

First broadcast: April 13th, 1968

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The set-up and reveal of the cliffhanger is brilliant.
The Bad: I really cannot think of anything for this slot, except for the goof in the BBC soundtrack CD where Frazer Hines refers to Price as Blake (the character was originally called Blake before the name was changed due to there being a Blake in The Web of Fear).
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★★

NEXT TIME: Episode 6...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 4; Episode 6

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/fury-from-deep.html

Fury from the Deep is available on BBC soundtrack CD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fury-Deep-Doctor-Radio-Collection/dp/0563524103.