The Sea Devils Episode Five

The one where the British Government starts a conflict with the Sea Devils...

"He's gone!" exclaims Jo, just seconds after the reprise - so why couldn't they have included this at the end of episode 4, to make it clearer what's happened? Seems a very odd editing choice to me, and it's not as if it would have pushed the episode's duration over the 25-minute mark (not that that seemed to bother producer Barry Letts too much during his tenure!).

This is the episode where the heart of the story really kicks in, but let's face it, we've been here before. The Sea Devils essentially has the same principal plot as Doctor Who and the Silurians, only it's shorter, more action-packed and with a maritime theme rather than a subterranean one. In my eyes, The Sea Devils is the better of the two as an overall slice of entertainment, but it loses something by being pretty much a retread of its predecessor's narrative. The only main difference is that the Master is in The Sea Devils, which spices things up a bit, but even his involvement is rather hackneyed, allying himself with the monsters in order to subjugate Earth.

But we do get lots of Sea Devils here, as the Doctor is brought into their underwater base inside a giant piece of cinder toffee. He's there to try and broker a peace between the Sea Devils and the human race, just as he tried to do with the Silurians, but we all know how that ended. Luckily this time the Brigadier and UNIT are nowhere to be seen, but what the Doctor hasn't reckoned on is the interference of HM Government, in the form of Parliamentary Private Secretary Walker!

Walker, played wonderfully well by Martin Boddey, is the archetypal Pertwee era official whose thoughtless interference confounds and obstructs the Doctor's plans (see also: Hepesh, Chinn and Masters). However, Walker is perhaps the very worst of them all thanks to some lovely characterisation from writer Malcolm Hulke, painting him very quickly as a stubborn, sexist egotist. As soon as he arrives, you dislike him: he hands his hat, coat and brolly to 3rd Officer Blythe, demands breakfast ("Nothing very elaborate, my dear, just eggs, bacon, toast, coffee and a little rough-cut marmalade if they've got it!") and the morning paper, "there's a good girl"! He rudely asks Leading Telegraphist Bowman who he is, and has no regard at all for Captain Hart's rank or opinion on matters.

In short, Walker is an arse. And Walker starts a war by directing the Royal Navy to bomb the Sea Devils' underwater base, risking the lives of the Doctor and the hijacked submarine crew. To him, this is a war to keep control of the planet, and in war, people lose their lives. He says all this as he spreads butter on his toast and sinks at least four spoonfuls of sugar into his tea. Rather wonderfully, director Michael Briant sums up Walker's monstrousness by zooming in on just his mouth and chin as he chomps away on his breakfast, licking his fingers like a depraved caveman.

Down in the underwater base, the Chief Sea Devil speaks, and it's a harsh, rasping whisper which communicates both gentleness and calm, as well as understated aggression when needed. The Chief Sea Devil is the only one who speaks (and the only one with a string vest cloak!), but it seems he can also use telepathy to sense whether people are telling the truth (perhaps the Sea Devil equivalent of the Silurians' third eye?).

The Doctor manages to convince the Sea Devils to try and make peace. That is, until the Master turns up and ruins everything by declaring the Doctor their "deadly enemy" and reminding everybody that last time the Doctor tried to make peace between the Silurians and the humans, their subterranean cousins lost out - big time. The Master begins to convince the Sea Devils to attack the humans before the humans attack them, but the Doctor succeeds in the end by stating that the humans are strong, and may defeat the Sea Devils unless a peace can be found.

Rather wonderfully, the Doctor says of the Master: "I beg you not to listen to this man. He's the personification of evil."

The footage of naval destroyers sailing in formation, then aligning their guns and firing missiles, which then explode spectacularly in the water, is stunning, quite unlike anything Doctor Who has had before or since. The collaboration with the Royal Navy pays off in spades, making The Sea Devils one of the most expensive-looking serials of the classic era.

While the Master charges his new Sea Devil friends with the task of getting electrical supplies from HMS Seaspite's vital spares store (this story would really suffer if they didn't have a spares store!), the Doctor wages a war of words with Walker to stop the attacks and let him make peace with the creatures. Tellingly, he appeals to Walker's pride and egotism when he proffers: "Walker the Peacemaker, they'd call you."

The Sea Devils emerge from the sea again, this time in daylight, but it doesn't look as iconic as it could have been, and you can even spot a Sea Devil actor struggling to get water out of his submerged mask. It's more than made up for by the Sea Devil invasion of the naval base, however, and that wonderful cliffhanger where Katy Manning pulls a face like a frog as a Sea Devil jumps out, it's gun aimed straight at them. Things are hotting up, and it seems all hopes for peace are lost, thanks to the interference of Walker and the Master.

First broadcast: March 25th, 1972

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Martin Boddey as Walker, who is written so well by Malcolm Hulke as a boorish, sexist, egotistical fool.
The Bad: The plot is precisely the same as Doctor Who and the Silurians by this point, but this reflects the fact that, basically, there's only one story to tell with the Silurians/ Sea Devils, as evidenced by Warriors of the Deep and The Hungry Earth/ Cold Blood - they want their planet back, and the apes won't let them have it. Essentially, the creatures will always have to lose too.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 16
Neck-rub tally: 6

NEXT TIME: Episode Six...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Two; Episode Three; Episode Four; Episode Six

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.com/2014/05/the-sea-devils.html

The Sea Devils is available on BBC DVD as part of the Beneath the Surface box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Beneath-Silurians-Warriors/dp/B000ZZ06XQ