The Sea Devils Episode One

The one where the Doctor visits the Master in prison...

The episode opens with a great introductory scene in which the crew of the SS Pevensey Castle are under attack by an unseen enemy, and are forced to abandon ship. It transpires that it is one of three ships which have vanished without trace of late, with all hands lost. It's a great way to set up a story (reminiscent of the first scene of Terror of the Zygons), and I love the way the picture fades into a shot of the Doctor and Jo approaching the fortress island aboard Robbins' boat. Malcolm Clarke's eccentric soundtrack feels eerie and mournful, somehow capturing the maritime theme without resorting to cliched hornpipes.

The score bubbles and burbles, with moments which evoke a "lost at sea" yearning, a maritime melancholy. I realise Clarke's music for The Sea Devils is a controversial one - there are aspects of it which startle, such as what I call the 'Sea Devil sting' - but I adore it, it's so wonderfully strange and experimental, in the best tradition of the Radiophonic Workshop and Delia Derbyshire. Parts of the soundtrack sound unexpectedly ahead of their time, as if lifted from a 1980s Doctor Who story such as The Twin Dilemma (also Clarke), or a 21st century movie soundtrack such as Disasterpeace's It Follows. It's also reminiscent of some of John Carpenter's spookier work. I really, really love this score!

We find the Doctor and Jo visiting the Master in his remote island fortress prison cell, where the deadly megalomaniac has been afforded every luxury apart from his freedom. He lazes about reading weighty books, dressed in a capacious black robe, surrounded by African face masks and a suspiciously familiar devilish statue (a mini Bok?). He keeps fit with a rowing machine and weights, and is guarded by jailers who are immune to his hypnotic skills.

The Doctor and Jo's visit to his cell is all very genial, which annoys me. It was a trait throughout Season 8 that the Doctor and the Master were often far too chummy, exchanging pleasantries and indulging in pally badinage which sometimes undermined the gravity of the plot. People whose paths cross the Master's die all the time, he threatens to blow up peace conferences and take over the entire world in the aftermath of World War Three, but still the Doctor (and to some extent Jo) speaks to him as if he's just your regular crim behind bars. He tells Jo that they used to be very good friends once, but the extent of the Master's evil surely outweighs the Doctor's misty nostalgia for days of yore?

Interestingly, the Doctor mentions that "quite a few people were in favour of you being executed", which suggests either the death penalty is still legal in the Doctor Who universe, or that international governments with an interest in the Master's plots were calling for his disposal (probably the United States, if The Claws of Axos is anything to go by). The death penalty for murder in the UK was permanently abolished in 1969 (and in Northern Ireland in 1973), but capital punishment remained legal for other crimes, such as piracy with violence, treason and mutiny, until 1998. Perhaps there was a right-wing lobby in the UK calling for the Master to be sentenced to death for treason?

The Doctor and Jo visit the Master for less than two minutes, after which we learn that the Master has governor Trenchard wrapped around his little finger. The Master knows something of the vanished ships, and calls for Admiralty charts to map their last known locations. It seems that a once abandoned sea fort is at the centre of this "British Triangle", although now the Royal Navy is setting up a sonar testing station there...

Oh, and I love Roger Delgado's facial expression when Trenchard fails to recognise his joke about The Clangers. Trenchard seems a supremely unimaginative man, and not the ideal partner for this rascally raconteur!

I get the impression the Doctor knows nothing about the vanished ships until they're mentioned by Trenchard, after which he starts to make inquiries with Robbins the lifeboatman, who he bribes with a £10 note so he can borrow his boat. It's a very Third Doctor thing to bribe men with a Mother Hen (slang for a tenner!). It's more of a surprise that Jo Grant does the same by offering Robbins a £10 note for his motorcycle. Some of the Doctor's habits have been rubbing off on his companion!

Aboard the sea fort, two lone operatives play cards and swig beer (Old Oak Light Ale, to be precise - invented by the production team!), but Hickman is suspicious of strange noises and movements he's detected on the fort. Clark (played by Declan Mulholland, who'd be deleted from the original Star Wars as the humanoid Jabba the Hutt) is dismissive of Hickman's fears that they are being watched, but the audience is treated to a deliciously creepy clawing green hand (accompanied by that startling 'Sea Devil sting'!) which tells us he's right to be wary. The scenes on the fort are directed atmospherically by Michael Briant, with the camera looking down a ladder as people climb it, and the use of echoes and metallic clunking as people move about the iron structure. The scene where Hickman is killed, and Clark finds his terrified body, is so effective, especially the shot where we see a creature turning to face Clark in the gloom. It feels very Alien.

These latter scenes on the fort are wonderfully spooky, and we're afforded our first glimpse of the creature proper in the form of a green-skinned lizard with protruding eyes. These scenes are unsettling and spooky, and when the Doctor and Jo find themselves stranded alone on the fort after their boat is destroyed, the stakes are raised. And then something limps towards them from out of the shadows, breathing heavily like a crazed serial killer. Marvellous stuff!

First broadcast: February 26th, 1972

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: I really like Malcolm Clarke's atmospheric score. The 'Sea Devil sting' is admittedly a little ugly, but the brazen experimental nature of it impresses me.
The Bad: The chumminess between the Doctor and the Master rankles with me.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 15
Neck-rub tally: 6

NEXT TIME: Episode Two...

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