The Sea Devils Episode Two

The one where the Doctor and the Master sword-fight...

The hulking, heavy-breathing monster in the shadows was Clark all along, in a classic cliffhanger twist from writer Malcolm Hulke. The terrified, wounded Clark mumbles something about "sea devils", a name for the creatures that sticks from hereon in as if it is their actual name, rather than an invention of a frightened man's fractured imagination. A similar thing happened with the Ice Warriors, who were named as such by Walters in The Ice Warriors, and ever since then everybody's called them that (rarely Martians).

The first five minutes of this episode rattle along at breakneck speed and manage to be both thrilling and scary in equal measure. The Sea Devil watches the Doctor, Jo and Clark from the shadows, contemplating its next move.

Back in the crew room, the Doctor asks Clark if there are any radio transmitters or receivers on the fort, to which Jo asks if the Doctor wants to listen to Night Ride, which was a late-night show on BBC Radio 2 broadcast between midnight and 2am. Incidentally, on the night episode 2 of The Sea Devils was broadcast, Night Ride was introduced by Eugene Fraser, and one of the bands featured was the Warwickshire electric folk band Fresh Maggots!

The Doctor goes looking for Clark's "sea devil" and soon happens across it in the gloomy environs of the fort. I love the double take the Doctor gives the Sea Devil when it walks in the room, and love even more the double take the Sea Devil gives the Doctor back! "Don't be alarmed, I've no wish to harm you," the Doctor warns, but it seems this creature is pretty hostile, and it shoots its weird disc-shaped gun at him. The Sea Devil then chases the Doctor through the fort's infrastructure, up ladders and along corridors and gantries, and this suddenly becomes vital and exciting Doctor Who! The Doctor careers back to the crew room, slams the door, barricades it with a table and sets about rigging up an electrical charge to the door before his pursuer can break through. It's urgently directed with pace and creativity, including a couple of Dutch angles, so all credit to Michael Briant (who was probably in his element with this story, as he was a seaman himself).

What puzzles me is the Doctor's sudden apparent foreknowledge of the nature of the creature chasing him. "Just as I thought. Reptiles, like those creatures in the caves," he tells Jo, which is the first time he's expressed any such suspicion at all. He's referring to the Silurians in Derbyshire (Doctor Who and the Silurians), or rather the Eocenes, which he claims is a more accurate name for these hibernating former rulers of Earth. The Sea Devils are their marine cousins, it seems, a separate colony woken from its slumber by the rebuilding work on the fort.

After electrocuting the Sea Devil, the roles are reversed as the Doctor chases the creature back through the fort, but alas, the Sea Devil jumps out of the window, and with a bird-like holler, crashes into the watery depths below. As an opening five minutes, this episode is hard to beat!

Meanwhile, the Master seems able to come and go as he pleases from his prison cell, and is smuggled into HMS Seaspite in the back of a mini moke by Trenchard, who pays his mate Captain Hart a visit by way of a distraction. The scenes where he bores them all to death about his precious golfing tournament is lovely, complete with frustrated looks exchanged between Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning and Edwin Richfield! It's a funny little moment when Jo keeps her hands to herself when Trenchard goes to leave, after having had them tightly clasped in an awkwardly romantic way when he greets her!

The Master, dressed as an admiral, steals a range of parts and accessories from the naval base's spares store, clobbering Chief Petty Officer Smedley along the way. It's a lovely touch when a marching line of sailors salute the fancy dress Master as they pass!

After Jo spots the Master, the alarm is raised, and the Doctor sends Jo to call in UNIT while he goes to see the Master in his cell. It's not long until the Master whips a pistol out and tries to shoot the Doctor, then grabs a (conveniently displayed) épée from the wall and tries to slice him to death, and after a breathtaking sword fight involving sandwiches and curtains, he pulls out a knife and throws it at his enemy, and straight into the end titles. This time it seems the Master is intent on murdering the Doctor. That'll teach the Doctor to be so genial and friendly on prison visits.

First broadcast: March 4th, 1972

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The first five minutes are marvellously tense, spooky and exciting.
The Bad: While I love Malcolm Clarke's score, the fizz-fizz-fizz plink-plonk which accompanies the Doctor putting the golf ball blindfolded is hateful.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 16 - "Now listen to me," the Doctor tells Clark as he interrogates him about the fort's communications provision. It doesn't quite count, but there's also a "Now listen Jo" when he sends her off to fetch UNIT.
Neck-rub tally: 6

NEXT TIME: Episode Three...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; 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