Warriors of the Deep Part Two

The one where the Myrka invades the seabase...

It's highly unusual to have expensive underwater filming in Doctor Who, even these days, never mind in the cash-strapped low-budget 1980s. It doesn't last very long, but what we do get looks splendid, and the fact you can see it really is Peter Davison makes it more effective. It's actually a little sobering to see our "vulnerable" Fifth Doctor almost drowned, scrambling his way into an airlock looking bedraggled. The sopping wet Doctor looks exhausted, and a little annoyed, maybe because his celery's so limp.

Meanwhile, the Silurians are still busily - but not hurriedly - waking up their "Sea Devil brothers". The fact the Silurians refer to their brothers as Sea Devils is very problematic, because the Sea Devils are categorically not called Sea Devils. The only reason we know them as Sea Devils is because a mentally unhinged Clark in their debut adventure described them as such, but that's not what they're called. We don't know their real race name, but here, their Silurian brothers refer to them by Clark's made-up moniker, and it sticks. It's a bit like Walters naming the Martians as "ice warriors", and suddenly everybody calls them that, even the Ice Warriors!

Anything to do with the Silurians and Sea Devils in Warriors of the Deep is fundamentally bad. The Sea Devils are reintroduced just as poorly as the Silurians, with director Pennant Roberts failing to give any occasion to their long-awaited return after so many years. They just plop onto the screen, at a distance, as if they're part of the set. While I admit the use of wall mirrors to multiply their numbers is quite clever (and unobtrusively done), when they begin to move, the Sea Devils become just another generic lumbering monster. Malcolm Hulke must have been spinning in his grave.

It's good that the Sea Devils now have blinking eyelids, so they no longer stare at everything with glassy eyes, but the new masks make them look rather forlorn and melancholy. The string vests have gone, replaced by a Samurai armour design which has the unfortunate effect of making them look like action figures before the paint job. They look like one solid block of dark grey, with little to distinguish flesh from fabric. At least they got the voices right this time, that familiar undulating whisper giving them a truly otherworldly feel.

But they walk so badly, lumbering about like Frankenstein's monsters, swaying from side to side and getting nowhere very fast (the original Sea Devils were actually pretty nimble). I don't believe these "warriors" could cut their way out of a crisp packet, never mind take a seabase by storm! And the scene where Sea Devil Sauvix introduces himself to Silurian leader Icthar is silly too, as the Silurian then introduces his "companions" Scibus and Tarpok, who then give a little wave to say "hello"! The Silurians and Sea Devils are an absolute laughing stock. This should have been a magnificent, meaningful return to the show.

The Doctor changes out of his sodden cricketing outfit (let's hope it's the last we see of it) and into an unconscious guard's uniform, and the bit of business where he questions what the guard's been eating is amusing, if a little incongruous in this otherwise deadly serious story. The Doctor is reunited with Tegan, who spends the entire episode doing nothing, and is then reunited with Turlough, who's not much busier. When the Doctor sees the Silurian battle cruiser approaching the seabase, he warns Commander Vorshak - a bland commander given very little by Tom "Supermarionation" Adams - that nothing the humans can do will trouble the reptiles.

Tegan sits down to catch up with the Doctor about when he last met the Silurians, and he calls them "honourable", which they certainly were last time, but they're not behaving like that this time. Just because they've been honourable in the past doesn't mean they always will be. Out of the blue, the Doctor claims the Silurians are seeking to correct an "evolutionary error", ie wipe out the "ape-descended primitives". Why does he think this, for no reason? He thinks it because writer Johnny Byrne needs to get that information across to the viewer, but there's absolutely no way the Doctor could know the Silurians' intentions at this point. He's just referred to them as honourable, so why on earth would he think they're here to wipe out mankind?

"It is time to begin," Icthar tells his Sea Devil brothers, and after spending an entire one-and-a-half episodes getting out of bed and getting ready to begin, they finally release the Myrka as an advance assault on Seabase 4.

"Oh dear... The Myrka," understates the Doctor as a presumably monstrous sea creature begins to break down the base's bulkhead doors. Only, because the bulkhead doors are clearly made from bendy rubber foam, the effect of the Myrka's invasion becomes one huge laugh-out-loud, oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-how-bad-it-is hot mess. The Myrka is truly appalling, a giant wobbling pantomime Nessie thing that can't stand up straight, can't walk straight, has fish bowls for eyes and sounds like a Skarasen with tummy ache. Peeping comically over the collapsing set, the Myrka has tiny Jabba the Hutt arms which would struggle to catch an unconscious pilchard. As it staggers its way into the base, across the pillow-soft doors which have miraculously pinioned Tegan's leg, the full horror of what the design department served up to director Pennant Roberts (just an hour before cameras rolled) becomes abominably clear: this is car crash television.

Some quick observations:

• Although sadly not given speaking roles, the seabase is populated by a number of non-Caucasian extras which help to internationalise the story. There's also a number of female guards, which is a refreshing touch.
• Solow and Nilson are plotting something very sinister against the seabase itself, having already brainwashed poor Maddox to do their bidding. It's not very clear yet what their machinations will amount to, but they're obviously traitorous in some way, and the scene where Nilson orders Maddox to kill his friend Karina is quite sobering.
• I'm not a fan of Preston and her guards just wandering into the TARDIS, which the Doctor has irresponsibly left open to all and sundry. They have a good look around in there too, venturing beyond the control room into the labyrinthine environs beyond. The Doctor really should learn to lock that police box door (although to be fair, Tegan was the last one out).
• We can partly blame the awfulness of the Myrka costume on Margaret Thatcher, who announced a General Election early in the production of this story, creating an unexpected demand for BBC studio space. As a result, Warriors of the Deep lost two weeks of preparation, but I still don't believe the Myrka would have been much better even if they'd worked another two weeks on it!

So far, Warriors of the Deep has not been the triumphant return the Silurians and Sea Devils deserved. And it's hardly the barn-storming season opener the series needed after the commercial successes of the 20th anniversary. Things need to improve, and soon.

First broadcast: January 6th, 1984

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The brief, but Bond-like underwater filming.
The Bad: What else: the Myrka!
Overall score for episode: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Part Three...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Three; Part Four

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.

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