PS Creativity > Reviews > The Classic Series > The Sea Devils

In 1992, "The Sea Devils" prematurely ended a repeat season that the BBC promised would include "the seven faces of the Doctor". Your fifteen year old scribe wrote immediately to the BBC, pointing out that there were actually four more Doctors after the Jon model. At the time Paul McGann and the brand-revitalising TV Movie were still four long years away and, well, you took what you could get in those days. After consideration, the BBC duly wrote back, promising to air the later incarnations the next year, and secretely deciding to give this young upstart everything he deserved by eventually dishing up "Genesis", "Caves" and "Battlefield".

The screening of those stories, wonderful though they all are, didn't really count because they were widely available or, in the case of "Battlefield", not even that exciting a prospect. But for the first three Doctors, the BBC got their choices just about damn-near perfect. It's hard to remember a time when there were a mine of classic stories that still nobody had ever seen; days when you could walk into Smiths and likely see your first ever chance to own "The Deadly Assassin" sitting on the shelf, Peter Pratt hand-jiving at you from its beautiful new cover. "The Sea Devils" was an inspired choice for a repeat viewing, because it sat comfortably at some point halfway up the totem of fan opinion; not overlauded like "Tomb" or "Evil", and yet not cruelly mocked like "Meglos" or "The Time Monster".

Coupled with this it had, and to some extent still has, a cosy aura of nostalgia fuelled by those gorgeously shot publicity photos of Jon Pertwee karate chopping a Sea Devil in the eerily lit Sea Fort. There were days when such beautifully rendered stills, mostly from the likes of "The Sensorites" and "The Keys of Marinus", seemed like doorways to a magic dimension when Doctor Who was brilliant. Lacking the clarity and colour, those creaking old episodes would shatter these illusions many years later, and even "The Sea Devils" looks better when captured in those moody, motionless frames. But the real thing offers some surprises too, like the suspensful way the Fort scenes in Episode 1 are filmed, the Doctor and Jo's exploration being shown from a number of strange and dizzying angles with continual tantalising flashes of the pursuing Sea Devil hiding in the gloom.

The '92 screening gave new viewers the chance to see that first episode on its own, as a twenty five minute slice of teatime entertainment, as it was made to be seen (they even prompted swearing and fist-waving by spontaneously deciding to show episode 5 five minutes earlier than usual). It's only when given such chances that you realise how much better Doctor Who is when watched in context. I looked forward to every new week of that story, with each new episode offering the required helping of suspense, runaround and lots of rampaging monsters attacking Captain Hart's Naval Base. When you watch a six part story in one go, the same events cooked up to entertain for twenty five minutes are invariably going to add up to a whole lot of padding. When watched week for week, its more a case of being entertained for just the right stretch of time.

The story is actually a big showcase for the serious amount of Royal Navy hardware that someone, somehow had been talked into lending to Doctor Who for the week. And all the better for it - who cares that there are the shakiest of reasons for acres of footage of diving bells, hovercraft and helicopters. The UNIT setup had grown stuffy after so much use, and it also provides an excuse for the action set on the submarine and in the Sea Devils underground base, ably shot and, accompanied by some good use of stock footage, all pulled off in fine style.

Unfortunately the Sea Devils themselves come unstuck a bit later on when fully revealed; having one on the submarine was a mistake, especially as it's oddly been painted a different colour, and carelessly they always emerge from the sea in packs of exactly six. But there is again a cosy familarity now gleaned from watching the odd, gangly creations lurching up the beach to the accompaniment of the amazing, overwealming score by Malcolm Clarke. Seemingly stitched together by a tone-deaf futurist on a randomly operating electronic organ, it refuses to avoid forming a permenant association with the story.

It was also a chance to progress the ongoing Master storyline running through Seasons 8 and 9, and here we see the evil genius once again putting his foot in it while trying to ressurect an ancient menace to destroy mankind. Viewers would by now have come to love Delgado's Master even more than Pertwee's patronising, sandwich-scoffing Doctor, and here the renegade runs rings round his opponent, taking the piss well and truly by using his own prison as a base for his criminal plans. Fittingly, the story finishes as he makes his escape on a hovercraft with a final jaunty wave at the Doctor, who is left gutted on the shore.

I feel sure I wouldn't have loved "The Sea Devils" half as much had I bought it as an expensive video double pack some years later and tried to absorb it in just a couple of sittings. Away from being able to switch on each week and lose oneself in the fun for half an hour, the endless to-ing and fro-ing between Naval Base and Sea Devil base via mine field and submarine would leave the pondering of unwelcome wider questions... contemplating the destination instead of enjoying the scenery. "The Sea Devils" is a trip worth enjoying a little at a time, as they did back in 1972. And I feel grateful they gave us the chance to enjoy it that way again some twenty years on.

Originally posted by Si Hunt on March 18th 2003 at 7:19pm.

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