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"The Sea Devils," episode 62 of the legendary BBC sci-fi series "Doctor Who," stars Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, and features Katy Manning as the Doctor's sidekick Jo Grant, Edwin Richfield as the upstanding naval officer Captain Hart, and the nefarious Roger Delgado as the Doctor's old friend and current arch-nemesis, "The Master." An extra treat is the presence of an extremely young David Griffin (best known as Emmet Hawksworth from the brilliant series "Keeping Up Appearances") as Lieutenant Commander Mitchell, known onboard his nuclear submarine simply as "Number One."
The plot concerns the Master allying himself with an ancient race of aquatic beings who have long been hibernating, and assisting with their dreams of world domination. The Master is allegedly in prison, but in actuality is running the prison, and promptly breaks out of jail and into a top secret naval base without difficulty. The Sea Devils are monsters who look like crosses between parrots and pigs, and are dressed in glimmering robes or coveralls depending on the situation. A Royal Navy submarine quickly finds itself in Sea Devil-related danger, and so does the Doctor thanks to the warmongering ways of a political buffoon, despite the restraint of Captain Hart and the Royal Navy. Ultimately the Doctor grabs victory from the jaws of defeat, and the forces of good and evil are put back in alignment.
The effects and technological gadgets (like the "sonic screwdriver") also strain credulity (especially the submarine model, which was literally purchased at Woolworth's.) Noteworthy in this series is the extreme cooperation of the Royal Navy in providing access to numerous facilities, ships, and structures, which adds the most authentic element of the show. The Sea Devils themselves are rather ridiculous looking, and the six episodes of the story drag a bit (especially in episodes four and five,) but overall this is an excellent example of the genre. Further dating this episode (and the series in general) are the constant use of synthesizer sound effects at perfectly random moments throughout the entire set.
For fans of "Doctor Who," fans of weird serial sci-fi, or fans of early 1970s British television, this is a winner. "The Sea Devils" is now available on DVD with lots of extras, making a good series even better; unless you can only watch VHS format, I strongly recommend searching out the DVD.
The belated, but nevertheless welcomed, release of Doctor Who on DVD has led me to renew my acquaintance with the earlier recorded episodes available on VHS. The Sea Devils, a six episode story, continues in the third Doctor tradition of on location stories and in particular in this case with considerable help from Her Majesty's Royal Navy. One of the weaker Jon Pertwee stories due to the heavy reliance on an earlier story of the Silurians, the Doctor is thrown into another Master plot of causing war between two non-communicating foes - the Sea Devils and the humans. Despite their fearsome looks and reptilian origins the Sea Devils have been accidently revived after millions of years. Once rulers of the earth before the dawn of the human race and equipped with advanced technology, the Sea Devils are manipulated by the Master into attacks on ships and the naval base. The Doctor attempts to be an intermediary for peace but fails because of the Master and in the end is forced into destroying the revived Sea Devils and ensuring that the revival mechanism cannot be used again. The shooting of this story makes excellent use of disused naval seaforts, diving bells and footage of naval exercises and artillary. In that sense it is a good development of the Doctor Who franchise. In another way it epitomises a great weakness of the Pertwee years which was the heavy reliance on the Master for storylines. So much so that you could almost tell what the plot was going to be. While the use of the device of being marooned on earth certainly helped out in some respects in terms of dreaming up new worlds it was very restrictive in other ways. This story is also strong on the morality issue which also figured throught most of the incarnations of the Doctor - to what extent the drive for peace is limited by the need to take action, violent action. Action packed, and with some good make up, it is a pretty good story but could of been better.
4.0 out of 5 starsDoctor Who: The Sea Devils review by Benjamin Wood
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2003
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An almost excellent doctor who episode. I have watched this episode from being a young lad and i still enjoy it to this day. The music is particulary spooky and eiree probably because it's composed by the BBC radiophoinic workshop. As is was saying a fantastic episode and one of the late Jon Pertwee's best adventures.