The Sea Devils
In my mind, I can sum up the third Doctor era by saying that the only real classics are in season seven (Pertwees first). I knew that The Sea Devils was pretty good though, and so when I came to rewatch it for this review I was hoping I could give out a five-star rating. Unfortunately, while it remains a strong story and one of the eras best, it never quite achieves its lofty ambitions.
Partly, its good-but-not-a-classic status is down to the most basic methods used to get it onto screen. The opening scene, for example, uses all the obvious methods to get a reaction from the audience, such as coming from the monsters point of view to prevent the viewer from seeing what they look like. Im not going to be precious and criticise something like this and it isnt bad in any case but it does set the tone for something that isnt going to break new ground.
Heres the thing though: how well is this story made? The cast are largely top-notch, the script is tight and more or less bereft of silly lines and the set design is sumptuous, with even locations that are onscreen for a few seconds given dozens of tiny details. With this and The Curse Of Peladon its easy to see what drained the money from The Mutants.
Clive Mortons charming portrayal of Trenchard is one of the storys highlights as comes across as a man genuinely convinced that what hes doing is the right thing and as a consequence prepared to commit some rather dodgy acts. This is crucial for the character, as it offsets the more-or-less motiveless Master (Roger Delgado was a fantastic actor but the character only had credibility in The Deadly Assassin). However, there is some crude plotting evident as Trenchard drops the expo-bomb early on by crowbarring in a reference in about sinking ships. This might slip by unnoticed apart from the fact that Trenchard is so he believes in on an extra-legal spy mission with regards to that. Theres more nice characterisation to make up for it with the Doctor and Jo being cautiously civil to the Master (the Doctor refusing to shake his hand is a great moment), and it must be said that while he isnt really given a reason to be evil apart from simply being the baddie, Delgado is as good here as he ever was and he does at least make the character interesting. This is seen later as well, in the wonderful scene where he watches an episode of The Clangers and seems to be genuinely charmed by it.
Malcolm Clarkes score is an acquired taste, but his use of early synthesisers creates a score that totally fits with the atmosphere of the story, even if its not something Id want to actually listen to itself. Thinking of this and his dramatic, chilling score to Earthshock its hard to credit him with Attack Of The Cybermen, where he sounds like hes playing a broken harpsichord with his elbows.
Edwin Richfield puts in a good performance as the stern but sympathetic Captain Hart (its difficult to believe he went on to play Mestor, the king of the giant slugs, in The Twin Dilemma). Its a bit strange though as to why hed leave some valuable forensic evidence just lying around on the shingle.
The scenes set on the sea fort are wonderfully done, with some interesting camera angles, dark lighting and echoing sound effects all coming together to create a real feeling of unease and claustrophobia. The two crewmen are well played (youve got to love Declan Mulholland) but their characterisation as superstitious sea-dogs is a bit corny. This also marks the point where the Sea Devils are seen clearly for the first time, and while theyre reasonably effective better than the Silurians, to which its natural to compare them, and above average by Barry Lettss standards but their immobile, rubbery heads could do with being kept in the shadows a bit more. The flash from their guns is a great special effect and its hard to credit how much more effective the complete package as a whole is here than in the sequel Warriors Of The Deep a whole twelve years later.
The drama of the Doctor radioing for help is undermined somewhat because the rescue helicopter is already on its way, but really its done for comedic purposes and as such works in a generally intelligent and unobtrusive way. Its here that we really get to notice just how slow-paced the story is, with a huge amount of emphasis placed on what are in real terms minor plot points: namely the Masters theft from the naval base and Trenchards distraction. Theres a well-choreographed fight sequence at the end of the episode thats fun to watch, as although Pertwees by no means my favourite Doctor its always nice to see him swash his buckle (or is that the other way round?); when alls said and done though there isnt much in this episode to develop what weve learned from part one.
Part three has a huge reprise that does get a bit tedious (although I acknowledge that the story wasnt originally intended to be seen all in one go) and makes it difficult to ignore the amount of padding thats creeping in at this stage. This is what prevents The Sea Devils from being as great as it nearly is: its well written, acted and produced but it takes a long time to do very little. Were almost halfway through the story by this stage of the proceedings by were still hearing about the same sinking ships as we were in part one. Meanwhile poor old Till is still raving about Sea Devils. After an hour, I would have expected a story to have progressed a bit further than this.
There is some very good modelwork to be seen with the submarine, and there are some atmospheric scenes as the Sea Devils infiltrate it. Donald Sumpters performance as Commander Ridgeway (wasnt he in The Queens Nose?) is amusingly earnest, with his facial twitch making him seem vaguely Ahab-like in a rather establishment way. The cliffhanger to the third episode is deservedly iconic and back in 1972 my Mum had nightmares over it while ill with German Measles
Trenchards shock at seeing the Sea Devils is nice hes the most interesting character in the story, a fundamentally good man whose desire to protect his country is perverted by the master. However, the scene going into the minefield is the beginning of the sonic screwdriver becoming an all-purpose magic wand. This makes a rather good mine detector says the Doctor. I bet it does. There are more atmospheric scenes on the submarine, but the big exposition scene yet again sticks to what we already know. The storming of the castle, by contrast is very well done, exciting without trying to be too flashy which gives it a low-key dynamism. Something swiftly comes along to undermine this though, with the rather old-fashioned feel of the Pertwee era comes to the fore with Blythe apparently 3rd officer reduced to the girl who fetches the sandwiches. The cliffhanger to part four is very clever, as we dont even get to see what Jo finds so shocking.
The civil servant Walker is a great character but doesnt really have credibility; hes very much a character of tedious red tape. Hes still fun to watch though, although suddenly Blythe is an officer again and annoyed about being asked to fetch food.
The Sea Devil voices are good, but the negotiation scene brings on the usual Greenpeace line from Malcolm Hulke that pretty much retreads Doctor Who And The Silurians. Surprise surprise, some stock footage later and all is undone. The comedy scene on the submarine is fun if a bit out of place; it does inject a bit of life into what is, while still enjoyable, going on too long.
We go into the climax with the Doctor using the overfamiliar motif of buying time by pretending to help the villain. Oh look, hes double-crossed him. I dont want to sound churlish though as episode six is characterised by some great action scenes that remind me a lot of The Invasion (one of my favourite stories), even replicating the somersault-off-the-roof stunt. I dont really have anything to say about the climax since its so obvious theres no real way of getting an angle on it, but the final twist is almost comforting, as it sees a return to the Doctor vs Master set up of the previous season. Thankfully it wouldnt be overused like it was then: in fact Delgado only made two more appearances in the show after this before his premature death.
I dont want to come across as sounding like I dont like this story: The Sea Devils is well made and very entertaining, but basically it brings nothing new to the table. Put in context of the Pertwee years then it acquits itself well, but on its own terms then despite its general high quality it feels like a wasted opportunity