Right well here is another post for ya and this one will cover a Doctor Who story and I've gone back in time (ha ha!) to 1972 to the Jon Pertwee era of the original show and chosen The Sea Devils, which in a way was a sequel to Pertwee's second story: Dr Who and the Silurians. Anyway so let's wade out to sea and give this one a closer look.....
So the story begins with the Doctor (Pertwee) and his companion, Jo Grant (Katy Manning) visiting the Doctor's old foe, The Master (Roger Delgado) who has been imprisoned on a small prison island after he was captured by UNIT (as seen in the story The Daemons). On the island, the Master is well guarded and under CCTV surveillance, also the guards have been trained to resist the Master's hypnosis tricks. As the Doctor and Jo leave, the governor of the prison, Colonel Trenchard (Clive Morton) tells them that some ships have gone mysteriously missing and out of curiosity the Doctor decides to go and investigate. The Doctor and Jo soon travel to an old sea fort where the Doctor finds a crazed crewmember who babbles about seeing a "sea devil" and the Doctor is soon attacked by a man-sized bipedal lizard, similar to the Silurians, but the creature escapes. The Doctor and Jo soon escape the fort and go to a naval base which is run by Captain Hart (Edwin Richfield) where he forms an alliance with him.
Meanwhile it turns out that the Master is in fact not being held captive and that he is instead working with Trenchard to apparently investigate the disappearance of the missing ships and the Master himself sneaks into the naval base to steal some electronics equipment, however he is spotted by one of the personnel at the base. The Doctor then goes to confront the Master back at the island and they fight but they are interrupted by Trenchard who ties up the Doctor at the Master's insistance but Jo later on rescues the Doctor and they head back to the naval base. Afterward the Master then uses the electrical equipment to create a device to contact and control the sea devils who emerge from the waters and storm the prison island, killing the guard and also Trenchard. The Doctor and Jo back at the naval base are informed by Hart that another submarine has gone missing and the Doctor decides to go down in a submarine bell to investigate but he is soon captured by the Sea Devils. The Doctor is then taken to the Sea Devils base underwater where he is confronted also by the Master who is hellbent on using the Sea Devils to destroy humankind and from here the Doctor must try and broker a peace between the Sea Devils and the humans in an effort to stop the Master, if he can.....
The Sea Devils for me remains one of Jon Pertwee's most enjoyable stories of his era and while it doesn't quite scale the heights of his very best stories its still well worth watching. The story also works well beacuse it provides a different tack when dealing with the Master as he appears to be held captive and also even claims that he has been rehabilitated only to find that he is still up to his old evil ways. It also marked the return of the Silurians, well in different form as the Sea Devils are the underwater cousins of the original Silurians. However after the original Silurians story was broadcast, scientists and geologists sent in letters that it would be impossible for reptilian life to have existed during the Silurian era. So as an amendment to this it was corrected in the story as in one scene the Doctor refers to it as a "misnomer" and that it should be the "Eocenes". But like the previous story, The Sea Devils remains an interesting one because the creatures themselves aren't necessarily evil as the Doctor tries to negotiate a peace between them and the humans, which was a familiar theme used in some of the writer, Malcolm Hulke's stories during the Pertwee era, even though it ultimatley doesn't go too well! The Sea Devils themselves are fairly well presented in the show as their masks and costumes are fairly good and quite effective as are their soft vocoder effect voices.
Performance wise the Sea Devils is also pretty good and Jon Pertwee once again is great in his role as the Doctor as he plays him with the usual sense of playfulness and seriousness and he has his share of good scenes in the story. As for a few examples there is the scene where the Doctor is trapped on the sea fort with Jo but he manages to lash up a radio device to contact the coast guard and after he makes contact he says to himself "Well I think that's a remarkably efficient piece of work" and then the radio goes up in smoke! Another good scene comes when the Doctor first meets with the Master on the island and after the meeting he goes outside with Jo and appears almost a little sad and says to Jo "Well he used to be a good friend of mine once. A very good friend. In fact you might almost say we were at school together". But later the Doctor confronts the Master back at the prison and they have a duel with epees and the Doctor after knock the Master down, looks over and sees a sandwich on a table and takes a bite from it and says "I always find that violent exercise always makes me hungry. Don't you agree?". Another good scene comes when the Doctor confronts the old fashioned and somewhat arrogant parliamentary private secretary named Walker who orders a nuclear strike on the sea devils base. And the Doctor walks in angrily saying "What idiot ordered an all out attack just as I was on the verge of finding a peaceful solution?!" and Walker replies "I'm the idiot you've just been talking about!". And as the two of them argue and Walker says to him "I think you've got it wrong old man. Seek and destroy. Isn't that what you chaps say?" and the Doctor angrily says to Walker "But the point, Mister parliamentary private secretary is that you have not destroyed. You have just made them angry! VERY, VERY ANGRY!". Another good scene comes when the Doctor arrives back at the prison island with Hart and finds Trenchard dead and the Master missing. And Hart sadly asks "Why?" and the Doctor says "What do you think was Trenchard's strongest characteristic?" and Hart says "I don't know. Patriotism, I suppose" and the Doctor says "Exactly. The Master used that patriotism as a weapon".
Roger Delgado is also wonderful again in his part as the Master and he relishes his lines of dialogue and clearly also in playing the role itself. Delgado also has some of his own highlights in the story such as the scene where the Master at the prison island watches an episode of the children's show, The Clangers, on his TV and he seems amused by it and says to Trenchard "It appears to be a rather interesting extra-terrestrial lifeform!". And Trenchard says to the Master "Only puppets, you know. For children" and the Master then sighs and switches the TV off as Trenchard clearly missed his sarcasm, which is a nice touch in the story. Then there is the scene where the Doctor meets with the Master at the prison for the first time and he says to the Doctor, who asks him if there is anything he can do for him "There is one thing. Please come in now and then to have a chat. Oh, Trenchard's a very nice man, but his conversation is somewhat limited". And as the Doctor and Jo leave, the Master laughs to himself clearly showing his ruse that all is not what it seems in his time at the prison. Another good scene comes when the Master duels with the Doctor and as the Doctor takes a bite from one of the Master's sandwiches, the Masters says "Then you'd better enjoy your meal, Doctor, because it might be your last!". And later on near the end of the story there is another good scene which also shows Delgado's ability to be menacing in the role when he hypnotises a guard who holds at gunpoint at the naval base and he says to the man "There's been a mistake you know. I'm not the man you want. Its a mistake....a mistake" and the man becomes drowsier and then the Master shouts "A MISTAKE!" and knocks the mans rifle away and hits him hard, knocking him out.
Katy Manning even though it has to be said that she is easily one of the most annoying actresses to have worked on the show, she still does well enough as Jo Grant and she does share a nice chemistry with Jon Pertwee in the story as they did throughout the show's run. The story was also noticeable for Katy on two different scenes one where she carried out a stunt involving rapelling down a small cliff face she burned her hands on the rope. And in another scene where Jo climbs up the ladder of the old sea fort, Katy found it too slippy so the regular stuntman for the show, Stuart Fell, dressed up as Jo and climbed up for her instead!
Katy has some good moments here and there in the story as well such as the scene where she helps the Doctor escape from the prison when he is tied up, she sneaks inside picks the lock on the manacles that tie the Doctor's hands together. And after the Doctor knocks out the guard he keeps pestering, the Doctor points to the door and says to Jo "After you" and Jo says "No after you" and the Doctor insists "No, no, after you!" and they both smile and leave. Another good moment comes when the Doctor get's his makeshift radio working but ends up getting a radio DJ channel instead and he turns it off and Jo says "Hey that was my favourite DJ!" and the Doctor smiles "I think I must have got my wires crossed!". Although it has to be said that Manning's childish and boundless enthusiasm does also grate on your nerves a bit esepcially during scenes such as the one where the Doctor and Jo are trapped on the sea fort and soon rescued by a helicopter and Jo runs over to look out and says "Its a helicopter!" in a such an over enthusiastic way that makes you groan.
The supporting cast are also pretty good such as Clive Morton as Trenchard who is ultimately mislead by the Master and you end up feeling sympathy toward him when you realise how much he was used by the Master and eventually is killed by the Sea Devils. Edwin Richfield also is very good as the efficient naval base chief, Captain Hart, whom the Doctor forms an alliance with during the investigation of the missing ships. And Richfield has some good scenes also and one that comes to mind is when he refers to Horatio Nelson's personality "Yes a pretty impulsive fellow. If one can believe the history books!" and the Doctor replies "History books? Captain Hart, Horatio Nelson was a personal friend of mine!" and then leaves the room and also Hart looking perplexed who says "Good grief! Poor chap's as mad as a hatter!".
Direction wise, Michael E. Briant also does a fine job with the story and he himself was a keen sailor (similar to Jon Pertwee who served in the navy as a sailor) so naturally the oceanic nature of the story would have appealed to him. Briant also directed the story in co-operation with the Royal navy who even waived their royalty fees for stock footage of ships and many sailor volunteers were also used in the final episode where the Sea devils attack the naval base. Also worthy of note is the story's music score by Malcolm Clarke, which was quite unique sounding for its time as it was a weird concoction of electronic noise and synthesizers but it still remains one of the most interesting and experimental sounding scores for the show up to that point. Part of the score also featured later in one of the Doctor Who soundtrack albums.
As for The Sea Devil's flaws.....well it has to be said as a six episode story it clearly is a bit too long and it does tend to drag itself out in certain scenes and you really feel that the story would have been better served if it was just four episodes. The sea devils themselves it has to be said that while their costumes and masks are actually fairly impressive their movement in the story is frankly ridiculous looking as there are moments where you see some of the Sea Devils at the shore just bobbing about stupidly! Its also of course noteworthy that when we see the Sea Devils come ashore that there are only six of them and as usual in Doctor Who (well in the old show anyway!) we are supposed to believe that six Sea devils alone could conquer the world! Although of course re-inforcements would be sent in later for battle no doubt, but again they would probably have to bring them up in sixes!
I also thought the story featured the usual toffy nosed bureaucratic and patriotic old-guard characters that often plagued the Pertwee era during the Earthbound stories. And Trenchard even though he ultimately means well is a prime example of this sort of character with his usual "old man!" and "old boy!" and "my dear" cliched dialogue. But worst of all in the story is private parliamentary secretary Walker, who clearly is a bureaucratic, chauvinistic knobhead who thinks he knows it all and the answer to everything is to blow it up! And apart from that Walker's main concern is when he can get his next round of toast and after showing all his arrogance at first, he soon cowers in a cowardly fashion when the Sea Devils arrive to attack the naval base. So ultimately he is the one character in the story the audience wouldn't miss.
And another thing is this: (PLOT SPOILER HERE!!) when the Master finally escapes at the end of the story in the sea hovercraft he sometime finds the time to have created another one of his facial masks and slapped it on one of the soldiers so he could make his escape. So you have to ask the question: does the Master keep a supply of these masks on him just when he needs them??? As it appears to be quite handy that all of a sudden he can produce them, especially when he was held captive by the Sea Devils they probably didn't bother to search him. So that for me always remained one of the more silly aspects of the Master's character during the Pertwee era in that he always seemed to have a copious amount of face masks of his own face just whenever he needed them, so perhaps he keeps them in his back pocket?! Who knows. Interestingly enough however further to this point it was said that Delgado had a fear of water and it apparently it took alot of bravery for him to do the scene near the end of the story when the Doctor and the Master are picked up in the sea.
But that all aside, The Sea Devils is still a very enjoyable Doctor Who story which after 43 years is still worth a watch and it remains one of the strongest ones of Jon Pertwee's era.
And on that note I shall bid yee goodnight!
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