Day 309 — November 5th 2021
Warriors of the Deep Parts Three and Four
Warriors of the Deep — Part Three
I think the most frustrating part of this story for me is that the problems all seem to be in the translation of the story to screen. The script itself feels pretty good, and this episode in particular should feel much more dramatic than it ends up being. In many ways this episode is a bit of a filler one. The crews of the Sea Base and the TARDIS battle against the Myrka as it makes its way towards the Bridge. As this assault continues, the Sea Devils fight their way into the base. Doctor Who manages to take out the creature at the last minute, but it’s too late because the base has already fallen.
That could — and shout — be really great material. Picture it with the tone of the finale few episodes of The War Games, in which there’s a growing sense of inevitability about the things you’re watching. You know there’s no way for the heroes to win this time, but the excitement is in watching the events come to a head. That’s the kind of atmosphere I want in this episode. A sense that it’s people fighting against the odds to save the world.
Instead what we get is some of the flattest most lifeless material the programme has ever given us. As the Sea Devils make their way into the base, the crew sort of stand around half-heartedly firing their guns at the attack. Even the Sea Devils aren’t in any great hurry, shuffling their way into the set with all the enthusiasm of… well, of me watching this episode. What annoys me the most is that this is directed by Pennant Roberts, who I know is more capable than this. His work on The Face of Evil in particular was one of the highlights of the Tom Baker era for me, so it’s strange to see him putting in such a poor performance with this story.
Anyway, let’s do some positives, shall we? The more time we spend in the sets for the Sea Base, the more I love them. This episode shows off the scale of the Bridge in particular, and it’s also allowed me to notice several small details which all work to make this place feel believable. The thing that stood out for me the most here was the little health and safety signs dotted around the place. They’re the same format that you find out and about even now, so they feel somehow more modern than I’d expect for the Davison era, and they make the Base feel all the more like a real place.
I’m also a big fan of the costumes and make up for this one. In some ways it feels like they shouldn’t work. They’re the ultimate example of a designer looking at ‘the future’ in a script and deciding to make it all glittery and silly. And yet somehow I really like them. They wouldn’t look out of place in a Troughton Base-Under-Siege story, and that’s always a bonus for me.
I’m gonna go with another 4/10 on this one, and I’m going to make a promise to myself to listen to the Narrated Soundtrack of this story when I get to the end of the marathon. I always thought it seemed strange to do one for a Davison story, but I think just listening to this story and imagining the images in my head would really work wonders.
Warriors of the Deep — Part Four
During Season Nineteen I had a sneaking suspicion that Peter Davison couldn’t really do anger. He was very good at being frustrated, and his boyish charm when discovering something new — like all the equipment on the Urbankan ship — was infectious. But every time he was asked to be really angry about something it came across as a bit feeble and ineffectual. Even his confrontation with the Cyberleader felt a little flat. Enlightenment put paid to that, with a fantastic performance when he lost his temper with Captain Striker. This episode goes even further, and gives us what might be his best angry performance so far;
Doctor Who: ‘I sometimes wonder why I like the people of this miserable planet so much. The Silurians and Sea Devils are noble races. They have skills and talents you pathetic humans can only dream about.’
He’s on really strong form throughout this one, actually, and when he ends the story bloody and beaten solemnly declaring that ‘there should have been another way’, you really feel it. I think he’s returned for his final year really deciding to throw everything at the part, and that excites me for the stories to come.
I think this is the strongest episode of the story, which isn’t often the case for a final episode. Things finally feel like they’re moving along, and we get some of the crushing inevitability in this episode which I felt was so lacking in the last one. I love Doctor Who desperately searching for some other solution to knock the Silurians and Sea Devils out, even though there’s an obvious candidate right in front of him. That feels like the perfect way to sum up Doctor Who as a character, and this incarnation particularly.
I’m also loving Turlough’s characterisation in this story. It feels like Johnny Byrne has read the original character outline in which Turlough is shifty and out for himself, because he brings these elements to the character here in an interesting way. In Part One he’s quick to denounce that Doctor Who has drowned (maybe he’s hoping the Black Guardian might cut him a deal?) and in this one he decides it’s much better to slink back off to the TARDIS than to try and save the day. It should make me dislike him as a character, but Mark Strickson puts in such a goo performance that I can’t help enjoying him.
Something which has surprised me is how much this one ties into Doctor Who and the Silurians. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that before. The lead Silurian here is revealed to be one of the ones from the earlier story (and even given a name which I think he only received in the novelisation) and a lot of the attack here is a direct retaliation for UNIT blowing up their base all those years ago. There’s also an awkward moment in which Doctor Who asks a Sea Devil if they’ve met before, which makes him look a little unintentionally a bit racist.
I’m going with a 6/10 for this one, and I’m really hoping that listening to the narrated version of the story will make all the difference. I feel like there’s a world out there in which Warriors of the Deep is a proper classic… but sadly it’s not this one.
