Fury From the Deep

Dear Gary—

Fury From the Deep suffers more than any other story so far from being a reconstruction. I’m having a hard time, Gary, remembering much about it. It takes place at a refinery and rig network and there is some menacing seaweed that is accompanied by surging waves of foam. It rather reminds me of the scene in The Thrill of It All when Doris Day opens her bedroom window and she and her daughter are swallowed by a wave of soap suds.

The seaweed in Fury From the Deep, however, has a sting to it that somehow sickens and entrances humans. There is a Mutt and Jeff duo under the seaweed’s control who go around sabotaging things and a scientist’s wife who gets stung and wanders off into the sea. There is the head of the refinery who has the ‘damn the torpedoes’ attitude,  stubbornly continuing operations as is despite warnings from his crew and the Doctor until he is maddened by the sea menace.

At least the mysterious webbing and fungus in The Web of Fear had Yeti thrown in to provide a proper threat. It’s hard to get really worked up about some seaweed, especially when you can’t properly see any of the action. The Doctor puts this particular fight in terms of matter over mind, and “matter will never conquer mind,” he states, “it’s against nature.” But when there is no matter to see it’s hard to keep the image of Doris Day being swallowed by soap out of one’s mind, even if Victoria keeps screaming at every opportunity.

And that, I have to say Gary, is the most hilarious thing of all. This ominous sea creature, this looming threat, this terrifying matter that is bent on the conquest of the mind is defeated by Victoria’s scream. Poor Victoria just has not lived up to her promise of her early stories. She has been relegated to the fate of most female companions of the Doctor, getting kidnapped and screaming. At least in this her final story her screams come to some good. The Doctor has her scream recorded and amplified, played back in a continuous loop. The sea creature retreats and all is well.

That really is all I take away from Fury From the Deep, Gary, except for the two major distinctions of this story: Victoria’s departure and the first appearance of the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver.

First the sonic screwdriver. Early in the first episode the Doctor pulls this out—“It’s a sonic screwdriver; never fails.” Too bad we don’t have the visual for this unveiling. I’ll have to keep my eyes and ears open to find out when it makes another appearance. There are some other TARDIS/Doctor related revelations in Fury From the Deep. For instance we learn in this story that “the TARDIS is perfectly capable of floating,” when the Doctor makes a sea landing. And it’s no surprise, given the Doctor’s somewhat unpredictable control of the TARDIS, that he doesn’t handle a helicopter very well either despite his long held desire to get his hands on one.  Also, the Doctor pulls out a book of legends and superstitions when seeking to identify the seaweed creature of our story. One can only imagine that the Doctor himself will end up in that book someday, or perhaps already is.

Now Victoria’s departure. It is evident from the start that she has become fed up with life on the TARDIS.  She begins with a frustrated query: “Doctor, why is it that we always land up in trouble?” Despite the Doctor’s assurance that this is “the spice of life,” she continues echoing this sentiment throughout the adventure. “Every time we go anywhere something awful happens;” “I’m tired of one crisis on top of another.” And on and on she goes, on a continual loop just like her recorded scream.

She doesn’t really want to leave the Doctor, she assures him. But just like Ben and Polly, she is tired of the monsters. Jamie takes her exit the hardest. “We are not leaving her, Jamie,” the Doctor insists, “it was her decision to stay.”  But Jamie is not quite convinced. “I was fond of her too you know, Jamie,” the Doctor exclaims defensively. I do believe poor Jamie had puppy dog eyes for young Victoria.

And so Victoria is left behind in this modern world of her future. She is taken in by the scientist Harris and his wife (now recovered from her seaweed sting). I can only hope, Gary, that Captain Hopper from Tomb of the Cybermen finds her there.

 “I don’t really want to leave you,” Victoria says. It’s hard leaving the Doctor notwithstanding the monsters. Thankfully, Gary, we don’t have to leave him yet.