The Sea Devils

Dear Gary—

OK, this third Doctor is growing on me; and it is due in large part to great scripts like The Sea Devils played out by an excellent supporting cast. It also helps that this season has had a nice mix of the earth-bound stories with those that occur on other worlds.

 The Sea Devils sees the return of the Master. He had been captured by UNIT at the end of The Daemons and kept under wraps for the past two stories, giving his reappearance in The Sea Devils a much greater impact.

“He used to be a friend of mine once, a very good friend.”

The Doctor/Master relationship is quite complex, yet it is established simply; subtly; succinctly.

The Master seems to have been living in quiet retirement on an island retreat rather than imprisonment as the Doctor and Jo come to visit him in his castle cell. The Master assures the Doctor that he has taken this opportunity to reflect upon his past sins and rethink his philosophies. We know, of course, that it is all a sham, but it does give the Doctor pause. The Doctor truly desires the reformation of his old school mate; deep down, however, he knows it is only wishful thinking. Luckily for us.

The guards in charge of the Master’s keeping might be immune to his hypnosis, but his jailor, Colonel Trenchard, is not immune to his powers of persuasion. The Doctor knowingly inquires into Trenchard’s leading characteristic; the Master has already tapped into this as his greatest weakness: patriotism. He will do his duty, for Queen and country.

The Master has convinced Trenchard that the Sea Devils of our title (cousin to the Silurians) that have been sinking ships off the coast are really foreign spies and his duty is to help the Master to defeat these enemy agents. In reality the Master is intent on aiding them.

“The pleasure of seeing the human race exterminated Doctor,” the Master offers up as his reason for helping the Sea Devils. “The human race of which you are so fond; believe me, that’ll be a reward in itself.”

At six episodes long, The Sea Devils is an action packed story, with submarines, speed boats, duels, hover crafts, helicopters, jet skis, and explosions. We even have a mine field sequence where we learn that the sonic screwdriver acts as an effective mine locater as well as can blow mines up from a distance.

Too bad the Brigadier misses out on this adventure, but Captain Hart at the naval base where much of the action takes place steps up nicely.

“This place is supposed to be top secret,” Hart mutters disgustedly upon noticing the Doctor arriving by boat; “people treating it like Brighton Beach.” Then dryly sarcastic on the phone: “I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, but there happens to be a stray civilian chugging into the base.”

Captain Hart is a character after my own heart. He does get off to a rather rocky start with the Doctor, who persists in his disdain of credentials: “I never carry the things; bureaucratic nonsense.” And who makes the claim, “Horatio Nelson was a personal friend of mine.” But Captain Hart is wise enough to see through the seeming insanity to the reasoned intelligence of the Doctor. As such, he can understand when the Doctor says of the Sea Devils, “We’re not dealing with animals, Captain Hart; we’re dealing with intelligent beings.”

The short-sighted politician Walker is another story: “We’re not going to hand over the world to a lot of lizards you know.” Walker only seems happy when eating or blowing things up; and when things start to go wrong he degenerates into hilarious cowardice.

A word, Gary, about the fate of politicians in Doctor Who. They often are depicted as over-the-top stubborn, fat-headed, disagreeable imbeciles, so much so that they are rather unbelievable (think Chinn in the Claws of Axos). Walker in The Sea Devils walks that line, but he doesn’t quite stumble over it. I can imagine a man like Walker rising to the somewhat low-level of power within the government that he has achieved. He is stubborn and fat-headed, yes, but he can also stop to think about what others are telling him, process the information, and recalculate his position (granted if he deems it sufficiently advantageous to himself).

As long as we’re on supporting characters—the submarine crew is another bunch of superb actors, especially those portraying Commander Ridgeway and his ‘Number One.’ When faced with a takeover by turtle-faced Sea Devils, these men act in a matter-of-fact, stoic manner, with only the slightest of facial tics to give away the Commander’s shock and horror. And as one of the invading creatures points to an area on the map, Number One says calmly, “All right old man; get you there in no time.” Later, when tables have turned and they storm in to free their crew, and after Commander Ridgeway has shot the Sea Devil in charge (much to the Doctor’s dismay), he casually tosses the alien weaponry he has used over his shoulder (presumably to Number One off camera). It is small details like this in small roles that make a big difference in the development of the story.

 Finally I have to talk about the Sea Devils. These monsters transcend and transform their rubber suits. These are first-rate costumes for the time and budget. And the fish-net dresses they wear are the perfect touch. Watching these creatures emerging from the sea is quite a captivating sight.

 The fate of these Sea Devils is not much different than their Silurian cousins, however this time it is the Doctor and not the Brigadier to blame. The Doctor tries his best to broker peace, but between Walker and the Master he hasn’t a chance.

 “I did what I had to to prevent a war,” he says as the Sea Devil base explodes. He doesn’t do what he has to to keep the Master imprisoned, however. Using his hypnotic powers the Master manages to steal off in a hover craft with a final salute to the Doctor. He may be foiled but he is not finished.

 “He used to be a friend of mine once . . .”

 And on that note of pathos I leave you, Gary . . .