The Sea Devils
 |
 |
 |
DVD NTSC
Region 1
|
DVD PAL
Region 2
3-story box set
|
VHS Video
NTSC
A
NTSC
B
PAL
|
|
(Doctor Who Story No. 62, starring Jon Pertwee)
- written by Malcolm Hulke
- directed by Michael Briant
- produced by Barry Letts
- music by Malcolm Clarke
- 6 episodes @ 25 minutes each, colour 1972
|
Story:
The conflict beneath the surface continues
when the Master (Roger Delgado)
discovers the Silurians' underwater cousins and uses them
in his plans to escape from an island prison.
|
|
DVD Extras include:
- Audio commentary by producer Barry Letts,
script editor Terrance Dicks,
and director Michael Briant.
Moderated by Andrew Cartmel.
- "Hello Sailor" making-of documentary (36 min.),
adding Katy Manning (Jo Grant),
Donald Sumpter (Commander Ridgeway),
stuntman Stuart Fell,
Navy personnel David de Vere, Steve Scholes, and Dave King,
and castle keeper Digby Coventry.
- Behind-the-scenes 8mm home movies (4 min.) by Dave King,
with commentary from Letts, Dicks, and Briant.
- Isolated music by Malcolm Clarke
- Pop-up Production Note Subtitles
- Photo Gallery music montage (9 min.)
- Piccolo Book "The Making of Doctor Who" DVD-ROM .pdf file
- Trailers and continuity (6 min.) including the bonus re-cap of episode 1
In-Depth Analysis Review
by Martin Izsak
|
|
WARNING: This review contains "SPOILERS", and is intended for
those who have already seen the program. To avoid the spoilers,
read the Buyers' Guide version instead.
|
This is the earliest Jon Pertwee story that I don't particularly
like. Malcolm Hulke's best work is pretty much behind him at this point,
and this offering comes across as a less inspired rehash of material from
"The Silurians" (story no. 52).
Two Time Lords appear, but not a single TARDIS anywhere
in the story. We're also stuck on present day Earth, which usually has
the plus of adding the Brigadier and his UNIT buddies to the cast, but in
this case we have to settle for some complete unknowns, and go through
the whole boring business of watching them get over their mistrust of
the Doctor and Jo, and go through their incredulity at the Doctor's theories.
Snore! It is not particularly well scripted this time around, instead
just going through the motions of the formula.
Alpha Mac Storytelling
|
All throughout the eighties, I kept hoping that Malcolm Clarke would
get to compose music for a story that featured the Master, as I was convinced
he would concoct a truly memorable theme for him as he had done for the
Cybermen, the Black and White Guardians, and the Daleks. And when I finally
had a chance to see "The Sea Devils" for the first time, in a movie length
compilation, I began to curse that
Dudley Simpson's music was getting way too random, and irritating in its
choice of electronic instruments. Thus I was doubly shocked when it was
all over, and the music credit revealed that I had been panning the Malcolm
Clarke Master-story music I had always hoped for. Well, I have to keep
my bias towards the composers aside in this case, and say that most of
the music we get for this story does not, in my gut-opinion, suit the
moods of this story very well. Some of it is superbly excellent,
particularly the part played for the Master when he hypnotizes someone,
which is on par with Clarke's 80's Doctor Who work. Underwater and military
drum portions are also extremely effective. And there is a signature
5-note Sea Devil motif running through the musical work as whole, bringing
it some unity, although the choice of instrument is often so irritating
and non-melodic it may be difficult to pick out or appreciate.
But the big problem with the music in this story became clearer when
I heard all 45 odd minutes of it on CD - it somehow works better in this
format, when one gives all of one's uninterrupted attention to it. Malcolm
Clarke seems to be telling the entire narrative of the story in his own
language of experimental electronic music. Somehow it seems to work in
this format. This format, however, is precisely not what we need to have
synchronized with the cinematic story. On TV, the narrative needs to be told
by the visuals and the dialogue, while the music supports and enhances the
mood. What we get in "The Sea Devils" is the narrative being told twice
as music argues with visuals and dialogue over who can tell it best,
while the mood is not taken care of at all in many places where it badly
needs to be. And viewers more easily understand the visuals and dialogue,
while the experimental electronic music is, in effect, a foreign language.
I like foreign languages, but don't bombard me with two languages
at the same time......
|
|
Music by Malcolm Clarke
About 95% of the score
(totalling 44 minutes here)
is available on:
A condensed suite of 5:19 duration
is available on:
|
|
Wimping the Peaceful Philosophy
Back to the story, Malcolm Hulke is basically getting more and more
stuck at cross-purposes in his writing. His passion for the peaceful
solution shines through the Doctor's efforts and dialogue, while Jo
supports him faithfully. However, they're not very effective at
achieving peaceful solutions anywhere, only in making false promises
about it, thanks to Hulke's determined efforts to knock the plot back
onto lines of violence time and again. Often, the Doctor is his own
worst enemy. What's the point of the Doctor getting angry at the submarine
captain for shooting the Sea-Devil that commandeered his ship, considering
that our hero of peace made a special effort to search a downed Sea-Devil
in a collapsed tunnel for that very gun, and then made another special
effort to give it to the submarine captain, adding "Here, take this.
....It's a gun!" Lots. If you want to discourage the use of guns, don't
go handing them out like freebies. Then there's the Doctor's ability
to negotiate. Admitting the truth to the Sea Devils is important, but
leaving out the bits that help your case is idiotic, which is precisely what
he does, hanging his head all too easily in the face of the Master's
accusations, and not explaining his own motivations.
And in the end, it's the good Doctor's meddling that blows up all the
Sea Devil bases that the Master was going to reactivate. Nice job, hero
of peace. Once more, Hulke can't present a believable peaceful solution,
and so opts for the regrettable big bang instead.
Many of the characters in this story do a lot of seemingly silly
things, and motivation provided to support their actions is usually very
one-dimensional and thin. Trenchard's idiocy is summed up in the word
"patriotism" and that's all we get, despite the fact that you'd have to twist
a very complex pretzel of illogical beliefs to make Trenchard's actions lead
to that value as an end goal. The Doctor clearly has the advantage
all through the duel with the Master at the end of episode two, yet he
purposely lets his guard down and helps his enemy at every opportunity
until he gets himself caught. Why? Here he is not taking the Master
seriously, and people will die because of it. Callous!
The submarine crew get some of the silliest bits. An enormous sense
of anticipation builds as they are about to be boarded by Sea-Devils.
Unfortunately, Clarke's flighty random music saps all seriousness out of
the scene. Then the crew let one lonely Sea Devil walk right into the room
where a moronic staring contest ensues. It's okay if they want to hold back
their violent tendencies and not shoot him, but how about trying a peaceful
tendency, like talking to him? No such intelligence today. Making matters
worse, we cut away from the scene with one lonely lemming Sea-Devil sitting
like a duck in the middle of a human cross-fire, watch some other stuff for
a while, and cut back to find that the Sea Devils are now somehow in command,
and that the humans are all happily taking orders from them while still enjoying
the freedom of their own sub. Exactly what kind of new relationship is this?
When did it come about? HOW did it ever form?
Believability is out the window at this point.
Then a coded knocking starts on the hull, while the sub-crew start writing
things down. Are we supposed to believe that a Sea-Devil who's been asleep
throughout the rise of human culture is going to mistake this for an innocent
game of "consequences"? They're lucky enough the creature can speak English.
By the time they teach it how to play "consequences", its suspicions
would have to be through the roof!
The Sea-Devils themselves look a bit silly. The hat-headpieces are
all right, but they look like they're wearing granny's old rags or something,
a far cry from the smart-looking battle uniforms they eventually get in
"Warriors of the Deep" (story no. 131,
also available in the "Beneath the Surface" DVD box set).
Their ray guns don't provide the visual laser
effects I'd have hoped for either, but what we do get is still believable
and powerful, emotionally and pyrotechnically.
Redeeming Tidbits
The Master's major motivations are simple in this one, and they work.
He needs to escape his incarceration, as secretly as possible, and
he desires revenge on the human race, for all the considerable trouble
he has been in with them.
Episode Three is the Doctor's big captivity episode in this one,
although there's plenty more captivity on its way in episodes five
and six for the Doctor and many of the others as well. Episode three's
prisoner dynamic is pretty dull, with the Doctor handcuffed to a chair,
and going through old routines with the Master yet again. At least
a submarine crew gets to explore the depths of the sea in this episode,
keeping things somewhat interesting.
The character of Mr. Walker is one of the gems of the story, a civil
servant consumed with his own importance and not caring about much of
anything else. Director Michael Briant does a good job of
highlighting this with some unusual camera angles.
The location filming in this story is also a definite bonus, adding
a huge measure of realism, and giving the visuals a terrific feel.
In fact, I suspect that the extensive and effective location filming
is almost solely responsible for the high opinion that many people have
of this tale, and it is an element of the story that does deserve to
be highly celebrated. Apart from the offices,
the studio sets are rarely up to standard, with the castle
corridors and the cell in the Sea-Devil base being particular letdowns.
The submarine set is not bad, but doesn't look right largely because
of ridiculous over-lighting.
The final silliness, of course, is that the Master would want or need
the Doctor anywhere near his reactivation machine. How could one possibly
trust the other here, with their goals so obviously at odds? The stage
is so obviously set for that classic Pertwee cliché: reversing the
polarity of the neutron flow.....
In the end, "The Sea Devils" has its moments, and is not too bad a
story, but is just a bit stale and outclassed within Season Nine.
International Titles:
Deutsch: "Die Seeteufel"
Magyar: "A tengeri ördögök"
Français: (Les Démons des Mers)
Русский: "Морские дьяволы"
This story has become available on DVD and VHS video.
Click on the Amazon symbol for the location nearest you
for pricing and availability:
Single Story versions:
|
|
|
DVD NTSC Region 1
for the North American market:
in the U.S.
in Canada
|
DVD PAL Region 2
for the U.K.
See box set below
|
VHS Video
NTSC
A
for North America
NTSC
B
for North America
PAL
for the U.K.
|
"Beneath the Surface" 3-story boxed sets:
(Story Nos. 52, 62, & 131: The Silurians,
The Sea Devils, & Warriors of the Deep.)
|
 |
|
DVD NTSC Region 1
"Beneath the Surface"
3-story box set
in the U.S.
in Canada
|
DVD PAL Region 2
"Beneath the Surface"
3-story box set
for the U.K. |
Comments on this article are welcome. You may contact
the author from this page:
Contact page
LYRATEK.COM
|
Read the In-depth Analysis Review for the next story:
"The Mutants"
|
|
