The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: Warriors Of The Deep

WARRIORS OF THE DEEP (Part One) 05/01/2024 

When I saw the words 'Written by Johnny Byrne' at the start of this episode I was terrified we'd get another rehash of The Keeper Of Traken, just like last year's season opener, Arse Of Inanity. However, this was actually a very promising start! The Silurians (Eocenes?) are back, reviving a colony of Sea Devils near Sea Base 4, a military compound on the sea bed, probably the Atlantic, in 2084. This is the kind of shit we should have had last series - proper stand-out returning monsters with a striking, Cold War-style atmosphere and action in the vein of Earthshock.

It's certainly well designed! The Silurians have had a makeover, more static than in 1970 but far less rubbery; I just wish they'd done something so we could tell the three Silurians apart! From the brief glimpse of the Sea Devils we got, they too have had a slight, rather less dramatic redesign. The interiors of Sea Base 4 are strongly reminiscent of the stark, white functionalism of the Nostromo in Alien and the set for the reactor room at the cliffhanger was very impressive.

The Sea Base is also populated by a cross section of Europeans including Ingrid Pitt as Doctor Solow, literally the most 80s-looking character yet seen on the show! She seems to be colluding with Nilson, played by Ian McCulloch (the bloke from Survivors, not the lead singer of Echo And The Bunnymen) as part of an infiltration team from whatever Bloc opposes the countries running the Sea Base. The missiles kept at the Sea Base are controlled by a Human connected to the main computers who has the responsibility of pressing the Big Red Button. The man responsible for this had a sudden fatal accident leaving this responsibility to the work experience boy, Maddox (seemingly a product of a union between the Doctor and Turlough with the lisp of Toyah Willcox), who's entirely unsuited for the job and knows it. A sudden practice missile run coincided with the appearance of the Silurian submarine (organic and difficult to track) and the TARDIS near military satellite Sentinel 6. This led to Maddox Who-Turlough collapsing and needing a brain reboot, which Solow and Nilson have somehow used to their advantage.

Meanwhile, the Doctor has had a haircut, and Turlough has chosen to stick around for a while - something I'd taken as a given - but the Doctor seems quite chuffed despite acting sceptical to Turlough himself; no doubt he enjoys seeing Tegan and Turlough antagonise each other now Nyssa's gone.

Shot at by Sentinel 6 (why they didn't just dematerialise is beyond me!) they materialised on Sea Base 4 and chose to wander around while the TARDIS repaired itself, until Turlough alerted the crew to their presence by calling a lift. Apparently, it needs a specific code to access it, which seems daft. But anyway, they avoided the search party until they got to the reactor room, the Doctor deciding to set the reactor to slowly overload giving them time to sneak back to the TARDIS while the crew undid the sabotage. Unfortunately, the Doctor fell over a gantry into the reactor's coolant pool (I assume that's what it is) after an unusually physical set-to with some Sea Base guards. The credits then crashed in as the Doctor sank following Turlough's unnecessarily speedy conclusion that the Doctor had drowned. Hmmm.

Nevertheless, this was actually a really good start to the new series; engaging, stylish, well paced and setting up some really good questions and plot threads. It felt fresh and dynamic and, whilst having its flaws, was a world away from the rather stuffy, oddly theatrical/stylised and often bland episodes of Season 20. It has a freshness and energy to it that echoes Season 19. I really hope the story, and the season, maintains this as it's so much better than the majority of what we got last year.

WARRIORS OF THE DEEP (Part Two) 06/01/2024 

This story has quite a lot going for it so far. The treachery of Nilson and Solow is interesting and nicely played, and their use of Maddox has potential, especially since they just forced him to kill his friend, Karina, after she discovered him sabotaging the Sea Base's defences under Solow's control. The sets are good, and I especially liked the Doctor's escape from the coolant vat, as well as the contrast between the brightly lit Sea Base with the Sea Devils' hibernation chamber and the interior of the Silurian 'Battle Cruiser'. 

Fun was had with the Doctor's change of outfit, borrowing an unconscious guard's uniform, said guard having apparently eaten something pungent which had lingered in his open-fronted helmet. And the Doctor's insistence that the Silurians are honourable was a nice touch despite it not being quite an accurate description of what we saw the last time we met them.

Preston's discovery of the TARDIS, conveniently left with the door ajar so she and a couple of guards could enter, was a convenient way of getting round the Doctor's need to explain their presence on the Sea Base, but very reminiscent of Black Orchid. I do question why the Doctor introduced himself during Turlough's interrogation by holding everyone at gunpoint, though. It's not a very Doctorish thing to do and follows on from him roughing up the guards at the end of the last episode. Why they didn't all immediately open fire on him is anyone's guess! Turlough, however, is developing well despite his weird insistence that the Doctor had drowned, and seems to have a better relationship with Tegan now, asking if she's okay when she was brought in after Preston captured her, and trying to stop Bulic from closing the bulkhead door trapping the Doctor and Tegan on the other side with the Myrka.

Oh yes. The Myrka. Or is that, as the Doctor so succinctly put it, "Oh dear"? Is it as bad as the Garm? Perhaps if I see more of it, but then I think, as with the Garm, that's the main problem. Given that the Silurians turned the Base's weapons against them and shorted them out (or something), the Director could have taken the opportunity to drastically lower the lighting within the Sea Base and provide us with more forgiving camera angles of this apparent prehistoric frog-cum-duck-cum-pantomime horse. It's very wobbly; almost as wobbly as the airlock door it pushed onto Tegan's legs (miraculously not breaking them!) with two arms, four legs, a huge head with bulging eyes, and the ability to electrocute people (but only by touching them directly. When it trod on the doors pinning Tegan's legs down it lifted them off her with no ill effect - maybe they actually are made of rubber, after all!). I don't understand why they keep writing in big monsters that are beyond the BBC budget. After 20 years of Slythers, Fungoids, Macra, Clams, giant rats and squid, puppet snakes and tubby Garms you'd think they'd've realised that these things don't create a threat but just lower the quality of otherwise excellent stories (okay, I'm pushing that definition with Genesis Of The Daleks, but you get my meaning). I'm not altogether sure about the Sea Devil redesign, either. Granted, these are warriors so string vests are probably not an ideal look, but what's with the Samurai warrior outfits? I also think they should have kept their skin colour a more organic green or brown rather than a dark, metallic silver which blends in with their uniform. At least they're more organic-looking and closer to the original design (head-wise) than their rather static Silurian counterparts.

So, not as good as the first instalment, but nonetheless an interesting start to the new season which is a vast improvement on last year's opening serial!

WARRIORS OF THE DEEP (Part Three) 12/01/2024 

This evening's episode started off really well. With the Doctor and Tegan trapped in the airlock with the Myrka, and control of the bulkhead doors transferred to the Bridge, Turlough assaulted a guard and took his rifle before heading to the Bridge and demanding Nilson open the bulkhead at gunpoint, which he did. It's really good to see how Turlough has developed from the self-serving character from his debut into a companion willing to take extreme measures to ensure the Doctor and Tegan's safety (despite what he said about the Doctor having drowned at the end of Part One). However, opening the bulkhead allowed the Myrka in, and the rest of the episode was largely given over to it and the Sea Devils and Silurians very slowly strolling towards the Bridge.

They really could have done something about the lighting for this, as some of the corridor scenes were dimly lit making the reptilian costumes look almost okay... Oh, who am I kidding? Nothing could have been done about the Myrka - it looks terrible and it's just fortunate they killed it off after fifteen minutes! The Sea Devils' weird Samurai costumes do them no favours at all, blending in with their skin tones (why dark grey when the originals were greens and browns?) and it would be better if the Director had told the actors to only flap their heads around when they were speaking - or preferably not at all! At least the originals had moving mouths. This is a far cry from the excellent mask work of the Terileptils! They also have very silly, flappy feet, some of which don't even seem to be on straight! And speaking of feet, Turlough is wearing some very bright, stripey socks.

Anyway, all this contrasted with some actually quite interesting political stuff. Nilson and Solow were using Maddox to sabotage the computers of the Sea Base in order to disable the proton missiles there and allow the enemy Bloc to fire upon the Sea Base and destroy it - given Pitt's Polish accent and Nilson's Scandinavian-sounding name, I assume the un-named Blocs are a commentary on the Cold War without actually stating it. I'm not sure why they needed Maddox to do this, but Solow went off to wait in an escape pod with Maddox' conditioning disc but encountered the Myrka on the way - cue a very silly I-don't-know-karate-but-want-to-look-like-I-do not-actually-a-fight-scene where Solow high kicked the Myrka and was electrocuted to death (dropping the disc to be found by a guard who handed it to Commander Vorshak so he could later confront Nilson). Not gonna lie - it was embarrassing.

Talking 'bout electrocution (I bought Tracy Chapman's Greatest Hits this week and it's bloody brilliant), I'm now convinced that the door that fell on Tegan really was made of rubber since the Myrka didn't kill her when it trod on it but managed to electrocute an bunch of extras when its tail touched a wall near (yes, near) the ones they had inexplicably pushed themselves up against. Likewise, the floors of Sea Base 4 must be insulated, just in case... Let's face it, the Myrka was just a bad idea which should have been scrapped in the planning stages. 

Confronted by Vorshak and Preston, Nilson killed Maddox and took Tegan hostage, making his way to the escape shuttle. It's clear Johnny Byrne doesn't see Tegan as being as capable as Nyssa was as she's done fuck all so far except need rescuing. Not exactly the Tegan we know and... um... mostly like! It was a nice touch, though, that having heard that Bulic and Turlough might be dead, the Doctor immediately chose to ignore Nilson's threats and go and rescue Tegan anyway.

Bulic and Turlough aren't dead, however, which seems very odd since the Sea Devils were happy to gun down all the other 'Ape Creatures' they encountered. No, the invaders have instead locked them both in a dormitory (where all the beds have bubblewrap around the mattresses for some reason). Perhaps the Sea Devils were aware that Turlough is Main Cast and couldn't be killed and let Bulic live so he had someone to talk to in his scenes? It does feel a little contrived.

And so to the cliffhanger where the Sea Devils shot Nilson dead and cornered the Doctor, revealing they know who he is! HOW? Have they met this incarnation before? It might explain how he knows their plans. Maybe it's an adventure he and Nyssa had after Time-Flight? Who knows? Maybe we'll get answers tomorrow!

WARRIORS OF THE DEEP (Part Four) 13/01/2024 

Well, that was at least an improvement of sorts on Byrne's previous scripts, and certainly not a rehash of The Keeper Of Traken, so we're at least off to a better start than last year. Apparently, the Sea Devil said "Your turn" and not "Doctor" at the end of yesterday's instalment, but I'd still like to go back and double check. Turlough, however, seems to have had a personality transplant between episodes reverting back to his self-serving nature of last season. Either Eric Saward missed his helping the Doctor and Tegan last episode but clocked him being amicable in this one and edited it to fit a shiftier personality, or Byrne was simply writing him to fit the plot without giving any thought to believability. Either could be the case, and there was no reason for Turlough and Preston to go off alone while Tegan and Bulic rescued the Doctor from the Bridge other than maybe padding (and given the rushed ending that seems unlikely), so who knows!

The Earth Reptiles were determined to start a war between the two Earth Blocs so they'd wipe each other out leaving the planet free for the Silurians and Sea Devils to recolonise, and apparently the Doctor knew Icthar as part of the Silurian leading Triad, although it wasn't made clear if this was meant to be one of the Silurians from the Pertwee story. It wasn't, as I hypothesised, from a previous meeting alongside Nyssa, though, as the Doctor said he'd regenerated, so maybe Icthar was one of the Silurians from And The Silurians. 

The Doctor et al. predictably went to the chemical store to find something less lethal than the Hexacromite gas which he pointed out was lethal to reptile and sea life in Part One and, predictably, ended up using it to off all the Sea Devils. Preston was shot dead in the chemical store, then they returned to the Bridge having fed gas into the air vents. In Maddox' absence, the Doctor linked up to the computer to stop the missiles being launched whilst Tegan and Turlough failed to save the Silurians from the gas by not holding the oxygen masks they'd taken with them over the Silurians mouths/noses - hovering them in front of their faces wasn't going to stop them beathing in the gas, ffs! Tegan 'tried' to help Silurian #3, thus allowing Icthar to shoot Commander Vorshak, who managed to stay alive long enough to woodenly confirm "He (the Doctor) did it!" before dropping dead.

Bulic, meanwhile, secretly managed to survive (disproving Turlough's announcement of "They're all dead, you know") - he was last seen holding a cannister of Hexacromite and killing Preston's Sea Devil assassin with it in the chemical store. Then, as the gas affected the Silurians on the Bridge, the Doctor called out for him to turn off the gas. Nothing else was seen or heard of him, however, so it seems he's the sole survivor of the massacre. He'll have a lot of explaining to do! We did, however, see a bit more of him than expected earlier in the episode; having helped Tegan down from an air vent on their quest to save the Doctor, his red jumpsuit had ridden up giving him a very noticeable camel toe. Yes, men can get them too.

The episode concluded with the Doctor's observation that "There should've been another way", and I'm sort of inclined to agree. This was clearly riffing on Earthshock in tone, and it was a good way to start the season off - a definite departure from the more sedate escapades of the last series - but it needed more money, a few more drafts, better lighting, and a rethink about the Myrka. It was still better than Byrne's previous stories and the sets, model work and general plot was a step up from some of Season 20, especially having the Silurians and Sea Devils make a return in a story where it couldn't really have been any old returning monster. It was just very flawed. It's certainly not the worst of Davison's stories, however, and I'm much more positive about the coming season than I was this time last year. Hopefully, this has been indicative of more variety and style than last year. I'm looking forward to next week!