The Sea Devils (TV story): Difference between revisions

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*The Doctor attempts to attribute the misnomer ''Silurian'' to their discoverer.
*The Doctor attempts to attribute the misnomer ''Silurian'' to their discoverer.
*The [[The Master (Harold Saxon)|Master]] mentions their encounter with the Sea Devils to the [[Tenth Doctor|Doctor]] in [[DW]]: ''[[Last of the Time Lords]]''.
*The [[The Master (Harold Saxon)|Master]] mentions their encounter with the Sea Devils to the [[Tenth Doctor|Doctor]] in [[DW]]: ''[[Last of the Time Lords]]''.
*The Doctor and the Master would later engage in another sword fight in [[1215]]. ([[DW]]: ''[[The King's Demons]]'')


==Timeline==
==Timeline==

Revision as of 15:42, 13 August 2011

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The Sea Devils was the third story in the ninth season of Doctor Who. It marked the first appearance of the Sea Devils and the reappearance of the Master.

Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks had decided they wanted a sea-based story and asked Malcolm Hulke to write it. Instead of bringing back the Silurians, Hulke invented an aquatic version called the Sea Silurians. Unlike their counterparts, the Sea Devils were given clothing designed by Maggie Fletcher.

To combat the suggestions by fans that the Silurian era could not have spawned man-sized life, Hulke introduced a line in which the Doctor says they should correctly be called Eocenes. However, it is also unlikely that the Eocene period could produce such life.

After appearing in all five stories of season 8, Letts had decided to restrict the Master to a few appearances each year. This story joins him where The Dæmons left off, with his imprisonment. This story also implied that the Doctor and the Master were once friends.

Letts had successfully secured the involvement of the Royal Air Force for The Mind of Evil and so decided to try to do the same with the Royal Navy. After contacting the Ministry of Defence, he found them eager to take part. Shortly after broadcast, the BBC was visited by officials from the MOD who believed their top-secret submarine had been used in the show. It was in fact a model, adapted to have the features they were secretly testing.

This story saw the only use of "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow", during the Pertwee era. The phrase became associated with the Third Doctor and so he used it again in The Five Doctors, some eleven years later.

Like many of Hulke's stories, it included a moral dimension. The Sea Devils are caught between the Master, the Doctor and the humans. Ultimately, they are betrayed by all three and like their land-based cousins, it is the humans who damage them the most.

Synopsis

The Doctor and Jo visit the Master in his high-security prison on an island off the south coast of England and hear from the governor, Colonel Trenchard, that ships have been mysteriously disappearing at sea.

Plot

Episode one

The Doctor and Jo visit the Master in his cell.

The Doctor and Jo visit the the Master, now held in captivity on a small island prison, after being captured by UNIT.

The Master is being held indefinitely and is the only prisoner. He is watched by CCTV and the island is patrolled by armed guards – trained to resist the Master's hypnotic powers – and even protected by minefields. He claims to have reformed – but refuses to reveal the location of his TARDIS. As they depart, the old-school, patriotic governor, Colonel Trenchard, tells them that some ships have been mysteriously disappearing.

The Doctor cannot resist investigating and so they make their way to the sea fort. There, he and Jo are soon attacked, by a Silurian lookalike.

Episode two

A Sea Devil is discovered by the Doctor.

This man-sized bipedal lizard is called a "Sea Devil" by a crew member who's been driven half mad. They escape to the nearby naval base, HMS Seaspite, run by the efficient Captain John Hart; despite the Doctor's eccentric behaviour (such as claiming to have known Nelson personally), an alliance forms. Hart is in charge of the adaptation of the sea fort for use as a SONAR testing station. The Doctor discovers that the Master, assisted by a misguided Trenchard, is stealing electrical equipment from the naval base to build a machine that will control the Sea Devils.The Master throws a dagger at The Doctor's back.

Episode three

The Master working in his cell.

The Doctor survives and hears the evil Time Lord intends to use the reptiles as an army to conquer the planet, and he begins by using the machine to summon some of them from the sea – forcing the Doctor to employ his sonic screwdriver to repel them by exploding mines on the beach.

The Master returns to his cell and begins work on a new device. He activates it and it calls the Sea Devils to his location. They attack the prison killing the guards and Trenchard.

Episode four

The Sea Devils attack the submarine.

Soon, however, a battle for the prison ensues, during which Trenchard, who had believed he was aiding his country against enemy agents, is killed. The Doctor and the Master duel with swords, but eventually the Doctor and Jo are forced to flee to HMS Seaspite, where Hart tells them a naval submarine has disappeared. The Doctor investigates in a submarine bell and is seized by the Sea Devils, who take him to their leader. The Doctor enters the Sea Devils' base and tries to encourage peaceful negotiation, recalling how he had failed to broker an agreement between mankind and the Silurians. The Master, too, ventures to the Sea Devil base, intent on provoking war, but matters are left unresolved when the base is attacked by depth charges. Jo realises the bell is empty.

Episode five

The Master and Sea Devils converse.

This attack has been ordered by a gluttonous and short-sighted politician, Robert Walker, who has arrived at HMS Seaspite to take control of the situation and is intent on repeating UNIT’s actions on Wenley Moor: blowing up the creatures, but this time with nuclear weapons. Hart and Jo are opposed to the attack but at least it allows the Doctor cover to flee, even if he has failed in his initial attempt to sue for peace.The sea devil aims its gun at the three people.

Episode six

File:Hibernation.jpg
The Sea Devils send out the wake up call.

The Doctor persuades Walker to allow him a final attempt at negotiation, but in the meantime the Sea Devils capture the naval base. They have been inspired to this action by the Master, who still wishes to instigate a war. The Master forces the Doctor to help build a machine to revive Sea Devil colonies all over the world. Returning to the Sea Devil base the Master activates the device, whereupon the Sea Devils imprison both Time Lords, now both equally useless to them. However, the Doctor has sabotaged the machine and he and the Master escape the base using equipment from the captured submarine.

As they are rescued, massive power feedback from the sabotaged machine destroys the Sea Devil colony before the military attack can begin. As usual, the Master is able to escape capture (this time by faking a heart attack, hypnotizing a man into switching places with him, and hijacking a rescue hovercraft) and flees the scene.

Cast

Crew

References

Foods and beverages

  • The Doctor consumes several sandwiches throughout his time at the naval base, and whilst visiting the Master.
  • Hickman is seen drinking Old Oak Light Ale.

Races and species

The Doctor

  • The Doctor is a trained diver and accomplished golfer.

The Doctor's items

Vehicles

Story notes

  • This story had the working title The Sea Silurians.
  • The scene involving the Master watching The Clangers was a last-minute addition, added because the first episode was missing 90 seconds of the standard run time.
  • This is one of two stories where the Third Doctor utters the full line "I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow.". The other is in The Five Doctors.
  • The Sea Devils are never named as such (except the fort survivor rambling about sea devils).
  • The Doctor remarks that he was a personal friend of Horatio Nelson.
  • This serial's director, Michael Briant, provided the voice of the radio DJ in episode two.
  • Originally, Episode one was to include The Doctor waterskiing, which was to be used as the excuse for The Doctor and Jo being late to The Master's prison. Increasingly inclement weather made the shoot impossible.
  • Along with Mission to the Unknown, Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Sontaran Experiment, Genesis of the Daleks and Midnight, this is one of only six televised stories in the history of Doctor Who not to feature the TARDIS (Inferno and Day of the Daleks feature the central console, but not the TARDIS itself).

Ratings

  • Episode 1 - 6.4 million viewers
  • Episode 2 - 9.7 million viewers
  • Episode 3 - 8.3 million viewers
  • Episode 4 - 7.8 million viewers
  • Episode 5 - 8.3 million viewers
  • Episode 6 - 8.5 million viewers

Myths

  • Roger Delgado was afraid of the water and it took great courage for him to film the scene in which the Master and the Doctor are rescued from the sea by the Navy. (This was frequently recalled by Jon Pertwee in later interviews, but according to Delgado's widow, Kismet, it is untrue. Delgado was actually worried about getting his costume wet, as there was no spare available.) (Delgado's fear of water is also recalled during the DVD commentary of The Sea Devils by Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks.) Delgado also looks very uncomfortable during his scenes in the water.

Filming locations

  • The exterior of the Master's prison was in fact Norris Castle, East Cowes, Isle of Wight. The Sea Fort was an actual sea defence fort built in the 1860s in the river Solent, off the South Hampshire coast, in anticipation of a feared French invasion which never came to pass. Abandoned at the time of the story's filming, it has since become a hotel resort. In July of 2007 the fort came up for sale after the company owning the hotel collapsed and its owner was jailed.
  • Fraser Gunnery Range, HMS St George, Portsmouth
  • Royal Navy ship HMS Reclaim
  • No Man's Land Sea Fort, Solent
  • Whitecliff Bay, Isle of Wight
  • Bembridge Harbour, Isle of Wight
  • Norris Castle, East Cowes, Isle of Wight
  • Red Cliff, Sandown, Isle of Wight
  • Bembridge Sailing Club, Bembridge, Isle of Wight
  • Priory Bay, Isle of Wight
  • BBC Television Centre (Studio 8), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • The clock in the Master's prison moves backwards.
  • An Admiral of one of the ships sent to attack the Sea Devils base wears glasses, this is against Navy Regulations.

Continuity

Timeline

Home video and audio releases

Editing for both VHS and DVD releases completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.

VHS Releases

This was released on video in episodic format

  • Bbcvideo-839-uk-med.jpg

    UK VHS cover

  • Bbcvideo-839-us.jpg

    US VHS cover

  • The Sea Devilsvhs.jpg

    AUS VHS cover

DVD releases

This story was released on DVD as part of the Beneath the Surface collection along with Doctor Who and the Silurians and Warriors of the Deep.

  • Region 2 cover

    Region 2 cover

  • Doctor-who-and-the-sea-devils-20080902051737012-000.jpg

    Region 1 cover

  • Region 4 cover

    Region 4 cover

Beneath the Surface

Beneath the Surface DVD UK cover.jpg|Beneath the Surface Region 2 cover Beneath the Surface DVD US cover.jpg|Beneath the Surface Region 1 cover Beneath the Surface DVD Australian cover.jpg|Beneath the Surface Region 4 cover </gallery>

Audio releases

A CD has been released.

It was also released in Monsters on Earth which also included Doctor Who and the Silurians and Warriors of the Deep.

  • CD Release

    CD Release

  • Monsters on Earth cover

    Monsters on Earth cover

Novelisation and its audiobook

Sea Devils novel.jpg
Main article: Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils

External links

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According to one account, the Master had the appearance of Roger Delgado while on Gallifrey. According to another, he had Anthony Ainley's likeness. According to another one, the one with James Dreyfus's appearance was the incarnation who ran away from Gallifrey.

Divided Loyalties, A Brief History of Time Lords and The Legions of Death feature, or otherwise acknowledge, the War Chief, but in the process contradicted the notion put forward by other stories that he was an incarnation of the Master.

One account suggests that the incarnation portrayed by Roger Delgado may be the same as the one portrayed by Peter Pratt while some others distinguish them.

According to one account, the incarnation portrayed by Gordon Tipple is the one portrayed by Anthony Ainley, while some others state that the Ainley one was already lost by then.

While fighting to extend his life at the end of his regeneration cycle, many bodies were possessed by the Beevers incarnation, but all kept somehow reverting to his real being until he finally regenerated into the MacQueen one. Hence, these sections cannot be strictly chronological

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