Warriors of the Deep was a novelisation based on the 1984 television serial of the same name.
Publisher's summary
1984 edition
When the TARDIS materialises on Earth in the year 2084, the Doctor meets an old enemy – the Sea Devils. Once the masters of this planet, they are now forced to live in the murky depths of the sea. But their intention is to reclaim their position of domination...
This will entail the infiltration of Earth's defence systems and the provocation of another World War, more terrible than any yet experienced, to bring about the complete annihilation of the human race.
Not only is the first stage of the Sea Devil's attack successful, their associates in this dastardly plan are the sinister Silurians, also known to the Doctor of old.
Chapter titles
- The Intruder
- The Traitors
- Hunted
- The Sea Devils Awake
- The Attack
- The Myrka
- The Breakthrough
- Sabotage
- The Hostage
- Captured
- Counterattack
- Sacrifice
Deviations from televised story
- The world of 2084 is explored in greater detail. Terrance Dicks makes no implication regarding the two sides in the human conflict, clearly referring to them as East Bloc and West Bloc. The West Bloc's use of the human brain in their synch-op systems provided a tactical edge that the East lacked. It also proved to be their weakest link due to the strict requirements of the position. The Sea Bases were constructed to offset the new vulnerabilities of space-based warfare in the latter half of the 21st century.
- Icthar is identified multiple times, by the Doctor and the author, as the unnamed Silurian scientist previously encountered by the Third Doctor in the televised Doctor Who and the Silurians. Poised between the Old Silurian initially leading the shelter and the Young Silurian who usurped him.
- While the televised version implies the Sea Devils are hibernating in a bunker beneath the ocean floor, the novelisation describes them as sleeping in the lower depths of the Silurian craft itself. Their length of inactivity is stretched from hundreds of years to thousands.
- Terrance Dicks paints Doctor Solow in a sympathetic light, persuaded by Nilson that the East Bloc had the solution to banish suffering and injustice from the world. She was grieving the failure of her career, and deaths of her parents and husband when Nilson recruited her. Conversely, Nilson is described as "a complete fanatic", if anything more ruthless than the people he serves.
- The Myrka is described as a kind of "sea dragon", specially bred and adapted by the Silurians with cybernetic technology. It electrocutes its victims as with the televised story, but attacks with a lash-like tail that can send people hurtling across the room with its kinetic power alone. To the Doctor's knowledge, the creature is "almost invincible".
- The novelisation clarifies that Tegan's foot is undamaged while trapped under the toppled airlock door "by a kind of freak accident".
- When Nilson takes Tegan hostage, the Doctor follows them to the ultraviolet converter carrying the dead Karina's blaster for protection. He's forced to discard it when Nilson calls his bluff and threatens Tegan with his own weapon.
- Icthar's belief to having twice offered the hand of friendship (possibly explained in the Virgin Missing Adventures novel The Scales of Injustice) is rewritten as the Doctor having twice tried in vain to make peace.
- Terrance Dicks retains an attempted rescue of the Doctor by Turlough and Preston, cut from the televised version to emphasise Turlough's cowardice and selfishness.
- The confrontation in the chemical stores between the Doctor's party and Sauvix plays out a bit differently compared to the televised version. Rather than Bulic attacking Sauvix with the Hexachromite gas in retribution, Preston shoots one of the cylinders with her blaster-rifle as she dies.
- While the novelisation ends on a similarly bitter note, the Doctor recognises that there will be other survivors hiding throughout Sea Base 4. Bulic will have to assume command of the base while the TARDIS is repaired and explain to their rescuers what transpired.
Notes
- This was the first book to use the white outline version of the Target Books logo, which would be used for the remainder of the range's run. The previous colour logo appeared on one book published later before being retired.
Additional cover images
1992 edition; Cover by Alister Pearson
British publication history
First publication:
- Hardback
- W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. UK
- Paperback
- Target
Audiobook
In June 1995, BBC Audio released an abridged audio book version of the novel, read by Peter Davison. It was later reissued on Tales from the TARDIS: Volume Two.