Fury From the Deep

I was fond of her too you know Jamie

A grand bit of thanks must be given to the Australian censors regarding Fury From the Deep. For whatever reason, the censors in that country cut a number of action bits involving the seaweed attacks, giving a surprising amount of recovered material for six episodes of recons. What's more, they added a nice spice to a story that would have worked fairly well as a radio play, given the amount of interactive dialogue.

Plot Summary

The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria land off the coast of England in the North Sea. They paddle to the shore and play for a moment in a large amount of foam on the shore. Jamie notices the foam appearing to come from a pipe nearby. The Doctor investigates, noticing a rather odd noise coming from the pipe. After investigating, the three are gunned down by a stun beam.

The three wake in the control room of a gas pumping station. The commander of the station, Robson, believes they were trying to sabotage the pipe, which has seen a drop in efficiency. They have also lost contact with an offshore crew, putting Robson in an even fouler mood. The three are taken to a spare room and locked in. However, they managed to escape when Victoria picks the lock.

The chief scientist, Harris, is concerned with what the Doctor told him about the noise coming from the pipe. He asks his wife Maggie, who is living on station, to recover a file for him from his office. She does so but is accidentally stung by a bit of seaweed in the file.

The Doctor and his companions overhear Robson speaking to a serviceman about a noise in the pipes. The Doctor and Jamie go to investigate but they tell Victoria to head back to the bunkroom. Victoria leaves but goes in another direction. Seeing someone in the corridor, Victoria ducks into a room and sees a man in a gas mask sabotaging the equipment. The man ducks past her and locks her in. He then opens the flow valve, causing foam to begin to seep in through the duct.

In the impeller room, the Doctor and Jamie listen to sounds in the pipe similar to what they heard earlier. They then hear Victoria screaming and rush off to free her. Her screaming also attracts Robson and others. Upon being released, Victoria tells them that she saw a creature draped in seaweed in the foam but that it swam away when the door was opened.

Jamie and Victoria are sent to the control room to be watched while the Doctor stays with Robson. Harris however comes in and asks for the Doctor as his wife has become ill and foam has appeared around the seaweed that stung her. Robson reluctantly agrees and the Doctor heads off with Harris.

In the apartment, Maggie has recovered slightly and lets in two odd maintenance workers named Mr. Oak and Mr. Quill. The two workers feed the seaweed and the foam begins to expand. The two men then release gas from their mouths, knocking Maggie unconscious. Fortunately, the Doctor, his companions and Harris arrive in time to ventilate the room before the gas kills her. Mr. Oak and Mr. Quill have already left.

Back in the control room, a spike in pipe pressure is observed and Robson orders the pipe vented while still refusing to stop the flow of gas. The pressure drops back to normal but the rate of inflow continues to decrease. Robson argues with the Dutch observer Mr. Van Lutyens but they are cut off when the impeller stops and a beating sounds is heard.

Back in the apartment, the Doctor, Jamie, Victoria and Harris observe watch over Maggie. They find the piece of seaweed from before although the foam has gone away leaving it still wet. The Doctor and Harris determine that the seaweed had been planted in the file when it was stolen from his briefcase. The seaweed trap was meant for Harris. Jamie also recalls that seaweed was covering the pipe they investigated at the start.

Van Lutyen and the chief engineer speculate on the source of the blockage and Van Lutyen wants to send a team to check. Robson still refuses to check when they hear a noise like a heartbeat coming from the pipes again. The impeller briefly starts again but once again fails.

The Doctor bags the seaweed carefully without touching it. He sends Harris off to get medical help for his wife. The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria then head back to the TARDIS to do experiments in his lab. In the TARDIS, they discover the seaweed is alive. It is feeding off natural gas and expelling toxic gas. It also displays a level of sentience as it attempts to get out of the tank the Doctor has placed it in and retreats when Victoria screams in recognition of it. The Doctor and Jamie seal it in it's tank and head back to the base to tell the staff.

Harris sends for a medical team but Van Lutyens forces him to stay in the control room to take charge. They and the chief engineer try to convince Robson to allow them to check the pipes for blockage but Robson again refuses, growing increasingly hostile to the threat of his authority. He storms off to his quarters to rest.

Outside his quarters, Mr. Oak locks Robson in and engages the gas. Foam seeps in and a creature like Victoria saw tries to worm it's way in through the vent. Robson flees in terror as Harris responds to his screams and sees the creature retreating back into the vents.

The Doctor and his companions return to the Harris quarters to find it filled with foam. A creature reaches out through the foam and they retreat. The Doctor and Victoria flee to another room but Jamie is trapped in the kitchen. The Doctor and Victoria climb outside and open a skylight to pull Jamie out and away from the foam.

They return to the control room where Harris and Van Lutyens have taken over with Robson's disappearance. They informed their various governments of the situation and are anticipating inspectors to arrive. The Doctor informs them that the seaweed is sentient and attacking. The also learn that Maggie hadn't been taken by the medical staff meaning that she has disappeared as well. Maggie later appears giving instructions to Robson. She then walks into and disappears under the sea.

The control staff continues to try and reach the crews on the off-shore rigs but with no success. Harris meanwhile discovers Robson on the beach but he walks away in a dazed state. Victoria also is growing increasingly panicked over the situation and travels with the Doctor in general.

Van Lutyens decides to head down and inspect the base of the impeller against the warnings of the Doctor. At the base, the seaweed reaches out of the foam and pulls him in. Hearing his screams, the Doctor and Jamie head down after him. Harris returns and is informed of what they have done. The Doctor and Jamie find Van Lutyens' flashlight and keep exploring.

The director, Megan Jones arrives and Harris and the chief engineer go to explain the situation to her leaving control of the elevator to Mr. Oak and Mr. Quill. Ms. Jones doesn't believe Harris about the situation and orders him to send the company helicopter to the off-sea rigs to check on the men there. She is also informed of Robson's disappearance.

At the base of the shaft, the foam bubbles up and the Doctor and Jamie desperately call for the elevator but it doesn't come as Quill and Oak ignore the signal and leave the room. Hurriedly, the Doctor and Jamie climb the emergency ladder and find the impeller room empty with even Victoria gone.

The helicopter radios back that all the lost contact rigs are covered in seaweed and foam with no signs of the crews. Harris urges Ms. Jones to evacuate and destroy the rigs. Robson then bursts in, refusing to let them destroy what is his. He runs out again and the Doctor comes in, informing them that Robson is being controlled by the seaweed. He then fills in Ms. Jones with all the information he has. As he does, the control rig radios in as it is taken over by the seaweed.

Jamie searches the station for Victoria. He finds her knocked out in the pump room. As she wakes, she tells Jamie that Quill and Oak knocked her out. They then hear the weed and see it coming through the pipes. They call the Doctor who realizes that the weed is making it's move to form a full independent colony. It continues to spread, taking over all the offshore rigs.

Working through how the attacks have happened, the Doctor comes to the conclusion that pure oxygen might be fatal to the weed. This alerts Oak and Quill, who head down to the oxygen supply room to destroy the supply.

Word also is sent that Robson has been found and put into his quarters under guard. Ms. Jones heads down to speak with him, hoping to break through his control. Robson has a brief moment of lucidity but then goes catatonic. Ms. Jones leaves him and returns to the control room. Robson wakes and receives instructions from the weed. He knocks out the guard and leaves him room.

Discovering the oxygen supply destroyed, the crew realizes that there is another agent of the weed in the facility. Quill and Oak leave but are spotted by Jamie and Victoria. Oak escapes but Jamie knocks Quill down as Victoria screams.

Before they can investigate further, the weed expands and blows out the containment pipe. In the confusion, Robson grabs Victoria and drags her away. He also locks the impeller room doors but the Doctor manages to force one door open for a short time allowing himself and Jamie to escape. They run looking for Victoria.

Robson takes Victoria away in a waiting car. He drives her out to the company helicopter and places her inside. He then takes off and flies out to the control rig. The Doctor tries to talk to him but Robson sends back that Victoria will be killed unless the Doctor comes out as well. The Doctor agrees thinking that this will lead him to the nerve center of the weed.

The Doctor and Jamie follow Robson in another company helicopter. Tracking Robson on radar, the Doctor's helicopter heads to the control rig complex. They spy one tower covered in foam and realize that it is the nerve center of the weed. He and Jamie leave the helicopter via rope ladder and enter the foam covered tower.

The Doctor and Jamie hear Victoria but suspect a trap. They enter a room filled with foam to find Robson taken over and waiting for them. Robson attacks the Doctor and Jamie finds Victoria. Seeing Robson attack, she screams which drives back Robson. Recalling Victoria's scream causing the weed to recoil in the TARDIS. He tells Victoria to keep screaming. Robson retreats into the foam away from the Doctor and his companions.

The three return to the roof but their helicopter doesn't see them. They instead head to the helicopter that Robson took and take off from the rig with the Doctor flying. Their original helicopter sees them and walks the Doctor through the procedure on how to fly back to the base.

The Doctor returns with a plan. Upon arriving, the Doctor checks in on Quill and finds him nearly cured due to Victoria's screaming. He informs Harris and Ms. Jones of this and makes a plan. He has Victoria scream into a tape recorder and they create a loop of this sound. He then sets up speakers along the various pipes to transmit the sound. The foam and weed push through trying to take over the base.

The Doctor sets up a machine that will focus the sound into a beam for transmission through the base and the pipes back to the nerve center on the rig. The crew uses sound speakers to hold back the weed while the Doctor activates his machine. The beam passes through the pipes and the weed flops around and falls over dead.

They radio the rigs and find the weed dead and the crews (including Robson and Maggie) alive and safe. As they celebrate, the Doctor concludes that Victoria wants to stay behind as she has become overwrought with travelling from danger to danger. He arranges that she can stay with Mr. and Mrs. Harris. Victoria has a quiet goodbye with Jamie that night. She waves the Doctor off from the beach the following morning as he and Jamie head back to the TARDIS.

Analysis

I was a bit surprised at how much I enjoyed this story. When you see a six-episode story and it's all recon, you tend to roll your eyes and figure that you'll have to power through. But the story was fairly well developed and had a pretty good progressive flow. I don't even recall too many moments where there was clear back and forth padding, which there often is in a six-parter.

Having now seen all of Victoria's stories, I can't say that I was unhappy to see the back of her. She worked fairly well for the roll she was asked to play, but she was often written as a shriek-y, timid, damsel-in-distress. Granted, if you took a 17-year old girl from Victorian London and plopped her in the situations seen, that would be a pretty realistic development. But it doesn't make for the most enjoyable experience with a companion. She wasn't too bad in this one as she was certainly less hysterical than in The Ice Warriors and her screaming actually served a plot purpose. But it was still quite a contrast to the wit and smarm that will come with Zoe.

I don't mind that they broadcast heavily that she was leaving as it was far different than the short shrift most companions (Ben and Polly being the most recent examples) got in leaving the show. It was a little drawn out with several repeats of it. The scene Jamie had with Victoria early in Episode Four was probably all the foreshadowing that was really needed rather than the constant whimpering that she did. But, I really did like the quiet scene she had with Jamie at the end of Episode Six. It gave a nice poinency to her time and Jamie's feelings towards her, which seem tinged with a slight romance as opposed to the very brother/sister dynamic he has with Zoe.

The Doctor was quite good in this story as he took a very understated role. I got the impression that he cottoned on to the seaweed as the source of the problem very early but didn't reveal his cards until he had more evidence and it was necessary to show the full problem. Even after the problem had been diagnosed, the Doctor remained understated until the very end when the actual fight came. I like the Doctor, especially the Second Doctor, when he is more observational and only steps in to solve the problem when people are ready to listen.

The secondary cast was all pretty good to. You had a nice good cop/bad cop dynamic with Harris and Robson and some good support work from the Chief Engineer and Van Lutyens. Even the later arriving Ms. Jones was quite good. It was nice to see a professional woman who both listened to the Doctor and also stood her ground.

Going further along this, it was interesting to see how Harris and Jones each replaced the other as the voice of reason with listening to the Doctor. Harris stood up for the Doctor against Robson. However, once Robson's blustering antagonism was gone, Harris wilted into someone a bit more fearful and concerned for the crew. That's not a bad thing but his fear nearly overwhelmed him in Episode Six. Jones however steps in and becomes the rational voice, still adhering to the Doctor. Although Harris had been the Doctor's ally in the beginning, it is Jones who backs the Doctor in the final battle against the weed while Harris is all for retreat in the face of danger. It is a nice change in the dynamic and it adds an extra depth to Robson's character as well since it was his bluster that gave Harris what little spine he had.

The one principle thing I would have liked clarification on was just exactly when Robson had been taken over. After known possession, Robson becomes quite docile, even catatonic at points, suggesting that there is a part of him that is fighting the weed's control. This suggests that he is not under the weed's control until the end of Episode Three. I can only guess that he was actually stung by the weed when it burst into his room and before he was able to break the door open and flee.

This actually disappoints me a bit. A very big deal was made of how Robson worked and lived for four years out on the offshore rigs. I think it would have been a bit more interesting if he had become infected by the weed while working out there and slowly building up the weed as he gained power over the whole system. A bit of a mole used to grow the enemy, which would have explained his irrational action of refusing to shut down the flow of gas, being used to both feed and hide the weed.

Instead, the implication we get is that Oak and Quill were the first ones infected and they were assisting the weed the whole time. It still works from an overall plot, but Robson being the focal point of the weed's control would have been a touch more interesting given his screen time and presence. You can almost imagine that an infected Robson comes back and dispatches Quill and Oak to his old station to infect them while he works to feed the weed. Once they are back, he works though them to ensure the growth of the weed, to destroy any weaknesses and to infect others. Again, it still works with Oak and Quill as the quiet drones, but it's a little less satisfying given their limited screen time in the beginning.

One other little thing that is a bit odd is the casual dismissal of Mrs. Harris. She's a rather important point through the first half of this story as she is infected rather than her husband. Quill and Oak attempt to kill her and when that fails, the weed fully takes over. But at the end of Episode Three, she is unceremoniously dropped by swimming into the sea. It is even odder in the fact that she seems to be further engrained into the hive mind than Robson, giving him instructions before she swims off. Granted there was little to be done with her character at that point, especially with the more commanding Ms. Jones entering, but it still seemed like a very odd dismissal of a character who then randomly shows up at the end to give the happy ending.

As mentioned above, this story is not overly hurt by only being available as a recon as much of the story is driven though interactive dialogue like a radio play. However, the limited footage that does exist due to the Australian censors and enthusiastic fans is very helpful. It is especially nice in that portions of the battle with the weed in Episode Six can be seen. In addition to this being the action portion of the story, making it nice to see, it shows that the work they did with the special effects regarding the weed worked fairly well. The foam can look a bit silly, especially when they land on the platform at the beginning of Episode Six but the end confrontation with the weed lashing out like the squid in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea looked pretty good.

Another thing that would have been good to see was the full effect of the slow build. Like Jaws, the seaweed benefits from being more implied rather than seen. A small glimpse through the ductwork in Episodes One and Three work fairly well and the use of the foam to hide the weed until it lashes out like a snake makes it all the more scary. In many ways, this story borrows heavily from suspense/horror work for a nice slow building tension. The recon does a decent job of portraying that, but it would have been nice to see the full effect given that facial reaction/body language sells a good portion of that. Still, it is a format that does not suffer as greatly from being consigned to recon status.

On the whole, I'd recommend this story. It's not bad as a recon and I think it would only improve if it were ever found. It was a nice goodbye for Victoria and gave her character some dignity that it was occasionally lacking during her tenure. Being able to savor her goodbye with the quiet scene between her and Jamie in the garden was also very nice and added a nice cap to the story. Even as a recon I think I would pull this out again and watch it. Obviously I would all for seeing it again if it were ever found.

Overall personal score: 4 out of 5