The Sea Devils

I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow.

The Sea Devils is a follow up to Doctor Who and the Silurians but with the Master thrown in as an added antagonist. The general opinion amongst fans is that it is good but not quite as good as Silurians. There is also one rather famous scene where the Doctor deprives Jo of a plate of sandwiches and eats them himself. Something comical I guess but it has really fed in to the idea of the Doctor being a bit abusive towards Jo at times. So I'm curious to see how this compares to the rest of Malcolm Hulke's work.

Plot Summary

The Doctor and Jo arrive at the island where the Master is being held prisoner. They meet the commandant, Colonel Trenchard, who shows them to see the Master and also mentions the sinking of several ships recently while making small talk. The Master makes an outward show of being penitent but also refuses to tell the Doctor the location of his TARDIS. He also asks that the Doctor return to see him for more stimulating conversation.

Curious about the sinkings, the Doctor talks to the man who ferried them over. He tells of a lifeboat that was recovered with strange markings and was taken to a naval base nearby. The Doctor bribes the man and takes his boat over the naval base where he finds the lifeboat with scorch marks. The base's guards find the Doctor and take him to see the commander, Captain Hart.

Discovering the Doctor's little adventure, Jo borrows a motorcycle and arrives at the base with their UNIT passes, which satisfy Hart's demand for regulation. Looking on a chart, the Doctor notes that at the center of the attacks is an old naval fort. He learns that a two-man maintenance team has been assigned to upgrade the fort to use as a SONAR station. Hart however, refuses to send a team out as he's had no complaint from the maintenance crew.

The Doctor and Jo head out to the station on their own and explore the fort. They find one member of the crew dead. The other member comes out of the shadows in a state of panic. They get him back to his bed and the Doctor sedates him with supplies from the medical kit. They also find that their boat has been sunk by the gas tank being exploded.

The Doctor thinks to radio for help but finds the radio destroyed. He instead goes to find a transceiver which he can modify to send a distress signal. In the corridors he is attacked by a creature similar to the Silurians. He rushes back to the room and barricades the door. The creature uses a heat ray to burn a hole through the door and tries to unbar the door. The Doctor electrifies the door, giving the creature a nasty shock. It retreats and dives out a window into the sea.

When the Doctor and Jo fail to report in, a notice is sent to Captain Hart. He tries to raise the fort but gets no response. He then dispatches a rescue helicopter to investigate. As the helicopter approaches, it receives a signal from the Doctor, who managed to rewire a transceiver, and takes all three of them back to the naval base.

Back in the prison, Trenchard and the Master leave with the Master disguised as a naval officer. The Master is slightly annoyed with Trenchard for having mentioned the sinking ships to the Doctor but they press on anyway. Trenchard enters Captain Hart's office, interrupting his meeting with the Doctor and Jo to discuss a replacement for the weekend golf match. Meanwhile the Master sneaks into the store room and steals parts for SONAR equipment. He is met by the manager of the store room and when he fails to hypnotize him, the Master knocks him out.

Trenchard finally leaves but when Jo walks over to the window, she sees the Master walking below. She alerts the Doctor and a moment later, Hart is informed of the attack on the equipment room chief.

The Doctor and Jo, suspecting Trenchard's involvement, head back to the prison. Trenchard is caught off-guard and asks the Master what to do. He tells Trenchard to let him see the Doctor. He then knocks out a guard and takes his gun and knife from him.

The Doctor tells Jo to head back and then goes to see the Master himself once Trenchard returns. The Master tries to hold him with the gun but the Doctor knocks it out of his hand. They each grab a sword from a rack nearby and fence. The Doctor disarms the Master but the Master throws the stolen knife at him. Trenchard enters at the last minute, throwing off the Master's aim and he misses. Trenchard believes the Master's accusation that the Doctor attacked him and has the Doctor arrested.

Trenchard orders that Jo be arrested as well but she gets past the guards at the prison entrance and takes cover on the grounds while the guards search for her. She doubles back around to the exterior of the prison as the Doctor is taken in to the Master's room and handcuffed to a chair. The Master admits that he is making contact with the aquatic Eocenes and intends to assist them in retaking Earth and destroying humanity.

Back at the naval base, Captain Hart dispatches one of his submarine commanders to investigate the waters around the island fort. Officer Blythe enters informing him that Colonel Trenchard reported the Doctor and Jo leaving in a cab rather than their supplied transport. He also states that they immediately left for London rather than returning to the base as they had originally intended. Suspicious, Hart heads over to the prison to talk with Trenchard.

Upon learning of Hart's arrival, Trenchard summons the Master to observe from behind the scenes. Jo takes advantage of the situation and, having signaled the Doctor through the window, gets past the guard at the door as the Doctor distracts him. She undoes the handcuffs and the Doctor knocks out the guard, allowing them to flee the prison.

On the submarine, as they approach the island, they begin getting SONAR pings. The system is then overwhelmed and the whole sub begins to lose power, despite no apparent damage to any system. The sub sinks to the bottom and several Sea Devils enter through the escape hatches and attack the crew. One breaks through to the bridge where it forces the crew to drive the sub to a specific point.

Trenchard is able to allay Hart's suspicions and dismisses him. The Master enters with his machine that he tells Trenchard will allow him to communicate with the Sea Devils. Trenchard has been fooled by the Master into thinking they are enemy agents and can be dealt with by normal means. They are alerted to Jo and the Doctor's escape and follow them down to the beach where the Doctor and Jo are caught between armed guards and a minefield. The Master activates his machine and a Sea Devil rises out of the ocean and walks on to the beach.

The Sea Devil attacks the soldiers first, driving them off. The Doctor and Jo dash into the minefield to escape with the Doctor using his sonic screwdriver to detect the mines. The Sea Devil tries to follow them at the urging of the Master but the Doctor detonates several mines behind him with the sonic, driving the creature back into the sea. The Doctor and Jo continue on while the Master and Trenchard retreat to the prison.

Back at the prison, Trenchard is stunned as he thought they would be fighting enemy agents. The Master tries to calm him and tells him that the creatures are intent on taking back the Earth. Trenchard wants to call the authorities but the Master persuades him to wait until he has finished his communication device. He then sets on tweaking it and making it more powerful.

The Doctor and Jo make it back to the naval base on foot where they tell Captain Hart of the creatures. He doesn't believe them at first but he comes around to the Doctor's thinking as the ships sent out to find the missing sub are recalled due to darkness. Hart is then alerted by a SONAR technician that a blip has been picked up nearby. They watch as it approaches the shore and then holds steady.

Summoned by the Master, a group of Sea Devils wades ashore and breaks in to the prison. The guards are quickly overpowered as they approach the Master's cell. Trenchard, who had been trying to get a hold of government ministers, seizes his gun and stands against the Master's door, fighting off the Sea Devils. They kill eventually kill him and take the Master back with them.

As the blip departs from the shore, Hart calls in more naval personnel to fight with the creatures. The Doctor decides to examine the sea floor around the island fort and the party travels to one of the vessels to use it's diving bell. The Doctor heads inside and is lowered to the bottom. On the bottom, he spies something coming up against the glass but communications are cut off. Hart orders the bell drawn up but when opened, they find it empty.

The Doctor has been taken prisoner by the Sea Devils and is taken back to their base. He appeals to them to discuss a peaceful solution with the humans, allowing the humans the land while the Sea Devils live in the ocean. He also suggests that they release the sub as a measure of good faith. The Master objects to this but the senior Sea Devil overrules him and tells the Doctor that he will think about it.

Back at the naval base, Undersecretary Walker arrives and orders ships into position to fire on the Sea Devil's base. Jo and Captain Hart object, thinking it will endanger the Doctor and the sub crew, but Walker overrules them and orders the ships to fire.

The attack causes superficial damage to the base but the chief Sea Devil becomes angry and refuses the Doctor's offer. He orders him taken to another room and executed. However another blast causes a minor cave in, allowing the Doctor escape his would-be executioners. He take a gun and uses it to free the sub commander and his lieutenant. They make their way back to the sub, kill the guard and launch the sub from it's pen as the rest of the crew had been kept on board.

The Master suggests floating the bodies of any dead Sea Devils to the surface to lull the humans into thinking they've won. They also activate a force field around the sub to keep it from escaping. But the sub fires a torpedo into the side wall, damaging the field enough to allow them to escape. With the humans having escaped, the chief Sea Devil orders the Master to continue to repair the hibernation unit that will allow him to reanimate the rest of his people. The Master agrees but states that he needs equipment from the naval base and suggests an attack.

Arriving back at the base, the Doctor first berates Wilson for ruining his negotiation and then appeals to him to allow him to fix the mistake. Wilson is nonplussed but agrees to allow the Doctor to talk to the Sea Devils once more. As they leave the building, they discover the base under attack by a squad of Sea Devils. One prepares to attack the Doctor and Jo, but the Doctor disarms it. However, another grabs him from behind and knocks him out. The Master arrives and prevents the Sea Devils from killing them and instead take the Doctor, Jo, and Hart back inside as prisoners. They are soon in control of the whole base.

The Master takes the Doctor into the store room and has him help him build a machine that will provide power and awaken every hibernating Sea Devil around the ocean. As the Doctor works, he makes modifications to the Master's design, both improving it and letting the Doctor booby trap it.

In the control quarters Jo, Hart and Wilson are locked in but Hart is able to loosen the grate to the ventilation shaft. He helps Jo through and she climbs up to the roof of the building. She then climbs down and signals the Doctor through the window. He tells her that he is going to create a distraction and she must use it to get the others out. She then slips back to just outside the building where Hart and Wilson are held to wait.

Upon completing the machine, the Doctor activates it and a high pitched squeal emits from it, sending the Sea Devils into fits. Jo rushes in and frees Hart and Wilson, although Wilson takes one look at the flailing Sea Devil and seals himself back in the room. Hart grabs a machine gun and he and Jo run down to the beach where they grab a hovercraft and launch away from the base. The Master, seeing one of the Sea Devil's writhe about, turns off the machine and demands to know what happened. The Doctor states that he must have switched the input and output by accident. They run a couple of final checks and then prepare to leave.

Hart and Jo return in the hovercraft with several squads of heavily armed seamen. They overrun the Sea Devils patrolling the coast and free the rest of the captive soldiers. The steadily wipe out the Sea Devils, who are preparing to retreat into the sea. The Master grabs the device, stows it on a jet ski and takes off for the island. The Doctor, having verified that Jo was okay, takes off after him on another jet ski. The humans have secured the base but the Doctor is captured upon arriving at the sea fort as a group of Sea Devils are waiting for them as he and the Master arrive.

The Doctor and the Master take the machine below and hook it up to the main power supply. The Doctor appeals to the chief Sea Devil once more to consider peace through negotiation but the chief says no. The Doctor then quietly shifts a lever just before the Master activates it. With the machine active and slowly powering up, the chief Sea Devil orders them to be taken away and locked up. The Master protests but his usefulness is over.

In the prison, the Doctor informs the Master that he sabotaged the machine and that when fully powered or if the Sea Devils try to deactivate it, it will explode, destroying the entire base. With a race against time, the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to open the prison door and he and the Master grab two underwater suits left by the submarine crew when they were imprisoned. They leave through a hatch and float to the surface.

Wilson calls the ministry to get authorization to detonate a nuclear warhead at the base to destroy the Sea Devil's base. While he is on the phone, Hart, at Jo's request, sends out the hovercraft to sweep the area in case the Doctor escaped. The hovercraft spies the Doctor and the Master and picks them up, though shortly after they board, the Master collapses with chest pains.

As the hovercraft approaches the shore, the device reaches full power and detonates, sending a massive explosion though the water. The hovercraft lands and an ambulance approaches, having been radioed for for the Master. The Doctor disembarks and tells Hart and Jo what happened. The medical team also leave with a patient but the Doctor discovers that it is the pilot of the hovercraft in a mask. He turns around to see the Master getting away in the hovercraft.

Analysis

I think I would be a bit hard pressed to say if I liked this one or The Silurians better. The Silurians had several great scenes but did have periods of dullness while The Sea Devils didn't have any great scenes but was more consistently good across the board. At the very least, the show certainly got a nice effort out of the British Navy in this story.

One of the best things about this story was that it had a natural flow to it. It's more just bad luck that the Doctor learned about the sinking of the ships and got involved. But once he is, there is a nice escalation and it's easy to see how you get from point A to B to C. That has the added advantage of making the story seem a bit more natural to be six parts, although I think a bit of tightening wouldn't have diminished anything in this story.

One the great ironys of this story is that it has one of the most remembered scenes of the Doctor being an ass to Jo and yet he is generally respectful towards her through the rest of the story. In fact, the Third Doctor as written by Malcolm Hulke almost always had a good relationship with Jo and it was other writers that made him more of a jerk towards her. But it's still this scene (clearly meant as a joke) that is plucked for the Doctor's attitude towards her.

Jo actually rescues the Doctor twice in this story which would seem to make her a bit more resourceful than him. Jo is actually very likable in this story and at near top form as a companion. I think the only real fault she has is that she runs out of things to do once the battle is fully joined in Episode Six and just mostly stands around insisting that others do things for her. You also have to give Jo mad props for crawling through a ventilation duct in a white pantsuit and emerging with it perfectly clean. That's a near superpower there.

The Doctor is pretty good in this and while he does continue over with his negotiation first strategy as seen in The Silurians, he also gives way to pragmatism and open blows the Sea Devils up at the end. There is no fretting about sealing them off or working with them later. They rejected him twice and he finishes the matter. Which probably means that the Brigadier has had a bit more of an effect on the Doctor than vice versa.

Of course, the Doctor is still a pompous blowhard at points. Probably the most gratuitous moment was the sword fight at the end of Episode Two. First, what prison keeps swords by the prisoner's cell? Then, he is disdainful of the Master throughout the fight but is so clearly enjoying it that he returns the Master's blade once he has disarmed him just so they can keep fighting. You can almost see the justification of how the Master's greatest fear is the Doctor laughing at him as seen in The Mind of Evil. I actually wish the Master had hit the Doctor when he threw the knife at him just to knock some of the wind out of the Doctor's sails and treat the Master with a bit more seriousness. I also find it ironic that the Doctor chides the Master by telling him that violence never solves anything but the entirety of Episode Six is demonstrating how violence was the only way to end the threat of the Sea Devils.

This story has only furthered my believe that the best writer for the Master was Malcolm Hulke. The Master's plans are not overly complicated, nor are they deeply involved. He wants revenge on the Doctor and has decided to take advantage of the Sea Devil awakening to get it by destroying humanity. It's petty but understandable. But he also carries out fairly well. It is slips by others that mostly ruin him, although, ironically, it is his trust in both the Doctor and the Sea Devils that fully finish him.

But it's his repartee with the Doctor that is the most enjoyable. It's clear that the Master enjoys witty banter and only the Doctor is his intellectual equal, although other stories indicate that he does enjoy Jo to a lesser degree. But the back and forth between the Doctor and the Master is quite stimulating and you only wish there could be more scenes with them just interacting.

Most of the side characters are pretty good too. Trenchard is actually somewhat sympathetic, although why he fell for the Master's deception is unexplained. But his weakness is patriotism which is strangely noble. He also at least dies with honor attempting to undo the wrong he has done. Hart is also quite good. He plays the Brigadier role in being somewhat skeptical, but unlike other stories where his unbelief would be allowed to linger and compromise the situation, he is refuted within a few moments, often to something of a comedic effect. By the time things roll around to Episode Five, Hart doesn't even bother to object, he just goes along with it because what's the point. He's been proven wrong too often as it is.

The most annoying character is Walker and you can't help but get the feeling that Hulke inserted him in as a means of getting at least some political satire in. Walker is a coward, rude and an outright pig. The director goes one better by emphasizing this by zooming in on Walker's mouth as he stuffs his face while opining that lives must be sacrificed in war. The most annoying part is that for a character so odious, nothing actually happens to him. He hides during the Sea Devil invasion and tries to conduct a nuclear strike on the Sea Devil's base later. Presumably this is called off after it's destroyed by the Doctor, but he's likely to head back to London and be rewarded in some fashion for handling the crisis. Even his exposure as a coward doesn't net much other than a small chuckle and it's nothing that's going to hurt him long term. I just wish that he could have been punished in some fashion at the end of the story.

The direction was quite good as were all the action scenes, although there were some gratuitous points. I noted the sword fight already but there were a few other scenes that didn't make much sense. Why does the Master permit the sonic blast to go on so long when it's obvious the Sea Devil is in pain? He should have stopped it immediately rather than the thirty seconds it's allowed to go. How did Hart and Jo return with so many soldiers so quickly? Were they on the auxiliary base just down the beach? How did the Master have a mask of his face on hand to make his escape? These are just little plot points that just stick way out there and bring you out of the story.

I must also say that I did not like the music in this story. I don't mind a bit of Avant Garde here and there (see 2001) but the music in this story was particularly jarring and off-putting. Music should enhance the story and be more or less unnoticed. This music however is screaming to be noticed at the expense of whatever is going on screen. It was just an unfortunate choice and application.

I'm still a little unsure of how to properly stack it against The Silurians. As mentioned earlier, there are no real slow or bad moments. It hums along nicely as a fun action/adventure. But I was always hoping for a real ratchet up moment like Episode Six of The Silurians. That was just excellent and the lack of anything like that made this story feel a little disappointing, even though it was more consistently good. In the end, I think it's going to depend on your mood. A good action story would favor Sea Devils while a bit more of a think piece would favor Doctor Who and the Silurians. But both are good and readily watchable.

Overall personal score: 4 out of 5