Warriors of the Deep

There should have been another way.

Warriors of the Deep is one of the stories that actually does create something of a deep divide in fandom. The majority of fandom derides it for shoddy special effects and bad lighting. In fact, the flood lighting in this story is supposedly one of the worst in all of the classic series and there were a number of stories, especially in the Fifth Doctor era, that were overlit. However, defenders of the story will cite good writing and performances which should override the effects. I expect to come down somewhere in the middle as I generally favor good writing and acting but when looking at a story as a whole, you can't just ignore the effects of what is put on the screen. We'll see if it's as bad as it's reputation would imply.

Plot Summary

In the year 2084, a cold war has developed between two major powers. One power has manned an underwater sea base and is in the process of going through a series of drills for combat readiness. They are unaware that at the same time a group of Silurians has woken up and is in the process of reviving a hive of Sea Devils in preparation to attack the base. They deploy their own defense in the form of an underwater creature called a Myrka, which destroys one of the sea base's probes.

On the sea base, the base communications officer, Maddox, is having trouble as he is only a student trainee who was forced to take over when his mentor was killed in an electrical accident. The base goes through a missile drill where Maddox is forced to sync with the computer and would be responsible for launching nuclear missiles. After it's revealed to be a drill, Maddox collapses and is taken to sick bay. In sick bay, Maddox is programmed using a data disk with subliminal suggestions by the base doctor, Solow, and the base second-in-command, Nilson, who are actually agents for the opposing side.

At the request of Tegan, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to Earth in her future. They materialize in orbit around Earth where a fault develops. They are spotted by a defense satellite and shot down. The Doctor is able to dematerialize the TARDIS before they crash and rematerializes within the sea base. They wander around to investigate where Turlough accidentally sets off the security alarms. They try to get back to the TARDIS but find their path blocked by patrols. The Doctor cuts into the nuclear reactor room and creates a fault in the system, hoping that it will drive the technicians towards it. However, they are interrupted by a patrol.

Tegan and Turlough run while the Doctor fights with the guards to give them time. He disarms one but the second knocks him over the side and into the water. Turlough and Tegan run into the corridor where Turlough booby traps the door to by them time. They run into another group of guards and get separated when Turlough is captured. The Doctor meanwhile swims out an access hatch and slips on the uniform of a guard who was knocked out by Turlough's trap.

The Doctor locates Tegan and they head to the bridge to find Turlough, who is being interrogated by Commander Vorshak. The Doctor turns over his weapon to demonstrate trust and shortly after, Security Chief Preston reports on finding the TARDIS and verifying Turlough's story. Preston finds Tegan hiding outside the bridge and brings her in as well.

While they debate on what to do with the Doctor, the base receives a warning signal. The Silurian leader, Icthar, and the Sea Devil captain, Sauvix, have launched their cruiser and are approaching the base. Vorshak orders an attack on the ship against the Doctor's orders but the Silurians use the energy of the weapon to destroy the base's outer defenses. They then send the Myrka to attack one entrance while Sauvix leads his soldiers through another entrance.

Vorshak, most of the guards and the Doctor's team head down to try and stop the Myrka's entrance. Upon learning of the Sea Devil's attack, Vorshak takes a group of guards to oppose them, leaving Lt. Bulic in charge. The Myrka breaks through, electrocuting several guards and resistant to the human weapons. Bulic retreats but Tegan is trapped under a part of the metal door. The Doctor manages to free her when the Myrka steps on another part of the debris but Bulic has already locked the door, trapping them in.

While the battle rages, Nilson and Dr. Solow take advantage of the chaos by activating Maddox's programing and having him start to sabotage both the missile launch system and the communications system. They also have him kill operator Karina when she tries to stop them. Into this comes Turlough who, having learned of the Doctor being trapped, ran to the bridge with a gun. He forces Nilson to open the door allowing the Doctor to escape. This also allows the Myrka to enter the base and Turlough runs off to help the Doctor, but he apprehended by Vorshak and sent back to fight off the Sea Devils.

The Doctor and Tegan reconnect with Vorshak and he sends them off with Preston as the Doctor has a plan to stop the Myrka. She gives them a large light projector which the Doctor reconfigures into the UV range. Knowing the Myrka is to head this way to attack the bridge, he sets in wait.

Dr. Solow, learning that Maddox has nearly finished the sabotage, takes the code disk and promises to meet Nilson in the escape pod, which she will get ready for them. She passes Preston, the Doctor and Tegan but runs into a group of guards retreating from the Myrka. She tries to fight the Myrka as it attacks her but is killed, dropping the disk. It is found by the soldiers who check her body after the Myrka passes.

Entering the same corridor as the Doctor, the Doctor fires the UV weapon, killing the Myrka. Icthar is alerted to the Myrka's death and tells Sauvix to divide his forces with one group continuing on their current attack and the other to circle around and take the bridge. He does so with most of his troops overrunning the station guards. Turlough and Bulic are forced to surrender and are locked in the crew quarters.

The guards take the code disk to Vorshak who is on his way to the bridge to signal the mainland for help. He confronts Nilson about it but though Nilson denies it, his control of Maddox and the sabotage are soon exposed. Maddox breaks his conditioning enough to try and attack Nilson, but Nilson kills him. Nilson takes Tegan hostage and retreats towards the escape pod. The Doctor follows him and activates the UV gun as Nilson passes it.

Nilson is blinded by the gun and stumbles down the corridor where he is killed by an advancing squad of Sea Devils. The same squad corners the Doctor and Tegan and take them to the bridge. The Doctor identifies himself to Icthar and Icthar permits him to stay, acknowledging his attempts at peace the last time. Tegan and Preston however are taken to be kept prisoner with Turlough and Bulic.

Icthar intends to launch the missiles of the sea base into the atmosphere where both sides will think the other has initiated a war and destroy each other, allowing the Silurians to take the planet back. They set about repairing the sabotage to the computer and keep Vorshak on the bridge to provide handprint authorization. The Doctor encourages him to not resist while the Doctor tries to dissuade Icthar from these plans.

In the quarters, Turlough manages to pull of the grate to the ventilation shaft and the four of them crawl out and into the hallway. Tegan and Bulic sneak to the bridge and signal the Doctor though a door. While the others are distracted, the Doctor slips out and they head towards the chemical storage room. They meet Preston and Turlough just outside, the latter two having secured weapons while trying to make their way back to the TARDIS. All five then enter the chemical storage area where the Doctor looks for something that will knock the Silurians out.

The Sea Devil guards discover that the prisoners have escaped. Icthar also notices that the Doctor has left the room. He orders Sauvix to kill the prisoners, including the Doctor on sight. One guard discovers the group in the chemical storage room and when he shoots at the Doctor he accidentally hits a bottle of compressed hexachromite. The gas sprays him in the face and he dies of chemical poisoning. The others suggest using the gas but the Doctor resists, not wanting to kill. Sauvix interrupts and prepares to kill the Doctor. Preston shoots at him and he turns around and kills her. As he does so, Bulic sprays him in the face with the gas and he falls dead.

While this is going on, the Silurians activate the missiles and they prepare for launch. With no time left, the Doctor has Bulic spray the hexachromite gas into the ventilators while he, Tegan and Turlough try to stop the missiles from launching. The gas seeps through the station and kills the guards on patrol. The trio bursts in to the bridge and order Icthar to stop or he and all his people will die. Icthar doesn't care and continues with the countdown even as he and his people are being felled by the gas.

The Doctor orders Tegan and Turlough to try and help them with a cylinder of oxygen and orders Bulic to stop pumping the gas into the system. Vorshak meanwhile tells the Doctor that the only way to stop the missiles is if someone can discharge it through the computer interface and Maddox was the only one equipped to do that. The Doctor hooks himself to the computer and has Vorshak walk him through on how to stop the missiles.

The Doctor overcomes the initial resistance and sets the charge to disarm the missiles. Tegan and Turlough manages to revive Icthar but he grabs a gun and shoots Vorshak in the side. Vorshak buckles but sticks with helping the Doctor disarm the missiles. Turlough knocks the gun out of Icthar's hand and then shoots him, killing him. The Doctor successfully disarms the missiles but Vorshak slumps over dies from his wounds. The trio survey the damage with nearly everyone around them dead.

Analysis

This is a very hard story to judge as both the supporters and detractors have very valid arguments. The writing and acting are pretty good and they can draw you in really easily. On the other hand, the lighting is bad, the action directing is terrible and the special effects are atrocious. So it's a matter of what you pay attention to and what matters to you from an overall perspective.

Let's start with the positives. First the story. This is a fairly tense story with a lot of drama and action in it. You have a cold war situation (very apt for the mid-80's), heightened by a couple of double agents who are successfully implementing a plan to allow their side to destroy or take over the sea base. This effort is interrupted by the invasion of the Silurians and Sea Devils, who steadily overwhelm the defenses and nearly launch an attack that will plunge the world into nuclear war. All that is a good storyline and at it's core, not that different from other good "base under siege" stories such as Cold War.

The writing and dialogue flow fairly well and there is a level of tension that all the actors do a pretty decent job of delivering. I think the only objection I have there is the Episode One cliffhanger as I can't even imagine Turlough simply proclaiming the Doctor drowned and they have to run. A better cliffhanger would have been Turlough grabbing Tegan as the guards take a shot at them and then focusing on the Doctor slipping below the surface of the water. In fact, all three cliffhangers were a bit weak with only the Episode Three one feeling halfway decent. But I'm trying to focus on positives here.

The acting, for the most part, is pretty good. I think the Fifth Doctor is at his best when he is under stress. Of course, it highlights his failings more than any other Doctor, but it makes for good tension and it seems to drive the Fifth Doctor in directions that force his best efforts. You can see the same level of moralism that you might get from the Third Doctor but those morals are pressed harder and he is forced between two bad options, including the fact that even if you try to do the right thing, you can force the parties to make the right choices.

Though she didn't actually contribute much, I liked Tegan in this story. She wasn't moping about getting back to the TARDIS (that was Turlough's job) but was instead sticking with the Doctor and determined to try and help, even if she never actually was. Turlough was decent but still had a tendency to go a bit over-the-top, especially when he would flip back to his coward side. He rush in and help the Doctor bits were very good but his lay back and just focus on escaping were where he would get overexcited and a bit shout-y. He was better more often than not, but still not good all the way around.

Most of the guest cast did reasonably well in their roles. They kept the stiff military manner which hid their shortcomings for the most part. I think the technician Karina was probably the weakest but they were also clearly hinting that she had feelings for Maddox and that might have pushed her beyond or she just wasn't given good enough direction. Everyone else was good more often than not although all of them had little slips where they were either too stiff, too emotionless or the way they played the scene didn't quite match the overall mood. But it still came together fairly well and a few rough acting patches here and there are entirely forgivable.

The Silurians and Sea Devils weren't bad, but neither were they great either. I wasn't a huge fan of either race back in their Third Doctor stories so their inclusion wasn't exactly a big deal to me. I did notice that the third eye of the Silurians now functioned like the dome lights of the Daleks and flashed whenever someone was speaking and while I found it distracting at first, I came to appreciate it since there wasn't much differentiation between the three Silurian voices. I rather wish they could have done something similar with the Sea Devils as their whispering was a little hard to hear at times.

I think my biggest frustration with both the Silurians and the Sea Devils is that in this story, the Doctor treats them as though they were completely altruistic in their original stories and that's just not true. In Doctor Who and the Silurians, he does make peace with the old leader, but the young upstart takes over and launches an attack, violating the terms the Doctor had laid down. Similarly, in The Sea Devils, the Doctor makes a plea for peace but the Sea Devils turn him down flat. Yes they had been manipulated by the Master, but they still made the conscious effort to continue with the war. So both races showed an open belligerence towards humanity, enough so that I don't think anyone should feel bad about the genocide that was used to stop them. In fact, the one act of compassion shown ends up getting someone else killed. Tegan and Turlough revived Icthar long enough for him to kill Vorshak. Had they just let him die, Vorshak would have survived. There is a point where you have to recognize that someone is going to remain your enemy and any act of mercy is only perceived as a sign of weakness and an opportunity to do more harm to you.

So let's go ahead and tackle the negatives. To give the story a little bit of leeway, pretty much all it's problems are tied to the fact that Mrs. Thatcher called for snap elections and the BBC was caught flatfooted. They told John Nathan-Turner that he could either cancel the story and they would be ok with him only delivering 22 episodes that season, or he could try and have the story made with two weeks less studio time. Turner opted for the later and it shows rather badly.

The first significant problem is the lighting. Apparently it was quicker to light from above and that meant that the whole set was bathed in flood lighting. Actually, from my point of view, this wasn't a problem for about the first episode and a half of the story. It highlighted the make-up a bit much (especially on Turlough) but the set was nice enough that flood lighting it actually wasn't a problem and there's no reason that a base wouldn't be well lit during normal operation. But during the crisis of the Silurian attack, the lights should have been brought down. That would have added to the atmosphere and would have had the added advantage of hiding other flaws that came about due to the compressed schedule. Even putting filters over the flood lighting would have helped. Submarines and other naval vessels go to red light during crisis and I think the atmosphere would have been well served if red filters were put on to give it that eerie quality.

The second problem was the action direction. Again, I'm guessing that if there had been a bit more time to plan and reshoot it might have looked better, but most of the action scenes, especially the initial invasion by the Sea Devils just looked terrible in their staging. With the way it was lit and their entrance, you couldn't help compare the Sea Devils' entrance with that of the Stormtrooper attack on the Tantive IV at the beginning of A New Hope. Had the attack gone down like that, it would have looked amazing. But instead we get two solid lines of firing and the implication that despite being less than ten feet from each other, neither side could hit each other. The Sea Devils do manage to hit one or two guards but most make it to the hallway and it's just so disorderly looking that you can't help but see it for the stage play that it is.

The third major problem is just the shoddy design of the props. The big standout is the Myrka but it should be noted that there are a lot of pedestals, consoles, doors and other props that are clearly polystyrene or some other light and malleable material that wobble all over the place. One or two is not uncommon in any story, but there is a wholesale shift of the lighter elements of the set throughout this story and they can't help but grab your attention; especially given the lighting.

But let's look at the Myrka. I don't think the Myrka is quite as bad as it's often made out to be. The top half especially is pretty good from your typical Doctor Who standpoint. However the lower half painfully looks like your typical "two guys in a horse" costume. Even with the two extra weeks, I'm not sure much could have been done to improve it's overall look. What should have been done was to work the shots better and lower the lighting. That would have put more of it in shadow and hidden some of it's more obvious flaws (such as the magma beast in The Caves of Androzani). Of course, a better idea would have been to scrap that Myrka and make it a second squad of Sea Devils but that would have required a wholesale rewriting of Episode Three and if they didn't have time to make the Myrka work, they certainly didn't have time to make huge rewrites.

On a more neutral level, you can definitely tell this story is part of the Eric Saward era. Saward's stories, especially after The Visitation, were heavily marked by a large level of violence and often a rather bleak ending. That the story ends with all the Silurians, Sea Devils and most of the humans lying dead at the Doctor's feet is not uncommon in his era. Bulic had survived but that would have ruined the bleakness of the visual. Contrast this to Pyramids of Mars or Horror at Fang Rock which also have all the guest cast dead at the end. The Doctor is a bit more cavalier in acknowledging all the deaths, to a point of coldness in Horror at Fang Rock in my opinion, but he doesn't let that bog him down. The Fourth Doctor's chastising of Sarah in dwelling on the death of one man, when five have already died and all the lives on Earth are at stake is a prime example of looking at the whole rather than getting bogged down in mourning the dead of the battle. Granted, I liked the ending with the Doctor looking beat all to hell, but his anger and depression should be targeted mostly at the Silurians who rejected his overtures on several occasions.

So back to the original question: how to judge this as an overall work. As much as I enjoyed the story, I don't believe you can separate it from the production. You judge by what's on screen and even if they were shortchanged on time, if what's on screen is bad, you have to view it as bad. That being said, I can overlook a number of things because I either have low expectations or know that the era was limited. I judge a bit harsher when I know there was a chance to fix things such as the action direction or the ability to alter the lighting, even just a little. So on an overall scale, I actually think this story is better than a number of earlier Fifth Doctor stories which had more time just because they didn't engage me like this one did. It may be harsh, but I think this is better than something like Four to Doomsday, which only looked a little better but was a real slog of a story. I wouldn't recommend introducing anyone to the Fifth Doctor to this story, but you could do far worse in terms of overall entertainment.

Overall personal score: 3 out of 5